2007 Rising Sun

All Skiing Adventures – 2006 Rising Sun – 2005 Rising Sun

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Race photos here

This is one goofy ski race. In fact, if you aren’t a bit a goofy, literally, on race day, then your chances of winning are small, though not impossible as I showed last year. Ken Leiden originally recruited me to this race in order to beat Lexi, who has done this race 21 times now, winning most of the time. Every time I’ve done the race (four times now), I’ve finished ahead of Lexi, but have never beaten her. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? It’s all about the goofiness.

Ken took over as race director a couple years ago but this year he couldn’t do it and asked me to step in. I tried to publicize the event and even got a small article in the Boulder Camera paper, but it was on the day before the race. As it turns out, as my first stint as race director I presided over the smallest race in history: four competitors! Heck, we had seven volunteers for this race, three photographers, and two reporters covering it. Everything about this race is nutty.

I couldn’t get anyone to mark the course, which is very difficult to follow, so I arrived early on race day and marked it myself. That way I got to do the course twice. That was a nice warm-up for the race. In the race were myself, Stefan Griebel (of last year’s Hilly Billy fame), Lexi, and her brother Matt. I was the only one without a costume, as usual. It’s embarrassing that I’m the least creative and laziest competitor, but at least I’m out there increasing the field size by 33%! I like this race. I like competing in general, but this race has some unique aspects about it. I wish it had a greater turnout. Perhaps the problem is publicity, but I think it also because of the perceived barriers to entry. The costumes are a great aspect, but I fear it might be scaring away potential racers. Frankly, I’d like to see this race evolve a bit towards a more athletic event.

Stefan was dressed as…the Guinness guy? It was, after all, St. Patrick’s Day. He had a huge hut on and a matching outfit. He carried a six-pack of Guinness beer with him, presumable for hydration and bribing officials. Matt was dressed in a suit and tie and carried a color-coordinated sleeping bag. Lexi was dressed in a white and yellow costume depicting two fried eggs. I came as myself: dorky race director.

Bigfoot was on hand to be the announcer and he started us, Le Mans style. I was slowest getting my skis on and immediately into last place. The others didn’t follow the lower course markings, going the way I have gone before, but not what the official description given to me by Ken described. Hence, I fell further behind, taking a slower route. It must be said that the route the others took was entirely legal and I should have followed, except that I marked the course and had to follow my own flags. Either way this lower portion isn’t so important.

Just before we entered the steep single-track leading up to Tom’s Cabin, I worked myself to the front, just ahead of Stefan. The course was extremely hard and icy and the skis weren’t gripping very well. My 15-year-old, never-been-waxed, fish-scaled skis gripped the best and I had to do less herringboning than the others. Lexi’s skis were so slippery that she had to walk up a bit of this.

At Tom’s cabin were Betsy and two other ladies – our water boiling judges. I was at the cabin probably two minutes in front of Stefan, but my Jet Boil stove caused me some problems here. At the cabin you have to accomplish your first task: boiling eight ounces of water. Before I could get my water to boil, my fuel canister ran out. I anticipated this and brought a second one, but switching cost me some time. Then I couldn’t get the stove lit. I finally did boil the water but by the time I did, Stefan was done as well, and both Lexi and Matt were heating their water. This was a close race, a rarity. I distributed some candy bribes to the ladies, but Stefan sweet talked them. This guy is smooth and creative. He also slipped a couple of beers into my pack, thinking I’d need more ballast on the descent.

I was the first one to leave the cabin, but with Stefan only five seconds behind. We ran down hill for about a hundred yards because it was completely melted out. Back in the trees and back on snow, we donned our skis and I worked hard to establish a gap over Stefan. The next part of the course is a long, single track traverse with some climbing, and then a fast, narrow, very technical descent. Lexi would comment later that it was the tough course conditions she’s ever encountered.

I flew down the technical, fast descent, knowing from my course preview that I didn’t need to snowplow to control my speed. Just when things seem to be going too fast, the course would flatten out. I made the right turn onto Twin Twisted Tree and climbed up to the snow pit area. Here I found snow-pit judge Sheryl Griebel, who had also marked the lower part of the course. With Sheryl was Ben Beezley, a freelance reporter covering the race for the Mountaineer – the local Nederland paper. Ben was interested enough to plan on entering next year.

I grabbed a shovel and found the snow pit digging to be quite a chore. The 4-5” of snow were rock hard, nearly ice. I had to chop most of this before I could shovel it. Just before I finished, Stefan skied up. After getting out of his skis, the first thing he did was scatter my skis into the woods. This was a new tactic and I liked his creativity. I scattered his skis as well, in retaliation. I laid out my sleeping bag in my pit and crawled inside. The judges gave me the thumbs up and packed up and raced for the finish.

My kids, Daniel and Derek, were the tele-turn and egg-cooking judges. They were very excited at the prospect of being bribed. I muscled a couple of inelegant turns and skied into the finish area. Derek yelled, “Yeah! Daddy won!”, but the race wasn’t over. I still needed to cook and eat my eggs. This aspect of the race could be a barrier to entry as well. What about the vegetarians and vegans? This isn’t a trivial part of the population in the Boulder area. We’ll need an alternative in the future, I think.

I cooked up my eggs and was eating them when Stefan came a falling down the run. Stefan continued his charismatic ways, though, this time charming my kids with cash and chocolate bars. He added corned beef (remember it was St. Patrick’s Day) to his eggs, earning some additional style points. Matt finished next and Lexi came in last. Last. This was definitely a new experience for her. She cooked up a pair of fried eggs, with unbroken yokes.

After all the eggs were devoured and the finishing times recorded, the judges confabbed over the race placements. This procedure is a complicated negotiation that once followed a rigid set of rules for time deductions. Now a more heuristic approach is taken. The clear winner in my mind and in the more important minds of the judges was Stefan. His combination of speed, costume, bribes, style, etc. secured the top spot. Lexi finished second on the basis of costume, style, and probably some nostalgia. I was third even without a costume, based on my top finishing time, though I wouldn’t have complained with last place and nor did Matt.

After we each selected our prizes (in order of our race placement), we officially brought to a close the 23^rd running of the Rising Sun Classic. I’ll be back next year as race director…unless Ken wants to resume his duties. Next year I’ll strive to have more competitors…like five!

Table 1: Race Results

Race Place	Racer	Finishing Time
1	Stefan Griebel	1:17:53
2	Lexi Armitage	1:31:37
3	Bill Wright	1:11:32
4	Matt Armitage	1:21:35

Figure 1: Course Profile. There is about 900 of climbing on the course, which is probably around 4-5 miles long.