By Bill Plock
If you know or have met Darrin Eisman, you undoubtedly have felt his positive energy and just his energy in general. His company Racing Underground has a number of multisport and running races, including past weekend’s Chilly Cheeks duathlon at Cherry Creek State Park. It was the third and final race of this popular winter duathlon series.
About 75 people raced in the cold around the west shore of the ice covered reservoir where even the slightest breeze added to the challenge of figuring out how to stay just warm enough to comfortably race. People raced on everything from TT bikes to fat tire snow bikes—although the roads were perfectly dry and clear. Some wore puffy jackets and others shivered in minimal kits and even with a few in shorts!
When Darrin popped out of his van (down by a lake, not a river :)), and was asked how the day was going, he smiled wide and beamed with happiness watching people race.
Like all racing events, Covid has had a major impact on Darrin’s business. His joy was more than just because the race was happening.
Darrin said, “I’m so excited, my staff is so amazing, and we did some things to cut costs with minimal awards and a few other things, but they volunteered to work for free and we actually might break even today! We did get few extra entries in the past week because we were recently allowed to go from 75 to 150 people. The series had sold out but with a few more people, we might break even and if we have any extra we will happily pay our employees—they are just awesome, they want people to have fun and be here.”
Like other races, they made some modifications to make it as safe as possible. Things like a time trial bike start and an overly ample amount of room for bike racking and transitions.
Racing Underground recently held the popular winter running race, the Yeti Chase. In April there is another duathlon at Cherry Creek, the Barking Dog. Check out their website for all of their races. They have a fun variety of venues and races all over the front range.
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