Outdoor Retail Treadmill Challenge Salt Lake City

I drove down last week to Salt Lake City for the Oudoor Retail (OR) Treadmill Challenge. SportHill was participating in the Expo so I went down to show off their apparel. Checkout there website at http://sporthill.com/

The race is a 15 minute race run on a treadmill set at 10% grade. Whoever goes the farthest distance in the allotted time wins. The advantage to some and disadvantage to others is that there are only 2 treadmills so pairs of runners race off all day long. The runners later in the day have the advantage of knowing what pace they must go to beat the previous runners.






Photo taken by Ricky Gates

The race is more of a show than anything else. It is difficult to know exactly how far ahead (or behind) you are at any given moment. My goal was to put forth an honest effort and run over 2 miles. I was pitted against Tony Krupicka with favorites Max King and Ricky Gates scheduled for the last slot of time. The race is more of a mind game. Time slowly drips by like waves beating against a shoreline. The waves will wear down the shore but it seems like it takes forever. With about 5 minutes to I took off my jersey as it felt too sweltering hot inside. Results:

Tony Krupicka: 1.92 miles Ricky Gates: 2:06 miles
Me: 2:09 miles Max King: 2:14 miles

9 for 9

Grin ‘n’ Bear It

Sorry folks about my lack of posts for the last month. I’m going to try and blog a little more and put up some more interesting pictures. I’ve had a great high volume month of training with many long runs and a few short races. On July 17th I ran my 9th consecutive Grin ‘n’ Bear it race in Crested Butte. This race was also the 9th race that Lynnette has been at. I won the race making it my 9th consecutive Grin ‘n’ Bear it win, and my 9th consecutive race I’ve won when Lynnette has been present at the race. The race is just an easy 9 mile race, 4 ½ miles out and then 4 ½ back. I gained somewhere around 1700 feet I think… more or less.

The race usually does not have stiff competition but I always race myself. I ran 1:07:12 compared to last year’s 1:05:40. I was quite happy with this time. Sure it was a 90 seconds slower but it was hotter this year as well. I have the course record set in 2005. This year’s time was my 4th fastest time. Here is a breakdown of the past 9 years with notes:

2002: 1:10:??
2003: 1:12:??
2004: 105:44 Tied old CR
2005: 1:04:23 No hill work, only speed gives me new CR
2006: 1:11:29 Recovering from a burnt out season
2007: 1:07:27
2008: 1:08:32 Fit! Take 2nd at Pikes Peak in 2:19:33
2009: 1:05:40 2nd fastest time ever, Win Leadville 100 in 17:27 and Pikes in 2:12:32
2010: 1:07:12 Fit… wait and see….