Second Front

The UltraCentric race series is for Ultra-endurance athletes competing in 12/24/48 hour running and riding competitions. Twin brother Kirk and I won the 12-Hour 2-Person Team competition on Saturday November 15, 2008. We completed 124 miles on a tight twisting single track loop. The conditions were rather appalling for North Texas in mid-November. We faced a constant 15 mph wind with 30 mph gusts at sub-40 degree temperatures. The race is essentially a relay where we pass an RFID chip between the teammates. Riding at night was especially cool with special headlight equipment on the helmet and bike. Special thanks to Joe Clay for making the night-time adventure possible.


 

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I recently climbed the 5.8 Dome Driver route at Enchanted Rock in the Texas Hill Country. This was my first face climb and first climb over 30ft. It is a 400ft. face on the Enchanted Rock batholisque.

From the bottom it looked like this:



I'm the person/fool in the green helmet. The half way point looks like this from the top:



The photo below offers more perspective. You can see me standing in the middle of the photo. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it)



The top looks something like this:



It is an exhilarating experience.

Labels: camping, rock climbing

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The Berryman Trail Epic (BT Epic) was on October 25th and 26th. It was 100K of off-road bicycling madness. I completed the course in about 8 hours which is about double the time required for this guy to complete it. My six hour Saturday morning training rides on the DORBA trails didn't quite prepare me for 5,800 feet of climbing in the Ozarks. I'll be a little smarter next time on my preparation. Speaking of preparation, Scott Davis and team at Springfield Cycles put on a great first year event. I'd definitely drive 8 hours to do it again. The Ozarks had their fall colors ready for us. The trail was almost all single track with insane but 'cleanable' climbs and awesome downhill.

The two day event is divided into a 'Tour' on Saturday and a 'Race' on Sunday. The Tour is for normal guys who really want to ride their bike for a long time and test themselves. The Race is for super-human freaks of nature competing for cash prizes. The Tour offered some really great lottery items including three single speed bikes and a lot of gear.

I got 16 hours in the car with my brother, a cool t-shirt, one photo, and a destroyed suspension linkage.


 

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