Category Archives: race
Race Report: 2014 Woodside Ramble 50K
After being in the area for the past few days acting as photographer for Razik Bicycles and Team Novo Nordisk during the Sea Otter Classic bike races, it was time to head back to CO.
When I was booking my flights, the best price I could find for my itinerary left me with a 7pm Sunday night departure out of SFO. I knew I would have a significant chunk of the day to myself, so I started looking for trail races because I knew the bay area is full of them on any given weekend. I stumbled across the Woodside Ramble 50K which ended up being a perfect fit. The start time was late enough that I was able to drop off one of the team riders at the San Jose airport for an early flight on race morning.
I think I did a 2.5 mile jog on Wednesday night and that was my extent of running for the week. I was going non-stop from 6am to midnight every day with no time for running. I spent a lot of time baking out in the sun and crawling around on the ground to get my shots. Basically I felt thrashed before the race even began.
Once I got to the venue, that all started to change. I was feeling inspired, rather than tired. Sitting on a mountainside in the middle of a redwood forest, I started to have the idea that I was in for something special. The air was pleasantly cool, and I looked forward to the experience ahead.
I even made the conscious decision to leave the camera behind. I had done so much with a camera over the past several days that I kind of wanted to really ‘live’ this experience without any distractions. There were a few shots I would love to have gotten, but for the most part it was the right call. I seem to have been oddly detached from running lately, even though I still do a lot of it, and it was good to get back to the core of the reason I like to run. Dirt, hills, and trees!
It ended up being an amazing day. Running trails through a forest like that is something I had never done before and is something I will never forget. The trees are so tall!! I remember running a narrow trail that was pasted high up the side of a very deep gully. I looked waaaaaaay down to the bottom and could see the base of a tree, I looked to the side and was staring at the middle of the tree, but when I looked for the top I couldn’t tilt my head back far enough to see it. So cool.
Much to my surprise, I actually had a decent day out there. I’m still far away from where I would like to be, or where I have been before in terms of fitness and ability, but I felt a little bit of the spark that has been missing for a while. With over 5,000 feet of climbing, I figured I would be doing my share of hiking during the race. The climbs were very big (the opener was 5 miles), but the grade was nice for the most part and I was able to run every step of the way. That was the biggest confidence builder for me, to know the strength is there – the speed will come later.
Other than one low point around mile 12, I stayed very steady and consistent the entire time. Smiling at my good fortune and the opportunity to do something like this. I finished in 16th place out of 58 runners, and my time was 5:12.
I took some time to clean up, then made the easy drive down to the airport for my flight home. What a great day. 77 degrees and beautiful blue skies.
Several hours later I was dragging my suitcase across the economy lot in Denver after midnight in a raging blizzard. Welcome home!!
Pics are courtesy of Inside Trail Racing.
Photography Travels: 2014 Sea Otter Classic – Day Three
Just as I am getting the hang of this routine, it seems like we are getting ready to call it a wrap. Bummer! One more day to go, and we made the most of it.
Geoff and Karl raced the track circuit in the morning.
While Jason and I were out on the road course yesterday waiting for the race to come by, he mentioned something about wishing we had a cowbell to ring when Geoff rode by.
I said, “There’s got to be an app for that.”
30 seconds later he was shaking his phone back and forth ringing it like a cowbell. Awesome.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Razik frames have quite the unique look to them. It’s actually very cool technology – a tube is created out of a single continuous carbon thread that is wound in a specific pattern and then baked in an oven. It’s very light, and very strong, and looks like a futuristic spiderweb. Talk about head-turning machines!
We would periodically take a couple of bikes and wheel them around the expo area. One person would do a double-take, then stop, then others would wonder what they were looking at, and so on. It was a great snowball effect, and we had endless crowds lifting the bikes off the ground, snapping photos with their phones, and asking all kinds of questions. It was a lot of fun!
The main event for the day was Jason’s 47 mile road race in the early afternoon. I had the locations dialed in by now, and life was good. I paid close attention to my watch, and the race was right on 20 minute lap times which made it easy to get ready for the next approach.
He rode like a champ on his 3rd straight day of hard racing, and I was super pleased to see him finish off the week in style.
I also managed to grab a shot of a rider on the Colorado-based Volo team. Hard to miss that kit!
The final event for me was the cyclocross race in the evening. Cross is normally a late fall and winter time event, with mud and snow being the signature features. This was more of a short-track race on cross bikes, or on a fat bike as one guy demonstrated. BTW, fat bikes were everywhere at the expo – they are going to be huge in 2014!
After dinner we took the bikes up on the closed dual slalom course for a little Razik Rodeo shenannigans. It was a great way to wrap up the trip!
I finished up the last of my edits for Team Novo Nordisk and delivered the day’s shots. They seemed to be a great hit!
My favorite shot of the week is this one from my brother’s camera using a timer and sitting on the back of the tailgate. A great crew of hard working and talented guys living the dream. I wish them all the success in the world and can’t wait to work together again.
Photo credit: Philip Boyack
Goodbye, Sea Otter 2014!
Photography Travels: 2014 Sea Otter Classic – Day Two
Going to bed at midnight and being wide awake at 4:30 left a mark. The melatonin and ear plugs weren’t able to overcome my internal clock that is set to get up at 5:30 Mountain Time. I tried to rest until the 6:00 alarm went off, but I was too amped. I wanted to get going!
I stayed up late the night before feeding SD cards into my laptop, importing images, delivering jpegs to clients, cleaning lenses, and charging batteries. There is a lot of maintenance to do when you are going out for back-to-back-to-back very full days.
Today started out cold and foggy, and stayed that way well into the afternoon. It turned out to be perfect racing conditions, and the fog added a neat element to the photos.
I would be covering Jason’s race on the circuit course in the morning, then focusing on the road races in the afternoon. The circuit course was entirely on the racetrack, and almost made me wish I was racing insted of taking photos. It looked like fun! In a slightly scary and painful kind of way…
The track had some good elevation gain, followed by a bomber descent down the world-famous corkscrew feature. Hold on tight!
After the circuit race I hopped in the car and traveled out to the far end of the road course to catch the women’s P/1/2 race and some of the Team Novo Nordisk riders. The race maps were lacking in detail, and I made a few errors trying to get to the right spot. Thankfully I made it in time, and I loved being out away from the crowds for a while.
For some reason I pictured the road course in my head as a barren wasteland. It was lush and green, with lots of tree cover and small winding roads. It was nice!
Geoff and Karl were slated to ride the road race for Team Razik in the late afternoon, and they held up their end of the bargain yet again by providing several great photo-ops.
It was another great day. I was working hard and loving it.
The Scene Begins 