He dared!

I think I should write a song. "I'll be your SAG, I'll carry your rag, I'll not let you lag, another Triple in the bag..."

Last year, The Lizard was off his bike for six weeks due to a training-related injury. The previous year, he'd pre-rode the entire Triple Bypass course twice before the actual event. Last year, he barely got to ride before doing "The Big One."

Training this year was going so well. He pulled in some massively impressive times during Ride the Rockies. He was in the best shape of his life.

And then, suddenly, during a single mountain pass training ride, he pulled a muscle again. A week before the Triple. Seven days. Seven nights.

We didn't know if he would be able to ride. Triple Trepidation.

Then just like me the day after my hardest ride ever last month, The Lizard got up at 3 a.m. Saturday morning and 90 minutes later was on his bike, as if on auto pilot, pedaling off into the darkness, pretty much alone.

His annual goal is to complete the 120-mile course with 10,000 feet of altitude gain in eight hours or less. Last year, he'd been back on the bike only three weeks when he rode the Triple Bypass, and his longest training ride had been about 40 miles. He completed the ride in eight hours and 36 seconds. And... he finished!

This year, he finished in seven hours and 58 minutes. Mission: Accomplished!

After overtaking the only two riders on Juniper Pass who departed before him, he led the "Ride That Is NOT A Race" for the first two or so hours. Atop Vail Pass, he was tired but in third. Less than an hour later, he was ninth to cross the finish line (because he stopped on the final descent to pocket his arm warmers).

It's not a race. All the racers will tell you that. Yet every single rider who came in before The Lizard basked in individual placement. One guy's tiny little kids, after loudly cheering and cowbelling him across the finish line, ran around the park gleefully announcing he was "THIRD!!! Our daddy was THIRD in his hardest, longest and most mountains race EVER!"

It's not a race. It really, truly isn't. But the pride these guys take in their finishing times AND places, to me, tells me without a doubt, this is so much more than just a "race."

The biggest thing, of course, is that many of the 3,500 riders ride the entire 120 miles and DO cross that finish line. I cannot do 120 miles in a day. I can't even do 100 miles in a day. But 3,500 people do this ride every year, and about that many get shut out when registration closes because the allowed number of riders have already registered. Online registration for this year's ride closed in a record 38 minutes. There has been talk about creating a second-day ride, reversing the course the second day, so more people can participate.

Yes, you guessed it. The Lizard, animal that he is, wants to do BOTH days if that ever happens!

These riders are simply amazing. The amount of training and dedication that goes into preparing for an event like this is enormous.

I drive ahead of The Lizard each year to get shots of him at strategic locations (without endangering riders) and to make sure he has ample food and water. Each year, he asks if I am bored and thanks me for doing what I do.

I can't imagine spending the second Saturday in July any other way.

Lizard, thanks for allowing me to feel a portion of the thrill. Thank you for letting me experience the Triple through your eyes and heart!

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