by Sarah Cooper, Ultracyclist

Idirtirod 200 Gravel Challenge
200 miles gravel bike race
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Palmer Lake to Elbert, Colorado

I rode gravel today for the first time since getting home from Colorado. My bike is now covered in grey Iowa gravel dust, and the remnants of Colorado dirt are gone. I was sad to see them go. It was a wonderful trip, and the Idirtarod 200 was a fantastic first year event. I am so glad I had the opportunity to go.

I stumbled across the Idirtarod 200 on the Riding Gravel race calendar when I was looking for an event to fill a gap in my schedule. Labor Day weekend was not the time frame I was looking for, but I kept coming back to the website over and over again… I was drawn to it. I had always wanted to race in Colorado, but had not yet had an opportunity that worked out so well with our family schedule.

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by Jason Bernstein

Pigman Long
1.2 mile Swim, 56 mile Bike, 13.1 mile Run
Pleasant Creek State Park, Palo, Iowa
August 16, 2015

Big Pig: No Matter How it Changes it Still Sucks

My wife, Kerrie, and I decided to do Pigman Long course in about June of this year. You see, we love torture. We race our annual Ironman early in the year so that we can spend the summer chasing and shuttling our sons around in their athletic endeavors. But there arises a fire in our bellies around mid summer that draws us to compete and flex our endurance muscles.

Which brings me to Big Pig. Both my wife and I have a love/hate relationship with this race. We love it for the proximity and cost. We hate it because it is a half iron distance race in August, in a swamp, in Iowa. We had a training plan, but with the summer and racing schedule of our boys that quickly fell apart. You see we decided to race Big Pig for “funsies.” Now I don’t know about you, but swimming 1.2 miles, riding 56 miles, and running 13.1 miles may not seem to be fun... but when you race and train the way we do, fun was bound to be had.

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by Greg Grandgeorge

USAT National Championships, Olympic-Distance
1500 m swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
August 8, 2015

Coming off another round of surgeries that sidetracked most of my 2014 season, I wasn’t sure what my “A” race would be for 2015. When a friend suggested trying to qualify for the 2015 USAT National Championships in the spring, it sounded more like a dream than a goal.

Although I had qualified twice previously, I was injured in an accident in 2012 that ended my season early, and the second time conflicted with the Boulder Half Ironman I had planned in 2013. With me just able to start running consistently in March this year after my 2014 surgeries and still having a big cartilage defect in my knee, was qualifying even possible for me? Continue reading →

by Bill “Guru of Shoe” Lorenz

In the ten or so years I’ve been in the running shoe business, I’ve seen trends come and go, shoe technology evolve, and inevitably, prices go up. Trends will continue and new ones will emerge, technology will evolve, and prices will continue to rise. Some of these changes are significant improvements and give us "21st century shoes."

Many people resist change: I frequently hear the lament “Why did they have to change my favorite shoe?” That’s just the nature of a competitive industry. Like the highly competitive auto and electronics industries, innovation and evolution drive the shoe brands to continually look for ways to improve their offerings. Each brand keeps a keen eye on the competition and the trends that seem to be catching on with the running public.

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