This is Grace and my attempt at doing the Triple D.
What is Triple D? Triple D is a winter endurance race that traverses Dubuque County in the dead of winter by bike, ski or foot.
What makes this race different from other marathon distance races? Winter racing isnt just about being in shape, its about mental toughness. You must be properly prepared to handle the extremes of winter weather for hours on end. Racers will spend many hours in all sorts of extreme winter weather so that they can test various clothing and equipment options.
How difficult is Triple D? Last year all the runners and skiers (who started) finished the standard distance event of 23 miles in -9F temp. However out of the large group of over 35 bikers (who started) only 4 finished the ultra marathon distance of 66 miles. The bikers were exposed to -30F wind-chill for over 10 hours and more extremes of weather as they were not on the sheltered Heritage trail all the time as the runners and skiers were. The first 1/3 of the event is on private snowmobile trails hosted by the Asbury Snowhawks and as most can imagine bikes aren't easy to ride in the snow. This year (2009) dealing with the ice and avoiding injury will be the determining factor for success. Remember this race is only entered by the toughest of competitors (this isnt your easy summer marathon), so for over half of the racers in 2008 not to finish, its tough! Think you have want it takes??? - http://savedbythebike.blogspot.com/
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