Words from a Race Director

Lance Armstrong Takes Second At Leadville 100

kfordham281 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:51:07 +0000

Lance Armstrong finished just short of 2 minutes behind the winner of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race today. Six-time defending champion Dave Wiens finished in 6 hours, 45 minutes, 45 seconds; 1 minute and 56 seconds in front of Armstrong.

[Via SI.com]

CPA staff Cathi Cannon also raced Leadville today. She finished in 12:46. Way to go Cathi!

UOG 2008 Received Some Press!

kfordham281 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:06:24 +0000

Thanks to the Greenville News, the UOG received some press for the first time! Mike Foley profiled three Greenville area UOG participants and threw in some rogaine history also. You can read the entire article HERE.

South Carolina Beefing Up Cycling Laws

kfordham281 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:53:39 +0000

Last month South Carolina passed new bicycling safety legislation aimed at those who travel with their feet instead of by gas. The new law provides some of the same protection to cyclists as those who travel in vehicles.

This new law hits pretty close to home as a friend of Checkpoint Adventures, Jim Kelleher, was recently hit by a car while cycling in South Carolina. Fortunately for Jim, he seemed to come out of the accident relatively unhurt. The same can’t be said for his bike though.

While I’m very excited to see some of our neighbors increase bicycling laws, when will we see similar improvements in the roads we travel? My recent experience in Europe really highlighted how pour the Atlanta biking infrastructure really is. I just hope it will improve sometime in my lifetime. I’m not holding my breath though.

Listen To The Tour de France Live

kfordham281 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:24:01 +0000

If you’re like me and stuck at work while the Tour de France is live, at least you can listen online. Just head on over to Eurosport’s Tour de France page. Go down the page about half way and click the button on the right side of the page labeled “Live audio”.

I find the flat stages a little boring to listen to, but the mountains provide lots of action. My top three TDF GC contenders (in no particular order): Evans, Sastre, Valverde.

Primal Quest Starts Today

kfordham281 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:00:21 +0000

One of the longest running expedition adventure races starts today. Primal Quest will begin in less than 3 hours with 60 teams toeing the starting line in the Montana backcountry. I can’t seem to find how long racers have to finish the course (at max 10 days based on the race dates), but I expect the leaders to finish somewhere around 5 days based on previous PQ’s.

You can follow the race live at the Primal Quest website. Checkpoint Zero also is also providing PQ coverage.

If you’re curious about past PQ’s you can search this blog. I volunteered for both the 2003 and 2004 events. I didn’t care to travel to Utah to volunteer, but I would have liked to have volunteered for this years race if I had the vacation time.

Armchair Navigators Rejoice! - UOG Google Earth Map

kfordham281 — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:00:00 +0000

If you’d like to take a look at the 2008 Ultra O-gaine course, download the map with this Google Earth file. Open the file in Google Earth and have fun exploring the course. You can even head on over to the Race HQ Chat Room and talk about the course with others!

I had problems loading the kmz file in Google Earth on my Mac (tested fine on Windows). If you’re a Mac user and got it to work, let me know the version you’re using in the comments.

UOG Registration Ends May 5th

kfordham281 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:47:13 +0000

Just a quick note about the Ultra O-gaine. If you are thinking about registering for the UOG, you should consider doing so shortly. Registration will remain open until May 5th, 2008. After May 5th, we will no longer accept registrations. We stop registration early so we can order the correct number of maps and allow proper time for printing and shipping. Don’t let your chance at participation in this fun navigation event pass you by!

See you in May!

Kevin and Patrick

You have no excuse not to run

kfordham281 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:59:35 +0000

Ever heard of Buster Martin? Me either until this morning. As it turns out, Buster will be running the London Marathon this weekend. While running a marathon is certainly a great acheivement, Buster’s marathon will trump your marathon. Why? Well, let’s just say Buster is a senior. To be exact, he’s 101 years old.

Buster is trying to become the “world’s oldest competitive runner.” For a guy 101 years old, he certainly doesn’t look like it. After finishing up a half maraton, these were the first words from Buster: “Where’s my beer?” Gotta love his spunk.

UOG Early Registration Ends Soon

kfordham281 — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:58:34 +0000

If you want to save some cash while registering for the Ultra O-gaine, you need to do so before April 2nd. Early registration saves you $10 and guarantees that you get a swag item. After April 1st, the price increases by $10 and you are no longer guaranteed to receive a swag item. We have to place our swag order shortly after April 1st so while we do order a few extras, they will not last.

Registration trends for 2008 are running ahead of 2007 trends. At this pace, it’s fairly likely we will sell out of the 100 slots we have open. We’re very excited that all these folks will come out and enjoy a great day in the woods with us. Will you be one of them?

Our Website Is iPhone Optimized

kfordham281 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:01:15 +0000

In what may be of interest to nearly none of our core audience, our website has been optimized with a few iPhone (and iPod touch) specific touches. If you’re browsing our website with Mobile Safari, you might notice things look better here than on some other websites you visit. We’ve optimized the screen size so you have to zoom in/out less. We’ve also added custom Web Clip bookmark icons for the A24 and UOG websites. Gadgets and adventure racers go hand in hand some maybe others besides Cathi and I will notice the changes. If not, it didn’t take much time anyways!