Mike’s off to Moab

Mike LeRoux heads out to Moab today (Sydney via San Francisco to Salt Lake City) with good mate Tim Andersen to participate in his FIRST 100 mile event.

Unfortunately Kirsten won’t be there in person to support him this time but Tim is well prepared to crew and is looking forward to a day at Slick Rock on mountain bikes before the race too.

Mobile coverage permitting, Tim’s going to be updating us on Mike’s progress throughout the race via Twitter. There is a Twitter feed on the bottom left hand corner of the home page of Mike’s website www.mikeleroux.com.au if you’d like to see how he’s going. Alternatively you can follow him on Twitter direct @MTTFL or his Twitter feed is also on his Facebook account ‘Mike Le Roux, Cairns’ http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1669942304

The race has their own website and open Facebook page: although I’m not sure how ‘live’ these will be during the race.
http://geminiadventures.com/new/?page_id=109
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144706000686 (24 hours on the Run)

Gotto love technology.

As some of you know Mike needs to finish three 100 milers within the cut off times, before January if he wants to be considered for the holy grail of Ultras, Badwater in 2012, as this is the minimum qualifying criteria.

With Challenge Cairns so soon after he gets back Mike chose Moab because it allows him the best chance to race hydrated and fuelled. This is because the 160km is run in 19 approximately 8km laps, which reverse each time. That means that at the end of each lap, he gets to go back to Tim at a make shift ‘aid station’ and get whatever he needs nutrition or medical (or motivational) before doing another lap. Another reason he chose it is for the gravel track which is more forgiving on his legs then bitumen.

Mike starts at 7am on Saturday morning and the cut off is 30 hours. The temps will be around 0-4 degrees overnight and 14-18 degrees during the day, so he’s packed warm gear and will be looking for soups and coffee at the aid station no doubt. He’s aiming to come in under 24 hours if all things go well.
More later as it happens