This race has been hyped up for sooo long and it is good to see it come to pass. It went off with some mixed success. I say mixed, because I wouldn’t consider less then 200 athletes a success, but they hit all of the other objectives on the head. Spectacular event management; great pro field; nice venue; tons of schwag for athletes.

I’ll write up more for the next Editor’s Note, but I thought I’d share a few tidbits on what I thought as the inaugural BAM approached. For the record, I was not racing.

I didn’t think much of the pro field until Craig Walton and Emma Snowsill registered for the event. Some of the athletes were familiar, most were not. Some had big results in smaller events. I’m not taking away the abilities of these athletes, because I’m sure they are all amazing. However, it wasn’t filled with Hunter Kemper or Barb Lindquist types.

I had no intentions of heading out to Midway for the race. I have church to attend, and family time is precious. It kills me to be away from them when we only have weekends and evenings to share. Co-race director, Charity Vernon emailed with me a few times a week out from the race. I had to be sure the TriHive’s made it into the race bags! They did, but some where in the email chatter I committed myself to covering the event. This was pre Walton and Snowsill.

Church starts at 1pm so I new I’d be able to get home in time to clean up and join the family. My friend, Jeff B. resides in Park City and offered a room in his pad for the night. Things were lining up, but I was still less then thrilled about attending. (Nothing personal, WARP crew)

My intrigue grew when the Walton/Snowsill announcement was made. I thought it would be fun to watch the two race. I also realized it would be a rare opportunity to get a live interview with the Aussie duo.

The eve of BAM arrives, Jeff and his wife welcome me briefly before they head to bed. I thought I’d stay up and research the pro field a bit more. Maybe the announcement was previously made, but some how Cameron Widoff slipped under my radar. Luke McKenzie…why would someone want to race one week after finishing 6th at Ironman CDA? Blows my mind! Other revelations started to appear as I continued my research and became more excited.

I didn’t turn out the lights until midnight or so. Then, it took another few hours to actually fall asleep. I knew Sunday was going to be a very long day.

I hit the road around 4:30 am and headed to Soldier Hollow. It was super chilly in the morning. Good thing I brought a coat.

The race was actually a ton of fun to watch (yes, I was surprised). I enjoyed watching the pro race. I’ve covered a few other “big” races and have enjoyed those equally. It’s nice to have another such event in our own back yard (XTERRA being the other big event in Utah).

I have no regrets about spending my morning at the race. It was a ton of fun. Lets hope WARP can make this race stick!

Alex McKinley
Publisher

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