Here I am, sitting in the Los Angeles airport, eating an overpriced burger and getting all limbered up for the next 13 hours which will be spent in close quarters on a 747. I’m pretty psyched about the whole thing, but that’s probably a no-brainer.

I wanted to throw up a few final ‘local’ items that have come across my desk for all ya’ll who are still back in flag before I embark on the journey across the ocean to the land of sheep and snow.

First up is a little bit of a shoutout to one of the most gnarly dudes I’ve ever met: Pete Traylor. I’m sure some of you already saw the news on twitter, but he successfully completed the ‘doubleheader’ of the leadville 100 bike, and then the next weekend the leadville 100 run. Not only that, but he got the big belt buckles for both. A time of 8:37 on the bike makes it in well under the ‘big buckle’ time, and a time of 24:08 puts him just about an hour under the 25-hour mark for the big’un on the run.

And, as a point of clarification, the ‘big’ belt buckle for the run is about twice the size and weight of the ‘big’ buckle for the bike. I wish I had a picture from when I saw it on monday dangling from Pete’s waist, but alas, I didn’t have a camera handy.

However, Josh paced him for a section during the middle of the race, and then speed-hiked the last 20 or so miles in with him, and he had a video camera. He took a few videos, which I may slice and dice together if he doesn’t get on it, but I did take the liberty of throwing this one up. This is Pete at mile 96, make sure you turn up the sound, it’s pretty priceless.

Dude got a blister at mile 50 that was about 3 inches across on the ball of his foot, popped it at mile 70, and speedhiked the last 20 miles in.

It’s a refreshing story compared to the whining that some folks were doing about the bike ride this year. All I gots to say is I don’t care who was drafting who and who got in and who didnt, all I know is that lance couldn’t have beat a combined time of 32:45 for 100 miles of running and biking. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Anyways, in other running news, looks like there’s some serious domination going on by a flagstaff team this year at the transrockies run as well. Check it out, and root on some of the locals in something else more than a little insane that flagstaff seems to be dominating at.

Oh yeah, looks like there was a little bike race this past weekend up here as well. Care and Share ride (which I was packing during) went off, and there were some familiar faces rounding out the standings there as well.

Finally, just wanted to pass this along from the folks at bikeshophub

Hello Friends,

I hope that you have had the opportunity to visit Utility Cycling – www.utilitycycling.org, which is now live and running. We welcome your input, comments, and suggestions and look forward to hearing from you.

The main purpose of this e-mail is to direct your attention to our most recent blog post about Globe Cycle: http://www.utilitycycling.org/2009/08/globe-cycle/

We were very fortunate to have James Bowthorpe stop by our headquarters in Flagstaff, Arizona, on his way around the world by bicycle. James is trying to raise £1.8m for Parkinson’s Disease research, as well as bring attention to the disease. Subsequently, it appears that he will break the world record for circumnavigating the world by bicycle by nearly 4 weeks.

James has already raised £48,244.38 towards his target of £1.8m, but we are soliciting your help so that he may reach his goal. If you have the opportunity to mention James and his cause on your blog or website at any point in the next few weeks, it would be much appreciated.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you.

All best,
Melanie

–
Melanie Meyers

That’s all I got, gotta finish a beer and find a flight.