December 18, 2013 - After months of work on permits, Racing Underground is proud to announce the details of an all new Big Sky Duathlon, which will now call Dick's Sporting Goods Park, home. Dick's is conveniently located just minutes from the intersection of I-25 and I-70 in Denver.

The Big Sky Duathlon will be the opening event in the three race Mile High Duathlon Series, which celebrates 15 years of Run-Bike-Run racing in 2014. The Big Sky Du is scheduled for Saturday April 13th.

"Dick's is the perfect venue for a Colorado duathlon," says race director Darrin Eisman. "Virtually the entire course will be closed to traffic, and it is very spectator friendly, with more than a half-dozen opportunities for race fans to watch their favorite athletes - all within a two minute walk from transition. Couple that with the convenient location, just 10 minutes from downtown Denver and 25 minutes from Boulder, and it is the perfect venue."

The new Big Sky Duathlon course will feature a 4k run, 12 mile bike, 4k run format. The run course is 95 percent soft surface well groomed running trail through Prairie Gateway Open Space. The bike is a flat and fast 12 mile route that will be closed to vehicular traffic.

The Mile High Duathlon Series has traditionally been a summer series, however with increasing competition from triathlons during the short Colorado open water swim season, the series will be moving to a spring timeframe in 2014.

"The new date will make the series more attractive to triathletes, who can use these races as tune-up events for the tri season which kicks off in mid-May," Eisman explains. The change in venue was done to bring the series closer to Denver. The race had previously been held in the town of Bennett, which was 30 minutes from Denver, and an hour from Boulder.

We will also be sanctioning the races with USA Triathlon this year, which will allow racers to earn points toward their duathlon national ranking.

November 25, 2013 - Racing Underground announced today that it will be sanctioning eight of its multisport events with USA Triathlon in 2014, including its Mile High Duathlon Series, the Front Range Triathlon Series, and the Desert's Edge Tri Festival. Registration will open for their 2014 season on November 29th, with four days of discounted entries, running from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

"The decision to sanction was made following feedback from many of our longtime participants," said race director Darrin Eisman. "They expressed an interest in seeing us sanction our events so they could earn points toward their national ranking, as well as qualify for championship events like the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships."

Racing Underground has not sanctioned the three-race Mile High Duathlon Series events since 2000, and had also chosen not to sanction its six triathlons in recent years. The move to sanction will be very well received by local triathletes, as it will allow them to earn points toward their rankings, while competing in some of Colorado's best multisport events.

"This ties in nicely with other changes we are making in 2014," Eisman says, "We have shuffled some of our event dates to better fit the evolving Colorado multisport calendar, and we will be placing a greater emphasis on club competition, which we pioneered in Colorado 15 years ago. In 2014, we will be awarding $3,000 in cash prizes for the club competition at our triathlon events."

Another one of those changes is moving the Mile High Duathlon Series to a new spring timeframe. The three-race series kicks off in Mid-April, and culminates with the Duathlon Regional Championship on May 10 at the Barkin' Dog Duathlon, at Cherry Creek State Park, in Denver. For 16 years, the Barkin' Dog Duathlon has served as the unofficial season opener for Colorado multisport racing!

The Barkin' Dog Duathlon was created in the late 90's to fill a void on the regional championship calendar. The race served at the Rocky Mountain Regional Championship in 1999 and 2000, and sells out each year at 500 entrants.

"We have some of the best age group duathletes in the country - and in the world Ñ right here in Colorado. This year, they will be able to earn the points they need to improve their national ranking by racing locally." For triathletes, it provides a few tune-up races before the tri season kicks in a month later.

Racing Underground has been producing and timing endurance events in Colorado since 1995. They currently produce nearly 20 running, duathlon, and triathlon events annually, and provide timing and event support for another 50 area races.

February 25, 2012 - Sunshine and temps in the 60's by the finish of the race lead to fast bike times at the final event in the 2011-2012 Chilly Cheeks winter duathlon series.

The three race series offers a different duathlon format each month - run/bike in December, run/bike/run/bike in January, and bike/run at the February event. There is also a four mile run-only option at the December and February events.

With the beautiful winter day, it's no wonder the February race drew the biggest crowd of the series. The duathlon started with 24 waves of approximately 10 cyclists, going off at 1 mnute intervals. A run-only wave followed the cycling waves. Eric Kenney, of Boulder, popped the fastest bike split of the day at 26mph for the dry 10.8 mile course.

The run, however, was a different story, as the blanket of snow that fell earlier in the week turned the trail sections to mush - slow, but very fun!

February 12, 2012 - In the week leading up to the inaugural running of the Ralston Creek Half Marathon, Mother Nature threw everything she had at the race. Two feet of snow a week out, followed by two additional snowfalls that brought February 2012 into the record books as the second snowiest February on record.

The City of Arvada was diligent, however, and made sure the course was well plowed and 99 percent snow-free for the sold out 500 runner field. Still, race morning dawned colder than expected, with a 14 degree starting temp which never managed to hit 20 during the race.

The official finish total was 422 runners, with a core group of elites leading the charge. Michael Chavez took the win in 1:12:56, just a month after posting a 2:16 marathon at the Olympic Trials in Houston. He was followed just 12 seconds later by Brice Young of the Boulder Track Club at 1:13:08 and 2004 Olympic marathon team alternate Trent Briney in 1:13:31.

For the women, late entrant Nicole Aish, who lives right on the course, took the win in 1:26:27 with Katy Blakemore just 21 seconds back. Malia Mullen took the third overall women's spot. $1,000 in cash prizes were awarded to the top-3 male and female finishers.

January 28, 2012 - The 2012 Yeti Chase saw a record number of participants, and men's and women's course records went down in both the 5K and 10K.