Courage, eh?

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Sometimes you blog for the world at large, sometimes for your triathlete friends, sometimes for yourself, and sometimes in the hopes that one reader in particular will take heart.

If you have dropped by da Republic, you will have noted that Bold's Triple Bypass did not go as planned. While acknowledging the difficulty of the course and the supreme difficulty of the conditions on the day, I think he put too much emphasis on the letters DNF.

He need not be troubled by doubts of his ability to finish. The final climb to Vale Pass from the east is something I have done in my pre-triathlete SLP days as the third of three passes. He definitely has the physical resources to have finished on that day or any other. Fortunately, he also had the good judgment to realize that this was not the day to try.

I started down from Breckenridge in a cool drizzle and little wind. I hit Frisco before any of the participants in the Triple Bypass and started the climb up to Copper Mountain, intending to meet Bold and his posse on the slopes to Vale Pass. The weather got progressively colder and progressively more dangerous as time went on. At Copper Mountain, by the time I got the message that Team Bold had abandoned, the very first of the Bypass riders were making the climb in a wind driven rain.

The passes and the tops of the peaks were invisible. It was like something from Tolkien. Misty Mountains from which Saruman's voice of doom is carried on the wind. (Yah, that's how geeky I am). To descend was to take your life in your hands. The risk of hypothermia or a fatal touching of the pavement was very real. In particular, the west side of Vale pass is narrow, crooked, and very steep, right next to I-70, and likely covered with sand and debris washed from the highway. Better cyclists than us die on descents like that. Mother Nature is a Beyotch, and in the mountains, you trifle with her at your peril.

Read the Churchill quotes above. Bold has stated that he and his posse have unfinished business with the Triple Bypass. That statement alone means that this year is no failure; it is merely delayed success. I hope I get to share it.

Rock on Bold. Ironman awaits.