I finally made it up to ride this season (first time all year, yeah, I know – LAME!) and couldn’t have been with a better crew – Ben, Molly and Pete! Pete also had a college buddy and his girlfriend up for the week – it was a blast!
Lunch at A-Basin with the crew!
I essentially moved to Colorado to take advantage of all aspects of the mountains, obviously snowboarding being one of them. But, priorities change and this past year has been full of career opportunities that I couldn’t pass up. Since being promoted at Financial Social Media and taking on a couple roles with Colorado Runner I just haven’t had the time to ride as much as I want.
Pete's array of condiments...no surprise.
Regardless, there’s one thing that’s obvious: distance does make the heart grow fonder, and all that time I was away from my beloved snow-covered mountains made the ONE trip up there last week that much sweeter! The conditions were cold and windy, so we stayed on the bottom side of the mountain and lapped the park quite a few times.
Battle wounds!
I already miss it, but Pete and I are planning a nice little weekend up at Copper together next month so I’ll have that to look forward to!
Cheers, and happy riding!
A.
When It's All Said and RUN 
Bummer about your knee. Looks painful. 😦
I noticed on your race calendar that you have the Bear Chase 50k. I am seriously contemplating this race! I’m a marathoner, and have never ultra’d. Have you run this one? Do you recommend it?
I HIGHLY recommend the Bear Chase – it’s seriously my favorite race of all time. From an ultra standpoint it’s not overly technical nor severely intimidating because of its lap-style course. The race director puts on an extremely well put together race and everything about it is just superb. I ran the 50-miler the first year and the 50K the second year. I’m thinking about the 50-miler again this upcoming Fall – this would be a great place for you to start out your ultra career. If you’re any bit cautious I’d say go out to Bear Creek Lake Park and check out the course (make sure you summit Mt. Carbon!) and see what you think. Happy trails!
I keep checking The Bear Chase site and registration is postponed again for the fall race. I have heard there are creek crossings, and as a looping/lapping course, sock changing might be required multiple times. Can you give insight? Thanks!
Yep – there are 3 crossings per lap, so if you’re doing the 50K you’ll cross it twice. When I did the 50M I crossed it four times – I don’t think you need to change your socks each lap – just invest in a nice pair of technical socks like DryMax that won’t give you blisters. I wore mine and never had issues. It actually feels pretty good on a hot day!