Jon Brown dug deep last month to win the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse race between Crested Butte and Aspen after racing the sufferfest five times with partner Brian Smith. A member of the elite adventure racing Team Salomon/Crested Butte, Brown, 34, hopes his winning momentum carries into the summer racing season.
What is your best training technique?
Running – no question. Being a multisport athlete, I get burned out and frustrated dealing with a bunch of equipment. Running is perfect. All I need is a pair of shorts and my running shoes. No flat tires, car shuttles or wax to worry about. Plus you can get a great workout in a really short amount of time.
Worst injury?
I have been pretty lucky as far as injuries go. Of course, as with most endurance athletes, I have had some tendinitis and overuse type stuff, but other than that I have been basically injury-free. Well, I have broken my wrist a couple of times skateboarding.
Most frightening moment?
The 2003 Subaru Primal Quest in Lake Tahoe. It was my first adventure race and my first time ascending anything crazier than a flight of stairs. We had to ascend a 1,100-foot face (the Calaveras Dome). I had the technique down from practicing on an indoor wall but that didn’t prepare me for the feeling of dangling over a thousand feet off the ground. The freakiest part of the ascent was having to pass knots. Being secure on the rope and having to take one piece of safety off the rope was a huge mental challenge. I’m not a climber so I was far outside my comfort zone. By the time I reached the top I was emotionally cooked.
How do you push through mental fatigue?
Mental fatigue is a huge part of endurance events. For me, I have a pretty unique way of dealing with it. Before my first adventure race, our team captain had us read this book, “The Long Walk.” It’s about this guy who suffers through a death march from eastern Europe to a prison camp in Siberia. After a short time he busts out from the camp and proceeds to walk to India, a seemingly impossible feat. He crossed the Gobi Desert and the Himalaya. The account is really insane. So, anytime I feel fatigued I think about this story and I realize what I’m doing is really nothing and it serves as a reminder of what an individual can really endure.
What’s the sickest thing you’ve ever seen?
Lance Armstrong showed up at a Colorado Point Series mountain bike race after he won his first Tour and I got to race elbow-to-elbow with him on a mountain bike. ‘Til he dropped me like a hot potato.
Who do you admire most?
There are a lot of people I admire for all sorts of reasons but in the athletic world I have to say (Vail’s) Mike Kloser is right up there. The guy is amazing at everything he does. He has won world championships in five different events.
What music gets you ready for a big contest?
The music that really gets me revved is classic punk. I grew up in the 1980s skateboarding and listening to the Descendents, T.S.O.L., Agent Orange, Suicidal Tendencies, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, that sort of stuff.
Best advice you’ve ever received?
Here in Gunnison there are a bunch of really amazing athletes. Some are literally world class. It can be pretty intimidating. I don’t know if this falls under advice but I was working on my bike at the local shop one day and Dave Wiens walks in. At the time Dave was winning NORBA Nationals and a real, living mountain bike legend.
We were talking about some race and I think it was obvious I was a bit in awe. He made some comment to me about the fact that he puts his pants on one leg at a time. That gave me a bunch of confidence and I realized all these stellar world- class athletes are more or less just like me, if not a ton faster.
What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
Getting older just means getting better.
