Courage Classic - Day Two

Originally uploaded by olsenis.

Frisco, CO
Sunday, 8:00am
52 miles

Waking up refreshed, I got dressed and ready for another day on the bike. We had all got a good nine hours of sleep and felt renewed from three pans of lasagna the night before. Today's route was an out and back running by the front door of our rental unit. We had the choice of doing a 35 mile family, a 52 mile "regular", or the 100 mile century loop. My choice was easy, the 52 miler it is. The first 25 miles through Frisco, Dillon, and Silverthorne I recommend to anyone who visits Summit County. Relatively flat with sweeping views of dark blue Dillon Reservoir and the surrounding mountains, it blew me away much difference a point of view can make on an already familiar area. The photo above is at the half way turn around rest area. The smile on Craig's face may have something to do with that. Craig and I stuck close together chatting and cruising through the miles, stopping at aid stations to refuel and wait for Sarah. At the last aid station, I got a voice mail. I assumed it was someone wondering what I was up to. To my surprise it was trumpets blaring out the Rocky training song. As cheesy as it sounds ("trying harder..."), it got me all fired up to knock out the last twenty miles and get back to our condo. Thank you Tyler!

After cleaning up, we headed off to Copper Mountain where things got crazy. The plan was to grab a burger and a beer at the rider party and then come home and crash. I should say that was my plan. Nick, Brad, and Jim had other plans. Since they only had to ride 50 miles on Monday they were throwing back the free beer with reckless abandon. In the previous two days of riding they had added an extra 50 a day by starting and finishing from our condo. Yup, they are crazy. 200 miles + high altitude + beer resulted in a bet to run up the ski hill to a remaining pile of snow. Nick took the lead early but went down on his ass. Ditching his flip flops he rallied enough to beat Brad to the snow. The antics didn't stop there. Nick and I talked Jen into going to the store to buy an ice cream cake--awesome. One day left in the Courage Classic.