Rakita and Tarkington Fire up Indian Peaks

Indian Peaks challenged us with another high altitude rock and roll mud-fest this year.  You need red blood cells to race up here-lots of them!  With a swim at 9200' above sea level and a water temp hovering around 59.95 degrees in Peterson Lake you also needed a wet suit.  One might say the weather cooperated because it did not rain on race day but it poured the night before and all the next day.  Eldora Mountain Resort has seen the wettest summer on record here and Paul Karlsson was forced to alter the new, improved bike course slightly when his jeep sank up to the doors in one of the deeper mud pits. Paul got out, sank up past his knees and declared "we might have to go around this".

The lake is long and narrow which makes for a perfect time trial start.  Racers are seeded according to their bike ability and projected swim time.  Being the reigning champ, Branden entered the water first and also exited first with the fastest split of the day 11:35.  The lake is 600 meters from T1 and Branden made the dash in 3:45. Not a record but he only spent 20 seconds getting his bike which was 12 seconds faster than his nearest competitor.  20 year old Kathryn Ross from Colorado Springs is the newest swim superstar.  Her time of 13:54 for the 1000 meter swim was even 18 seconds faster than Becky Batizy who has been first out of the lake every year at Indian Peaks.  Kathryn's dash was remarkable as well, only 12 seconds off Branden's pace, she even showed the pro women how it is done. 

 The new bike course drew rave reviews from almost everyone.  One competitor described the bike last year as 'ugly' and this year it became 'over the top sick!' (I think that is a good thing right?) The hike-a-bike was removed and more singletrack added to the maze of XC trails at 10,000+ feet.  The 24k course was shortened slightly due to re-routing around the mud bog but it still dished out a healthy dose of pain at altitude. Branden pulled out a can of whup-ass on the new singletrack and posted the fastest bike split of 1:02:57.  Jenny Smith who always is a threat on the bike was digging deep and closing the gap to Sara Tarkington even passing her towards the end of the bike.  Jenny's 1:09:55 was easily the fastest female split of the day.

Sara, who has been on fire this year and is quickly becoming one of the top pro contenders, took back her lead over Jenny and posted the fastest run of 31:48 on the 7k course.  Sara's total time of 2:04:50 was just over a minute faster than Jenny's and gave her the top spot.  Brad Zoller from Avon tried to close the gap for the men with a 27:33 run time but Branden's 29:00 put him solidly on top of the podium with a total time of 1:48:04.  The fastest overall amateur was Patrick Valentine at 1:51:55 from Colorado Springs.  Jaime Brede, who has also been tearing it up this year, came up from Breckenridge (bet that doesn't happen very often) to take the top spot for amateur female with a 2:14:38 finish time.  Not far behind her was the always radiant Jill Sorenson at 2:15:49.  Post race Sara said "It was fun to start the run with Jenny, she is such a great athlete and can usually be found with a smile on her face".  She also said she drew motivation from being able to race in her own backyard.

Eldora Mountain opened its doors to us further this year and the post race party was held on the grass next to lodge.  This allowed Paul (who always puts on one of the best apre-vous) to up the stakes and bring in a bluegrass band to go with the ice cold Avery beer and pizza.  Rudy Project was also there with smokin' deals on the coolest technical eyewear.  Can't wait to see what he does to top that next year.  Bring your red blood cells.

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