Transcript
Speaker: Welcome everybody to your 303 Endurance Podcast.
Speaker: Aloha everybody, get ready for your 303 Endurance Podcast.
Speaker: Woo!
Speaker: Welcome to episode 359 of the 303 Endurance Podcast.
Speaker: We're your host, Coach Rick Soares, and 303 Chief Editor, Bill Plok.
Speaker: Thanks for joining us for another week of endurance interviews and discussion.
Speaker: This week is Ironman 70.3 World Championship in St.
Speaker: George, Utah.
Speaker: Lucy Charles Barkley, Taylor Nibb, Flora Duffy, Holly Lawrence, and the other professional women race this Friday, October 28th.
Speaker: And on Saturday, Gustav Eden, Christian Blumenfeldt, Sam Long, Rudy Von Berg, Matt Hansen, and the other male pros face off.
Speaker: exciting weekend.
Speaker: Bill, how are you doing, my friend?
Speaker: I am well.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to a little trip coming up next week down to Florida.
Speaker: My daughter's got a volleyball game tomorrow.
Speaker: I'll match all day long.
Speaker: So I'm excited to go watch that.
Speaker: Very cool.
Speaker: Very cool.
Speaker: I'm back from California.
Speaker: Saw Ironman California in Sacramento last weekend.
Speaker: We'll talk about that in the show.
Speaker: And I just need to get in some time in the saddle because I've got a century coming up in three weeks, actually.
Speaker: So you are doing the 100 in Tucson.
Speaker: I am doing the hundred and two.
Speaker: I haven't officially signed up yet.
Speaker: I don't know if I can do a hundred right now.
Speaker: Might be a little rough.
Speaker: You know, I didn't realize this.
Speaker: I didn't know this and we'll, we'll talk about it as we get closer to the race someday, but I didn't know stupidly or naively until just last week that it's actually a race.
Speaker: Like it's not just a tool and around century.
Speaker: I mean, you can ride it however you want, but it's truly a timed, like it's a race.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, isn't the Buff Classic technically a race?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I mean, it's a grand Fondo.
Speaker: Oh, you're right.
Speaker: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker: But this is actually from the beginning.
Speaker: You cross the start and you finish at the end and it's a race.
Speaker: Now, you can stop at the aid stations, take your time, do all the things you want.
Speaker: But I guess that's what makes it maybe kind of unique is you can make it a full-on 100-mile, balls-to-the-walls race.
Speaker: There's not many things out there.
Speaker: I'm not sure I'm doing balls to the wall on that sense for sure.
Speaker: I know, but it is a big deal.
Speaker: I've learned because I was at a conference with one of the directors and it's kind of a big deal because people gear up for it and they have teams and they strategize and they, you know, they do everything they can to do that thing as fast as they can.
Speaker: Fascinating.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, you come on down.
Speaker: We'll be a team of two.
Speaker: I'll be there.
Speaker: I'll be there.
Speaker: All right, good.
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Speaker: In today's show, we have our feature of 70.3 World Championship this weekend.
Speaker: We also are going to talk in endurance news about the Ironman California last weekend and what that was like.
Speaker: Big race, one of the biggest races Ironman has ever put on in terms of number of athletes.
Speaker: But we'll talk about what those final numbers were and how that race played out.
Speaker: And we have what's new in the 303 bill.
Speaker: I think you've got a couple of things that we can chat about.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: High school.
Speaker: Think high school.
Speaker: Think high school.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, let's talk about the Ironman World Championship.
Speaker: Let's start with the 70.3 World Championship.
Speaker: Watched the press conference yesterday, Bill.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: They had Lucy Charles Barkley there.
Speaker: We had Taylor Nibb, Flora Duffy, Emma Pellant-Brown, Paula Finley, and Holly Lawrence taking the stage.
Speaker: And of course,
Speaker: You know, it's kind of interesting that Lucy Charles trying to defend her title there, but she also raced just two weeks ago in Kona.
Speaker: So that'll be interesting to see if some of the steam has been taken out of her engine.
Speaker: Well, they all have, right?
Speaker: Gustav and Christian.
Speaker: I mean, all those guys raced two weeks ago, except for Sam Long.
Speaker: Maybe he was smart, but Sam didn't.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you know, and it's interesting, um, you know, in the press conference, they asked Sam about, you know, his reasons for skipping Kona and does that put more pressure on him essentially for, uh, today's or tomorrow's race, which will be tomorrow's race.
Speaker: And, um, he basically said, you know, he goes, he's not thinking about it as because he skipped Kona.
Speaker: That means that he has to, you know, absolutely has to perform, you know, super well here.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: He's kind of downplaying his, you know, he's not, he's not being boastful.
Speaker: He thinks he's just, you know, ready to show up, ready to race and hoping for a good result, but he knows he's got obviously some extremely stiff competition, including the defending champ Gustav Eden.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've seen some noise around Rudy, Rudy Von Berg, potentially having a, having a day, so to speak, because he's, you know, he's had his days, but it's been a little while.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: It'll be interesting.
Speaker: It'll be a fascinating race.
Speaker: We'll talk more about it here in a minute.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I'll tell you, and I'm also pretty excited to see some of the newcomers coming into the 70.3 here.
Speaker: And of course, Taylor Nibb, no stranger to 70.3.
Speaker: She has raced this distance.
Speaker: So she's going to be exciting to watch.
Speaker: Flora Duffy, I got the sense, I'm trying to remember, I got the sense in the press conference that she has done that distance once, but it'll be interesting to see what Flora can do too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, Taylor could win it quite a, I mean, she got what second last time there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Second.
Speaker: Well, I think second, that's why she's in that position.
Speaker: She's got the second bib.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, she's, I don't think she's raised a ton.
Speaker: So this year, so to me, she's definitely going to be in one to watch.
Speaker: I I'm excited for her and I'm,
Speaker: I'm wondering if somebody like an Ellie Salthouse will come.
Speaker: She's had a rough year, but she's due.
Speaker: She's kind of due, a little bit like Rudy, kind of due.
Speaker: Those two are both capable of winning or at least getting top three.
Speaker: So maybe she'll come out of the woodwork.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So yeah, we've already mentioned many of these names already, but other folks to watch, Emma Pellant-Brown, Jackie Herring, Nikki Bartlett,
Speaker: Paula Finley, of course, out of Canada.
Speaker: I can't dismiss that.
Speaker: On the men's side, you've got Mickey Tagholt, Jackson Laundrie, Ben Knute, who also is having a good year, Eric Lagerstrom, Magnus Dietlev.
Speaker: Uh, Christian Blumenfeldt, of course, uh, right there.
Speaker: No, he didn't have a great result last year.
Speaker: He's a little bit down on the, on the bib numbers, but that is because I think he had a mechanical last year.
Speaker: He did.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was there.
Speaker: He had a mechanical, um,
Speaker: I think this race is, it's interesting.
Speaker: So yeah, Chelsea Sedaro, what is she going to, I mean, how are these folks are going to recover that did well, right?
Speaker: So it's been only what, three weeks.
Speaker: So in theory, that's, I don't know that for most humans, that's not enough time, but for maybe these guys, they've got all the pros that all the massages, all the science, everything that recovers much as I guess, but truly is that enough time?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: But I think – I wish these races were further apart in time distance.
Speaker: Like three weeks is not enough in my opinion.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: It's a little bit like if you were thinking about football, it would be like having the Super Bowl before the playoffs.
Speaker: I mean I don't quite get why this is the way it is.
Speaker: I mean –
Speaker: You know, I know that the 70.3 is another animal.
Speaker: It's its own race.
Speaker: It's not supposed to be a tune-up, so to speak, for the Ironman and Kona.
Speaker: But I think in most people's head, you do a half before you do a full.
Speaker: If you're training, if you're doing one yourself, you typically might do a half a couple months before you're full.
Speaker: It's part of the training.
Speaker: It's part of the buildup.
Speaker: So I feel like it's a bit unnatural.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I just feel like... I just feel like... You can only...
Speaker: peak so many times and you have to have enough recovery.
Speaker: And I think for me, it's more the recovery from the Ironman is a much longer process than it is for a 70.3.
Speaker: And therefore you could recover more quickly from a 70.3 and do an Ironman three weeks later than the other way around.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: And I'm also thinking from a interest standpoint, like, Oh yeah.
Speaker: Like it just feels too much at once.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's too much at once.
Speaker: It's like,
Speaker: It's like Thanksgiving got moved up a week for Christmas.
Speaker: And then you're like, I'm just done with the holidays.
Speaker: You know, like I kind of wish there was a better.
Speaker: Thanksgiving is one week after Halloween, right?
Speaker: Yeah, something.
Speaker: I mean, it just feels like too much at once.
Speaker: And it's kind of hard to for me is and this is, you know, part of my, if you will, profession.
Speaker: You're a little bit like, I'm kind of tired.
Speaker: I'm kind of done with triathlon.
Speaker: I'm kind of over it.
Speaker: It's going to happen.
Speaker: Let's just call it good, you know?
Speaker: It's kind of weird, but I, has it always been this way, this close?
Speaker: I can't remember.
Speaker: I don't, I don't know.
Speaker: I remember going to, I just went through the same process myself.
Speaker: I was like, man, wasn't that just two weeks ago?
Speaker: But didn't that 70.3s used to be in September, the finals?
Speaker: Yeah, I thought it was earlier in the year for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I don't know what happened here.
Speaker: Maybe the heat they want to move since it was St.
Speaker: George, they moved it a little later because of the actual venue and the heat and that kind of thing.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah, that could be.
Speaker: Nonetheless, it is what it is, right?
Speaker: I think it'll be – I actually think – I think 70.3 is a fun race to watch and to follow because it's more of a race instead of a who's standing at the end kind of thing, I think.
Speaker: And there's just a little more dynamics going on and obviously it's much faster.
Speaker: It takes a lot more – I think – probably not fair to say this, but it's – you can probably make a mistake or two in the full.
Speaker: You can't in the half.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It is a much faster race.
Speaker: Everything counts a lot.
Speaker: You know, you don't, yeah, you have less room for error, I think is your point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I just think it makes the, it's harder to predict.
Speaker: I think it's, it's going to be, it's a little bit more any man's game a little bit in my mind, although you have somebody like a Laidlaw in Kona who came out of kind of nowhere to do what he did.
Speaker: So it's, anything's possible.
Speaker: Of course, that's their hashtag, but we'll, we'll see how it unfolds today.
Speaker: It should be fascinating.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like them for different reasons.
Speaker: I like the 70.3 that it brings in some of the shorter course athletes, which then really makes it unpredictable in my view, because you have people that have a very high top end that are just trying to extend their endurance.
Speaker: And then you have other people that really have the endurance that are just trying to be as fast as they can.
Speaker: And those two try to meet in the middle somewhere and there's, you know,
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: It's a more TV oriented event for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So, well, and if you are looking to watch, uh, you can, uh, the, uh, the, the streaming is going to be on outside watch.
Speaker: It does not appear to be on Facebook, um, Ironman now.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: It's not.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It does not appear to be.
Speaker: It does not seem to be an event on their Iron Man Now Facebook page.
Speaker: Did you mention YouTube?
Speaker: Is it on your YouTube live?
Speaker: That was one.
Speaker: Yeah, it could be.
Speaker: I didn't see a link.
Speaker: to get there.
Speaker: They seem to be pushing it to outside live, which by the way, as we are recording this, the women, the pro women start in two minutes.
Speaker: So I'll, I'll throw in some updates here as we're starting as we get deeper here into our conversation.
Speaker: We'll just stay on all day and talk about it, right?
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: This will be a six hour podcast.
Speaker: Simulcast.
Speaker: We'll simulcast it with you folks.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: All right.
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Speaker: All right, Bill.
Speaker: So I'm going to give a little bit of an update here.
Speaker: Got an article here out of Sacramento on Ironman California last week.
Speaker: California's capital city, Sacramento, played host to the debut of the Kaiser Permanente Ironman California Triathlon, part of the VinFast Ironman US Series.
Speaker: Julianne
Speaker: Bolien from Paris, France, uh, in the age group, men's age group, 35 to 39 took the overall victory, uh, with an eight 45 58.
Speaker: And in the women's, uh, age group race, Reese Remetta of park city, Utah, again, uh, uh, 35 to 39 age group on the women's side claim victory for the female.
Speaker: So, uh, finishing in a time of nine 33 50 and, um, man,
Speaker: What a day.
Speaker: Huge field, but actually the advertised field was close to 4,000.
Speaker: The actual number of bibs that were issued was closer to 3,200.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm working the morning clothes bag section at the swim start.
Speaker: Now, you got to think about this.
Speaker: This venue is really spread out.
Speaker: You've got the Ironman Village and finish line downtown by the Capitol, about a mile and a half down the road, nearly two miles down the road, across a bridge, across the Sacramento River is the transition area.
Speaker: And then the swim start is actually 1.2 miles upstream up the Sacramento and then up the American River.
Speaker: So athletes had to be shuttled, of course, from the transition area, all 3,200.
Speaker: shuttled about three miles as the roads take them up to the swim start where we were waiting with the morning clothes bag section.
Speaker: And dude, nobody volunteered for this job.
Speaker: Nobody, because it was 4.30 a.m.
Speaker: start.
Speaker: We had to be there.
Speaker: There were three of us versus 3,200.
Speaker: That's a lot of hauling clothes.
Speaker: Well, it got to the point.
Speaker: So we had a system where you guys have probably, if you've done an Ironman, you've probably seen this where you go to drop off your morning clothes bag and they have these big, like large white bags that your morning clothes bag goes in.
Speaker: And the idea is that you put about 25 of those individual morning clothes bags into one of those big tote bags.
Speaker: And then they load them all up into a U-Haul and then take them over to the finish line.
Speaker: Well, the system is supposed to be that you take the tied up bag from the athlete and you go and you put it in the corresponding bag for that bid number so that they can stay organized.
Speaker: So when they get to the finish line, it's easy for the volunteers there to get them out and get them sorted in order for athletes to easily find them at the end of their race.
Speaker: Dude, we were swamped within minutes.
Speaker: It was literally, it literally got to the point of if your bag is tied up and your number is on it, just drop it on the opposite side of the fence where the volunteers were and we'll just get to it when we can.
Speaker: But man, I'll tell you what, one in 10 people, easily one in 10, oh geez, got to get my bag back because I forgot to put my flip flops in there.
Speaker: I forgot to put my, you know, and that was really, I really felt bad for folks who were trying to find their bag in those files.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, it's interesting.
Speaker: I was at an event.
Speaker: There was a group of people that came in from all over the country, mostly, well, I guess all of them, bike event directors, MS Ride, Bike New York, the big ride in Massachusetts.
Speaker: What's it called?
Speaker: Anyway, they raised like the largest fundraising event in the world.
Speaker: Anyway, all these different people and one of the topics that we talked about was
Speaker: being green and sustainable and all that sort of thing.
Speaker: And, you know, Ironman in Boulder, when it was here, did a really nice job.
Speaker: They got certified evergreen or whatever it was, which means you, you know, do a lot of different things.
Speaker: You, you know, it's quite a, quite a lot to get certified to get from those things.
Speaker: But one of the things that struck me was we somehow, Oh, we were talking about swag bags.
Speaker: You know, you get the plastic bag with the postcards and the whatever in them.
Speaker: And I start thinking about Ironmans and all the plastic bags for all the clothes.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, I wonder...
Speaker: How do you get around that?
Speaker: Or do you, or can you, you know, it's, there's a lot in an Ironman just by its nature.
Speaker: And this is no knock on Ironman.
Speaker: I think they actually try pretty hard to be green and to be compostable and to, but is there just so much they can never get rid of?
Speaker: And those could be in one of them, those plastic bags.
Speaker: I mean, right.
Speaker: My daughter still uses them that kind of float around between me and my ex's house.
Speaker: So these Ironman bags over the years, she uses them to carry around, but yeah,
Speaker: There's, there's a lot of bags.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: Well, and yeah, you, you add up all of the events.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: Yeah, every athlete has at least five bags, right?
Speaker: You got 3,200.
Speaker: You can do the math pretty quick.
Speaker: And then you multiply that by all the events around the world.
Speaker: And I'm not trying to be negative.
Speaker: I'm just trying to think.
Speaker: It's not a problem, but it's on people's minds as events.
Speaker: And how do we be more sustainable?
Speaker: How do we... And Ironman is super complicated when it comes to an event.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: The logistics...
Speaker: It's a lot.
Speaker: It's a lot.
Speaker: That's why it costs so much, you know?
Speaker: I mean, it's not like it's, there's a lot of things to make that thing go.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: You saw it firsthand.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Sure did.
Speaker: But beautiful event, beautiful venue, you know, the, some great shots, people coming across the Sacramento bridge, you know, rides through vineyards and farms.
Speaker: It was a windy day, very windy day for folks.
Speaker: that were out there, the two loop course, the first half of each loop was downwind, but the back half of each loop.
Speaker: So in other words, your very final segment is going to be all, it was all headwind.
Speaker: And so that took the punch out of some folks for sure and made for some longer bike times.
Speaker: Fast swims though, because it was in the river, right?
Speaker: Downstream.
Speaker: Fast swims for sure.
Speaker: And I do have to say, I really do like the way that they did the run course because they brought the athletes into the downtown area for basically the final...
Speaker: six miles were loops around downtown.
Speaker: So you got to see your athlete like three times or at least twice before they actually came through the finish line.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Which was really cool.
Speaker: You actually had, you know, if you're an athlete, you got a good close look at that finish line two times before you actually came around for your third loop and got to go down the chute.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: All right, my friend.
Speaker: Well, what is new in the 303?
Speaker: Well, you know, I think we've stumbled into, not stumbled, it's been known, but I was supposed to go to Big Sugar Race down in Bentonville, which is a big deal.
Speaker: It's a huge gravel race.
Speaker: It would have been fun to go to, but that got changed at the kind of last minute.
Speaker: So then I thought, you know what, I'm going to take Snoopy and go up to the Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs and
Speaker: Just immersed myself in the Colorado High School Mountain Bike Championship.
Speaker: And I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I did that.
Speaker: It was an amazing event.
Speaker: One of the best sporting events I've ever been to.
Speaker: Period.
Speaker: Of any sort.
Speaker: It was absolutely incredible.
Speaker: I mean, there was 820 kids.
Speaker: racing, all different levels.
Speaker: I mean, different divisions, right?
Speaker: So you had varsity, you had JB, you had sophomore, you had freshmen, boys and girls of each of those.
Speaker: And then, you know, they each had their own starts.
Speaker: So the, like the JB boys, there's like 160 of those.
Speaker: So imagine 160 kids just crushing the first, however many half mile, mile with, uh,
Speaker: Thousands of people streaming on both sides, yelling at them.
Speaker: The vibe was incredible.
Speaker: The kids were just going nuts.
Speaker: The dust was flying.
Speaker: It was really awesome.
Speaker: And do that eight times for the start.
Speaker: And then the finish was equally compelling.
Speaker: I mean, they did a four and a half mile loop.
Speaker: around Mountain College.
Speaker: There was a lot of single track.
Speaker: So there was some places where you couldn't pass.
Speaker: And you I was just and I got into the woods, I kind of went meandered through the woods to get some cool shots.
Speaker: And you could hear the vibe all around you.
Speaker: You couldn't see some of it because of the trees, but just constant cowbells and voluzas, whatever you call those things.
Speaker: And
Speaker: kids yelling and parents yelling and cowbells and it was awesome.
Speaker: And the kids just flying through the woods in these single tracks and just going around berms and oh my gosh, it was so electric.
Speaker: It was fantastic.
Speaker: And they finished on this big open field where they have, you know, soccer fields, whatever.
Speaker: And so in the middle of it, they called it the pit, where all the schools, there was 89 teams, tents and barbecues and grills and, you know, games, whatever, just hanging out all day long.
Speaker: It's like a cross-country meet sort of thing.
Speaker: But they – yeah, and the finish line was fantastic.
Speaker: I mean, it was so electric all day long.
Speaker: It was so much fun.
Speaker: And there was nice breaks, you know, there was a little bit of break between each division, whatever.
Speaker: And so, but, and parents would run between the two, like the start was a little bit from a pit and you'd see this flow of people back and forth.
Speaker: And, oh, and I ran into Tim DeBoom.
Speaker: And we chatted for 10 minutes or so.
Speaker: And he's a assistant coach with Steamboat.
Speaker: And he's, we talked about Kona and talked about the two day and he didn't like it at all.
Speaker: And he's doing, he's doing some mountaineering.
Speaker: He's planning to go to the Alps soon and do some stuff out there.
Speaker: And he's become quite the, he's doing schema and some of that.
Speaker: So that was kind of fun to see him and,
Speaker: Friend of the show.
Speaker: And yeah, it was just a great event.
Speaker: I can't tell.
Speaker: I mean, I was the only media person there.
Speaker: I'm like, That's interesting.
Speaker: Like, what the hell?
Speaker: I mean, I get home.
Speaker: It's funny because I get home and turn on Channel 9 on Sunday morning, you know, and and they had their roving high school reporters who were out all day on Saturday going to the softball championship, the football, the playoffs of the football, the, you know, whatever, whatever.
Speaker: And I'm like, you guys missed a really cool event.
Speaker: Like your softball coverage is nothing like these high school kids mountain bike coverage.
Speaker: This, you guys missed the big one.
Speaker: If you ask me, cause there's so many kids and so much, the parents, it was just incredible.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, it's funny.
Speaker: I haven't witnessed that directly, obviously, but it sounds like it was very exciting.
Speaker: And it seems like to me th at a lot of that excitement comes from the fact that obviously it's a competition, but the kids and their parents and the parents' enthusiasm about cheering on their kids, whether I found in cross country and track that
Speaker: the vibe was like off the hook.
Speaker: Like it was like very exciting to watch a 5K race.
Speaker: It wouldn't be a fun, it wouldn't be exciting to go watch a 5K race in your local neighborhood, but you go watch a kid's 5K, you know, high school competitions, you know, top competition and it's electric.
Speaker: And part of that I think is just, I mean, the parents, we were just nuts.
Speaker: I mean, we would be running, you know,
Speaker: I remember at, um, uh, Nike Southwest regionals, there would be, you know, eight races that would be going on.
Speaker: And every time, all of the parents would have to like sprint from one side of a golf course to the other.
Speaker: And we would all do it because, you know, we wanted to be there to watch each kid do, you know, take each turn and get every shot.
Speaker: And, um, uh, no, no mainstream media there per se.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: You know, different organization called Miles Split really covers the heck out of cross country and track nationwide.
Speaker: but yeah, you didn't see local news channels there either.
Speaker: No, and I think what I wrote about this, I think what makes it so cool is that it's on bikes, and there's a romantic aspect to a bike.
Speaker: Most people ride bikes or have ridden bikes when they were kids, or even if they don't compete or don't even do it as much as an adult, but there's a sense of freedom that comes from a bike.
Speaker: There's a sense of adventure.
Speaker: There's a sense of
Speaker: those days way back kind of thing.
Speaker: So there's a romantic element to biking.
Speaker: And I think to see kids biking with tons of smiles and excitement, you can't help but love it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it makes you think of your own childhood and all of that sort of thing.
Speaker: And I think that's a big part of this.
Speaker: I think the other thing that I think is interesting and
Speaker: I don't mean this disrespectfully, but these are kind of like the kids that don't play the mainstream sports.
Speaker: Now, that's not true of all of them, of course.
Speaker: But they're not heading off to the basketball team after the mountain bike season's over.
Speaker: They're going to keep biking.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, like I ran in.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: I ran into the East High School team just the other night.
Speaker: I mean, I have to say they kind of inspired me.
Speaker: So I got my old 8575 out of the garage.
Speaker: It needed some work.
Speaker: I took it up to the shop.
Speaker: They fixed it all up.
Speaker: And I decided to go to Green Mountain and get on a mountain bike trail.
Speaker: I haven't really been mountain biking in a long time.
Speaker: I totally suck, by the way.
Speaker: But I was passed by all these girls on the East High School team.
Speaker: And then I started talking to them.
Speaker: And they'd seen my video and we talked about the race and they think that I'm like, wait, I'm thinking, well, wait a minute.
Speaker: Season's over.
Speaker: You guys should be on the basketball.
Speaker: You're out here practicing still, you know, and they just the camaraderie that they found there because they like to get together.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker: So then I interviewed the high school coach for East just yesterday on the Zoom.
Speaker: We talked about that and he said, yeah, most of these kids just this is what they do.
Speaker: They're typically not multi sport kids.
Speaker: Now, there's definitely some.
Speaker: But they're kind of like the band kid.
Speaker: You know, they're the kid that have their own little thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And this is it.
Speaker: And he was interesting because we talked about East High School in particular, which is kind of an interesting bubble.
Speaker: You know, they're in DPS, their East High School team.
Speaker: is kind of the DPS teams.
Speaker: There's kids from several different schools on East High School's team.
Speaker: And that's true of some other mountain bike teams.
Speaker: Like there's not a team at all high schools.
Speaker: So they, you know, kids go to different high schools.
Speaker: So it's a little deceiving the names, but East in particular is kind of interesting because of its inner city school.
Speaker: You have some very affluent people that, you know, feed into East, but you have some very non-affluence.
Speaker: You have a very mixed crowd, right?
Speaker: it's hard to mountain bike from east they have to drive so they have they have a lot of logistics challenges um do you have any kids from fairview it's funny i asked the east people who what school do you rival who's your rival because you know when i was in high school you know when i played sports and you know we kind of hated pomona or we kind of hated bear creek or whatever and you if if all the soccer kids got together
Speaker: You didn't mingle much.
Speaker: You were like, you're from, you know, but in this vibe, there was none of that.
Speaker: Like all the kids were talking and nobody seemed to like get too, too wound up.
Speaker: But I asked these girls, I said, who's your rival?
Speaker: Who do you guys really like to want to beat?
Speaker: And to a person, they said, Fairview.
Speaker: I'm like, huh.
Speaker: I'm like, why Fairview?
Speaker: Like, although it's kind of funny when I was in high school and I, nobody seemed to like Fairview then either, but there's a certain, I don't know what it is.
Speaker: Jealousy maybe, but yeah.
Speaker: They have 150 kids riding bikes on that team at Fairview.
Speaker: Oh, it's a big one.
Speaker: It's huge.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Boulder High won the whole thing.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Which is funny to me because Boulder High School is not known as an athletic high school at all.
Speaker: Like, they're basketball, football.
Speaker: They're terrible.
Speaker: I mean, they've probably had some good teams here and there, but they're not known like a Cherry Creek is or a Pomona or even a Fairview is very well known for good athletics.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But Boulder is not.
Speaker: But their high school cycling team is killer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there's a lot to unpack with this high school thing because, you know, there's a team from Spearfish, South Dakota.
Speaker: So every meet they drive 14 hours to go come race bikes in Colorado.
Speaker: That's pretty dedicated.
Speaker: You know, one of the things, you know, when you mentioned that, you know, these aren't the mainstream athletic kids, the team sport kids, these are more kind of like the band kids, right?
Speaker: They're just, you know, kind of, you know, they're just not oriented to team sports.
Speaker: I'm curious, was there any discussion or have you gotten any, picked up any vibes in terms of,
Speaker: you know, how these kids perform academically?
Speaker: Cause cross country kids had that cross country kids had the highest GPA of any other sport.
Speaker: That's a good question.
Speaker: I did not ask that.
Speaker: That's a great question though.
Speaker: I bet, I bet there is something to that.
Speaker: Anyway, I'll ask him.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, cool, man.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And I also saw that you had another article that you had posted here recently.
Speaker: Adams County, love your trails, making bike paths more colorful.
Speaker: Yeah, that was kind of a fun piece.
Speaker: I was just riding my bike home from downtown and
Speaker: on Clear Creek Trail and I came around a corner and the trail was closed and I'm like, oh man.
Speaker: So I had to like go off into the dirt a little bit and there was a, and then there was this woman sketching on the sidewalk.
Speaker: I'm like, hey, what are you doing?
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: And I'd seen murals around on the Platte River Trail and on Clear Creek Trail and I hadn't noticed them of course.
Speaker: And it turns out she was one of the artists that, long story short, she was part of this Love Your Trails program that Adams County's put together.
Speaker: And other counties have done it over the years.
Speaker: So, you know, you see underpasses painted.
Speaker: You see different things along the bike paths that are professionally painted, not graffiti.
Speaker: And Adams County commissioned different artists to come in and do their own sort of design.
Speaker: And she was one of them.
Speaker: Sophie Ramey is her name.
Speaker: answered an RFP and put together her thoughts.
Speaker: And then she's, she just finished the last of their series of paintings all in Adams County, right there, just the East of Sheridan or Sheridan Boulevard.
Speaker: And I was talking to her about it and the, she uses like a stain instead of a paint.
Speaker: So that doesn't necessarily get a slick when it rains, that kind of thing.
Speaker: So I thought I was kind of curious what kind of material she used and,
Speaker: I used to be in the paint industry a thousand years ago for a brief period of time.
Speaker: So I knew a little bit, but yeah, she uses a stain and then they, they put a sealant on it, but the idea is that it's not quite as slick and it lasts longer.
Speaker: So, but yeah, but it was cool.
Speaker: There's a lot of, there's a whole series of art along that area, North and East of town and some beautiful artwork and well-known artists.
Speaker: And they have, you know, they got paid and they have their own.
Speaker: That's kind of what they do.
Speaker: It's pretty cool.
Speaker: That's very cool.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, would you like an update on the women's race?
Speaker: I have your, uh, three, uh, your first three places, not out of the water yet, still on the course, but man, there is a battle going on right now.
Speaker: Lucy Charles Barclay is in first place.
Speaker: bib number 24, which is belongs to lot Wilms out of Netherlands.
Speaker: She's in, she's like right on Lucy's heels right now.
Speaker: And right on right there with them is Taylor nib.
Speaker: In fact, it looks like Lucy Charles is getting passed right now as I speak to you.
Speaker: No, by this other woman from the Netherlands, Lot Wilms.
Speaker: God, I wonder when the last time Lucy Charles Barkley lost the swim.
Speaker: It's happening right now.
Speaker: I bet it's been a long time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And Taylor is right there.
Speaker: It's the three of them.
Speaker: They're going to come out of the water together.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: Are they quite far ahead of everybody?
Speaker: They appear to be.
Speaker: I can't see the shots not big enough to really see.
Speaker: But yeah, Lucy Charles just got passed.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tune in.
Speaker: Well, they are just, no, they are, now they are just, they are battling.
Speaker: They are literally stroke by stroke, like hitting the water, like right next to each other.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: I'm going to try and find it.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, this is going to be a fun day.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: What else do we have here?
Speaker: Are we done?
Speaker: Is that all that we've got today?
Speaker: I think it is.
Speaker: I think it is.
Speaker: I want to get on watching this.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I got the video.
Speaker: The week is the pre-race press conference in case you want to hear some of the comments the pros made.
Speaker: Otherwise, enjoy the weekend, folks.
Speaker: Thanks again for joining this week.
Speaker: Be sure to follow us at 303 Endurance and of course, go to iTunes and please give us a rating and a comment.
Speaker: We appreciate that.
Speaker: Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey.
Speaker: For your 303 Endurance Podcast.
Speaker: It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
Speaker: It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
Speaker: It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
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