Hi Ulli,

Sorry it's taken me so long, but I have been up to my eyeballs in tax and finance work since I got back and when I had a moment, I have had no energy. Now the worst push is over so I can relax and attend to personal matters, finally. Here are a few quick comments and I will try to get the photos sent today too. I know Jouelle has some photos as well; perhaps I can get some of hers tomorrow.

Well, I had never participated in a walking or team style event, except the Eco-Challenge and a few relays, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was concerned because I was pretty sure I could not keep up with Ulli going up steep hills at high altitudes, based on his HRH performance. I was

hoping that some of the other folks would be slower too, so the pace would be less than Ulli's normal one. I did a lot more walking than normal during my training to try to prepare. I thought it would be easier staying up on the high ridges than continually going up and down like at HRH. (yeah, right !). I figured it would be a dramatic and scenic course from looking at the maps.

This is an attractive concept and a worthwhile alternative to all the competitive events. Here the competition is to remain a part of the group. As it turned out this is also very difficult to pull off at high altitude on a rugged course, when a fairly strict schedule is necessary to complete the course within a reasonable time frame.

Scenic and challenging, no one section so very difficult, but spending so long at high altitude requires acclimatizing. There was more climbing than I expected.

We had Traudl's wonderful "rolling aid station" which was even beyond any expectations. Only problem is that there are so few possible aid locations.

We had a very pleasant group. Ulli of course, rock solid , but also calm and patient when some of us had problems. Carl, as I mentioned very strong and great attitude. Tim also very strong, recovered well from his climbing problems and stayed positive. Barb was very pleasant and gutsy. She probably should have more experience on long rugged courses before trying this again. Myself: plenty of experience, but needed to spend time at altitude before event and warm up legs before start.

It was challenging and a lot of fun. I would love to try again with better preparation. I really appreciate being included in the initial trial.

As Ulli has stated, strict entry requirements would be necessary. The biggest difficulty is that each participant's "bad moments" will collectively slow the group. In a race you can have a bad spell, rest or take it easy for a while, then recover and make it up later. In this case several prolonged (more than a few minutes ) slow downs are probably more than the group can absorb and still stay on schedule. It seems to me that even with very qualified entrants there will be such times, and there may need to be more places on the course where one CAN drop out, especially on the 15mi from Berthoud pass to the next aid. Possibly some volunteers could hike in to designated locations (if no auto access is possible ) in order to escort out people who might need to drop? Also it seems to me a strongly recommended pre-race training camp of at least a week would greatly increase the probability of success. Participants would not only acclimatize to the altitude, but would practice and develop a common pace and learn the course. I don't mean anything high-budget, just on the level of course marking at Hard Rock. I think Ulli is correct , thinking that he will probably have to re-route some portions of the course to lessen the amount of overall climb if the race can be finished in less than 3 days.

Thanks again,

Ginny