Where did the summer go?!?!

Looking back now that it is almost September, it seems like we didn't do that much this summer! Some nagging injuries, trouble getting the team at the same place at the same time, family issues, etc, it just seems like we didn't race near as much as we are used to! Although we have missed racing, we certainly have enjoyed a slightly slower pace, even though we have still been really busy. After the sudden, untimely death of my stepdad in July, we have slowly tried to get back to a more normal schedule. We had a great time at a long distance orienteering meet near Woodland Park with the RMOC. 6 hours of long distance orienteering proved to be critical for some of the races we have done since then, not to mention that getting 6 hours on foot bushwacking is always good for the body! Looking to get more time on the feet, we decided to get a few folks together and go for a long run. We realized that we always travel and go places to get on our mountain bikes, but we always are content to run right by the house! With over 100 miles of amazing hiking trails within 5 minutes of our front door here in Boulder, it is pretty hard to get motivated to get in the car to go running. However, Tiff and I rounded up Boyd, our friend Brian Corff(Congrats on 5th overall at the Xterra Brian!) and Dan Brillon (Good luck at Transrockies Dan!). We headed up to Estes Park, CO and the gates of Rocky Mountain National Park. The twin owls loop is an 11 mile loop around a rock massif called lumpy ridge. the run starts just behind the Stanley Hotel (the backdrop from "The Shining") and immediately heads uphill into RMNP. After running a few miles STEEPLY uphill, we finally reached the saddle on the Northwest edge of Lumpy Ridge and let the fun begin. A gorgeous gentle downhill into the valley with the wildflowers going off was incredible! Freewheeling down the valley we were all laughing at how lucky we were to be running in such a lovely place. The laughter soon stopped when we had to turn up another REALLY steep climb. Fortunately, the climb was rewarded with the arrival at the top at Gem Lake. Gem Lake is a small little pond in a giant granite bowl on the top of Lumpy ridge. After a few minutes of relaxing and taking the views at gem lake, we headed back down the last stairstep descent to the car.

Plenty more to come! We'll have a few more updates in the next few days!

When it rains......

Sometimes, you just don't really feel like training. There is nothing better than having a teammate give you a call and get you out on a ride. A little motivation can go a long way to get out there and have some fun. Boyd and I went for a ride a few weeks ago, and lo and behold, at the furthest point away from the house, the skies opened up in a way that only people who live in Colorado can understand. With dry, packed trails quickly turning to sticky, hellish clay mud we couldn't help but laugh at how a casual afternoon ride could turn into such a slogfest! After an hour to finish the 30 minutes left in our ride, it was time to clean the bikes off and get warm!

The good part. After multiple horrible mud events, my Powercordz still shift like new! Every nasty ride, I groan thinking about having to change my cables and housing, but they always are in perfect adjustment, and never any friction. I have been amazed at just how resilient these things are! Decreased weight, increased durability...... perfect. You should check some out!

Get 25% off at checkout at powercordz by entering code "GoLite" (Caps Important). Get some, save the same amount weight as paying $700 for that new XTR crankset, and ride on!

Team GoLite Podiums Again!

Team GoLite Multisport
AXS 18 Hour Adventure Race
Summit County, CO, July 25-26, 2009
1st Place 2-Person Teams, 2nd Team Overall





Summit County always provides a great area for racing -- beautiful scenery, fun singletrack, and great trail access. With James out of the country and Boyd busy for the weekend, Brooks and Tiff headed up to the Breckenridge, CO area to put our training and navigation skills to the test. We’ve been training hard on our team navigation, participating in several orienteering meets put on by the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club (and they do an awesome job!). Brooks is getting to be one heck of a navigator, and this race would give us a good opportunity to do a lot of navigating and also test out our brand new Suunto Arrow racing compasses, which we were super-excited to receive before we headed out to the race. Always excited to help new racers out, we also had the chance to help some other teams out and do a little map & compass clinic before the start of the race with some of the teams doing the 12 Hour and Sprint races. We remember learning all of these skills in the beginning and it’s nice to be able to give back a bit.

The race started at midnight with a fast 1 mile run to get from the start to the Lake Dillon marina. After hopping in the kayaks, we tried our best to discern all the islands and inlets despite the moonless night, and found that we could track the lake well and came out of the water right with the the fastest teams. With the pre-dawn morning upon us and wet from the paddle, we shivered as we ran back to the Frisco Nordic Center attempting to warm our bodies back up on the way before the Orienteering course. Brooks was thankful for his recent practice and our ultra light and super bright Ay Up lights, and was able to move quickly through the O-course. With precision and skill, he pointed us directly to each control, making the orienteering a seamless and fast section. Off the course in just over two hours, we beat the next-fastest team in this section by almost an hour. With the trek looming ahead, we transitioned once again, keeping our headlamps on for just a bit more.

The most memorable parts of this race happens during the trek. We’ve often been directed to hit the summit of Wheeler Pass between Breckenridge and Copper, and the views from this vantage point never fail to be stunning. This morning was no exception. Our reward from the fast orienteering was the beautiful sunrise as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain (and we were so bummed we didn't have our camera with us!!). Running changed to trekking, and soon our trekking poles were pulled out for the final bid to the summit. Peaking out at over 12,500 feet just minutes after sunrise, we definitely felt the affects of the altitude, and immediately started running on the downhill to help our heads and stomachs recover.

Running out of the mountains, we descended to the bike path between Copper and Frisco. With Brooks sporting inline skates and me a scooter for the 7% downhill grade, I fought to keep control and constantly watched as Brooks confidently skated along -- let’s just say he’s a good skater, and I am a bit more challenged in this discipline!

I made it to transition in Frisco once more, very thankful to be alive as the descent on the bikepath always gives me a bit of a fast heart rate! But from here on is one of our favorites -- the mountain bike -- and for this race we get to have lots of fun on copious amounts of singletrack. Big climbs, swooping downs, and fast trails don’t always show up in the adventure races, so we
made sure to have as much fun as possible. A small tactical error on where to get on the trails simply gave us bonus singletrack, and even though in the end it cost us the overall win, we still value the lessons we learned, as well as never forgetting the “bonus singletrack” we earned. Ahhh, gotta love it when you climb a bit too far, but the prospect of a few extra miles of singletrack and making the best of it and fighting back is a fact of adventure racing, and we
handled it well.

We came off the course clearing all checkpoints and narrowly avoiding the evening thunderstorms. We rejoiced missing another torrential downpour (as we expected to happen) and also coming in 1st for our division (Coed Duo). It was an even bigger bonus to come in 2nd overall just a short bit behind the leading team, knowing that we were in close contention for 1st
place for all teams.

We continue to be really excited about our races and our great finishes -- and there’s still more to come!

-Tiffanie Beal