When I received the race email from Rocky Mountain Endurance about the Snake River Mountain Challenge boasting a closed Keystone Mountain just for the mountain bike race I decided I had to be there. That, in addition to the fact that I was sick of riding skinny tires in sweltering Boulder heat...somehow the 9,300' start line with 3,400' of climbing didn't fully register.

I had raced a couple other of Rocky Mountain Endurance's races in the past and they were always a class act, run smoothly and more of a festival than just a show up, race and leave sort of race. Registration is money well spent because these race promoters have made their events a well-oiled machine. A unique aspect of RME's approach to their race series is offering various distance races. Instead of your class - Pro, Cat 1, 2 etc. determining the length of race, the racer gets to choose how much punishment they take: Marathon, Half-Marathon, Cross-Country, Half-Cross Country. In my case I am happy I chose the Half Marathon because 2 laps of Snake River was plenty punishing! 

The race started at the base of the gondola and had a neutral start through Keystone village. Quickly we hit the looming alpine slopes and the course relentlessly climbed for 1,500'. There was a brief respite in a fun descent at this half way point before the mountain urged us up up up another 1,500'. But instead of cruising back down the mountain here, another undulating loop was added on just to make us hurt a little bit more. But then it went down, all the way down on a descent that had me grinning with glee it was so fast and fun and flowy.