1 Part Suffering, 1 Part Inspiration.

I've been racing and working and not doing much else. I cannot tell you how great it feels to have some races under the belt and a full calendar of them ahead. For me, I fear the first race of the year more than any other. Even worlds or national championships. I believe that it's the unknown, the fact I've trained all winter and I have no idea where my fitness lies. Until the first lap of the first race and the first burning of the legs and lungs sets in. The season started off well with a good run of events along the front range. A 7th in Pueblo was not what I hoped for, but with a mechanical that took some time to repair, I'd say it was a pretty successful day. I lined up at the Ridgeline Rampage in Castle Rock a couple weeks later with a super group of pro riders including Chris Baddick, Bryan Alders, Mike West, and a handful of other fast guys. This was one of the tougher, yet enjoyable races so far as Bryan, Chris and I battled it out for all 3, 10-mile laps of the race. I faltered a little at the very end which was my demise, but 3rd was solid enough for me. I'm not sure if it's a part of getting older or what, but it takes me forever to recover from a hard crash these days!

I also decided to take in a short track race in Golden to work on some speed. Some people will read that and chuckle since I've been known as the 'Ultra Endurance' guy the past few years. The truth is I love all distances - and honestly, it's nice to finish a race in 30 minutes! One of the funnest races of the year so far was certainly the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde. I was on a coed relay team with ultra fast riders Colin Osborn and Jen Gersbach. We ended winning and Jen set the course record! Needless to say, I was in good company. I'll always take any excuse to head to the Durango area.

Another opportunity that shouldn't be missed is the legendary - and sometimes creepy - Tiny Town! I'll let the photos do the 'splainin'. It started off cute.

We even had a laugh.

Then, upon closer look inside those Tiny windows... It got creepy. Fast.

In other news, I just got back from shooting a project for Ironman down in Texas. Those of you who have hounded me about becoming an Ironman athlete, (Nick Howe, Scott Fliegelman) your wish may be closer to coming true after the experience I had. We met several great people and had a truly inspiring experience - captured in THIS VIDEO. I'd like to say a special thanks to Caitlin Snow for letting me tag along with her from 4AM until midnight. You and your family were a great bunch to hang with and your professionalism inspires me. Our film crew also got to hang with a handful of other athletes for the day and we were all grateful. That's all for this wordy entry. I'm off to Europe in the morning so my next post will surely have a Luxembourg-ish feel... km