Brian Elliott

On Wednesday morning, I headed out to Colorado for a couple days of chillin’ and minimal altitude acclimation before Team Evergreen’s Triple Bypass. For those unacquainted with some of cycling’s more obscure events, the Triple Bypass is an invitational bike tour for amateur roadies who love to climb mountains. It’s a road ride, 120 miles in length that crosses 3 major mountain passes. The climbing, at over 10,000 feet resembles a stage of the Tour de France, although there is no peloton going by at inhuman speeds.

I prepared mentally for the ride Wednesday to Friday by camping out in Lucy and Matthias’s Boulder apartment being a total bum. You never know when couch surfing and gluttony skills will come in handy during a long ride. Merle flew out to join me as my support team on Friday night and we crashed in preparation of Saturday’s long ride. The alarm clock went off at 4:30 am, and we drove down to Evergreen for the start of the ride. Arriving at the busy starting area, Merle smiled attractively to obtain us a nice temporary parking spot where I could get my kit together. Merle used the opportunity to wield her shiny new Canon 5D. In spite of some technical troubles, she managed to get off a shot or two.

Weather conditions at the start were seriously overcast, with a strong likelihood of rain and snow in the mountain passes. I wore my summer gear and carried my favorite shell with me. The bike computer’s sensor snapped off the frame before I even got out of the parking lot, so I was in for a data of data-free biking. That can be good or bad, depending on your point of view! Anyway, the first section of the course was a climb that slowly worked its way up to Juniper Pass at 11,000+ feet. The road steadily got steeper and I discovered that I could out-climb a lot of people that definitely appeared stronger when they left me behind on the flats. An hour into the climb, the heavens opened up, and I pulled over to put on my shell. From there it only got colder and wetter…

The summit at Juniper Pass was cold, wet, and anticlimactic. It was marked by nothing more than the corpse of a roadkilled deer and some orange spraypaint on the sidewalk. Not much to see after an hour and a half of climbing. Shortly after the summit, I saw the rest stop, which was a pit of wet bikers and mud. With my teeth chattering and extremities going numb, I decided to push through it without stopping and try to reach Merle’s SAG-wagon at the bottom of the mountain. That descent was a bit scarier than I’m accustomed to because my core temperature was dropping so much and my hands were too numb to work the brakes efficiently. It’s fairly difficult to slow the bike heading down a steep mountain with numb appendages! A lot of the locals whizzed by me here, but I did see a couple of the numbskulls having crashed out on the side.

By the time I got to Merle in Idaho Springs, I was well and truly frozen through. She helped me hop off the bike, warm up in the heated Jeep, and pumped me full of hot coffee. A ton of other cyclists were either heading back to Evergreen at this point or dropping out with the help of private SAG vehicles at the parking lot in Idaho Springs. The hot coffee and clothing reinforcements from Merle helped me hop on the bike because I could certainly make it as far as the next stop in Georgetown, a mere 15 miles away.

The road to Georgetown was less crowded with all the dropouts, a bit warmer, but no less wet. It followed some rolling hills and generally provided a break before the beginning of the climb to Loveland Pass. After an excellent nature break and another warmup in the Jeep, I continued on the road to Loveland, some 15 miles further away. Loveland is the highest pass, at 11,990 feet, and the road out of Georgetown to Loveland climbed sharply for several miles before dumping us poort, wet riders out onto the shoulder of I-70. This part of the ride sucked pretty bad because it continued to climb steadily, while adding in the joy of sucking in the exhaust of all the cars. I was delighted to get off the highway at the SAG stop at mile 56 and hang out with Merle.

Merle later told me that she knew the next four miles to the summit of Loveland Pass were brutal, but didn’t have the heart to tell me at the time. Given the 56 miles climbing in the wet and cold so far, I’m glad she didn’t even mention it. My energy levels were still good, but I think it was best to approach this section of the course completely ignorant. The road up and over the pass is pretty much the sharpest and unrelenting ascent of the entire ride. I spent all of the climb in the grandma gear and still had to make two stops to catch my breath. The top was beautiful, though, with a panoramic view and a sign marking the Continental Divide. The descent on the far side was also a lot easier, too, with nice straight road. In general, the temperature continued to rise slowly and it was cool to see the Snake River whip by as I cruised down the mountain.

The descent carried me through some Colorado ski resort areas before winding over to the bottom of Swan Mountain, a mini bonus climb on the route. I was amused that this climb was discounted as one of the peaks despite the fact that it’s about two solid miles of climbing. Anyway, Swan Lake was quite beautful, and I soon arrived at the next of Merle’s excellent SAG setups at mile 75. We relaxed for a little bit before I set out for the final climbing segment of the ride up Vail Pass. A hilly trail wound its way up there, passing through the Copper Mountain ski resort. This part of the course was a set of rolling hills that slowly arced up towards Vail. There were a handful of very sharp and short climbs that really tested my remaining energy levels coming into the 95th mile of the climb before I finally saw Merle up ahead snapping photos of her very wet and tired husband rolling into the SAG stop.

Merle crammed me full of food and drink before I set about tackling the 25 mile descent to the finish in Avon. Despite being tired I cranked my bike up into the big chainring and rocked downhill as fast as possible. After being on the bike all day, I simply wanted to finish. Without a computer, I can’t tell how fast I was going, but it was pretty quick. The downhill section was nice on tired legs and I quickly passed through Vail and other tourist towns before finally arriving in Avon. There was a crowded gauntlet of people at the finish line and it was gratifying to hear them cheering.

We headed back to Boulder after that, where Lucy and Matthias had prepared a feast of champions for Merle’s birthday. The girl spent all day sagging for me in the rain, but did at least eventually get a cake and tasty dinner. The meal had many tasty bits including salmon, veggies, and sparkling wine, though Merle clearly enjoyed the chocolate cake. The cake was a formidable combination of chocolate with a dark chocolate frosting with strawberries tucked into the center. Yummy.

The next day we left the People’s Republic of Boulder, but not before running into one of my co-workers at the airport. I found out that my two co-workers who also did the ride bailed out at Idaho Springs. Maybe they were the sane ones, but I’m glad to have finished. One more notch on my belt of oddball endurance events.

*Edit: The course map for TB. (Shon, it apparently is Juniper Pass, not Squaw, but you were right that I had put Loveland too high.)

This post is late to the punch, but I promised to write up a summary of the race. Merle and I decided to run Grandma’s in order to hang out with our friends Jess and Chris from school. Nothing like four Cornellians deciding to take on a race in northern Minnesota. (Wood chippers, stand ready.) The race was both my 6th marathon and an good cross training event to build up cardiovascular endurance for the Triple Bypass in July.

We flew into Minneapolis on Friday morning, joining up with Jess and Chris within the bowels of the airport jungle. From there, we drove the three hours up to Duluth. There really isn’t much to see en route from Minneapolis to Duluth except exits on the highway. As we approached Duluth I got my first look ever at Lake Superior, which didn’t have the endless majesty of Michigan. At the point where Superior touches the shore of Duluth, it is only a thin channel that spans Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin. In spite of this, the presence of the impassive waters still imparted a sense of permanence on the place.

Duluth is an industrial port city with a small, growing downtown area. Some storefronts are vacant, while others appear profitable. There is a nice lakefront park with a walking trail aquarium, convention center, and shops that promise a bright future of tourism dollars, but the industrial roots of the city are still clear in the background.

Upon arrival, we fought the crowd to negotiate packet pickup and had a nice dinner consuming buckets of carbohydrates at a local cafe place on the waterfront. From there, we crashed out for the night in preparation for the Saturday morning race.

The alarm clock went off early the next morning and the four of us took the big yellow bus twenty-some miles north on the highway along Superior to Two Rivers, MN where the race started. The weather was a muggy 80 degrees with humidity up around 90%. The morning was thick with race excitement and fog. A foghorn could be heard off in the distance as we did the pre-race ritual of stretching, hydration, and port-o-potty patronage. Jess and Chris looked pretty keyed up to get rolling on their marathon and Merle looked ready for a powernap.

The race traced the shoreline of Lake Superior for about 22 miles, heading south back to Duluth. I took the four miles easy, hanging out with my lovely and talented wife. From there I amped it up a little bit to a medium pace, clock miles in the 9-10 minute/mile range. The heat kept amping up and there was little shade to hide in. As the race progressed, the “drop out here” signs were in evidence, there were cases of heat stroke, and people puking on the side of the road. I tried to keep cool by running through peoples’ sprinklers and consumed plenty of electrolytes along the way. The crowds of cheering folks helped the miles roll by, as did the thought of finishing and eating literally everything in sight.

I pretty much cruised along until about mile 21 when my legs were getting heavy and the heat began to wear on me. The last few miles weren’t my fastest ever, but I finished the marathon in better physical condition than any of my previous attempts. The final chip time was something like 4:14:56, which was my second fastest flat-land marathon time. Also, I’ve now completed 6 marathons. That’s one performance in Washington D.C., two Chicago Marathons, two Pikes Peak Marathons, and now Grandma’s. I’m not sure if there are more marathons in my future or if I’ll move to more oddball endurance events…

My finishing time wasn’t too bad considering the heat and how little I really trained for it I didn’t really run more than three days a week, and sometimes not even that, but I made sure to get the long runs in. Next time I do anything in that kind of heat, though, I will effect a more aggressive body refueling strategy. Electrolyte replacement capsules seem to be insufficient fuel for those kind of conditions. I’m definitely going to have to mix it up with a bit of Perpetuem or Sustained Energy.

Anyway, all four of us finished, and went out to a tasty, fat laden dinner at the local brewery followed by malted milkshakes. I probably consumed as many calories as a sled dog at the Iditarod and fell asleep no later than 8:30 pm that night. (Such a party animal.) It was a nice weekend; It’s a treat to hang out with Cornell buddies and squeeze in a wee bit of exercise at the same time. Plus, it was a nice warmup event for the Triple Bypass!