There may not be an official prizelist for GLR, but the unofficial prizes have been steadily forthcoming. Lots of intangibles like new and/or rekindled friendships…and some tangibles too. MC gave me a few lenses for my M-frames and some clothing so I could finally get outta that chammy (that’s an evil thief, wherever you are may the fleas of 1000 camels…oh nevermind). Yesterday, Scott gave me a copy of TopFusion.
GPS software is something I’ve been using a lot lately, and I’ve come to the realization there is no package out there that does everything. I end up using one for route planning, one for GPS interface, yet another for performance analysis. Depending on the task, I’ll use 1 of 3 for certain operations on track data.
TopoFusion is quite complex with all the built in features and the more I use it, the more I prefer it over others. One feature is track playback – you can look at where you were, in time (or distance), at what elevation, how fast, and see a little guy riding or running at that location on the map. I’m really interested in how many times I stopped and for how long in the GL, and this is the only software that makes that analysis easy.
Scott & I shared our GPS data from our respective GLRs, and it’s been fun & educational to compare. Scott is apparently unaffected by sleep depravation ;)
It’s fitting that I should be talking with Scott about multi-day racing. In 2005, I read his account of his individual time trial of the Arizona Trail. The pictures drew me in, but the play by play just astounded me. I had no idea anything like that was possible and the story – and Scott – seemed larger than life.
Anyone that’s trained and studied for a big goal knows about the post-event “now whats?”, and I’ve had my share. Fortunately, they’ve all been positive and not at all depressing. If anything, GLR taught me that anything really is possible. So I’ve been looking with keen interest at the GDR (incidently, this year’s version is set to start in a few hours as I write this), but the lack of real mountain biking makes it a mental struggle. I am intrigued by a 2-3 week effort, but can’t commit to doing it all on dirt roads. The AZT, however, is puuuuurfect. I’ve been emphatuated with AZ since I read about Doc Holiday when I was 10 years old, and it continues on even though I’ve spent many years there. Sky islands, desert, mountain and canyon, singletrack and hikes…the AZT is filling a big spot in my mind right now. Eventually it will see a race similar to GLR…but can I wait that long?
The planning has already begun.
Here’s a bonus pic of the East Rim of the GC taken from Scott’s AZT trip. I’m not sure where exactly it was taken from, but in the final miles of the KMC tomorrow we’ll be dropping off this rim to the low areas to the east, only to climb back up. Good times await.
