Interviews

Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon: Catching up with Sully

Ahhhh…the mighty Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon is once again drawing near.  On February 14, a multitude of multisport athletes will swarm upon the little town of Grants, New Mexico to test their inner fire and fry the shit out of their quads to get to the top of a mountain the hard way.

The majestic race, that showed me who was boss in 2007, is comprised of a four events. Mt. Taylor is 11,301 ft. high and to get to the top, athletes must travel by road bike, running, cross county skis, and snow shoes. Many first-timers start as part of a four-person or two-person team. The overly confident (like I was), tackle the mountain as a soloist.

The race starts with a 13-mile road race through the streets of Grants and then begins an 1,800-foot climb toward the base of Mt. Taylor.  Athletes then transition from bikes to running shoes for a five-mile run on gravel, often snow-covered, roads, climbing another 1,200 feet.

Runners then turn to cross country skis (skate or classic) for a two-mile, 1,200-foot climb of the mountaineering ski course. After leaving a lung or two behind on deceptively evil “Heart Break Hill,” another transition is made and skis are swapped out for snowshoes for a one-mile climb to the summit. The elevation change gains 600 feet, most in the last part of the climb.

Now here’s the beautiful part, the race is only half over.  Once at the summit, athletes must reverse the four events and race the 22 miles back to the finish line in town.

Last year, I profiled three top Mt. Taylor athletes: Josiah Middaugh, Lisa Goldsmith and Eric “Sully” Sullivan. I caught up with Sully last week just as he was getting ready to tackle a 24-hour randonee ski race.

Sully in action at the 24 Hours of Sunlight race
Photo courtesy of Ben Johnson

Question: What have you been doing since last year’s race?

Sully: Since the 2008 Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon I have just been racing all season long with Team Salomon/Crested Butte at a lot of the adventure races around the world. No matter where I seem to go though Josiah Middaugh (Middaugh has captured the overall winner title the last five consecutive years). He was in China the last two times racing with Nike, and you know when he is there the pace is going to be relentless. And it was. As I am sure it will be again at the Quad this year.

This summer was crazy busy as I also did a three-race solo series in California called the California Multi-Sport (Sully has cleaned up at these races to the point the organizers have put a call out to all Californians to come kick this Colorado boy’s ass). It was super fun racing all on marked courses such as the Quad, but the California races involving biking, running, and paddling. They are a bit shorter though so it really got the top end going. The series was put on by Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren from Team SOLE out of Big Bear who I also raced with the past several seasons as a fill in for Brazil and China.

Now that it is winter again I have been more focused on the randonee ski racing for the upcoming COSMIC ski series and other events such as the Mt. Taylor Quad and the 24 Hours of Sunlight which happens to be the weekend before the Quad this year. (Editor’s note: Sully won the race after our interview was completed). Normally I have a weekend rest before the Quad so we’ll see if I can recover in time to still make it a close race. So, with all this racing going on I would say a lot of it just counts as training for the next event.

Question: What are your predictions for this year’s Quad? A close one between you and Josiah?

Sully: I think just like the last several years, the Quad is going to be dictated by Josiah on the run up and bike up and then it is just trying to keep it within four minutes at the turnaround on the summit, then pinning it the rest of the way down and getting it close by the end of the ski. But also I think that this year there is going to be a deeper field with the likes of Travis Macey coming from Boulder and then there is always Greg Krause, who if he could ski better, could be right there as well with Josiah at the end. So all in all its going to be a battle for three and a half hours.

Hopefully it will be tight on the bike back into town just to see who wants it most.

The hula skirt is not what the winner gets. “I just
found it next to the skintrack about half way up
and snagged it with my pole as I went by. I had
seen it all night and I thought the last lap was a
good time to put it on.”
Photo courtesy of Ben Johnson

Question: Are you doing anything different in your training this year than in years’ past?

Sully: As far as my training goes I think that it is about on par with the last two years leading up to the Quad. I have been doing a bit more intensity and a little less volume just because the endurance thing is there but the speed is always lacking a bit. Plus, with the 24 Hours of Sunlight race in three days there is not much need to get after it this week just to keep the legs a little fresher for the Quad.

Question: Well, it looks like you’re off to another great race. Unfortunately, I’ll miss the action again this year due to work and school commitments. But before you go, can I pick your brain on behalf of those multisport athletes who may want to try their hands at adventure racing this year. The required set of skills seems to be rather daunting (orienteering, kayaking, rappelling, canyoneering, etc.), let alone the purchase of new equipment for the training collection. What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started?

Sully: Advice that I would give to triathletes who want to get started in adventure racing would be, especially if you’re a road triathlete, to get a good mountain bike and become technically sound at riding and maybe doing a few Xterras to get it down in a race situation.

Then if it is available, I would take an Adventure Racing clinic such as the ones offered by Gravity Play Sports in the Colorado, Utah area.

Then find a local sprint adventure race that doesn’t require a lot of tricky navigation. And best of all make sure someone on the team is good at reading maps or take some local orienteering courses and do a few pure orienteering races to get fast at reading maps when in all types of conditions.

Just like swimming in triathlons, the paddling sections of adventure races can strike fear into the heart of the non-paddler. Also like swimming, it is a lot of technique so my advice would be to either get a paddling instructional video such as the one from Epic Paddles or get a lesson if it is available. Then just practice, practice, practice.

One last thing, most adventure races provide the boats and are tandems. So I would suggest getting some sort of a 2-person boat just to practice steering and synchronized paddling.

Related posts:

1. Mt. Taylor Profiles: Eric “Sully” Sullivan Tomorrow marks 25th anniversary of the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon....
2. Mt. Taylor Profiles: Josiah Middaugh The first time I saw Josiah Middaugh he was running...
3. Afterthoughts on the Mt. Taylor Quad The Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon marked the end of my 2006-2007...
4. Mt. Taylor Profiles: Lisa Goldsmith To say that Lisa Goldsmith lights up the room is...
5. Race Report: Mt. Taylor (Run) The Run (5 miles, climbs 1,200 feet) I rode into...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.