Hi All

 

Well have been in the USA for 2 weeks now and although I thought I was close to acclimatised to the 2500m altitude I still have a way to go to be able to keep up with the locals in the hills here.

I've been a little fluey since arriving and that combined with the altitude has seen me grovelling a bit up high when trying to do any sort of decent effort. My first training run I went on a loop which took me just over 50 mins. Was almost reduced to a walk but several days later had it down in the low 40's so it is improving. (at sea level it would probably only take low 30 min to run)

Have also been trying my hand at some proper white water kayaking which is a refreshing change learning some new skills and tried a local MTB race after only a few days here which was a good reminder that there is a little less oxygen up here.

 

On Sunday I had my first race with the USA Nike team, a predicted 8 hour jaunt through the hills / mountains of Vail. The Teva games encompasses all sorts of sports in a week long festival held in the Vail valley. The white water kayaking was incredible to watch and there were also Multiple cycling and running races as well as the kayaking, fishing, log rolling, rafting and many others.

Was exciting to meet Jo Lawn (NZ ironwoman legend) there as well - there are definitely a healthy amount of kiwis over here, both AR racing and people living and training round Colorado. It's also been great having Elina over here and the other Kiwis from different teams here.

Was an early start with the race starting at 4am. Since moving to Nelson I have become some-what soft so luckily for me it was nice an warm to start.

The first leg was a bike / trek where you could chose where to leave your bikes and start trekking from. This saw virtually every team with a different plan and Aaron Princes Go-lite team take an early lead. Our plan didn't quiet work as we had planed and after an hour an a half we were some 30 min in arrears of the lead teams.

I was also struggling as we passed through 3000m my two team mates Mike Kloser and Sari Anderson who both live up at altitude kept our pace high and I was resigned to a day of hanging on, especially as the race topped out close to 3500m above sea level - running and biking are different propositions at this height.

Once on top of Bald Mountain it was a race back to the bottom before Mountain Biking up Vail Mountain on the opposite side of the Valley. Once down in the Valley I came right but by halfway up the other side I was again feeling the lack of oxygen in the air.

We managed to catch up about 20 mins on the descent and climb, mainly thanks to Mikes strength on the bike and then some local knowledge on the next trek saw us wipe the remaining 10 mins off  as we reached the rappel leading a group of 4 teams all within acouple of minutes of each other.

Once down the rappel we managed to slip away from the two Go-lite teams and enjoyed a wild ride down the Upper Eagle river. The river was doubly exciting as there were 3 of us in a 2 person inflatable kayak which made manuerouring and stability all the more challenging in the class 3 rapids

Onto the final leg and a 25 min in-line skate to warm back up and to reach the finish in a shade under 6 1/2 hours

A good start result wise but we certainly made it a bit more difficult for ourselves.

 

On thursday we are off to Idaho for the Raid qualifier and then it is back to Vail to get organises for Primal Quest

 

Results Teva Games:

 

1st Nike USA - Mike Kloser, Sari Anderson, Richard Ussher

2nd Go-Lite - Aaron Prince, Elina Maki-Rautila, Josh Smullin

3rd Go-Lite - Isaac Wilson, Marcel Hagner, Sara Wallen