Triple D 2009 Results (man vs. wild)

Send me your blog links & photos! I'll post my race recap sometime this week for a more personal view of the bike part as experienced by me...

Well… it must be done… so let me apologize for hosting the most miserable “bike” race around. For you runners and skiers I won’t apologize because most of you finished… Let’s start this year’s race report with the bad:

For all participants but primary for the runners and bikers, the course conditions were worse than just about all of us could image. The weekend before the course lost 9” of solid well packed snow to a rain storm which left a thick sheet of ice. While bad, the ice would have been acceptable to most as studded tires work well and would have allowed the race to be completed in less than 6 hours by some. However, this ice was then coved by Thursday night’s 3” and Friday night’s nearly 9” of fresh dry powdered sugar snow. This created trail conditions that were miserable to be optimistic. For the runners and bikers the deep snow wouldn’t support weight and would slide on the layer of ice below, for those that opted for studs or other ice apprentices the layer of snow was deep enough to keep these from biting. How bad were the conditions??? Well, multiple veterans of the Arrowhead, Iditarod and Susitna 100 said it was the worst they have ever seen. While pushing parts of a race is SOP for true winter bike racers having glare ice under the virgin powdered sugar snow was a new experience for all.
Numerous bikers and runners dropped from wet feet due the deep dry powder working its way into every crevasse of their footwear then melting and thus soaking the feet, Others threw in the towel out of shear frustration of the initial bike race turning into the worst slogfest they had ever been a part of, others because there was a beer and a bar stool that was calling, and one committed racer because no one else was left.

For the good, this year’s weather was "pleasant" with temperatures during the race ranging from 20dF down to only 8dF. The race also garnered exceptional publicity which may help heal the pain that most racers experienced, as they can now say they were a part of the toughest one day bike race in North America (I mean how many people can say they participated in race so difficult that in 2 years there have only been 4 people have ever finished, or can say they ran a marathon in the dead of winter on a foot of snow covered ice... all cross-country across corn fields and half frozen streams). There were a number of local articles (click here to read the TH prerace article) and news crews around (click here to watch segment on the nightly news, then click watch video in upper left). Many thanks to the Dyersville and Dubuque Chambers for the help in promoting and putting on this event.

No event would be possible without the many volunteers who tirelessly helped with this event, while I put a lot of planning in to this race (I did forget to coordinate the weather with GOD… and for that I apologize, next year I’ll see what I can do about that):
Course Coordinators: Traci Andre
CP Coordinators: Anne Potter, Patsy Troy, Sara Sroka
Trail Safety & Sag: Frank Flack, David Hartig, Mr. Austin, Paul Pettinger,
Race Photographer: Mark Hirsch
Trail Coordinator: Tom Spalla (Asbury Snow Hawks)
Other Organizations and volunteers: Dubuque County Conservation, Jim Heavens, Dyersville Police, Grand River Center, Dubuque Chamber of Commerce, Dyersville Chamber of Commerce, Chariot Limousines, The Handle Bar, Quick-n-Handy Dyersville.
Sponsors: Surly Bikes, GU Energy, Running Magazine, Asbury Snow Hawks, Free Flight Bikes, Grand Harbor Resort, Dubuque Chamber of Commerce, Chain Reaction Cycling

Here are the finishers for the Triple D 23 Mile Run:
1. Joey Richey (Overall) 5:08
2. Lisa Paulos (Overall Female) 5:15
3. Annte Hall 6:00
4. Mike Hodge 6:00 [+2:44 for 50K bonus loop]
5. Seth Dugeon 6:11
6. Paul Steichen 6:55
7. Karl Steichen 6:55

8. Marcus Nashelsky

The only skier to finish was:
1. Matt Maxwell 5:04 [+2:19 for 50K bonus loop]

Here are the finish times for the 38 bikers:
0.
Yup nobody… but because competition was intense, if you could have seen the determination at mile 12 as the lead pack of 20 bikers were running their bikes uphill in deep snow… I did, I was behind that group saying to myself how much this sucks… we must give credit to all the bikers who didn’t know they were signing up for a “push your bike until you give up race”… placement for Triple D for non-finishers is determined by total distance traveled on the marked race course (check point in italics) + bonus for not having to be sagged (if you know your exact mileage please email me, and if you blog, email me that and I’ll link it (good or bad):
1. Corey Kronser (Dyersville in 7:00, sagged at Farley +2)
2. Dennis Grelk (Dyersville in 6:21, sagged at Farley)
3. Lance Andre (Dyersville in 6:30, sagged at Farley)
4. Dave Pramann (sagged at Dyersville 6:29)
5. Tom Miller (sagged at Dyersville 6:55)
6. Brad Dumville (Farley, Alternate sagged at Dyersville 9:10)
7. Justin Meyer (Farley, Alternate sagged at Dyersville 9:10)
8. Joel Austin (sagged at Dyersville 10:40) – Frozen Saddle Award
9. Nicholos Wethington (Farley, Alternate sagged at Dyersville 9:10)
10. Jesse Reyerson (Epworth, Rode Back Alt Route)
11. Adam Blake (Epworth, Rode Back Alt Route)
12. Josh Peterson (Epworth, Rode Back Alt Route)

13. Rob McKillip (Epworth, Rode Back Alt Route)
14. Mark VanderWoude (Sagged at Epworth)
15. Maxwell Anderson (Sagged at Epworth)
16. Ben Shockey (sagged at Epworth)
17. Tim Ingram (Sagged at Epworth)
18. Scott Marx (sagged at Epworth)
19. Trevor Rockwell (Sagged at Epworth)
20. Mark Sirek (Sagged at Epworth)
21. Devon Dyreson (Sagged at Epworth)
22. Coleman Retziaff (Sagged at Epworth)
23. Irene Schroeder (Halfway to Epworth, Route back to Graf) – First Place Female

24. Jeremy Riniker (Graf, Route Back to Durango)
25. Dustin Quade (Graf, , Route Back to Durango)
26. James Ryan Zimmerman (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)
27. Todd Erickson (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)

28. James W. Zimmerman (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)

29. Joe Nolan (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)
30. Scott Sundby (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)
31. Sean Mullins (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)

32. Eric Sovern (Graf, Rode Back Alt Route)
33. Michael Lemberger (Graf, Route back, Sagged at Sundown)

34. Ronnie Fangman (Sagged at Graf)
35. Nate VanDerWeide (Sagged at Graf)
36. Tracy Thompson (Sagged at Graf)
37. Grace Shirly-Couch (Humkee, Rode Back Alt Route) – Second Female
38. Jerome Full (Humkee Road, Rode Back Alt Route)
39. John Nelson (Humkee Road, Rode Back Alt Route)

There were lots of photos and videos taken and many will be posted in upcoming blog entries as I have them compiled. Also we hired professional photographer this year and I believe some of those photos will be available in the coming days.
Thanks to all, and I look forward to this hopefully being a different race next year! I know there will be a number of racers who will not come back next year and some that didn't participate that will called to the challenge of doing the most difficult one day race... well be forewarned this race is done in the true fashion of winter snow racing, we are dealt the weather and the route...
Lance