Art and Wendy's adventures

2010 - Here we come!!

2010-01-06T20:59:00.003-07:00

Hi everyone - Wendy here. Now that we are into the new decade I decided it was time to get our butts in gear again and keep our blog updated. A lot happened last year, we got busy and as you know we haven't posted anything since May '09.
So our New Year was quiet. Usually NY Eve we are out and about somewhere, partying like rock stars (ha, ha), but this year we kinda petered out and decided to stay home, veg with a movie and generally be couch potatoes....guess what - we did a good job at it! We were asleep by 10:30!

This year I have the honor of the first race. Last weekend 1/2/10 I got up at O dark 30 and drove half asleep all the way from Chandler to near Lake Pleasant for the Castle Hot Springs 22 mile run. This was a new race for me but the race has happened every year for the past many years. The place was not on Google maps nor could the car nav system find it. Lucky for me the directions on the race registration form were accurate enough. So I got out there eventually, pay my fee and get my race number etc. It was very cold and we started off just as the sun was coming up. About 70 or so like minded runners began the loop that started out going uphill and was never flat ! We were either going up or going down... 3500 ft up and 3496 ft down to be precise :- ) by the way where does the Garmin put those extra few feet? Thankfully I decided to run this like a smart person - translate that to slowly... Karen one of the gals on our Ragnar Relay team was there and she started out strong and I soon decided it was not my day to try to hang with her right from the gun. So for about 10 miles I'm keeping it easy, watching my drinking and eating and telling myself that if I feel good at the 10 mile mark I will try to speed up. So after 10 miles I'm feeling really good, and I mean really good. I couldn't believe that being smart was working. About mile 12 I passed a bunch of runners, Karen included, who were struggling. Did I mention I LOVE downhills and they were my friends that day. So anyway, I was still feeling really good at 15 miles so I focused on lifting my pace a little more until mile 18. There I hit a little wall of sorts..my legs felt good but I could tell I was starting to tire. I'd been trying not to fixate on my time, just keeping track of the miles and around 19 miles I sneaked a peek just to see and was very surprised to see only 3:25 which meant I had about 3 miles to go and 35 mins to finish in 4 hours which was my secret goal. Right about then there were a few tough hills, steep enough to force a slow walk up and a careful jog down and I assumed I was doomed to finish after 4 hours so I just settled in counted down the last couple of miles. As I round one of the last turns I can see all the cars parked and the finish area so I pushed just a little harder and crossed the line with a hug smile coz guess what... I'd finished in 3:55:35!!! How cool was that...I think just relaxing and forgetting about the time helped. I didn't get tensed up about not making my goal and ended up doing so anyway.
It was a terrific race. Not so much coz of the result for me (which of course was great) but also the scenery up there was outstanding. The weather was absolutely perfect for running. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze and the temps rose slowly to the mid 60's. Who could ask for more?
So that's my saga for the 2010 Castle Hot Springs race. I'll be back next year.
C'y all later.

Wendy.

March and April 09

2009-05-01T13:13:00.002-07:00

Lots of things going on during the last two months. I did my first crit of the year - Hungry Dog - and got a good workout. I don't like to get involved in the sprint so I usually go to the front with 2-3 laps to go and give it all I have and then just coast in. I also did the Copper Valley road race in the pouring rain. Temperatures were in the low to mid 40's, and soaking wet!!! I must say this is the weather when you just love to be going uphill. I finished with the second or third group (8th - 11th). The three riders I was with sprinted for 8th place.... who cares about 8th.... I just rode in.

Mountain biking has been a lot more fun. I raced XC for the first time in Fort Huachuca and finished a respectable 5th. I'm just not used to those short hard efforts. A few days after the race, I decided to do BC Bike Race up in British Columbia, so now I'm back to marathons. The last race was in Prescott on a course that I hate, and as usual, I finish in my normal 6th place. I did race my 29er which was a change for me. I started in the back... way back, and through the 7 laps, got comfortable on the bike.

This past weekend was the Whiskey 50... what a blast. I realized how many people I know, when I riding behind me started calling me the mayor... too funny.

I has hoping to finish in 4:15 since the winning time from 08 was about 4:08. I started with the front group for the first couple of miles, but then got dropped as soon as we started climbing. I just can climb like those guys. I kept a decent pace, but without overdoing it. Rode the singletrack fairly well. Dabbed a couple of times. Saw tons of friends, saw Jeff on the downhill with one of his many problems of the day.

Got passed by Dan K. on the first climb... definitely need to improve my climbing. Kept a steady pace. I know how to pace myself to finish well in 4 hour races, so I didn't worry about getting passed by other riders. I counted the riders on the two way section and was in approximately 40-45th place overall. No idea on how I was doing in the masters class.

Rode the climb up from Skull Valley at my same pace. Caught Kallan - a very fast junior on our team - and rode with him for a few minutes. Stopped at the aid station and refilled my water bottles. Once we hit the singletrack again, I started motoring. Passed a bunch of people on the climb and on the downhill - some of the 25/15 milers were out there. I finished in just under 4:08. Maybe I won...or... top 3???? When the results came out... I was in awe when I saw that first place in the Masters had beaten me by 25 minutes!!!! He finished in 3:43.. wow... Second place 3:46... both from Colorado. I ended up being 4th, but at least I was the first one from Arizona. Third place beat me by about 5 minutes. Next year I hope to break the 4 hour mark. I just have to improve my climbing :-)

Tomorrow is the MBAA race at the Mogollon Rim. Wish me luck.

TransMexicana Part 2

2009-03-05T13:05:00.004-07:00

Here is the final 3 (supposed to be 4) stages on TransMexicana for those of you interested.

Day 4, 66 miles, 8700 ft. of climbing
Today we started from downtown Oaxaca with a police escort. The first 14 km we neutral, then we lined up again just outside the city and started the race. I was not expecting so much climbing for today, so I went out with Lupillo, the leader of the Open division. We worked together for the first hour, but as soon as the climbing started, we got caught by a second group that contained all the other players in the Open and Master division. We all stopped at the first aid station to refuel, then we headed out. I rode with second place rider in the Masters division for another 45 minutes when he fell off the pace. Lupillo, Cory and Simon were (top 3 in the Open) were all in front. Just before the top of the climb I ran into Simon who was still having some stomach issues. Jimmy, a 23 year old Mexican, caught up with me and we rode together to the top. The descent was long and fast. Jimmy and I kept trading places, but I almost took a tumble and decided to dial it back a bit. Jimmy and I stayed close together the remainder of the time and I finished about 1 minute behind him. I increased my lead by another 30 minutes.

The bad part about today was the "3 hour" bus ride. It turned out to be a 6 hour bus ride, with all the riders AND bikes, so there wasn't any room to do much of anything. We got to the "camping spot" just before midnight. Everyone was pretty upset, considering we had another hard day ahead of us. The start time was pushed back an hour to ensure we got more rest. I ended up in a tent for the organizers with the worst snoring people I have ever met. I slept my my Ipod all night long. It was a long and not very restful night.

Day 5, 60 miles, 3000 ft. of climbing
This was supposed to be a flat day and the first 44 km were paved, but about 20 km into the paved section, we hit a pretty damn steep hill, about 500 meters long. Too long for me to stay with the Lupillo and Cory, but long enough to drop everyone else. Jimmy was just ahead of me and I expected him to wait for me, but he decided to keep going, so I waited for the next group - a group of 3. We worked together until we caught Jimmy, then about 60 km into the day, we caught the two leaders. About 15 minutes later, we hit an aid station and I saw that neither Lupillo or Cory stopped, so I kept going while everyone else stopped. Lupillo, Cory and I worked together and put some time on everyone. When we finally hit the train tracks, Lupillo and Cory were carrying their bike and I just said excuse me and went by riding on the bridge. Both of them got the message real quick and they were on their bikes immediately. At the last bridge I was behind both of them and while trying to get off the bike, my foot slipped and went through the trusses. No major damage, just a nice little scab on the side of my shin. I have to be honest, but it did scare me when I slipped. I thought a broken leg was a real possibility. It took me a few minutes to regroup, and I then rejoined Lupillo and Cory. Going through a small town, Lupillo ran over a rope that was holding a horse. The horse got startled and pulled back almost taking Cory and my head off. We hit our brakes and stopped in time. Cory and I looked at each other and just smiled.

The temperature was starting to get pretty high, and we all decided to stop at the next aid station. I felt pretty dehydrated and after taking a leak, I noticed I need to slow down and hydrate, so the next time Lupillo took off, I just sat back and let Cory go. No need to get in the middle of things. I rode alone for another hour, and was desperate to finished, when some kids told me that my "friend" were at the local store. Cory and Lupillo were getting some cold drinks, so one of them bought me a cold coke and a cold powerade and off we went. The organizers decided to shorten the stage due to the danger of riding on the highway and the fact that the highway police did not show up to provide and escort. This was a bit of a surprise when we saw the finish line and nobody knew what it was. Cory made a short sprint at it, with Lupillo behind him and I was third. I only lost about 10 seconds to them.

Tonight was fun. We got put up in a hotel instead of the tents... Thank You!!!! Ate a nice big pizza with Lupillo and had a good nights rest. The group met later that night and decided to combine the last two 80 km stages into one 160 km stage. I thought they didn't know what they were doing since 100 miles is a long way to go no matter how flat it is.

Day 6, 88 miles, 1000 ft. of climbing
OK, this was shorter than I was told, faster than what I expected and we were on pavement for most of it. Again, I took off with the lead group. There were 5 of us - Lupillo, Cory, Simon, myself and Roman Urbina - the founder of La Ruta de los Conquistadores. Roman has had some stomach issues as well, but he was able to keep up and pull through for the first hour. Never saw him again until the finish. The remaining 4 of us, kept working at a very moderate pace. I actually thought we were going too slow. We hit an aid station after about 2 hours and everyone stopped, but I decided to take a hand off and keep going. I kept looking back and all three of them were still at the aid station, so I decided to keep the pace moderate and see what happens. To keep things short, I was off the front for about 1 1/2 hours, with as much as a 7 minute lead. Cory got worried and decided to chase, with Lupillo on his wheel. Simon couldn't hang on and was dropped. I was caught with about 20 km to go and the three of us started working together again.

With about 10 km to go, we entered the city of Veracruz and Cory launched a vicious attack on a small climb. I couldn't hang,but kept chasing hard. I caught the two and thought I could surprise them and went by them, but then the gas ran out, still too far from the finish line. I was caught and dropped again. I regained my composure and started chasing again but couldn't catch them. Lupillo took the sprint, Cory second and me third. Made up another 30 minutes. I finished with the 3rd best time, won the master class by over 2 hours. My prize was $15,000 pesos, that when I started my vacation was about $1200 bucks, but by the time I cashed the check the peso had devalued some more and I got $969. I also got a trophy, a Salomon t-shirt, a Suunto watch and some skin products for me. At least I didn't get shampoo.

I'm supposed to get free entry for next year, so I guess I know where I'll be next February.... in case anyone wants to join me. Next up.... well.... I'm still thinking about it.

Transmexicana Part 1

2009-02-25T09:16:00.010-07:00

Wendy and I arrived in Mexico one week prior to the race. I did some short rides, explored a bit and relaxed for the most part. We also got some massages, rode buggies, kayaks and a little snorkling, but for the most part we relaxed. We got some beaches all to ourselves ... and ... well ... it was fun being all alone on a deserted beach if you know what I mean.

Wendy left on Saturday and I went to check in after dropping her off at the airport. The prerace activity was to release about 100 endangered lizards into the wild. It was pretty cool handling the lizards. All of them were relatively small - about 12 inches head to tail, but they grow to over 3 ft. long. I guess they taste like chicked and that´s why they´re endagered. the locals eat them.

The race is pretty small. 44 people registered for the race. Due to some no shows, numbers were 23 in the open category, 16 in the masters and one woman. We started at 8 am on Sunday in the town of Crucesitas. I guess I was not too suprised how fast we started. I got last the wheel of last year´s winner and stayed there until the first rise when I found out how we won last year. Lupillo is a XC ex-national champion of Mexico (I think in 04 and 05). I settled down, waited for the next group - two canadians and ¨Rojo¨ from Monterrey. One of the Canadians got second place here last year.

Once we started some more serious climbing the two Canadians dropped me and Rojo which I was expecting anyway - all three ahead were in the open position and Rojo had a number from the open category as well. We were joined by Oscar, who was a Master, and the 3 of us rode together for a while. The stage was supposed to be 88 km long with on big climb at the end. When we started climbing, Oscar dropped off immediately, and Rojo and I moved on at our own pace. Eventuall Rojo dropped me, I´m pretty sure I could´ve stayed with him, but I didn´t want to dig too deep since this was day one and it was pretty hot. Temperatures were in the 90´s with high humidity. About 3 km from the top I caught Rojo. He was under a small stream trying to cool down - I found out later he cramped. Near the top, on a small descent, my front tire washed out and I landed on my elbow - at least it was not the same one that was stitched up in November. Got up and got going again, then was told by one of the organizers that I had 700 meters to go, I looked down to see what my mileage is and ... my garmin is missing... turned around went back to where I crashed - it was only about 100 meters - got my garmin and got going again. At the town - 700 meters later - I went around some streets, trying not to hit anybody, went down some steps into a basketball court where people were clapping. I guess the whole town came out to see us. They called out my name and were I was from, townspeople came over to shake my hand. It was pretty cool.

I finished 4th overall and 1st the masters. Time gap was at 3 minutes to Rojo, who kept saying he was in the Masters category - need to keep an eye on him. Next came Enrique, another masters rider about 10 minutes behind me. We climbing just over 6,000 ft. today, but legs felt good. The only thing that was bothering me was my lower back.

Ate and drank for the remainder of the evening. For dinner, the whole town came out and presented the riders with some local coffee - Wendy will have to tell us if it´s good or not. They also cooked for us some tostadas and tamales - very good food. After the riders got served, the town ate as well - I think the population of the town was about 150 to 200 people.

Day two is supposed to be 105 km, and we´ll be going some high mountains over 9,000 ft. high. We started off on a downhill with Lupillo, the two canadians and me all in a row. When we finally started climbing, I knew I couldn´t stay with those guys so I settled into my own pace. There were 3 climbs, all long and steep. When I reached the first climb, Enrique was about 50 meters behind me, so I pushed the downhill and took some chances. I wanted to have a good lead before the next climb. When I hit the climb, I could see Enrique about 2-3 switchbacks behind me - I´m guessing about 5-10 minutes behind - it was long and steep climb. Did the same thing on the next descent and when I hit the third climb, I couldn´t see Enrique any more. By the time I reached the top, around 9500 ft., I had been riding for 4.5 hours and had only traveled half the distance, but the next section was downhill most of the way dropping down to 4000 ft. Took off downhill and started hearing some hub noises - hub was not freewheeling. I was so preoccupied with the hub that I didn´t realize my garmin had fallen off. My hub was so bad that if I stopped pedaling, my chain would fall off or it would get trapped between the tiere and the chainstay - neither of which are good. I ended up softpedaling for most of the part, and was not going as fast as I wanted but I finally made to the finish.

4th overall again, 1st in the masters. time gap to Enrique was 50 minutes - lead is now just under an hour. We climbed just over 9000 ft. for the day.

This town was not as receptive and the accomodations were not the greates, but one of the locas came over and said he had a spare room and I could rent it for 80 pesos.. about 7 dollars. I took him up on the offer... here is the thing, he had a shrine to a dead child IN the room where I was going to sleep. I almost said no, but decided ¨what the hell¨... I mean... ¨why not¨- you don´t want to say ¨hell¨ near a catholic shrine. I slept pretty good after being a little spooked with outside noises.

Day 3 we were told was one of the hardest due to the length - 130 km - and the heat since we were going through the desert. Well, it was hard, but fortunately it wasn´t as hot was expected. This day it was a bunch a big rollers with one 3000 ft. step climb with grades in the teens for prolonged sections. I rode with Enrique to the base of the steep climb, he had some derailler issues at the base of the climb and I never saw him again. Through one of the small towns, the school kids were outside waiting for us with cokes and water. I stopped, asked to fill my water bottle and they all wanted to pour water into it. Got some coke from them as well - it was really cool. I´m sure it´s the event of the year for them.

At 90 km, I went through a town, but couldn´t see a course marker - I saw one of the race vehicles and was pointed in the wrong direction. Apparantly somebody took some signs out and I eneded up going a different route than the actual race. I finally hooked up with the course again and kept going. I was sure if my route was easier or harder, shorter or longer, right or wrong. All I knew was that I was on the course once again at no fault of my own. At 110 km, about 1 hour from the finish, I was approach by a truck with two bikes on the back. At first I thought that they were trying to bikejack me, but then I saw 2 riders in the truck. I was told that lots of people were getting lost and that the race was being stopped (time was being taken at the town were I went the wrong direction). We were all driven back to the spot were we missed the turn and eneded up waiting a couple of hours with no food, in our smelly bike clothes. We were finally bused to the hotel after having dinner arriving at 9:30 pm. LONG DAY. I have not seen the results, but as long as I keep my 1 hour lead I´ll be happy.

Unofficially I finished 3rd overall, 1st in the masters. One of the Canadians had some derailler issues, borrowed a bike, but never caught me.

Today is a rest day, then 4 more stages to reach Veracruz. Hopefully I´ll get a chance to update the blog before the finish. Thanks for reading!!! I´ll have some

Oh, yeah, the winner in the masters get free entry for next year and abou $1300 bucks. Sweeeeet!!!

2009 - The first month

2009-02-09T11:21:00.002-07:00

It's been a while since I updated the blog and wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what is going on. I have been extremely busy with work, coaching, training for TransMexicana, being on the MBAA Board of Directors and helping out with my mountain bike team - Adrenaline.

Work has been fairly steady, although about 10% of the workforce at Amex was laid off last month. Luckily, I'm in a semi-steady group where we don't expect any impact... at least not yet. I am also coaching 14 riders right now, and that usually has an impact in the evenings and at the races.

So far, we've had two mountain bike races this year (haven't been able to do a road race yet) and it's really been more training for me. Wendy is racing in the Cat 2 (Sport) Class and doing extremely well. She placed 2nd in the first race and won the second one - and that's with riding once or twice a week. I, on the other hand, can't get even close to the podium. I done the marathon class for the two races and placed 6th at both races.

My main focus the past 2 months has been TransMexicana, a 8-day, 7-stages mountain bike race across Mexico. Race starts in Huatulco in the state of Oaxaca, and finishes in Veracruz, in the state of Veracruz. About 775 KM or just under 500 miles if my math is correct. This past week I rode 2-4 hours every day, so needless to say, my legs were a bit tired for the race on Saturday. I was supposed to do another 3 hour ride yesterday, but the weather got in the way and after getting soaked in the first 30 minutes, decided to bag it. I love riding in the rain when it's warm, but not when it's cold. Besides, I'd hate to get sick just a couple of weeks before the big race.

As I mentioned before, I'm part of the MBAA Board of Directors - Competition Chairman - and didn't think it would be this time consuming. Making sure we have permits for all the venues, determining the laps for all classes, helping at the races, and the most time consuming... answering emails/complaints from people. I wish folks would just have fun!!! but I understand that when things go wrong, we all have to voice our opinions. Hopefully our next few races will go without incident.

Last thing is Team Adrenaline - great friends!! I got a grip sponsor - ESI Grips - the best grips around. I been using them for about 5 years with no complaints. I also got some name stickers for people, unfortunately, I'm not into detail and misspelled two names... now I got to have them redone. Still I enjoy helping out. I got a new 29er Titus Fireline, but I'm still waiting for my fork and wheels to build up the bike. Should be fun. I plan on using it to race the last 5 races of the season in the Expert class instead of Marathon. Need to work on getting fast.... I can ride for a long time, I just can't go as fast as I want to. Could it be I'm getting older.... nah!!! Must be the training.

I'll try to post some updates from Mexico - race starts on February 22 - but can't make any promises since I don't know if or where I'll have access to the internet.

Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous 2009 - if the economy ever changes :-)

Dawn to Dusk Mountain Bike Race

2008-12-10T08:15:00.002-07:00

This past weekend, Wendy and I participated in the Dawn to Dusk mountain bike race at the McDowell Mountain Park here in Phoenix. If you haven't already figured it out, the race started at Sunrise and ended at Sunset. This is similar to a 24 hour race, but shorter.... about 10 hours long.

We decided not to camp since it was going to get a little too cold for us warm weather people. We work up early and headed to the race site. We had decided that Wendy would be doing the first lap, then I would do the next two, so when we got there, we went straight to the start/finish area where registration was and picked up our "stuff" - pretty much we got our race number, a punch card and water bottles.

Race started exactly at 7:19 AM - Sunrise - and off Wendy went. I got a ride from Jeff and headed for the Team area. Adrenalin - our mtb team - was all set up right next to the course with THE big bus, chairs, shade, work stands, tables, etc., etc., etc. WOW!!! This is the way to race!!!

Wendy finished her first lap and I took off around 8:35 AM. The plan was for Wendy to do single laps and me to do double laps until one of us got tired, and then we would change the plan. Everything went well, after 4 laps we were in 4th place out of 15 coed duo teams. We remained in 4th place pretty much until the last 2 laps, where we jumped to 3rd. We finished about 7 minutes behind 2nd place and 20 minutes behind 1st. Not considering we didn't intend to race, we were just "riding" and having fun.

Wendy did awesome all 3 laps (over 45 miles) considering she doesn't ride as much as she used to. I had a little trouble with cramps on the 5th lap, but was able to recover to finish the 6th lap. We ended up with 9 laps (about 138 miles) in just over 10 hours. We had a great time during the event and will probably do it again next year. Now it's rest and recover... OK, that was Sunday, now I'm back to normal training.

Kudos to Adrenalin Race Team - great bunch of people!! Oh, and to ESI, for the grips that are just awesome!!!

Next up.... Not sure yet, probably nothing until next year. Stayed tuned.

Baja Epic

2008-11-11T14:57:00.003-07:00

Sorry about the delay.... I been recovering :-)

I arrived in Rosarito Beach on Tuesday afternoon, checked into the hotel, and went directly to the rider's meeting. The meeting was fairly small, which is what I expected. Everyone looked hard core and even worse... everyone looked to my age. I found out that there were only 26 participants, 13 in my category. My goal of top 5 looked good on paper and top 3 stretch goal was on the back of my mind.... "were my expectations too high?"

Day 1: Wind and climb, climb, climb
65 miles, 7860 ft. of climbing
Rosarito Beach to Rancho Santa Veronica

Day one was to feel out the competition. We started right on the beach which was awesome. We only rode about 500 yards on the beach then walked the bikes into a small canyon. When we hit the canyon there were 5 of us together. Evan, the PRO; Norm, me and two others. Evan is very strong, so Norm and I just drafted his wheel. The two others dropped off pretty quickly. About 4 miles in, I decided I was working too hard... we still have more than 60 miles to go, and 3 more days of this... so I decided to back off. About 30 seconds later Norm dropped off as well.

Norm and I rode together until Sergio caught up with us... all 3 of us were in the same category. I could tell that Sergio was a good climber since that's where he was making ground on us, but Norm strong everywhere. We rode together until about mile 48. We hit a hill that was pretty steep. Sergio took a high line on a curve and hit some deep sand. I took the low line and went past him. Norm was just behind me, but he was taken out by Sergio. I looked back 10 seconds later and I saw Norm walking and Sergio just getting up. I figured what the hell and increased my tempo just enough.

I learned later that both of them had issues with cramping, but that's just not hydrating well which is a big part of endurance racing. I finished the day in second place overall in just over 6 hours, about 45 minutes behind Evan, the PRO. First in my category about 14 minutes ahead of Norm and 20 minutes ahead of Sergio.

Day 2: Wind and sand, sand, sand
81 miles, 5530 ft. of climbing
Rancho Santa Veronica to Ojos Negros

This route looked easy on paper with. I figured 6 hours since it was pretty flat, but we were told the night before that we had about 20 miles of deep sand, about 50% of it rideable. It was an easy ride for the first 15 miles. Norm, Sergio and me all rode together. Evan was off the front.

The sand started at mile 16 and ended around mile 40. I think a little more than 50% was rideable but not by much. I was hoping to have a good day, but about 2 hours into the ride I lost a cleat bolt and, if this has ever happened to you, the day was miserable. I would clip in by accident, which meant I had to clip out way in advance by flipping off the bike and doing a 180 degree turn to unclip my left shoe from the pedal. Of course, in deep sand, I could not always predict when I had to unclip and I fell about a dozen times in the sand. Falling wasn't the issue, UNCLIPPING while in the sand was the issue. I kept thinking I looked like a fish out of water every time.

"I hate sand!!" Every time we went through sand we thought we were done with it only to see more of the stuff..."WTF!!!" one of the three would whisper every time. Trust me when I say that everyone one was out for survival. Once out of the sand, about 5 hours into the stage, we were at the top of the Sierra Juarez (over 6000 ft. high) with some beautiful scenery. We saw a deer at a distance; smelled the pine trees; and not a car in sight. Dogs, on the other hand, were abundant and aggressive.... little bastards scared the hell out of me a couple of times.

We finally hit the fast downhill that lasted almost 10 miles, with the last 5 miles in flat sandy roads. "WTF!! More SAND!!" Well, at least it was rideable. We finished the date in just over 8 hours. Norm, Sergio and I finished together, but somehow the timers gave Sergio the win 10 seconds ahead of me and 9 seconds ahead of Sergio... not that it mattered, since my 14 minute lead was still intact.

DAY 3: Climb and technical, fast, fun
53 miles, 6850 ft. of climbing
San Matia to Mike Sky Ranch to Melings to Valle de la Trinidad

This was the stage that would decide the race. The last day was fairly easy, but this one had some very difficult climbs and descents. As usual, Evan took off, Norm, Sergio and I followed. The 43 of us stayed together until mile 20 where it got real nasty. Steep,.... very steep climbs, some rideable, some not. Norm had a 2x9 drivetrain (no small chainring) and would just power up the hills, Sergio and I would spin up, but Norm, if he could ride up the hill, would get ahead of us. Not by much, but just enough to make me worry a little. We were still together at mile 25 when the "Simpson" descent started. This is a "popular" descent for motorcycles because it's steep and technical. Sergio was little slower than Norm and I on the descents so I was always trying to stay in front of him. Finally, on one of the climbs, Norm got about a 30 second lead.... I was counting when he crested the hills. Next big hill... one minute. Two minutes. Then I couldn't see him.

I told myself not to panic. Just do what you can, and then turn it on afterburners on the descent and flats. At the last checkpoint, just before the final descent (about 12 miles from the finish) I was told Norm had a 5 minute lead. I thought "you're still in it, just don't let the gap grow and be careful on the last day". I pushed hard on the wide open descent and took some pretty big chances. With about 2.5 miles to go, we hit a long straightaway take took you to the finish line. I could see Norm. I used up everything I had and chased as hard as I could. I didn't catch Norm, but his lead had shrunk to 1 minute and 45 seconds. I still had a lead of 12 minutes... should be enough barring a crash or mechanical on the last day. BARRING A CRASH or mechanical on the last day!!!!!

Day 4: CRASH and "we're done!!"
40 miles, 3000 ft. of climbing
Valle de Guadalupe to Puerto Nuevo

This was supposed to be an uneventful stage, but it wasn't based on the title of the day.... About 15 miles in, while riding right behind Norm (this was my strategy for the day) I dropped my chain while shifting to my big chainring getting ready for a big descent. What I didn't realize is that Norm missed a turn (and so did I), so while I was looking down to get my chain back on, Norm started to brake ... hard. As I fixed my chain, I look up, just in time to see Norm almost stopped. I hit his side going about 25 mph and just flew. I don't know how far, but I thought while in the air, that I was not going to get up or my bike was going to be broken in half. To my amazement, I got up, with no pain, picked up the bike, seemed alright other than my bar end pointing down.

I saw blood on the top tube and on my knee and on my elbow and on my hip and on.... you get the picture. I wasn't in pain or anything, but I kept thinking that I was a lucky man. About 15 miles from the finish, Norm and I stopped at a checkpoint and one of the paramedics wanted to clean the wounds right there. Of course I refused.... "dude, I'm still racing. You can do it at the finish line." By now, Norm and I had settled into a peaceful pace. I think he knew I wasn't going to let him go, no matter how hard he tried.... and he did hit the gas everytime we hit a climb. Sergio had fallen off the pace early on.

The last few miles were on the beach.... Sweeeeet!! This was an awesome finish. We went back on a dirt road for the last mile or two and finished in Puerto Nuevo. Wendy, my sister Gaby, my brother in law Vico and my nephew Adrian all arrived about 20 minutes later. It was great to see them.

The medics cleaned me up and after I saw the HOLE on my forearm, I decided to go to the red cross for some minor surgery (at least that is what they called it). My whole left side had some pretty good road rash - leg, hip, elbow, shoulder and even my chin.... how I got my chin, I have no clue. The hole in my forearm required 4 internal stiches to close the muscle... yes, it was that deep.... and 5 more to close the skin. At least I didn't damage any nerves.

Andy, winner of the 30-39 age group, Evan, overall winner, and me, winner of the 40-49 age group, all ended up getting stiches on the left forearm on the last day. There were no other injuries in the 4 days of racing.... weird, huh?

Still finished second overall behind Evan.... about 3 1/2 hours behind him... but won my class with a 12 minute buffer. Norm was second and Sergio third.

Post Event

I've done a few of these events.... Cape Epic, La Ruta and Trans Rockies... and Baja Epic is as epic as any of these. Yes, it's only 4 days, but I'm not sure I could have done more. The scenery was awesome. You definitely get to see Baja in a different way... and I grew up here. The whole group was very cool. We had people from Colorado, California, New York, Canada, Mexico City, oh yeah, and from Arizona. Yes, a few complaints, a few disappointments, but most of it expected for a first year event. Next year it's expected to be be bigger and better (we talked Armando into reducing the shuttles :-)

Armando and his staff did a great job. The medics, Vitamin Water staff and Carmen's massages made for a perfect environment. Thanks Armando!!

Check out the links for Baja Epic website if you want to see some pictures. http://bajaepic.com/

I got nothing coming up until next year... so I probably won't be doing any updates to the blog until next year.

Pre-Baja Epic

2008-11-03T21:34:00.002-07:00

Although the race doesn't start until Wednesday, tomorrow I drive to Rosarito to check in. I'm starting to get a bit anxious. I drove to SD on Saturday after watching Wendy race her mtn bike at McDowell - I expected to see an entry on the blog, but no luck so far :-)

I been visiting friends and family all day yesterday and today. I'll do a short ride tomorrow here in Ensenada then drive to Rosarito. Everyone is asking about the race, everyone is amazed at the distances and I'm just shrugging it off as no big deal. I'll guess I'll find out in a couple of days. My goal for the race is top 5, but I'll shoot for top 3 as a stretch goal. I have no idea how many people (or who) will be in my category but I have high expectations.

Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck. I'll try to update the blog as often as possible, but I don't think I'll have access to a computer or the internet every night.

MTB Baja Ultra Endurance 100KM race

2008-10-20T08:20:00.008-07:00

Another weekend, another race.... This one was similar to Chupacabras, but different.... Most people want to know which one was better, but it's hard to say. In my opinion, both offer different challenges. Chups stars as a road race, while Baja UE is a mtn bike race the entire time. The major challenge at Chups is the hike-a-bike, while Baja UE has at least 3 very long and steep climbs. Singletrack for both races is about the same. I personally think Baja UE is harder due to the climbing. I guess if I weighed 135 lbs, I would think differently.

PRE-RACE

Wendy and I drove from Phoenix to San Diego at 5 PM on Thursday night. We made about 20 miles past Gila Bend when we realized we had forgotten our passports and had to turn around. (First sign from the cycling gods!!) So we really left Phoenix at 8:15 PM. Made it to SD just before 1:30 AM.

Next day we went on a leisure ride near Otay Lakes. I rode from the house and thought I would pump Wendy's tires before I took off, of course, I forgot to up the front tire back in the truck and when I met up with Wendy, there was no front wheel. Another trip back to my Mom's house. (Second sign from the Cycling gods!!)

We arrived in Ensenada Friday afternoon, stopped to pick up our packages (Wendy decided to do the 65 KM tour) at the race hotel. As you check in, you must have your bike "inspected" by a team of mechanics. The pretty much check brakes, shifters, bolts, etc. They even lube your bike. I had my Anthem full suspension bike and since my rear triangle was brand new, I was planning on going over everything later that evening, but the mechanic worked on it and adjusted my rear derailleur (mistake!! - cycling gods???) Had some shifting issues ... duh!!

RACE DAY

The start of the race was pretty early - 7 AM. I saw some old friends at the start (I grew up in Ensenada in case you didn't know). Talked to some of the pros, Manny Ortiz from Costa Rica - who won the race, Emmanuel Valencia from Mexico who I had run into at Chups the weekend before (he finished second here after having a flat tire near the end of the race).

We started exactly at 7 AM - no joking about Mexican time!! These guys are punctual. We were on city streets for about 500 meters then into a wash that crosses most of the city from West to East. The was is fairly flat, but a little sandy in some spots. I thought about going off the front, a la Chups, but every time I get my face out of the draft I would quickly change my mind.

We hit the first climb about 5 miles in and this broke the lead pack of about 30 almost immediately. The climb was steep and long. Oh, yeah, there was a $500 dlls prize for the first one to the top, so all the pros were gunning for it. I got to the top of the climb about 50 minutes after the start, already about 10 minutes behind the first pros. I dabbed a couple of times and had to walk a few short sections, but it was more bad riding on my part than the terrain. Everything was rideable. I didn't know most of the people I was racing against so I finally asked another younger rider if he knew of anybody in the 45+ category that was up ahead and he said yes. At least one. Crap!! I was hoping to do well. All I could do was race at my own pace and see what happens.

My sister Gaby and brother-in-law Vico (that's him in the picture next to his Class 11 VW) agree to help me out and take pictures and carry some water bottles in case I needed them. First time I saw them was about 8:30 AM and got my first water bottle - had a bladder with Heed - which tasted really good. Later I found out that first place rider had over 15 minutes on me at this point. I was riding with two riders working together. One was having issues with his bike and had to stop. The second dropped off when we caught an 18 year old kid named Henry who was very strong.

Just before we started the second climb, I told Henry to go at his own pace, there was no way I could keep up with him on the climb. We hit the second climb - this was the part that was excluded from the 65 KM Tour - long and steep, but all rideable. I could see Henry moving away, but I stayed my pace and eventually caught up with him again after some descending and flat sections. Second road crossing, another water bottle, got rid of the camelback and carried another water bottle in my jersey pocket (mistake!! Cycling Gods??!!?). Later I was told that I was in first place at this point.

The course took you onto a very technical descent - loose, rocky, with lots of ruts. I went down near the top, got back on the bike, passed Wendy on my way down - she "looked" like she was having fun :-) Once out of the technical singletrack, I passed an aid station since I still had a quarter of a bottle of water on the bike and the one in my pocket or so I thought. I few miles after passing the aid station, I finished my water bottle and reached for the one in my pocket... and... oh, crap!! Nothing there... WTF??!!?!

I ran into two riders fixing a flat and asked/begged for some water - it was pretty warm by now - and got half a bottle. I rationed the water until I could see an aid station. Luckily it wasn't too far away and made with with no problems although I didn't drink as much as I wanted for about 30-45 minutes. Next aid station I stopped for more water and heard some yelling - saw my sister and my brother in law across the road with a nice cold bottle of water... Sweeeeet!! Of course I was back in second place by now :-( or so I was told.

Next climb I could feel my left leg wanted to cramp, probably due to the lack of drinking water. I spun up it, took my time, ate, drank some more and keep rolling. The last 10 KM seemed like an eternity, back on the wash and onto the finish - I was still moving pretty good, so no bonk this time near the end, probably because I ate and drank regularly (almost). Felt pretty good at the end. Finished in second place in my category with a time of around 4:52 about 5 minutes behind the winner. Third place was more than 15 minutes behind me. Wendy finished the 65 KM in about 5:40, was the second female although there were no categories and had a relatively good time. She's amazing!! There is now way I would do a 5 hour ride, with my longest ride in the last 2 years being 3 hours - one 3-hour ride 2 weeks ago.

POST RACE

The 100KM MTB Baja Ultra Endurance is a great event. Prizes were incredible - set of spinery wheels for 1st place rider (non pro), lights and tires for second place, and set of tires for 3rd place. The ambiance is fun and relaxed. I may be biased because I grew up here, but I feel perfectly safe in this city - I don't feel safe in Tijuana or Nogales, but Ensenada is very peaceful. The course if fun, challenging and picturesque. The people are friendly and go out of their way to help you out. This is another event to put on your "must do" list. The promoter, Jorge, is already thinking about next year.

Oh, yeah, at the awards ceremony, there was a huge raffle with the grand prize being a Giant Anthem!!! and if you win the raffle you still have to jump into a pool with pretty cold water, but don't worry, Jorge will jump in there with you just in case you don't know how to swim.

Stay tuned for my updates on Baja Epic which starts on November 5 and runs until the 8th. Adios!!

POST

Chupacabras 100KM

2008-10-13T08:34:00.005-07:00

Yes, I know, the Chupacabras is a animal/monster that sucks blood from sheep, but the Chupacabras 100KM is a mountain bike race held in Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua (Mexico) that sucks the energey from mountain bikers. This is a HUGE race. This year they broke last year's record with over 3500 racers.

PRE-RACE
This was my first time doing it so I didn't know anything about the course. I decided to go do it since my friend Jay said he was doing it (and signed up for it) but then chickened out at the last minute (He had a good excuse though - watching his son play in a soccer tournament). As luck would have it, Jay and I stayed with a friend (Danny) of his that was racing, so at least I had some company.

Danny and his wife Liz (and Jay) gave me the scoop on the race and the course. The only thing I really got out of it is to be careful on the Levee and the long hike-a-bike section. The morning of the race, Danny got me in the front chute (which made a big difference) using somebody else's name. The rule is that the top 100 finishers from the previous year get to line up in the front chute, but this was a rule that was only followed for about 20 minutes, then everybody was jumping over and lining up wherever they could find space for their bikes. I was still in the 3rd or 4th row by the time the race started.

Danny and I were both lined up about 7:45 AM... the race started at 9 AM, which meant not much of a warm up. I wanted to get a good start since the race went straight into the levee after 1/2 mile or so.

THE START
When the gun went off, I was bit careful, but moved up pretty quickly. I was in the top 20 by the time we hit the levee. I stayed near the front, but the main pack was moving rather slowly - probably around 17-18 mph. I was getting pushed back so I decided to go to the front, take a pull for a minute or two and warm up the legs. I pulled for about 30 seconds and looked back thinking somebody would come around but there was nobody there. Pack was about 30 meters behind me, so I decided to keep going. Pace felt comfortable.

I was off the front by myself for about 10 minutes and built a lead of about 200 meters. Finally, 2 other riders bridged up to me, then 5 more came across. The 9 man break worked really well together and everybody was drilling it. I pulled when it was my turn, but wasn't overly anxious to do to much pulling, we still had 55 miles to go. When we got off the levee into some single/double track section, we were still together but only 4 or 5 of us were working, the rest were struggling to keep up. We finally got back on the levee and this is were we were caught by the Pros - two Italians, Emmanual (from Turbo, a professional mexican team) and a Trek-VW riders. The Trek-VW rider had some mechanical about 1 mile later and never saw him again. Not sure if he finished or not.

We had to "cyclocross" across a couple of railroad ties and this is where the pros dropped me like a hammer ...'Adios amigos!!'.

INLAND WE GO
We finally stared going inland - after over 20 miles - which meant climbing was about to begin. The course is fairly flat with just over 3,000 ft. of climbing - good for me!! We went through a very poor neighborhood with dogs all over the place, and I was still in the top 10. Once we hit the first real climb - steep and loose - but short, more fast guys were catching up with me. My initial goal was top 100, but after talking to Danny and Liz, my goal dropped to top 50, so I was in great shape.

Just before the King Kong steps (the first hike-a-bike) we went though a feed area that also had a microphone and probably a hundred or so fans just encouraging the racers. The announcer was telling every rider their position, which I thought was very cool. I was 18th. Maybe I could get a top 20????

I had done the first 35 miles in just under 2 hours - OFF ROAD!! I was moving pretty good. I got passed by a few other riders and by the time I hit the King Kong steps, I was 24th. Maybe I could get a top 25???? :-)

The steps turned into a 7 minute hike-a-bike - not bad. Danny and Jay had told me that the hike-a-bike section was 20-30 minutes long and I thought they were full of it since it took me about 7 minutes. The next section was fun downhill singletrack through a wash. I was catching people on the technical sections, but it was hard to pass. At one point, I tried to pass another rider in the wash only to realize that the trail went in another direction. I had to stop, catch the same rider and finally pass him... AGAIN!!

Another feed zone, with fans and sound system --- 22nd!!

"THE" HIKE A BIKE
I realize that the steps was not the section that Danny and Jay had mentioned when I saw the climb. This is a brutal, rocky, loose, steep and long section that is 100% UNRIDEABLE. It climbs about 500 ft. in about 1/4-1/2 mile and took me about 35 minutes. Got passed by a few riders .... need to practice hiking while carrying my bike before next year's race. I had new shoes that I had only worn twice before this event and never really walked in them. I thought cycling shoes were for CYCLING!! not hiking. WTF??!!?

Once at the top, then come the other half of the WTF??!!? La Bajada del Diablo (transalation: the Devil's downhill). Ummm? I wonder if it's technical? I stopped to retighten my shoes at the top - a rider goes by and about 30 yards down, he goes down really hard. There's my answer. It is a bit technical. I was riding well on the downhills, and didn't have any issues. I missed one switchback were I had to dab and also walked the last 20 yards due to another one that was followed with a very steep section with big boulders at the bottom. Too old for that shit - I can walk.

THE FINISH
I ended up catching a couple of riders once we hit the dirt roads again, but the last little climb - called the Terminator - did me in. My legs didn't want to keep going. I lost contact with the two, then another rider that I had dropped just about 2 miles ago, caught and I couldn't stay on his wheel. My legs were done. I rode the last 5 miles at a decent pace, not too slow, but didn't have much umph!! in them. I finished the 64 miles in 4:46 - I'm pretty sure I finished around 25th place. Final posting are not in yet. Danny came in about 5 minutes later probably right around 30th place.

POST RACE
This is a big event, with all sorts of drinks, food, vendors at the finish. Top 650 finishers get a jersey, so if you think you can finish 100 km in less than 6:30 hours, you get a jersey. I stongly recommend anyone thinking about to come out and do it. The course is fun (mostly) with only 3000 ft. of elevation gain. I had lots of fun. We parked the cars in El Paso and rode our bikes across the border to the park. About a 1.5 mile ride. If you come, remember to bring proof of citizenship so you can get back into the US. Many thanks to Danny and Liz for taking such good care of me.

Next up is another 100 km race this Saturday in Ensenada. Thanks for reading!!

Payson Stampede 24 Hour race

2008-09-21T19:14:00.003-07:00

This weekend was the Payson Stampede 24 hour race. We put together a 4 man team (Dan K., Dan V., Rober and myself) called Masters of Adrenalin. The team Adrenalin had another 4 man team in the Open Division, but since all 4 of us are over 40, we opted to race with in the old man category.

The course was different than when I did it 2 years ago as a solo rider in the 12 hour race. The course starts with some jeep road, then head down the a nasty "singletrack" section which is really rocky and a great place to "eat it". The hard part of the course other than the rocky downhill is the climb. A nasty climb with some sections as steep as 20%. The climb took about 12-15 minutes, then a rolling section, then downhill/flat for the last 3 miles of a 9 mile loop.

The start is Le Mans style, in other words, you have to run for a 1/4 mile to your bike, then head onto the course. Since nobody on the team wanted to run, I "volunteered" (meaning: what choice did I have) to run and do the first lap. The run took me about 2 minutes and I was somewhere in the top 20-30 riders. Once on the course, I passed quite a few riders throughout the first 5 miles. As I hit the final 3 flat miles somebody on the side of the road told me as was the 6th rider through (I thought I was 10-15th) so I was rather pleased. My first lap was just about 45 1/2 minutes plus my run time.

Dan K. was the second rider, Dan V. the third and Robert closed the rotation, then I start over. Dan K., Dan V. and myself were pretty consistent during the day running about 45 minute laps. Robert has some stomach issues and was about 5 minute slower. Once the night came, our laps slowed down a bit, but only by 3-5 minutes.

Results were slow in coming, so we never really knew how were doing for long periods of time. By 10 PM, we were 4th overall in the 4 man category and 1st in our age group by 2 laps. By 4 AM, we were 3rd overall and now up by 2.5 laps in our age category.

At 8 AM, results were posted again and were solid in 3rd place overall, but it meant that we had to keep riding - we were all pretty tired in the morning since nobody got any sleep other than 10-15 minutes. My last lap started around 8:30 AM, and I decided to take it easy - I told Dan K. to expect me in an hour - but once on the trail I just kept a steady tempo, and granny gear on the climbs. This lap was my slowest, but I still managed to finish the lap in a respectable 51 minutes.

The other Adrenalin team was battling for the win and headed into the next to last lap, they had a 9 minute advantage. No news yet on whether they were able to stay in front or not - they were down to 2 riders for the last 4 hours vs. 4 riders on the team that was chasing them.

Overall I rode for 5.5 hours in the two days, but pretty much an all out efforts for the majority of the time. Climbed over 9,000 ft. and averaged 11.5 mph while racing. Not bad considering the course and the long climb.

This is a fun race, but hard. Next year it'll be the National Championship for 24 hour racing, so hopefully all mtn bikers will come out and support the event.

Wendy was my support person and she did a great job, always feeding me and making most of my drinks, except while she slept from 10 to 6 :-) Must be nice!! Max and Flor, our two dogs made the trip with us. They were pretty tired from the "run" on Friday and remained under the shade the entire time, they were great. Never bothered anyone, always by the campground. Even stayed there while we were in the big team RV.

That's it for now. I slept most of the way home, napped when I got home, and now I'm ready to go to bed and it's not even 8 PM.

Saludos a todos, talk to you soon. Next event will be Chupacbras 100 KM race in Ciudad Juarez on October 11th.

TransRockies finale

2008-09-08T10:02:00.004-07:00

Since Wendy has not updated the blog with the last day of TransRockies, I figure I better tell you "all" about it... at least my version of it.

Another beautiful day - we were very lucky with the weather - in the Rockies. A little chilly in the morning, but it actually go to the mid 80's early in the day. Wendy and Stu started in Vail, and I cleaned up the RV, packed our stuff and headed to Beaver Creek - a long 10 miles drive :-)

I parked at the bottom parking lot, since I was told the spaces were limited at the finish and since I have my bike, I could ride to the top. Little did I know that the runners ran right by the RV. I rode the last 7 miles of the running course and let me tell you, it was pretty damn hard. The pitches were a few short climbs with at least a 25% grade and the steepest of them all, which was straight up a ski run, must've been about 30% (this was the only one I was not able to ride) and was about 200 yards long. Brutal!!!

Once at the top it was a mix of fire roads, paths, and singletrack. Nothing too difficult. To compare, it took me almost an hour and a half on the bike to cover the 14 miles to and from the finish line. I kept wondering how long it would take Wendy and Stu to cover it. I decided to run/hike/walk with them, so I changed into my "runner" kit and waited for them at the last control station - about 5 miles from the finish. Of course I was fresh for doing a bit of running, so once the two of them got there, I took the camera and would run ahead of them and snap some pictures, then run with them for a while and then repeat. Not to jump ahead, but my quads were a bit sore the next day.

Wendy and Stu finished in 9th place overall in the mixed category. About 18-19 teams started, but only 15 or 16 finished. Great job, specially for Wendy, as she has never done an ultra-distance event. I will say what I rode of the course was very difficult, but I would love to try to ride the whole thing.

I enjoyed myself tremendously. I ended up riding almost 20 hours, with just under 20,000 ft. of climbing, so it was a great training week for me. I did take me a few days to recover from the riding, but I'm back.

Next up for Wendy and me is the Payson Stampede 24 hour in two weeks, we're racing with some of the members of our new mountain bike team. I have a couple of 100 Km races in October and then Baja Epic, a 250 mile mountain bike race in early November. Stay tuned.

TR - Day 3 through Day 5

2008-08-29T18:27:00.005-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the break in communications the last few days but we haven't been able to get cell or wireless signals. So I'll cover the last 3 days with the remaining battery in my laptop.

So Day 3 - the first 20+ miler of the event. 24 miles to be exact! We started in Leadville which is where we were bused after Day 2. This day had 2900 ft of climbing and 3800 ft of decending! The up after Day 2 nightmare, seemed doable at first but got tougher and tougher. The grade had to be 20% or more in most spots and got worse the higher we got. Needless to say I was having a tough time. My legs were sooo tired that they just couldn't bend which made it tricky. However we kept going and made it to the top and some spectacular views. Now we just had to make it all the way down to Nova Guides, our rest stop for the night. There were a couple of water crossings one that was at mid thigh height!! Felt really good!! The finish seemed like it would never get here but we finally made in just under 6 hours which was pretty good we thought. It moved us into 10th place which was a surprise.

The next day we woke to freezing temps and shivered our way to the start. This route was up and over to Red Cliff. This was a day of more horrendous climbing and even more downhill. The only good news was it was only 14 miles... the day went well for us and we make it back to Red CLiff in 3:36 and change. We promptly headed to the nearest watering hole and celebrated with some other runners from Victoria and Auburn. I love recovery food!!!

After another cold night at Red Cliff we headed to Vail today. This was another really long one - 23 miles. By now we're old hat at this and in a routine....get up, eat, shiver at the start and then head out for more punishment and abuse on the trails of Colorado :- ) Just kidding about the abuse part.

For this route we had 8 miles of fire road that averaged about 6% and then after the first check point, we headed up another 6 miles on 3 different trails until we were "at the top of the world". It was just amazing the scenery and definitely worth the work to get there. So now after 4400 ft of climbing we got to decend (again!!) for 4800 ft over 10 miles...ouch!!! Need less to say again we made it but this time it took us 6:22 and change to get to the bottom!! Still we're happy to be here and have just one more day to go to the finish. It will feel so good to finally be done but we were remarking at dinner that the days have flown and we can't believe we're already at our last evening. Tomorrow we head from Vail to Beaver Creek, another 21 miles and we'll be done!!
I'll update again tomorrow after we finish.
Thans for listening.

C'ya

TR - Day 2 Vicksburg to Twin Lakes

2008-08-26T18:41:00.003-07:00

Hi all,

Well Stu and I have made it through Day 2. We now have only 4 days to go!
This one was tough. We were bused to the start from Arrowhead Camp ground to Vicksburg. The start was at 9600 ft. We had a couple of miles to warm up to get to 10000ft and then we really went up!!! The next 2.5 miles were really tough. No real switch backs just straight into thin air at 12500 ft at the top (Hope Pass).

What wonderful scenery! We have photos that we'll download later. Tonight we have only battery power.

From there we had 3.5 miles straight downhill. We relished that as we now could use some differnt muscles! Once at the bottom we had a river crossing to navigate which at one point was mid thigh depth. Let me tell you, that cold water on the legs felt awesome. From there it was only a couple of miles to the finish at Twin Lakes. From there we were shuttled to Leadville where race village is set up. Dinner was at a local high school - pretty good but the Klondike bar back at the RV was the real treat. It's been quiet weatherwise today. No storms. And yes we SAW the thunder and HEARD the lightening Jeff : )

Once again Art did a terrific job of support. He had the RV waiting for us and had sandwiches in the fridge - what a guy! He got in a 4 hr mountain bike ride as well, exploring the local trails around Leadville.

Tomorrow is the first really long day - 24 miles. We have a couple of peaks that top out again at 12500 ft ish but much less severe gradients. Stu is feelling the better of the two of us at the moment and he's been doing a good job of keeping me going. Today I felt a little altitude sickness fo the first time ever. Dizziness and nausea which has improved as the day wore on but had me worried for a time while we were out there. Today I bought a pair of trekking poles. Can't think why I didn't think of it before but there you go. I'll let you know how they work out.
Not sure if I'll be updating tomorrow as we are back at a camp ground and may have limited access.

That's it for today. We're in 11th place overall for our category (out of 19 teams).
C'ya

TR - Day 1 Buena Vista to Numbers

2008-08-25T18:53:00.002-07:00

Hi all,

Wendy again. One down and five to go!! Today Stu and I completed the first stage from Buena Vista to Numbers. It was a beautiful run of about 13 miles along the Arkansas river. With the majestic Colegiate Peaks of the Rocky mountains all around it was quite scenic. The altitude was a little tough for me and the last 3 miles were a struggle. However as soon as I finished I ate and drank and felt a lot better. Art did a terrific job of support. When we returned to the RV he had sandwiches and drinks ready for us, along with smoked salmon! Today's start was at 10am and it was quite warm, certainly more than I expected. No rain though until this evening when we had a few showers.

We've met a few of the other runners at dinner. Everyone seems pretty relaxed. Some teams finished incredibly fast.....we made it in 2:32:27. Not bad for a couple of flatlanders :- )

Art rode his mountain bike back and forth along the course and took some photos.

Tomorrow looks like a tough stage. Only 10 miles but very steep and rocky. Starting at just under 9600 ft, we have 2 miles of semi flat then we climb 3000 ft in 2 miles....needless to say we'll be walking that!! The good news is that we then get to go down hill for another 3500 ft in 4 miles and then 2 more flat to the finish. We end at Twin Lakes at 9200 ft elevation. We go over Hope Pass at 12500 ft so not much oxygen anywhere tomorrow!

That's about it from me for today. I'll check in again tomorrow assuming I can get a signal.

C'ya.

TransRockies Eve

2008-08-24T18:30:00.002-07:00

Hi everyone,
This is Wendy writing this time. Today we got up to Buena Vista, for the start of TransRockies Run tomorrow. We left Phoenix on Friday night and drove to Gallup, New Mexico where we stayed at the Red Roof Inn. We all got a good night of sleep and got going pretty early (for me anyway) on Saturday as we had a long day on the road to get up to Denver. The day seemed to pass pretty quickly but that was because I slept for a lot of it :- )
We arrived in Denver just in time to pick up the RV that will be our home for the next 8 days. It's not too bad, quite comfy and keeping out the rain which is falling at the moment as I type this. Last night we stayed with Sara, an old friend of mine. This morning after a great breakfast we headed here to Buena Vista. It sure is beautiful up here. We're at 8300 ft and there are mountains all around.
Stu and I got checked in and picked up all our swag. This evening we had our first TR meal (kabobs) and got to see our competition. Everyone seems in good spirits despite a storm that has blown in. We can hear lots of lightning and see thunder all around [that's an inside joke for one of our friends back in the valley (Jeff you know who you are - LOL)].
Right now we're chilling with beers and good reads just relaxing before turning in for the night. We start at 10am tomorrow, later than the usual start which will be 8am. Tomorrow's route is just a 'warmup' of 13 miles. It's pretty flat - only an elevation change of about 1100 feet, and the good news is we stay at this same spot tomorrow night as well.
Well that's about all from me for now. I'll check in again tomorrow night and let you all know how tomorrow went.
C'ya

We're heade to TranRockies Run

2008-08-21T15:48:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that Wendy and I are headed to Colorado for TranRockies Run. Wendy and Stu Gibson are the runners who will be trying to run about 125 miles in 6 days. Here is a brief description of the event... oh, yeah, we rented an RV for the event and I'll be doing support... and yes, I'm taking my bike with me. What else would I do while I'm doing support...

GORE-TEX™ TransRockies Run
A New Epic in the RockiesThis year from August 25-30, up to 150 teams of two will take on the Colorado Rockies for a running experience like no other. During the six days of the GORE-TEX™ TransRockies Run, runners from all over the world will run, eat and live together as they cover 125 miles of spectacular scenery, fully supported by a dedicated and professional Event Team who will look after all aspects of their food, accommodations and on-course support.Based upon the wildly successful GORE-TEX™ TransAlpine-Run in Europe and the TransRockies mountain bike race, the GORE-TEX™ TransRockies Run is run on a multi-day point-to-point format which allows athletes to access and traverse wild and fantastic scenery, while building camaraderie, overcoming adversity and sharing a singular adventure.

The GORE-TEX™ TransRockies Run course runs from Buena Vista to Beaver Creek, through the heart of the White River and San Isabel National Forests. The course includes a mix of singletrack and forest road with nearly 25,000 feet of elevation gain, reaching altitudes of over 12,500 ft. Racers are fed and housed in a tent city, and treated to hot showers and other amenities every night, and are supported throughout each stage with feed and aid stations along with a fully-equipped and mobile medical team. Each day’s run is filmed by a professional TV crew who produce footage which is shown during the daily awards ceremony recognizing the stage and overall leaders.

Each morning, the racers will leave the race village en masse and tackle the day’s course before arriving at the finish where the Event Team has moved in and rebuilt the village from the night before. With gear bags, tents, showers and food waiting, the racers can spend the rest of the afternoon and evening trading stories, healing wounds and recovering in preparation for the next day’s run.W.L. Gore and Associates has won the loyalty and trust of runners and outdoor enthusiasts with the comfort, protection and superior performance of the GORE-TEX® brand and its Guaranteed To Keep You Dry™ promise. The innovative stage running format will challenge the athletes with a huge variety of conditions. Gore licensees include Adidas, Asics, Puma, Nike, Salomon, New Balance, Montrail, Ecco, The North Face and Inov8. They use GORE-TEX™ in the making of shoes and apparel ready for the challenge of the TransRockies Run.

While many participants come to endurance stage events with the simple goal of getting to the finish line, there will be fierce competition at the front of the pack for the $20,000 in prize money up for grabs in five different team categories: Open Men, Open Women, Open Mixed, Men 80+ and Women 80+. The 80+ categories consist of teams whose participants' ages combine to 80 years or more. Regardless of category or experience, participants of the GORE-TEX™ TransRockies Run will cross the line with a deep sense of accomplishment, a lifetime’s worth of stories and memories, and a group of new friends in adventure.

Flag to GC

2008-08-05T10:32:00.003-07:00

This past weekend I participated in the Toys for Tots Flag to (almost) Grand Canyon mountain bike ride. Usually, we camp in Flag on Friday night, do the ride, then camp at the finish on Saturday night. This is a great event with breakfast being served at the first check point.... and I mean real breakfast like eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy, fruit, cookies, etc. ... the list goes on.

Wendy and I drove up Friday night and got in a bit late. So instead of pitching an tent, we put an EZ-UP over the bed of the truck and slept on the thermarest. It was a beatiful night. We left a small gap right above our heads so we could see the stars. Of course, it rained a bit in the morning and we had to move down a bit. By then, my feet were hanging off the bed of the truck.

The ride starts at 7 AM. Wendy was planning on running for 3 hours at Mt. Elden, then driving to the finish and picking me up. The ride is pretty easy, but a bit long. About 62 miles on fire roads with a small amount of rocky, semi-technical riding.

I rode with Trever, Dan and Rob. The first 15-20 miles felt like we were racing, but then the pace settled and became much more civilized. One rider was in front of our group, and he was flying. By the last checkpoint, we were about 30 minutes behing. At about mile 53, I got a flat and had to stop. Another ride (Mike) caught up with us. When we hit the last check point, we all stopped except for Mike - he kept going - for food and drinks. We finished the 62 miles in just over 4 hours, which is not too bad.

Wendy finally picked me up about an hour and a half later. She was estimating my finish in about 5 hours. We decided not to stay the night because our dogs were alone at home. Overall a great ride, but I think next year we'll be camping and we'll bring the dogs.

Durango Training Camp

2008-07-31T13:04:00.006-07:00

We just spent 5 beautiful days in Durango, Colorado. It was called a team training camp. Wendy is training for her big event in 4 weeks in the Rockies, and I was just... well... having fun riding my mountain bike. We rented two houses. House 1 was occupied by Wendy and I, Stu, Wendy's running teamate for TransRockies, Jeff, damn fast (and small) mountain biker, Jay, whose wife decided last minute to not go, and Greg, who ended up playing golf instead of biking - more on that in a second. House 2 was occupied by the Long's, the Hammond's and father and son combo - the Lee's.

Jay, Stu, Jeff, Wendy and I left Tuesday night and drove to Gallup, New Mexico, so we could ride the next day in Durango. We arrived in Durango around 1 PM, after watching the Tour de France in our hotel room in Gallup. We got to watch the last stage in the Alps, the one that decided the winner of the Tour.

A few of us got ready to ride, and drove off to the trailhead. Unfortunately, when we got there, Jeff forgot his front wheel and I forgot my helmet. Not the start we were planning. Jay and I ended up riding back to the house and Wendy and Jeff drove back. Once at the house, Jeff, Jay and I headed for some trails near the house.

The next day was better. The whole group - Rick, Greg, Brian, Wilson, Jay, Jeff and I, all headed to Dry Fork via the Colorado trail. Jeff, Jay and I ended up riding about 4 hours that day. I unfortunately, hit a rock with my pedal during our third hour and went down pretty hard. Bent my pedal axle, but the rest of the bike was ok. My right leg was a bit bloody, but nothing serious.

Day 3 was a blast. All of us, except Rick - who also went down the previous day - headed up to ride Hermosa Creek. Jeff, Jay and I rode from town, while Brian, Wilson and Greg, drove to Durango Mountain Resort and rode from there. We all met at the trailhead and started our 19 mile downhill ride - awesome. We all had a blast. Except for Jay's flat tire, Brian's crash, Greg's broken bike (that's right, broken rear traingle) and my broken chain, the day was great.

Greg discovered he broke his bike after we got home and washed the bikes. Fortunatelly, Greg brought his golf clubs (and a collared shirt) so he was able to play golf a couple of times. See the picture of Greg at the training camp :-)

We all had a bit too much wine on Friday night - Jeff cooked for the whole gang - so we eneded up doing some exploring and riding for only a couple of hours on Saturday.

Sunday was the big day. Jay, Jeff and I headed toward Kennebac Pass - a 11,775 ft. high peak. Unfortunately, we missed the turn off and rode another 11 miles before we decided to turn around. Jay was not having a great day and went back home. Jeff and I continued. The climb to Kennebac Pass was not too bad until the last 6 miles, where you climb 3,000 ft. to get to the top. Once you reach the top, it's another 20 miles back to the car, all of it on singletrack... and not flat either. We both almost ran out of water, and couldn't really eat, because we didn't want to use the little precious liquid we had to wash down the food. We ended up riding 6.5 hours and climbed 8,000 ft. in just under 70 miles.

While I was having lots of fun riding my bike, Wendy and Stu ended up running about 65 miles in 4 days. It's hard to believe that they'll need to run twice that much next month when the tackle TransRockies. There, they'll need to run 120 miles in 6 days. Ouch!!! I'll be there as driver and support.... of course I'll have my bike with me and I'll be doing some nice rides in cool weather.

Well, that's all for now. We're headed to Flagstaff Friday for the Flag to Grand Canyon bike ride. A 65 mile easy mountain bike ride, unless I decide to push the pace :-) I'll give you an update next week.

Thanks for reading and feel free to post comments.

Utah - Epic running and cycling adventures

2008-06-27T15:27:00.001-07:00

Running...
RAGNAR - let me explain what a RAGNAR is, it is a long distance relay race for teams of 6 or 12 runners. Wendy was doing this 180 mile relay running race from Logan to Park City in Utah. This is a pretty big deal as each runner has to cover 30 miles in less than 2 days. What made this even harder is that 2 of the runners had to pull out the day before the event. That meant that each runner (all 4 of them) now had to run 45 miles each in less than 2 days. I can't even run 4 miles!! We'll they did and they won their category. It took them just over 30 hours to run the 180 miles, that an average pace of about 6 miles/hour. Not too shabby, huh?

I'm very proud of Wendy, she had some physical issues during the night, but pulled through and kept going. Amazing!!! Next for her is TranRockies in August. This is a 6 day endurance running race with an average of about 20 miles per day... at elevation!!! ... In the Rockies!!!

Cycling...
I, instead of supporting my beautiful wife, decided to go mountain biking in Park City with my friend Dan. We did two rides. Friday we rode for 5.5 hours with about 6,000 ft. of climbing. The trails were awesome and we did quite a bit of exploring. All the riding was on singletrack. Awesome. The next day we rode another 4.5 hours, with 5,000 ft. of climbing. Again, 90% of singletrack with a little pavement to get to the trailheads. We ended up finishing about 500 Yards for the RAGNAR finish line.

This is some of the best riding I've done in a while. All the trails are awesome. Next year I plan to arrange a week long trip to Park City to do lots of mountain biking. Hopefully other folks are interested and we can rent a house or a condo. Can't wait!!

Our next adventure is in about 4 weeks. We're headed to Durango, Colorado to do some cycling and running. Although I probably won't be taking part in the running thing :-)

UK World Family Tour

2008-06-03T15:56:00.001-07:00

Our trip to the UK was a whirlwind tour. We saw lots of family, but unfortunately I was not able to take my bike with me :-) We left Phoenix on Saturday morning, flew to Charlotte, NC, then got on our connecting flight to London. Sunday was our 11th wedding anniversary, so our present was to upgrade our seats for the tranatlantic flight to business class. It was a nice present, but the funny part is that even though we had the "bigger" seats, Wendy decided to sleep on the floor. She said she was more comfortable, but I'm not so sure.

When we arrived in London, we went straight to the car rental agency and picked up our car, and started our drive to Scotland - an 8 hour drive!! Jet lagged!! and pouring rain!!! It was not fun. Wendy drove at the start - she didn't trust me driving on the other side of the road - but eventually I took over, at least for a little while. We took turns driving and finally made it up to Wendy's parents house in Crieff, Scotland. We spend 3 nights there. Did a little walking, some running, and lots of eating and drinking.

We left Wednesday and returned South to visit sister #1 - Sue (and her husband Mike and son Daniel). We had a nice picnic and later on, we went out to dinner. Next stop was Friday morning to visit sister #2 - Pam (and husband Steve, son Ben, and daughter Kate). We had never met Kate (now 5 years old) so it was great to meet her. Wendy's brother Steve (and wife Claire and new born baby Emily) joined us at Pam's house for dinner.

I know Wendy really enjoyed being with everyone in her family since we don't get to come back as often as we should. I had a good time seeing everyone, but I had more fun playing with the kids. All of them are gems. Very different personalities, but all good kids.

We made a commitment to go back again every year to see everyone and see the kids grow up. Pictures will be posted soon.

Puerto Vallarta

2008-04-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Finally had the time to write a bit about our last trip. Wendy and I headed to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week in the sun & surf. We met up with Luis, a friend from College, and his wife Lily.

The day after we arrived, we got to swim with the dolphins, a worthwhile experience. I have a video and need to figure out how to post it online and provide a link. Give me a few days or weeks :-)

We had a great time, managed to gain a little weight, probably from all the beer we drank EVERY day. We still managed to exercise. Wendy did her running and I got to play a little futbol (that's soccer for you non-spanish speakers). It was a bit more competetive than the last time I played a couple of months ago, so I was a bit worried about my knee, but it held up just fine. For those of you that don't know, I have ACL reconstructive surgery in my right knee late last year.

Overall a great vacation. Here is a picture with Luis, Lily, Geras (the rock star), Wendy and I.

Starting out

2008-04-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to be able to share our trips and adventures with friends and family. We'll be posting some pictures, comments, movies, whatever helps us share with all of you.

Our first 2008 adventure starts next week in Puerto Vallarta. We're spending a week down there with my old college roommate, Luis, and his wife Lily. Should be a blast!!