Field Notes

Mountain biking at Marshall Mesa

Last week I tried to do four outdoor sports in one day — a multisport extravaganza.

The story’s here.

Malcolm Daly dropped me a line today to say my day of four sports reminded him of the time he and Will Gadd did 17 sports around Boulder in one day.

Seventeen. Freaking Boulder.

Anyway, he wrote about his adventure, too, and I was so fond of the rules they outlined for the sports they chose that I asked if I could re-publish it here. He said yes, so here it is:

MultiSport Day

In the spring of 1997 Will Gadd and I were discussing the relative merits of living in Boulder vs. Canmore, AB. See, Will is a Canadian and the call of the wild north was pretty loud in his head. He’d already bee in Boulder for 3 years! Our discussion soon got around to the variety of sports available in the immediate area and the quality of life that those sports ibued on the residents thereof. Yeah, I know, it sounds like we had been sampling some of the medical marijuana Boulder is famous for, but the discussion predated the MM phenomena by more than a decade. It was more likely that we had gotten into some medical margaritas. Whatever—in no time we had decided to try to do as many of them as we could in one day.
The first thing we had to do was put some boundaries around our day and some rules around what is and isn’t a sport. Here’s what we came up with.

1. First we eliminated ball sports because anything that uses a ball or a ball surrogate is, in reality, just a game.

2. Second, we had to figure where one sport ended and the other began. Many sports are micro-sliced and trying to decide where one sports ends and the other begins took careful consideration. We eventually came up with a 2-step qualification.

a. First, there had to be a group of people who participate in the chosen sport to the exclusion of the boundary sports. Are there people who mountain bike but not road bike? Bingo: two sports.

b. Second, the sports had to have footwear or foot gear that was designed specifically for that sport. Trail running shoes vs. road running shoes? Bingo again: two sports.

3. We decided that to be honest we both had to be proficient, if not good, in each sport. In the spirit of keeping it real, we each had to own the equipment necessary to participate in the sport and bring it with us during our day. No borrowing or swapping allowed.

4. Our day had to be self-supported and in a single vehicle. No re-loading the car or wussy sag wagons or media allowed. We would be on our own in Boulder Canyon. Except for a stop for burritos at Illegal Pete’s.

5. Twelve hours only. 7:00 am to 7:00 pm was it. We met up, loaded the car and caffeinated at Vic’s

6. And finally, each sport had to consist of at least one logical interval. For instance to qualify for Alpine Skiing we had to complete one run. Each climbing category had to consist of one route, etc.

There you have it: a framework for a great day of insanity. We chose April 13, 1997 because both winter and summer existed in the canyon and the lifts at Eldora were still open. Here are the sports we did in the approximate order in which we did them: Ice Climbing, Snowboarding, Alpine Sking, Tele Sking, Classic Sking, Skate Sking, Snowshoeing, Rappelling, Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing, Bouldering, Trail Running, Road Running, Mountain Biking, Road Biking, Rollerblading and Kayaking.

Will ended up moving to Canmore and I lost a leg so the funhog potential in Boulder took a turn for the worse. Regardless, we still talk about that day whenever we get together and dream about doing it again but up the ante to 20 sports.

Here’s your weekend ticklist, outdoorsy Boulderite.

I usually give you dos. This time I gave you a don’t, too. Don’t go out searching for ice to climb this weekend when it’s going to be so freaking beautiful around Boulder.

Addicts.

But do go to the ‘cross races. Any maybe go skiing.

Again, addicts.

Someone tweeted that the weather was nice and ‘cross-y the other day when it was cold and raining.

This weekend won’t be so ‘cross-y. But it’ll be a huge weekend of cyclocross racing in and around Boulder. Check it out here.

Even if you’re not racing, go hang out in the beer garden (there’s one at both races) and watch the suffering from the sidelines with a pint. That’s what one of the organizers recommends.

GO Boulder is fighting bike ninjas.

Not the Lego kind. The kind that ride at night on city streets and paths wearing dark clothes and lacking lights.

It’s the lacking lights part they’re combating. Through GO’s bike light campaign, you can download a coupon for 10 to 30 percent off a bike light.

There’s no coupon to make you a percentage smarter about riding at night, though, so you’re on your own with that. But tip: lose your all-black ninja outfit if you want cars to see you.

I know you’re out there. I’ve seen you. Barely.

Worth sharing: Local pro mountain biker Sonya Looney posted about returning to her favorite roads to ride above Boulder after the Fourmile Fire.

First chair for the first day of skiing at Loveland Ski Area on Sunday. Courtesy Colorado Ski Country USA.

To those of you who took my suggestions on how to pray for snow last week, good job. It’s snowing like a mofo in Colorado’s mountains right now.

I was pretty excited when I turned on Becky this morning. (Hush, pervs.) Becky tells me what to wear every day. But this morning, Becky told me what to wear in Boulder AND showed me a whiteout in Vail. Thanks, Becky.

Joel tells me when it’s good to ski. Since only Loveland and A-Basin are open, though, and both just opened (Loveland won and opened first), Joel didn’t tell me where to ski this morning. He just told me which areas are getting snow and how much.

In feet. Sweet.

This guy likes mountain biking around Boulder...but does he Like it? Photo by Joshua Lawton

If mountain biking was on Facebook, you’d click Like.

Maybe it is. Oh wait. Yep. Right here. Of course.

Okay, so you like mountain biking. You should probably like your local advocates for mountain biking, too — Boulder Mountainbike Alliance. BMA is hosting a membership party tonight from 5 to 9 at the Boulder Draft House.

Like it?

Teammates Glenn Rogers and Sean Clancy 40 hours into the Baja Traversia with no sleep.

Last week, I wrote about newish Boulderite Sean Clancy, who was heading to the U.S. Adventure Racing Association’s national championships.

On Monday, I heard from Clancy’s team captain, “Earring” Doug Judson (yes, in his photo on their website, he has an earring, but I didn’t ask about the nickname, so we can’t really assume anything, can we?).

Sorry about that tangent. Anyway, the team came in second, a mere six minutes behind the first team. Judson wrote: “We are dissapointed,but we ran a good race and had to overcome a mechanical failure on the bike. It was wet,cold but we laid it all out there, and came up just short. In two weeks we get a rematch at the cp tracker nationals in moab,utah. We look forward to it.”

Bummer indeed, but these guys and gal (teammate Mari) seem resilient. In fact, one of my favorite tidbits that didn’t make it into the story was a comment Judson made to me about Ironmans. He said when he first started training for them, they felt so hard, but now they’re no big deal compared to these multi-day adventure races.

Judson doesn’t live in Boulder, but I think he deserves honorary membership in the republic for pshawing Ironmans, no?

It’s Friday, so here’s your Weekend Ticklist, outdoorsy Boulderite. Includes: how to run like hell, day and night; a bouldering tour; a climbing flick; and puking. (Yeah, I said puking. Read it. You’ll see what I mean.)

Been too scrrrd to try racing cyclocross? It’s scary. That’s why I put together these five tips for getting ready for your first race.

And PS: If you need to find a skills clinic around here, look no further than your favorite bike shop. If they don’t have one soon, Boulder Cycle Sport does free clinics every Wednesday.

One more thing about doing your first race: You’re lucky to do it here. Yes, we have a bazillion super-fast racers here, not even including the pros. But because we have a bazillion cyclists, there will be a bazillion people in your race, so you can blend in a little. You won’t even be the only person who crashes dismounting for the barriers.

Okay, I lied, one more thing: Everyone’s been there before. Everyone has a first race. And everyone has wanted to puke somewhere on a race course. The first race is a rite of passage not to be missed. Go forth and feel the post-race joy of passage!