Melanie, for my training this season I'm trying to prepare myself accordingly for the type of terrain that each race will throw my way.

This will be my first time racing Crested Butte, how would you describe the bike and run? Long steady climbs? Ups and downs? Lots of technical?
What can I expect?

-Kim

The Crested Butte race is incredible. The bike course is kind of technical, especially on the uphill and the descent is super fast and very fun. It is the best Xterra course I have ever done!

The run has a LOT of uphill. Given the race is at pretty high altitude it is challenging, but you do all of the uphill and then run in mostly downhill so it is a good one. I love the race and the organizers are top notch people so it is always a good time.

I am trying to reconcile my schedule to make sure I go back for sure!

How would you compare the Crested Butte bike leg to the Keystone one?

Crested Butte is a bit more technical than Keystone. Keystone really only had one tricky bit to it, whereas most of the climbing in CB is challenging. The downhills are somewhat similar, but most of the rocks are on the climb in CB rather than on the descent.

Last year we had some cows too. Domestic wildlife .

I like the CB course more than I liked Keystone...even though Keystone was fun.