Living in Boulder has its perks, the obvious one being that I get to spend a lot of time with elite runners who dwell in or pass through town.  When Tony needs to trick out his race kit, I usually get a call at least two days before the event.  I normally wouldn’t mess with gear so close to an important race, but Tony is such a student (aka nerd) of trail running shorts that it’s fun to work with him.  Not many runners are as specific about the rise, inseam, pocket placements, liner, etc. as Tony.  He even has a particular waistband drawcord that he uses in every shorts!  The guy knows what he likes and I appreciate that, so I’m psyched to help him dial things in.

For the Leadville 100, he requested two additional gel pockets installed in the liner and two power mesh pockets on the shell, a winning combination we developed for Western States 2010 (as seen in Unbreakable).  In addition to this being a rush job, the shorts were delivered to me 1) dirty and 2) ripped.  Wow.  Like I said, I bend certain rules for Tony.  I washed them in extra hot water, then repaired them using scraps of fabric leftover from Kilian’s shorts (see previous post).  Talk about upcycling!

I’m sure he’ll be rocking these shorts for the rest of the season!