Today is Tuesday June 26 2012. The inaugural San Juan Hut 200 Epic Race starts in two days. I put in my last bit of training this past weekend as I rode up to Bolam pass with the folks doing the 7 day tour and camped out with them before heading back to town Monday morning. From here, it is all preparation: rest, gear check, bike check, mental focus. It has been a little tough since I’m also in the middle of yet another big life change. More on this when I get back from my trip, but I will say it is exciting news!

So a lot of people have been asking me the same 2 or 3 questions:

1.  How you do think you will do?
2.  How long will it take?
3. What are you carrying?

I’d like to address the first two, and if I have time Wednesday night maybe do a little gear discussion. This is an interesting race that does not require me to carry camping equipment, but I do need to be prepared for other situations, and is always cool to share and learn what other people would do.

How will I do? Heck, I have no idea. This will be the single toughest ride I have ever tried to complete. 230 miles, 26,000+ ft of climbing and at altitude. 48 hour cutoff. Large temperature differentials. Large threat of wildfires at anytime, small threat of monsoon season kicking up. I am self navigating through thousands of acres of wilderness. Anything can happen. As far as my fitness, it’s ok. I don’t feel like I’m the best shape I’ve ever been in, but at the same time, after living here for almost a year, I have gotten acclimated to the elevation and gotten used to doing long hard mountain climbs, some things I didn’t have in my favor while in Texas. Assuming most things go well, I’m hoping to be in Moab by 9pm Friday night. That’s 36 hours from start to finish. That doesn’t equal 36 hours of ride time, because I will definitely be taking lots of mini breaks and am also budgeting for a 4 hour nap somewhere in there. If I actually finished in 36 hours I would be very happy with my effort. There will be 4 or 5 other riders. I’m going to try as hard as I possibly can to not let them influence my race. They can run theirs, and I will run mine. This might prove to be very difficult, because I’m a super competitive guy, but that is the plan. I know my strengths, I know my weaknesses and I must stick to my guns when it comes to playing to each of them.

So, that is all the beans I will spill for now. Check back next week for the race recap.