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Doing Breck Epic Shit - Breck Epic 2018 - Act II

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How do you summarize 6 days of racing in one epic (blog post)? You don't. It was getting to be too long so I decided to split it to 2 posts. This also gave me the opportunity to include more photos, which is always good. Now ... Back with Act II , sorry for the long intermission but life got in the way again.  If you missed Act I , you can read it here . Where is the trail? Are we there yet? Almost at the top of Miners Pass on Stage 5    Verse 4 - Dead last and lesson learned  Aqueduct 44 miles, 6300′ (~6,000' according to my Garmin) Day 4 is the longest day and I remembered it to be long, hard but fun day with great views and single tracks. I did this section of the race as part of the Breck-curious version in 2016 and rode the last 3 days. After 3 days of hard riding I was actually looking forward to something more familiar, or so I though. Stage 4 starts with a climb. I know shocking, right? Considering the fact that we are talking about a race that star

Doing Breck Epic Shit - Breck Epic 2018 - Act I

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It's now about 2.5 weeks after Breck Epic and I am back at sea level, 100F and 100% humidity Chicago. So it's a good time to look back at a 'cooler' time in August and write all about my adventures. This race report will be written a little differently as I set to also answer the bigger question - what makes a race epic and is Breck Epic worthy of being called epic.       Lots of races and events these days have the word "epic" in their names or description. In fact this word is as used and some may even say overused as "awesome". Not me of course, as I myself fall into this category of users and maybe have been using both a little too often. But I do try to live by the "do epic shit" life - so that's my excuse. Oh wait, no excuses are needed. So what makes a race "epic" worthy? and is Breck Epic - 'EPIC' worthy?   Stage 5: Wheeler. A great day to hike with your bike Photo:  Linda Guerrette Meaning o

Samarathon 2018 - Winter #epicshit in the Israeli Desert. Part II

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“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:5) . Yes, I’m being a little biblical here, not only because the race setting warrants that. But also because there was almost no day II, and imagine what the world would look like without day two?   Timna Park (Gali - thanks for the photo) As it turned out, the blood donation that I left to the desert on Stage I (if you missed that post - here is the link Samarathon Part I ) was a little more serious than it looked like at first. By late afternoon, I could barely stand on my leg or bend my knee, which by then was nicely swollen. I was questioning being able to ride in Stage II. Thanks to the help of a few new friends (special thanks to Moran, Rami and Nimi), I was lucky enough to have woken up in less pain, so despite a rainy night and a very early wake up, I decided to give it a try. Although, I must admit that the thought of crawling back to bed did cross my mind.    Good morning race village.