Mt. Audubon Duathlon and Quandary
August 3, 2002
Years ago I biked from Boulder to the Longs Peak Trailhead, climbed Longs Peak, and biked back. This was the poor man’s version of the Longs Peak Triathlon. The Real ™ Triathlon adds the third discipline of climbing the Diamond. Doing that unsupported was a bit over my head. In fact, the only time this has been done, I think, is when Roger Briggs made the one-way trip in just over five hours via a solo of the Casual Route. A roped team has done the roundtrip in ten hours, but they were supported in that their climbing gear was carried in and out from the Diamond by friends.
Anyway, when King Kreighton sent out a note looking for companions for the Mt. Audubon Duathlon, I jumped at it. This trip was considerably easier than Longs Peak. A friend had done the roundtrip in 6h15m. When I compared that to the 13 hours we spent on our Longs Peak venture, I figured it would be fun and not a death march. Also, in my continuing gyrations to find more interesting and enjoyable ways to “train” for the Pikes Peak Marathon, this sounded ideal.
The only other person interest in this event was Kraig-zilla, so named because he is an aerobic monster. Kraig was 8th in the Pikes Peak Ascent last year and had just ridden the Mt. Evans Hill Climb (28 miles, 6700 vertical feet) in 2h14m. The King was a former junior national team cycling member with some experience racing in Europe. Who do you think was the odd man out in this group? I was in way, way over my head…and loving it!
Photo 1: Biking up the Brainard Lake Road. Despite the clouds, we didn't get rained on and had perfect conditions. More photos can be found at: http://community.webshots.com/album/46100305GALktX
Kraig decided he was going to time trial the entire event, which meant I’d see him for a minute at the start and a few seconds when he came zooming by on his descent. What about the King? I think out of camaraderie and friendship more than anything else, he decided to stay with me for this event. It certainly made it a lot more fun for me. We were both a little worked from the week’s events. We time trailed up Green Mountain on Tuesday, did a time trial on the Third Flatiron on Thursday, and I ran Flagstaff the day before while King ran Sanitas.
We met early at the trailhead on Lee Hill Road in North Boulder and were biking up Lee Hill Road by 6 a.m. As expected, Kraig was out of sight in a few minutes. Kreighton stayed with me and my pokey pace. The great thing about doing such ventures with big shooters like King and Zilla are that ego doesn’t prod one to do stupid things. I was acutely aware of my lack of biking (only five times this year) and with my advanced age has finally come some prudence. My biking skills have never justified a fancy bike and the one I rode was a ten-year-old touring model with a triple front sprocket. In the past I thought it was a sissy move to use the triple and I avoided it like the plague, preferring to stand up and grunt out the steepest grades. Nowadays I’m more sensible, more humble, and yes, maybe more wimpy. As soon as the grade tipped up, I was in my triple and would send the bulk of the next two and a half hours in it. Kreighton had much higher gearing. While I spun a la Lance Armstrong, Kreighton pounded like Pantani. The comparison was only apt in relation to our body sizes. While he is of shorter stature, he is also bulging of chest. I am bulging of belly.
We topped Lee Hill in 34 minutes and screamed down the twisty turns to Left Hand Canyon. Kreighton’s skills on a bike are considerable and he waited for me at the junction. The climb from there to Ward is relatively gentle 4%, at least until the final mile.
Shortly after we started up Left Hand, a rider pulls up behind us. It is Kreighton’s friend Bill. He’s come out to ride with us to Brainard Lake and do intervals on the way. Periodically Bill would launch off the front of our group and zoom out of sight. Ten minutes later, he’d return and join us. These two would pace me and I’d follow. I felt like they were protecting me, sort of like Heras and Rubiera did for Lance on the climbs in the Tour. We even sent Bill off the front to scout a water location at one point so that we wouldn’t waste any time looking for it. He was our super domestique! Except, of course, that he was the strongest of the bunch. At one point I noticed his calves. They looked like braided steel cables. As I now look down at my own calf and flex, I see distinctly one muscle. When Bill pedaled his bike it looked like he had ten or twenty different muscles bulging.
When we approached the steep final mile into Ward, Bill and Kreighton attacked. I wasn’t concerned. These loyal teammates deserved a shot at a stage win. As they pulled away I noticed a lack of energy and consumed an energy bar. I passed through Ward around 1h45m into the ride. Another short steep section brought us to the Peak-to-Peak Highway and then to the Brainard Lake Road. We climbed steeply again to the ranger station where we had to pay $1 per bike. I forgot cash and let my domestiques handle the finances while I continued onward. They soon caught me and a mile later we were at Brainard Lake re-filling all our water containers.
Kreighton and Kraig were riding with packs on their back. I had a rack on my bike, so I just attached a pannier to carry my gear. We carried a shell, running shoes, hat, gloves, food, etc. Kreighton carried a cable lock to secure our bikes and a camera. At one point Kreighton attacked me in order to get a large enough gap to snap off some photos – the only ones we took all day.
We got to the trailhead after 2h33m of riding. We covered about 22 miles and 5500 vertical feet of climbing in getting to the 10,500-foot trailhead. Bill was having so much fun he longed for some running shoes so that he could join us. We changed into running shorts and shoes and I donned my 50-ounce Camelback and started up the trail. Kreighton needed to visit the little-cyclist’s room and would catch up. I was surprised to hear him run up behind me after only twelve minutes. We ran a few flat sections but hiked most of four miles and 3000 vertical feet to the 13,300-foot summit of Mt. Audubon.
Ahead, we saw a figured descending rapidly. When Kraig got close enough, I noticed he looked completely fresh and relaxed and didn’t seem to be pushing things. He hasn’t run hardly at all this year and I knew he was having some quad problems, but he flowed along effortlessly. We asked when he started running. “Two hours,” he said and then added, “2:57 to the summit!” Dang! I’m about as close to Kraig as a couch-sitting, football-watching, Ho-Ho-eating computer nerd is to me. Actually, that isn’t even close to true. I am a couch-sitting, football-watching, Ho-Ho-eating computer nerd. He inspires me to be more than that.
Photo 2: People say I look like a tennis player with this headband. The fact is that my heads sweats like a faucet and it is necessary. I also happen to be a tennis player.... I should challenge Kraig!
Kreighton and I continued up to the summit. We were feeling the altitude and exertion and our pace wasn’t that fast. It took us an 1h22m to reach the summit. We tagged it and immediately turned to descend. The steep talus prevented anything more than a passing gesture to running, but once we got back to the more defined trail we started to trot. We took things pretty easy. In fact, for the entire outing my average heart rate was just 136 bpm with a max of 157. We’re both motivated to give this course a stronger effort.
We descended in 54 minutes – barely faster than Kraig’s ascent rate – for a bike-to-bike time of 2h16m roundtrip. We didn’t know it at the time, but Kraig was already finished and driving back home. We transitioned back to our bike gear and headed down. The descent from here is joyous. We sustained 30+ mph for mile after mile. On such a non-technical descent you’d think a heavyweight like myself would be able to at least keep up with a diminutive guy like the King. Not so.
The King stopped to fill the water bottles while I continued on. When he caught me on the steep section above Ward, I pulled my empty bottle out of its cage and held it in my mouth. I was braking with one hand and reaching for the full bottle Kreighton was handing me with the other. He slapped it directly into my hand so that I didn’t have to take my eyes off the hairpin turn fast approaching. Then he deftly pulled the bottle out of my mouth and he was gone, leaning way over into the curve and flying off the font. It was such a cool, high-speed exchange. Once again I felt like I was riding in the Tour.
Kreighton waited for me at the base of Lee Hill Road. We had one significant hill to climb before coasting back to the finish. This hill was a grind, but lasted only ten minutes. I was surprised to discover that we made it back to the start from the summit of Lee Hill Road in less than six minutes! It had taken me 34 minutes to do this same distance in the reverse direction. I finished in 5h57m07s. Kreighton was a few minutes in front of me. The total trip involved 45 miles of riding, 8 miles of hiking and about 9500 vertical feet of climbing. We biked from the trailhead to the car in just 52 minutes. That’s an average of 26 mph and it includes the 400-foot climb up Lee Hill Road. For the 17 miles from the trailhead to the bottom of Lee Hill Road we averaged over 30 mph.
When we returned to the parking lot, we noticed something written in the dirt on Kreighton’s back window: ”4:38:21 [1] – Kraig”. This guy is a stud of prodigious proportions.
Note: Kreighton did this event again about a month later. Here is his report.
Quandary
The next day I ran Quandary (14,265) near Breckenridge. Actually, I ran for a total of 62 minutes (42 of that going downhill) and hiked for 55 minutes. I felt worked right from the start and struggled to run for twenty minutes on the relatively moderate lower terrain. Then things got too steep and too rocky for my leaden legs. I power hiked past numerous peak baggers and ran the final flat section to the summit for an ascent time of 1h15m. My watch gave me credit for 3300 vertical feet. If this is true, then it was a reasonable effort.
I thought I might be the first to summit since I had seen no one ascending and on the last section I saw no one in front of me either. But when I got to the summit three guys were crouched around the summit register. They saw me run up, hit my watch to take a split, and said to me, “Are you going sub-16 at Leadville?” I knew they must be trail runners or they wouldn’t even know about the Leadville 100, but they were either sarcastic or not very knowledge because the chances of me even finishing Leadville, let alone in a record breaking 16 hours are about equal to me flapping my arms and flying back down the mountain.
I responded, “Nope, but I’m hoping for sub-5 in Pikes.” The fact is I really have no hope for a sub-5 at Pikes, but the anonymous nature of this encounter emboldened me. They asked my ascent time and I responded. “Not bad,” they said, but I took off before they put two and two together and came up with failure at Pikes.
The trail up Quandary is very, very rocky and it was difficult to even trot down this trail without damaging myself. I took things cautiously until the lower, more gradual slopes. Here the tyranny of the clock caught my attention. If I pushed, I could break two hours for the roundtrip. I did what was necessary to salvage my pride and finished in 1h58m33s. It was now time to go alpine sliding with the kids and then a picnic hike.
