Did anybody ride the rocky moutain 1200?

My wife and I were doing volunteer work at one of the controls. We were at Enderby with our 7 month old son.

I really enjoyed this and getting to see the riders come through. We were around the 1077km mark so some people were looking a little worse for wear.

My father (Cadillac) volunteered at the Lake Louise control.

Several of my friends and acquaintences rode it.

From the perspective of a volunteer, I thought the ride was fantastic.
I was at the Lake Louise control (677 km).
Because the control opened at 10 pm on Thursday, I volunteered to spend the night alone at the control waiting for any early riders. Every time the walls creaked and banged, I got up to check for a rider; but none arrived. It meant, however, that I didn't get any sleep that night.
During Friday I manned the check-in table except for two hours when I left for a nap, then back to the table.
Friday night I was on the night-shift again. Riders came in all through the night and asked me to wake them at various times. By 4 AM, I was able to lay my head down on the table since all the riders had left except for a few that had DNF'd. Saturday morning was cleanup and a drive back home (3 hours away).

Like the riders, I also experienced sleep-deprivation. :)

The other volunteers at Lake Louise were also hard workers -- it was truly a team effort.

Some riders came in totally exhausted while others looked as though they had only done 20 km.

A few years ago one rider completed the 1200 in under 60 hours, but this year he rode with his SO and rode at her pace. They finished over 85 hours. When they arrived at Lake Louise, they were exhausted (especially him). It made me think that it is much harder to complete a ride at a slower pace than a faster one. That is, those who are forced to ride for nearly 90 hours are truly athletic heroes.

Here's a post from a rider's perspective. This was my first 1200k, and to be honest I was pretty apprehensive about my ability to complete it, given the problems I'd had with previous "firsts" at 600 and 1000k. Fortunately, there was nothing to worry about.

But that's not the important thing. What made this such a great ride wasn't so much the course (which was mostly stellar), or the weather (nearly perfect), but the volunteers working the controls. Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Without exception you went out of your way to make this an outstanding experience for me. Not once did I see a volunteer who was less than happy to be there helping out the riders. And at some of the later controls, where you folks had to be there for 30+ hours, that's saying a lot. No matter how many Grands Randonnees I do, this one will always be special for me, thanks to you. :love:

Scott P
Bend, OR