Liz Carrington completed Highland Trail 550 in late May

Durango’s Liz Carrington poses for a picture on top of Devils Staircase in Scotland as she completes the Highland Trail 550 bikepacking race in late May. (Courtesy Liz Carrington)

Like many people, COVID-19 stopped one of Durango’s Liz Carrington bucket list items. Five years later, in late May, Carrington checked the Highland Trail 550 bikepacking race in Scotland off her bucket list.

Carrington, 45, is a nurse practitioner at CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital in Durango. She and the other competitors started the Highland Trail 550 on May 24 in the small town of Tyndrum, Scotland. The bikepackers traveled 245 miles north through the stunning landscapes of Scottish river valleys and lochs (lakes) before heading south closer to the Western coast and then ending in Tyndrum.

She finished in six days, 12 hours and 10 minutes and was the third fastest woman.

“It was hard, amazing and beautiful; all the things,” Carrington said. “It was definitely a bucket list experience.”

Originally from Atlanta, Carrington always wanted to be outside. She grew up going out west with her family for ski trips and she then attended Colorado College. Carrington raced road bikes at Colorado College and raced as an amateur for many years. Ever since she’s had a full-time job and even after moving to Durango in 2012 to work at CommonSpirit Mercy, she kept racing against pros.

Carrington’s races kept getting longer and longer and she started doing mountain bike races like the Leadville Trail 100 and 24-hour races. She realized she did better at the longer races and then heard about bikepacking, which allowed her to ride all day, camp then continue the next day.

Once Carrington started bikepacking, she quickly set her sights on the Highland Trail 550.

“I had actually signed up to do this race in May of 2020,” Carrington said. “I had my plane tickets in hand and everything. I had been accepted to the race and I was in way better shape five years ago. Then, of course, COVID happened, so I didn’t get to go and I was super bummed. I put it on the back burner and went about life. Then it started to creep back into my mind again.”

The first step to get back into the Highland 550 was to get accepted into the race by organizer Alan Goldsmith.

Goldsmith approves everyone who gets into the field and Carrington wasn’t sure if he’d remember Carrington from five years ago. He did and she was approved in November.

Carrington thinks it’s easier to get into the race as a woman compared to as a man because they’re are fewer women who apply. Regardless, she became one of 22 women to start the race.

Before the start, Carrington had to train. She used an indoor bike training program, went to Catacombs Fitness in Durango to do mountain bike and strength training. Carrington would get up and workout at 4:30 a.m. before work to prepare. It was Carrington’s longest endeavor after she failed to finish the Colorado Trail and did about 480 miles.

“I was pretty nervous that I didn’t do enough training beforehand,” Carrington said. “But the nice thing about Scotland is that it’s at sea level, so my body felt amazing because I could breathe. That helps a lot too, just being able to breathe and recover at night.”

On May 24, the group start finally came at 8:30 a.m. All the riders met at a restaurant in Tyndrum and rolled out together as Goldsmith gave some safety advice. The race was completely self-supported. Every rider could access shops for food, but couldn’t rely on each other for food. Carrington and the rest of the riders had to rely on their GPS’ for guidance

In her bikepack, Carrington only packed what she called “the basics to survive.” She had a small tent, a sleeping bag, clothing, a GPS, a phone, chargers and food.

The towns and shops the riders went through were about a day apart and sometimes had odd hours, according to Carrington. She said the key was packing enough food to last between stops and rationing it out in case the places weren’t open when she was passing through.

Energy and protein bars, Snickers, gummy candy, sandwiches, Scottish sausage rolls and savory pies were all part of Carrington’s diet.

Carrington was around others in the first two days and made good time. The weather was terrible with constant rain, but the views were still stunning. There were parts of the route that reminded Carrington of Segments 22 and 23 of the Colorado Trail above Silverton.

“It’s not really tundra there, but it kind of looks like tundra because there are no trees, just these alpine lakes,” Carrington said. “You can see forever and big mountains. There’s a part called Fisher Field that I think is a favorite of a lot of people. You have to go up this big climb … you drop down into this valley that’s very remote, but there’s green, towering mountains above you and all the water.”

Carrington loved how quiet it was in the valleys, descents and climbs. There was nothing else living out there.

Sleep was pretty easy for Carrington to figure out. It would get dark around 11 p.m., so she would go to bed then and get up around 4 a.m. as the sun rose.

She slowed down the further north she went as the course became more technical. As Carrington started going south back toward the finish, she got hypothermia, but that couldn’t stop her. She let her core get too cold and had to go into a bothy (Scottish hut), strip off her wet clothes, get into her dry clothes and sleeping bag and warm up for a few hours.

Once she got moving again, Carrington was better and she kept going south and got closer to the finish. Carrington was frustrated with how long the last 20 miles took her, with a few chunky rocky sections. But she finally finished in Tyndrum, celebrated with beers with other racers and soaked in her incredible achievement.

After she finished, Carrington stuck around Scotland for a few days to recover and enjoy herself. She had dinner with other racers and swapped stories about their adventures. Carrington booked a nice hotel and enjoyed some great food and whiskey before she flew back home.

“At least right now, I think this race is a one-and-one because the weather was so bad,” Carrington said. “If I could plan ahead to have nice weather, I would do it again, maybe. But who knows … I do have unfinished business with the Colorado Trail, so ideally I hope to do the Colorado Trail next year. But we’ll see. I do this just because I love it; I love being outside, moving and seeing new places. If the opportunity happens, or there’s some new race that looks cool, I might try to do it.”

bkelly@durangoherald.com

Copy article link

Soccer Kids NYC downed the Beacon Beasts for the ENYYSA Bouys U-12 Challenge Cup title in extra time. (Photo courtesy of ENYYSA)

Soccer Kids NYC defeated the Beacon Beasts, 5-2, in extra time in the Boys Under-12 Challenge Cup final. This Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association final was played at the Blue Sky Sports Complex in Middletown, N.Y. on June 1.

Soccer Kids compete in the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League, the Beacon Beasts in the Hudson Valley Youth Soccer League.

“They were hungry,” Soccer Kids NYC coach Eric Cevallos. “We lost in the final on penalty kicks last year. After Beacon scored to tie it up at 2-2 and send the game into overtime, we talked about it and then scored three goals in overtime.”

Lucas Miranda, Khaled Mahmoud, Oliver Liu, Miguel Cordero and Gerell Hoyte scored for Soccer Kids NYC.

Soccer Kids NYC will also be bringing back the Rocco Amoroso Sportsmanship Award, as determined by the game officials, to New York City. Amoroso, a US Soccer Life Member who died in 2016, started the Long Island Junior Soccer League Sportsmanship Program in 1980 and it spread to Eastern New York, nationally and then to China and Ireland.

STERLING — With school out for the summer, kids across the Sauk Valley have extra time and energy to burn. The Sterling Park District is offering a variety of summer sports camps to keep them active and engaged.

Diving

The SPD’s Dive Camp runs from 6-7:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday beginning June 17 through June 26 at the Duis Recreation Center, 211 E. 23rd St. in Sterling.

The camp instills confidence in young swimmers by covering beginning diving principles, including approach, basic dives and diving rules, utilizing the Duis Center’s pool and gym areas.

Dive Camp is open to children ages 8 and up, costs $40 to attend and no diving experience is required.

Soccer

The SPD’s Youth Soccer Camp begins on Monday, July 7, at the Westwood Fitness & Sports Center, 1900 Westwood Drive in Sterling. Children of all skill levels in grades pre-kindergarten through eighth will learn the basic fundamentals of soccer with an emphasis on technique.

Sessions for children in pre-K through second and third through fifth grade will run from 5:30-7:30 p.m. July 7-10. Kids in sixth through eighth grade can join sessions held at the same time from July 11-13.

The cost is $85 to attend and children who register by Sunday, June 15, will receive a free camp T-shirt.

Basketball

Westwood will also host basketball skills clinics for boys and girls in July. The clinics will teach the fundamentals of the sport while emphasizing proper techniques and are open to children of all skill levels in grades four through nine.

The boys’ clinic will run from Monday, July 14, through Friday, July 18. Clinics for boys in grades four through six will take place from 10 a.m. to noon, and from 1-4 p.m. for grades seven through nine.

The girls’ clinic will run from Monday, July 21, through Friday, July 25. Clinics for girls in grades four through six will take place from 10 a.m. to noon, and from 1-4 p.m. for grades seven through nine.

Registration is $75, and those who sign up by June 15 will receive a basketball clinic T-shirt.

Tennis

Westwood will also host a free week of outside tennis (Barcode 16453) from 10:30-11:30 a.m. July 14-17, for kids ages 7-14. Participants must register by Thursday, July 3, to receive a free gift bag. The event will be moved inside the Westwood Tennis Center in the event of rain. Contact Chris Dudley at 815-622-6063 with any questions.

The Westwood and Duis centers offer a variety of other classes for kids and teens, including gymnastics, aquatics, fitness and more. For more information or to register your child, visit Sterlingparks.org or call the Duis Center at 815-622-6200 or Westwood at 815-622-6201.

Koonsiri/Adobe Stock

June 15, 2025  |  by Ted Craft

A summer TOPSoccer program has been scheduled at Weston’s Morehouse Town Park, following a successful session in the spring.

The program is for young athletes in grades K–8 with physical or learning disabilities. Each player is paired with a volunteer buddy who is with them at all times on the field.

Five one-hour sessions run on July 14 through the 18^th from 4:00 to 5:00, featuring fun games, drills, and small-team soccer games.

TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) was launched in 1991, designed and now administered by US Youth Soccer, the nation’s largest youth sports organization. It is all about fostering physical and emotional growth, learning about being part of a team, and building social skills, fitness, and self-esteem. More important, it is designed to be fun.

The summer program fee is $50. Kids can be registered here.

At that same link, volunteers who would like to be TOPSoccer buddies can sign up to be part of the program. Buddies should be in seventh grade or higher.

Players need to wear sneakers or cleats and bring a soccer ball and water bottle. Parents must stay at the field for the entire session.

For more information about TOPSoccer, email Dr. Kerry Sheffield.

See the Front Page