2004 SMSC Tour de Flatirons Race #1: The Slab

June 30, 2004

The first race of the season took place today. The turnout wasn’t huge, but the talent level was very high and records were set. A few of us warmed up for about a minute or two and then I described the route. Kre and Tony took off early to even up the finishing times. Just before we blasted off, Willie Mein showed up. We gave him two minutes to get ready and he made it.

The route starts at the Cragmoor Trailhead and heads west on the singletrack there until it hits the North Shanahan Trail. This is followed up to and across the Mesa Trail to the base of the Slab. The course then roughly follows the Syzygy route to the summit ridge and then south along the ridge to the short, overhanging downclimbing. The route itself is about 700 feet tall and has sections of 5.6 climbing if you went the way Stefan and I did. Once back on the ground, the course heads cross-country downhill to the north until you intersect the Fern Canyon Trail. This is followed down the North Shanahan Trail and that is taken back to the base of the slab and then out to the trailhead. The FKT for this route was 36:09 by Jon Sargent.

Jon was very motivated to take down the reigning king of Flatiron speed climbs: Buzz Burrell. Jon knew the course better than anyone and had trained for speed on it. He led the group up the trail, going off the front immediately, as is his style. Buzz was next, then me, Stefan, Dave, and Willie. The initial section is very steep, but I stayed right behind Buzz. When we hit the really steep steps, I power hiked and didn’t lose any ground to Buzz. Once we hit the wide Shanahan Trail, Stefan went by me and encouraged me at the same time. I lost about twenty feet or so to Buzz and Stefan, but hung on. I could hear others behind me, but the further we went up the trail, the quieter it got.

I slipped back further, while Jon stretched his lead. He hit the Mesa Trail in under 9 minutes. Buzz and Stefan were about ten seconds under ten minutes and I was right at ten minutes. On the final section leading to the Slab, Dave started to come back on me, steadily closing the gap until he was less than five seconds behind me. I’d have been discouraged, except that I was now only five seconds behind Stefan. He urged me to keep up and followed as closely on his heels as I could up the face.

The scrambling aspects of this race is what separates these races from running races. Jon’s the strongest runner, but Buzz is the fastest scrambler. Also, Dave and I are about equal runners, but I can scramble faster and I worked hard to put some distance between him and myself. Stefan and I climbed up mostly easy ground, but we went through about four sections of heads-up climbing. The best rock for scrambling is the white rock because it is extremely featured and has a high degree of friction. We got onto sections of the red, smooth rock. On each of these sections, which were very short, we had to be careful not to make a mistake. The scramble races are on relatively easy rock, but a mistake, a fall, would still be fatal and this is serious business.

We passed by Tony, who was climbing further to the south, and hit the ridge. By now Stefan had twenty seconds on me and I was gassed. He was on the ground as I got to the hand traverse section and I knew that was the last I’d see of him. I did the downclimb and started towards the trail. Tony hit the ridge and urged me on. I took things a bit careful in the rocky woods. I figured this was the most dangerous part and still bore a scar from a fall here a couple weeks ago. Willie would take a nasty spill here on the way down.

I hit the Fern Canyon trail and pushed hard. By the time I got to the Shanahan Trail, I was getting a painful side cramp. I took some chances on the rocky upper portion and then cranked up the speed on the smooth trail. I was hurting, but knew I had a fast time going. Near the end, I spotted Stefan up ahead. I was shocked, as he’s normally a very fast descender. He was having painful side cramps as well. Once I saw him, he also heard me. That made is hard to close the gap and I didn’t get any closer, but the incentive pulled me along. At the very end, I knew I was really close to breaking 37 minutes and I bounded down the steps at high speed. Buzz and Jon, having already finished cheered me on, but I didn’t quite make it.

Jon had won the race and finally dethroned Buzz. He also shattered his own record by nearly three minutes! Buzz finished over a minute under the previous record. Stefan finished about twenty seconds in front of me. Tony came in next and complained about his route on the Slab. He’s confident he can shave maybe five minutes off his time. Willie had caught Dave while scrambling up the Slab and was just ahead of him at the downclimb, but opened up a lead on the thrash through the woods. After this fall, Dave came back on him and regained the lead to finish twenty seconds ahead of Willie.

Kre set the Female Fastest Known Time (FFKT), finishing in an hour and five minutes. She got a bit lost on the descent, brought her dog, and changed shoes twice, yet still turned in a great time and was reportedly gaining on Willie and Dave on the face. Stefan, Tony, Jon, Kre, and I all headed to the Southern Sun for a post-race brew. Stefan and Tony got a couple of Belgian Dips and promptly buried their noses in it.

The first was a rousing success!

Table 1: Slab Race Results

Scrambler	Mesa Trail Split	Base of the Slab	Back on the ground	Finish
Jon Sargent	8:52	12:53	21:57 (9:04)	33:18 (11:21)
Buzz Burrell	9:40	14:00	22:30 (8:30)	34:43 (12:13)
Stefan Griebel	9:50	14:42	23:41 (8:59)	36:38 (12:57)
Bill Wright	10:01	14:47	24:12 (9:25)	37:01 (12:49)
Tony Bubb			29:50	43:15 (13:25)
Dave Stewart		14:52		43:29
Willie Mein				43:54
Kre Reischel				1:05:00

Figure 1: My heart rate and elevation profile for the Slab Race. My heart rate average was around 165 bpm and my max heart rate was 171 bpm.