Race Across The Sky

[TrekJeni]

It was very moving on many levels. I think the real winner was the woman that came back to finish after nearly dying 14 months prior from that accident. I tried googling her story when we got home but I forgot her name. I was also inspired by the woman with MS. Rock it ladies.

One question - how am I going to start altitude training when I live at 540 feet?

[Bike Chick]

Guess we will have to move to Colorado I still think Lance looked behind him for the pace car when his tire flatted.

You are right, the stories about those women were truly inspirational as well as many others. Don't tell me you didn't wipe a tear when they had to turn the older gentleman back at the 4 hour cut off then we find out at the end of the movie he had just had a double knee replacement.

[Tri Girl]

Oh I cried like a baby when they were stopping people at the 4 hr cutoff.
I also cried when that woman told her story of being hit by the car (drats, but I can't remember her name either).
I loved the RD. He was too cute!! I've got one word for you: digdeep.
I like when he said at the pre-race meeting: "we didn't do all this work so you could come out here and be a cry baby." hee hee. I like that man!


I wonder if they'll show it again if there is interested in it? I think they said to go to the movie site and tell them you liked it. www.raceacrossthesky.com

Did you look at the Leadville 100 Leadman and Leadwoman? If you do all 5 events you get bragging rights for life. You have to do the 100 mile mtn bike ride, 100 mile trail run, a trail marathon, a 10K run and a 50 mile mtn bike ride. Can you believe a human can do that (all events are within a 3 week period I believe?). Cooky crazy (and yet, when I retire and can live at altitude- I'm jumping on that like a spider monkey).

[crazycanuck]

I've not seen this film but people know before they enter an mtb event that there are cut off times.

At the 100k enduro we did a couple of months ago riders had to be at a certain km point by x time..if you weren't there then your race day was over. The time cut off (not to mention the HILLS!!!) was the main reason I did the shorter distance this time round.

Sure hope this doesn't mean more roadies who can't handle real singletrack and getting dirty start mtn biking.

[kacie tri-ing]

Great movie! I loved it too!

The team car comment was hilarious! What a great film (and event!)

[andtckrtoo]

Gosh darn it, now I want to start mountain biking again. And don't worry, this roadie can handle real single track - although it may take some time to get my technical single track legs back.

[OakLeaf]

Don't worry CC, Leadville is safe from the likes of me.

It was definitely the kind of movie that at the end makes you say, "Wow, I'd like to do that." But then the lights come up and you remember you're going to have that same feeling crossing the finish line of that marathon. And that the last thing you need is another sport to train for.

I think it's true, as one of the riders commented after the film, applications will increase. But they don't have to make the field any larger. Sounds like they're very sensible about that.



I don't know about petitioning for another theater showing though. Yeah, it was cool seeing the movie in the company of a bunch of mountain bikers (a couple of whom had done Leadville, and one of whom had done the run). Even as the only roadie in the group. But trying to get another theater special event scheduled will just delay the release of the DVD.

Obviously they're not planning a holiday season release for this year - which I think is a mistake on their part. One thing they might do that would probably make a theater replay profitable is to do another live panel discussion in the lead-up to the 2010 race. Apparently Chris Carmichael was supposed to participate this time, and couldn't.

By clicking through, it looks like this is the link to use if you want to ask them to do a replay. It wasn't clear when they mentioned it in the panel discussion.

[Irulan]

Sure hope this doesn't mean more roadies who can't handle real singletrack and getting dirty start mtn biking.

The Leadville 100 is mostly jeep road. Out of 100 miles of race course, there's less than five miles, if that, of singletrack. The general consensus as I understand it is that LA did so well because of the lack of singletrack. He set a brutal pace on the non-climbing sections of dirt road. I'm not discounting the difficulty of doing 100 miles of dirt at elevation, I'm just saying it ain't singletrack is all.

Now a race like the Cascade Creampuff, that is 100 miles of singletrack, that might be a different story.

I ditto the comments on the inspirational stories and that it was a little heavy on the Lance stuff. I really wish they would have said how many women overall were entered, looked like very few to me.

[OakLeaf]

I've never been a Lance fan, and the fact that he was the only one onstage who didn't applaud when the moderator mentioned Roxanne Hall didn't make me like him any more.

[OakLeaf]

people know before they enter an mtb event that there are cut off times.

Of course they do, but that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking for someone who DNF's a major goal (and Leadville is a major goal for nearly anyone). Especially if they've trained their butts off hoping to come back after major surgery like the guy in the movie.