Rock Racing

Water Logged

2012-01-25T16:12:00.000-08:00

If you don’t already know, due to my broken tailbone, I have been forced to take six weeks off biking and running, but I can swim as long as I don’t kick. After 10 days of my forced downtime, I’m now water logged and sick of swimming. On the upside, I think I’m getting some muscles in my arms. Only 32 days to go and hopefully my tailbone will be ready for Ironman training. You can see my plight in the video below.

The Moral Of The Story

2012-01-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

I think someone might be sending me a message. This reminds me of that joke about the guy sitting on top of is flooding house and while a boat, a plane and a helicopter try to rescue him, but he refuses to take the help because he says god will rescue him. Then after he drowns, he is in heaven and asks god, “why didn’t you save me” and god answers “I sent a boat and plane and a helicopter, what else did you want me to do”.

My story is this, I broke my tailbone in mid-October, I took a week off training, and then moved to a modified training schedule, still competing in all the races I had already registered for. Well, the tailbone pain just kept getting worse instead of better. I know that my doctor said to take it easy, but I think his idea of easy was not my idea of easy. So when late December rolled around, I decided it was time to come off the easy training plan and back on to the normal training plan. Get this, my tailbone started hurting even more, I just couldn’t figure out why it was hurting so bad. So after another visit to the doctor, he said that he wanted me to take 6 weeks off of running and biking. So if you know me, you know I took this very badly.

Ok, so I saw the doctor on Friday, and the way my mind works, I figured I would give this taking time off thing some good thought before committing to it. That means I would go ahead and ride on the snowy trails on Saturday and run the Castlewood trails on Sunday, then on Monday I would start my 6 weeks off, well maybe.

So 45 minutes into our run on Sunday, I’m running along telling Chuck about a movie I watched that I knew he would hate and the next thing I know I’m on the ground, rolling around, chanting in my head, “it doesn’t hurt that bad, don’t cry, don’t cry”. Chuck runs over to me and says please tell me you didn’t land on your butt. I of course replied, “no butt is fine, but everything else hurts”. Chuck grabs my arm and pulls me off the ground, after a couple minutes of walking, as I finish the story about the movie, we start running again. We finish another hour of running, then I pull my bloody gloves off to check the damage, then I pull down my bloody tights to see how bad the knees are. Who knew that the dirt feels like concrete when it’s 28 degrees outside.

So now I have to think was the doctor telling me to slow down my first offer of help, then his telling me not to race, the second offer, and now the falling down, my third and last chance to get it through my thick head, that I have to take some time off.

Or

Is the moral to the story, don’t tell Chuck about horse movies, because he hates horse movies.

You decide!

Squeal, Grind, Screech

2012-01-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

No its not a visit to the dentist. It's ROCK Racing on a training ride. My brakes have been screeching and squealing for too long now. I've got to do something about it before I stop getting invited to group rides. So here goes, a brake change with some new Brake Authority pads. They have a few different models that change pad material depending on the kind of riding you do. I picked the Burly which is recommended for XC and Enduro.

The UPS guy delivered the box of pads only like two days after I ordered them. Amazing. Brake Authority must have boxed them up the very second my order went in.

My Superfly 100 brakes are Avid Elixir R hydraulic front and rear. They are a big step up from the old cable operated brakes I had on my Gary Fisher Cake. I used to think they were as good as you could get. But that was before I tried Shimano hydraulic brakes. The SLX and XTR models are awesome. Maybe these new pads will help the Elixirs perform more like Shimanos.

So to start on this brake job, remove the retainer clip from the wheel side of the caliper. (and yes, I am doing bike maintenance in the kitchen, but it's Ok my wife is gone for the weekend and she will never know :)

I used a needle nose pliers to pull it off. Just be careful, this clip is small and easy to break if you yank it with a big ol vise grip or pry it sideways with a screwdriver.

Next remove the threaded pad hanger pin with a 2.5mm hex key. I like to use these plastic body multi-key tools, easy to keep all the sizes together in one place.

The hanger pin is threaded under the head. Different than most bolts you see, its done this way so the pads are free to move around on the pin without getting in a bind.

I put the two pieces together while I worked, less chance of them getting bumped off somewhere and lost.

Now you can pull the old pads out of the caliper. Fingers work great for this.

So here is why I think my old pads were so noisy. There was plenty of pad material left but its been glazed, pitted, and cracked. I probably got them contaminated somewhere along the way causing them to go bad. Or maybe Trek uses low quality pads in their factory to save money.

Loosen the caliper mounting bolts, but don't remove them. When you re-assemble, the caliper has to be loose enough to allow the new pads to center over both sides of the rotor with enough free play to slip in the gap between the caliper piston and the rotor.

The new pads came with a replacement spring. It is cutout to fit right in between the new pads. Keep these brake surfaces clean! Don't want them ending up like my last set, I even avoided touching them with my fingers.

Make a little sandwich of the two pads with the spring in the middle. Put the new pad/spring stack in the caliper carefully sliding it over the rotor.

Put the pad hanger pin back in, and torque it with the 2.5mm hex key.

Re-install the retainer clip.

Use the 5mm hex key to torque down the caliper bolts. You want to tighten these while holding hand pressure on the brake handle, this will force everything into alignment as you torque them down. Give the wheel a spin and listen/feel for any rubbing. If you hear any rubbing, loosen the bolts, then do the torque while squeezing the brake handle again.

Done! Now its time to go for a ride. Watch for another post soon to review how the Brake Authority-Burly pads work out.

A Day on the GORC Trails

2012-01-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

7 am on a Saturday morning in January, 18 degrees, virtually no wind, Good friends and fast bikes.

And me, I wasn't riding, I was just videographing, when I'm told not to run or ride for 6 weeks, that's what I do, ok, well, that's what I will do on Monday, I had to get one more weekend in first. Hey, you can't just go cold turkey without giving your mind time to digest something like this and get all the tears out too.

Oh, and I ran into my nemisis, Terry, while I was out there, good thing I was loading my bike or I would have had to kick his butt.

Matson Hill Run - New Technology

2012-01-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

Got this new GPS toy for Christmas and tried it out on my Matson trail run a few days ago. Click the link below, then click 3D view. It takes the pictures I took while running the trail and matches them up with GPS coordinates. Then plays them in sort of a slide show as the cursor moves along the trail.

@trip - Matson Hill Run 1/2/2012

Favorite Things - Gear Review

2011-12-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

By: Robin Rongey with Chuck's Comments in Red

Every year Oprah has a favorite things show, so Chuck and I thought, we are ROCK Racing, so why shouldn’t we have a favorite things Post. We lean somewhat towards gear when we talk about our favorite things, but we do stray a bit. So let’s just say this is a Favorite Things – Gear Review. We hope you find this interesting and that you may even want to try some or our Favorite Things out.

Trek Top Fuel

One of my favorite mountain bikes is the Trek Top Fuel, I know that it is the age of 29er, but there is still a place in my heart for the old school 26er. My TF rides smooth, shifts so well that I hardly even here a chain click, it is super maneuverable and the front shock lockout on the handlebar is a feature I can hardly live without. It’s kind of like upgrading in a car, once you have the extra’s you never want to live without them again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking my Superfly, it has its place in my heart, but my true love will always be my Top Fuel.

Trek Superfly

So Robin still likes 26” bikes. Not me. I’m sold all the way on 29ers. And the top of the line 29er is my Trek Superfly. It is light, fast, and maneuverable. It climbs any hill I point it at. It’s tough too. All that talk about carbon frames not handling crash damage is wrong. I’ve crashed it several times and the only damage so far has been a bent hanger and a crushed rear derailer. I can ride this bike for hours and hours, it is hard to believe it can be this comfortable on top of the speed and toughness. I have only made a few mods over the year I’ve owned it. A wheel and tire upgrade and a carbon handlebar, just improving on perfection.

Ice Breaker Everything

I can’t even begin to tell you which of my Ice Breaker gear I like best. I might say the base layer, the bike shorts, the running shorts or the socks, but then I would be lying because I can’t live without the running shirt, bike jersey, hat or gloves. Still I can’t say they are all my favorite, because I wear my IB casual v-neck t-shirt every time it is clean. The Marino Wool is so soft and doesn’t itch at all, and if I were to see this gear on the street, I would not even know it was wool. This is not your old school wool, but your new high tech wool, that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, while wicking away sweat and never feeling wet and slimy. There is nothing I would rather workout and race in than my Ice Breaker gear.

She is right on about IB. My favorites are the 200 base layer and the bike shorts.

Honey Stinger

Waffles, Waffles, Waffles, that is all I have to say, I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, add a little ice cream in-between two waffles and you have dessert. I still love my Rocket Chocolate and everything else Honey Stinger, but Waffles are by far my go to food, anytime, anywhere.

The waffles are amazing. They came out with some new flavors this year. I wasn’t sure about the strawberry flavor when I first saw it, but after I tried it, I like it too. Not a fan of the vanilla though.

Ultimate Direction Water Bottle

When we decided to do a post on our favorite things, I started thinking about which gear I use the most. Socks, Shoes? Yeah I use those a lot, like everytime I run, but I switch off between road and trail shoes. My Ultimate Direction hand held water bottle goes with me everywhere. We are always told to buy new shoes every 400 miles or so. This bottle has outlasted multiple shoe trades. I can’t even begin to guess the mileage this bottle has on it. 2000m, 3000m, or more, and still going strong. The 20 oz BPA-free polyethylene molded bottle fits my hand perfect and the adjustable strap with the small pocket keeps it all secure. But the best part of the bottle is the leak proof Kicker valve. All this mileage and still no leaks.

Hardnutz Helmets

Unfortunately, a helmet is something you don’t always want to use, but you have to. I never ride without one, no matter how hot it is. Here’s the thing, I don’t mind wearing my Hardnutz Rock Hard helmet because it is so breathable and comfortable, and because of that I have to sometime reach up to make sure I have it on. Besides that, it is a really cool looking helmet, with a marbleized stone look to it, which makes it the perfect helmet for ROCK Racing.

Nike Cycling Jacket

This has to be the single most used item I have. I received this jacket as a Christmas gift about four years ago and let me tell you, I have used it to no end. It is great when it’s super cold outside, I wear a base layer and a jersey under it. When the temps fall between 30-40 degrees, I wear it with just a base layer under it. This jacket has been washed about a 1000 times and still looks as good as it did on day one out of the package. It is warm, yet breathable and although it is not advertised as wind proof, it sure does a great job blocking the wind. Unless I get too fat to fit in it, this jacket will be a staple in my winter wardrobe, at least until it falls apart.

XX2i Sunglasses

These glasses are not only cool looking and make the ROCK Racing girls look hot, (the guys are something other than hot) but they are also functional, comfortable and crystal clear. I love the styling of the USA frame, not as much for racing as for just wearing around, I wear mine everywhere. For workouts though, nothing can beat the France frame. What I like about the France frame is that it has an open bottom that lets air circulate and my glasses don’t fog. Another great feature of the XX2i is the ease of swapping lens, I can pop out the clear lens and put in the yellow lens, in just seconds and that is all the time I have while out on the trail. With adventure racing you are out day and night, you need to be able to have glasses that adapt easily to the changing light and these glasses do. As far as safety goes, let me tell you this, in my last race, I was smacked hard in the face by a thorn branch, my eyes had no injuries and my glasses didn’t even have a scratch, I feel good knowing that these glasses can hold up under all conditions and protect my eyes. Oh, and I have to say that the white pro athlete version of the glasses, not only make me look cool, but I swear when I have them on I race faster, I’m not sure if I’m faster because I think I look cool or if it’s the crystal clear lens paired with no fear of injury, but whatever it is.. Fast is always good.

Quik Trip (QT) Soda

I am a diehard Diet Coke aholic and have even had to make new years resolutions to force me into cutting back on my diet coke consumption in past years. I have a new twist to my diet coke issues now, it’s called QT build your own soda fountain. Not only can I have my diet coke, but I get it with my own twist. I have profected the mix. You need the perfect amount of ice, followed by the perfect amount of cherry and then topped off with the diet coke. Very few people know the formula, but lucky for you I am going to show you how to make the perfect cherry diet coke. I should probably patent this mix and sell it, but for ROCK Racing readers, I will give it to you for free.

Doris, ROCK Racing’s favorite lunch lady

Have you ever eaten somewhere and became attached to one of the employees, well Robin and Chuck have. Her name is Doris and she makes lunch very entertaining. First she has a personality that some people may not get, but we do. She seems a little gruff when you first meet her and if you ask her how the food is, she will say “shitty” and if you ask her how she is, she will say “shitty”. Oh, but she makes the best home cooked meal around, meatloaf to die for, and chicken fried steak, smothered in gravy. She even puts out some really good peach cobbler once in a while and if by chance you get her to take a liking to you, she will make sure you get some. So if you ever get to St Louis, head down Lindbergh, about 2 miles from the St Louis International airport and stop in at Mattingly’s for lunch, I know you will enjoy it.

Andy Gibbs, ROCK Racings favorite bike Wrench at our favorite Bike Shop

If you are ever in the Edwardsville, IL area, you have to head over to the Cyclery and check in with the #1 bike mechanic of all time. Not only is he a top rated mechanic, but he is also a certified coach and bike fit technician and to top it off, he is an expert mountain biker. Andy has setup the fit of our bikes to perfection and also fixed them every time we crash them. He always explains everything he does and shows us how to do repairs on the trails. As a bonus, he gives up great training tips. Don’t miss out, if you’re in the area, stop in and see Andy! Be sure to check out the Cyclery too, it’s our favorite bike shop and I know they will have anything you need on hand.

And if you are in need of a new bike, you won’t find a guy that knows more about the components that come spec’d out on all the models they carry. There are a ton of decisions to make on a new bike and you want the best to help make them. Plus you might score big time and get the chance to buy Andy’s ‘last year’ race bike with all the perfect upgrades like Lori did!

We Made Sleepmonsters

2011-12-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

The ROCK Racing post for the Castlewood 8hr Adventure Race made Sleepmonster, an International Adventure Racing News Network. Click Here to see the full report

Pere Marquette Trail Run 2011

2011-12-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh, December, we all know what that means, time for the Pere Marquette trail run. You could not be a slacker if you wanted to run the race this year, the race filled in just over 6 hours. Good thing for me I entered at 5 am and got in. The way things are going, next year, I will need to be at the computer at midnight when registration opens. Funny, you would think being the Vice President of the Metro Tri Club, I would have an automatic in, but not true, I have to give it my best shot and try to get in before it closes just like everyone else. If I didn’t get in, I guess I could threaten the president, Mike Wever, or something, but he is a tough cookie when it comes to this stuff, so threatening may not work. I think the next time I can get a photo of him looking really bad, I will just keep it as my ticket in, just in case I don’t make the cut one year.

So once I was in, I started some hard core hill training with my friend Jenny, she was kicking my butt and making me run hills when I really didn’t want to.

Jenny on the rock steps

My goal was to try and run not a PR, but something close to one. I really wanted to run a 1:24, I have run this course in 1:19 before, but I knew I wasn’t in good enough shape to pull that off this year. Along with the hill work we were doing once a week, I started running the PM course every couple weeks. My first training run was 1:33, then a few weeks later, another 1:33, then a 1:30 and my 4th time on the course a 1:27. I was feeling good and was pretty confident that I could make my goal of 1:24 if the conditions were right.

Well the best laid plans never seem to work out, the week after I ran the 1:27 I broke my tailbone by sliding down a muddy hill and hitting a rock. Yeah I know, it’s pretty frustrating to be on target for a goal and then get injured. Even though I had hopes of making it back injury free before the race, once again, I was wrong. I really hate to admit that I was wrong and some doctor who doesn’t even run was right, but in this case I have too.

So when PM came around I was still nursing the tailbone, but I didn’t want to miss the race for two reasons, first because I love the race and I just don’t want to miss it and second because to win the coveted Godzilla of the year award, I needed to finish PM. I didn’t have to finish fast, I just had to finish.

Race day came and I picked up Russ, a new Team Godzilla member and we headed out to PM. Russ was going to take picture during the race and checkout the course to see if he wanted to do it next year. (see all Russ’s picture here) I had to get to the lodge early because I was distributing vest before the race.

Robin and Krystal

Giving out vest is a great job because everyone gets one, so I got to see just about everyone I know, when they picked up their vest. It was really kind of fun, and of course I heard butt jokes from everyone. I’m actually the butt of all jokes now.

Mark S got me this shirt for Christmas

The gang handing out vest

It was time for the race to start, so I headed out to the starting line with Keith and Chuck, who were both working the vest distribution with me and racing also.

Keith in Motion

Chuck on the rock steps

Of course, they were in much earlier waves than I was in. I was in wave 13, I have never in my life been in a wave greater than 7. In fact, earlier in the week when I found out that I was in wave 13, my pride was hurt and my spirit was broken. I went as far as too yell at Mike Wever, who sets up the waves. I said “Mike, I know I have a broken tailbone and will be slow, but come on, WAVE 13”. He was very apologetic and said, he didn’t know how that happened, we figured it out, the previous year I ran with a friend who was injured and didn’t want to run alone so we just ran it for fun and the time was pretty darn slow, that brought my average down and that’s how I ended up in wave 13. Mike did offer to put me in wave 1, but I declined. I thought it would be better to be in wave 13 and be able to pass people then to be passed the entire run.

I still like Mike even after he put me in WAVE 13

The race started and before I knew it, Mike was calling for wave 13 and off I went, I was actually up front in my group and didn’t really get passed by very many people, I even passed some people in earlier waves. My tailbone was hurting pretty bad on the uphills, yeah I know, everything seems to be an uphill at PM, but I was not stopping, I just wanted to run the race and cross the finish line on my own two feet. I did walk a couple times, but mostly because the runners in front of me were walking and there was no way around them. Of course, that was not the issue on the rock steps, I walked those because if I didn’t I would have had a heart attack. And wouldn’t you know it, the rock stairs is where Russ and Patrick were standing with the cameras. I yelled no taking pictures of me walking, but you know that is just what they did.

Just before the end of the race, I saw Jim D on trail and he yelled “how’s your butt” I said it was going to finish the race and just then a girl behind me said “are you Robin”, I said yes, we had never met, but I had two registration transfers that I sold to her and now the reason she knew who I was, was because of my butt. See didn’t I tell you how funny the whole tailbone thing has become.

I soon crossed the finish line to the cheering of friends and strangers, it had been the perfect day and the best possible run for me. There is nothing I would have rather been doing than racing PM on this beautiful December day surrounded by such great friends.

After the race I stood around talking to friends. I saw Wendy D, she had a great race even with a bum ankle that she had injured badly just recently and she like me, was just happy to be out running.

Wendy

Since Russ was at the finish line taking photos, it was like having my own personal photographer, he snapped photos of me and many of my friends, while we told race stories and No they aren’t like fish stories, I really did do that triple lindy and land on my feet then jump over a deer crossing the trail, while eating a Honey Stinger waffle and getting a drink from my Ultimate Direction water bottle.

The Gang Hanging out

Mike, Robin, Bill, Chuck

Robin and Kate G

Robin and Mike A

Robin and Mike H

Castlewood 2011

2011-12-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

By Robin Rongey, Chuck Vohsen comments in red

At the beginning of 2011, Chuck and I decided that we would skip the Castlewood race and instead be volunteers. Our thought was, we always race, time to give back to those that volunteer so we get to race. Our plans changed though. You see Gerry the race director at the Thunder Rolls Adventure race gave this really nice speech about getting more people into the sport that we all love, and how it is really hard to do your first race. That speech got us thinking, why not get a bunch of people who are always asking about adventure racing, but are afraid to try it, and just make as many teams as we can and stick together the entire race. This way, they have veteran racers guiding them and helping solve problems along the way. It was going to be an adventure race clinic held during a race. So as my friend Patrick calls it, the Castlewood Experience came to life.

I sent out emails to everyone who had ever asked us about adventure racing, and soon we had 10 racers committed and ready to go, including Chuck’s son Jacob and his wife Lori, it was kind of a family affair for him.

Before the race I tried to give out as much advice as I could, on what to bring and what to wear and what to eat. Chuck said, “they are going to be really good at this because we are giving them everything we had to learn by mistake”. You know what, they all did really well, with only a few mishaps, read on to hear about it in detail. Oh and Chuck and I decided that we all needed ROCK Racing shirts, so we had my brother Joel, make us a bunch for them for the team. Everyone on the ROCK Racing teams are also Metro Tri Club (aka Team Godzilla) members, so Green fit well with the Team Godzilla theme.

So let’s start at the beginning. Once we had commitments from everyone, we entered the teams and started planning our strategy. We had a 2 person male, Chuck and Jacob, 4 person co-ed, Robin, Keith, Gary and Patrick, and a 4 person female, Jenny, Lori, Judy, and Vanessa. Questions came and answers went out and before we knew it, it was the night before the race and we all met at the Alpine Shop to sign in. Sign in came off without a hitch and we saw a couple of our favorite teams there, Alpine Shop and Orange Lederhosen. We chatted about the race and everyone was excited for all the new racers. Have I ever told you what a great group of people adventure racers are, they sincerely want new racers in the sport and will do anything to help any team out.

All the maps we received at check-in were plotted, except for 3 points, so we all drove down to the McDonalds and plotted points, Chuck and I teaching the new racers how to plot. We finished quickly and headed home, those of us who were driving from home in the morning had a long drive so we needed to get to bed, although the best plans never work out, I don’t think I got to bed until almost 11 pm.

At 4:30 am I walked out of my garage thinking I had a few minutes, but found out that Jenny and Patrick were already waiting for me. So I quickly threw my pack in the van and we all hopped in and took off for the race. You see this is where things started to go wrong, but you have to think fast with adventure racing, so when we were about 5 miles from my house and I realized that the bag with my clothes was still at my house, I didn’t worry, I just stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some clothes. Really it wasn’t so awful, it was mostly just dry clothes to wear home, I had all the required gear on or in my pack. Plus the Wal-Mart stop gave us time to use the bathroom and Patrick bought some bananas.

Our next stop was the bike drop, it was packed with racers dropping off bikes, it only took us about 10 minutes to drop the bikes and another 15 to make it to the start. At the start we saw Laura and Jason, the original owners of Bonk Hard Racing, they were parking the cars, weird seeing them as volunteers and not running the show, but they were great volunteers and we were just happy to see them. We got a pretty good parking spot, it was still dark out, so all you really saw were head lamps bobbing all over. I walked right past Chuck and didn’t even see him. We all headed to race headquarters, picked up our passport and hit the bathroom for about the 10th time. And get this, there was such a mad rush to draw first blood, that the race had not even started and Judy was bleeding, don’t ask me how it happened, I just know there was blood.

Chuck: Jacob has a great name for this situation. You find yourself bleeding but not exactly sure how it happened: Anonymous Blood. Haha, would make a great adventure race team name.

It wasn’t long before we were singing the national anthem, and who knew, but Keith can sing, I mean I knew Gary could sing, but had no idea Keith could too. I tried to keep my voice low as to not draw any attention to how bad I sing. After that it was time to play ball. We all scooted to the starting line and the gun when off and there we were all three ROCK Racing teams, the Rebels, Renegades and Trail Rats, all racing for the 1st CP.

We made it through some tough hills and the first 4 trekking points without a problem, before we knew it we were at the bikes and ready to ride. There was a ton of riding in this race, more riding then we have ever had in a Castlewood adventure race. We were hoping this would work to our benefit with all the new racers. I was happy knowing that I had brought my Trek Top Fuel, it was perfectly suited for this type of ride where I could ride the single track and just hit the switch on my handlebar to lock out the shock when I hit any pavement.

The bike leg started on the Green Rock Trail in Greensfelder Park. These trails have some really long steep climbs and super rocky sections, but they are so fun to ride. Some of them are even marked with black diamonds. Well that is my opinion, I think Gary felt that way too, he was a little worried about the bike coming into the race, but my gosh he was flying through the trails like he knew what he was doing and feeling good, trying to think of how he could talk his son into doing a few of these adventure races with him.

Jenny was right there with Gary, I could tell she really liked the trails, I think I might be able to talk her into going back out and riding them with me sometime.

Keith was chomping at the bit to ride faster staying right on Chuck and Jacobs wheel and of course Patrick was doing all kinds of stunts, I was just waiting for him to crash, he crashes more than anyone I know because he is just crazy when he gets on a bike.

Judy was right there with them too, I’m sure she thought she might see the Patrick crash, come on we were all thinking it. I was just glad to know that when the crash happened I would be able to see it in high definition since I was wearing my super clear XX2i glasses and if by some reason I was taken down in the crash, at least I had my Hadnutz helmet on, so I would probably live to write about it. I’m not sure Vanessa felt the same way about the single track being so much fun.

Vanessa went down a couple times, but she got right back up and got back on the horse.

It reminded of me of my first mountain bike race, it was a six hour solo race and I crashed 38 times in 6 hours and finished covered in blood, but my gosh I paid for 6 hours I was racing six hours, so I know exactly how Vanessa was feeling and I knew the team would do everything possible to help her through.

Lori on the hand was not having too much trouble at all. We started to figure it out, Lori was riding Andy Gibb’s old bike, she had just bought it from him a few weeks earlier. Now, for those of you that don’t know Andy, he is somewhat of a local mountain bike hero. He is a super fast expert racer, who wins all the races. He had a great Giant Anthem mountain bike, but needed to sell it because he was going to be racing on a team that rode Treks. Lori, who just happened to ride the same size frame as Andy was in the market for a new mountain bike and was lucky enough to score Andy’s. Someone asked Lori if she got a new bike and she said, yes, this is Andy’s old bike, well the crowd went wild, the knowledge that Lori was riding Andy’s bike filtered back through the team and everyone was commenting on how Lori could just hang on and a bike like that would do all the work, and to that point it was. Lori said “like in the movie Toy Story, where Woody has Andy written on the bottom on his shoe, I’m going to write Andy on the bottom of my bike”.

Even with all the Luck of Andy’s bike, it’s kind of like the luck of the Irish, Lori managed a crash, and you know it’s not a good ride unless there is blood and mud, so she was really just keeping with tradition. I was behind her when she went down and I heard her knee hit a big rock, I was really worried about it and said stay down, but when she turned her head and looked at me, there was blood everywhere, her knee wasn’t even a thought.

The handlebars had reached out and struck her right on the chin and she had a gaping hole in her chin, it looked really bad and blood was everywhere. She had her Icebreaker base layer on and the blood was running down her shirt. Funny, the things that go through your head in a situation like this, but I thought, I guess we will see how well you can get blood out of Merino Wool. I need to ask her how it came out of the wash. So Vanessa being a good nurse pulled out the first aid kit and got it cleaned up with some iodine and put some butterfly bandages on it, she did a really good job, even the doctor that fixed Lori up after the race said that the field dressing on it was really great. So yep, Lori got up like a true ROCK Racer and finished the race, then went to urgent care, where her family members seem to be regulars and got her chin super glued back together.

As all this was happening, like all great teammates we were cracking jokes about her crash and how no one better tell Andy that she crashed his bike. And of course I let her know how she stole my thunder, I can’t even write about my broken tailbone now, it just seems trivial.

We all got back on our bikes and made it through the single track section and out to the road.

We picked up a few more CP’s after stopping at a gas station for some food. Well you see I may have forgotten my clothes, but Judy forgot her food, so we had to load up at the Quick stop. See I’m not the only goof on the team.

Soon we hit the CP right next to the train tracks and Keith with the help of Patrick, found 10 railroad spikes, then piled them up next to the CP and went back after the race to get them, so that we could all have a souvenir of the race. I still can’t figure this guy thing out, last race Chuck was picking up used mortar shells and this race Keith and Patrick were picking up old railroad spikes, I guess it really is a guy thing. Chuck and I are now trying to figure out how to paint or engrave the race name and date on them.

We made it to CP 15 where we were surprised by a Bike-O course, we plotted the points quickly and headed out for the points, they were actually pretty easy points, all on road, except for the last one, it was down a narrow trail. It didn’t take long and we were back to the TA and headed for the river. At this point Chuck stopped to check his map, Chuck is like a human Garmin, and we just follow him around blindly waiting for him to say “in 200 meters turn left”. Well as he was arranging the maps, I heard, not in a St Paul Chuck voice, but an Adventure Patrick voice, “Recalculating”, we just all busted out laughing, because it doesn’t get truer than that.

It took a while to get the canoes in the water, we had to first take the front wheels off our bikes and then load two bikes in each of the canoes and that was after carrying the canoes all the way down to the river.

We all quickly grabbed food while loading the canoes, I had a Honey Stinger Rocket Chocolate, but I saw sandwiches, nuts, HS gels and fruit cups out. Keith, who is not used to eating during a race, said, “I have never been so full during a race before”, it’s crazy how much food it takes to get through an Adventure Race.

Once we sucked down some food, we were loaded and ready to go, but no one was as ready as Jacob. You see Jacob has youth on his side, this may have been his first race, but when your 14 years old, it’s easy to be like the energizer bunny. At every CP, Jacob would be watching and as soon as the last team punched the CP, he would say “Ok, let’s go” and he was off. My gosh! he was up front next to Chuck almost the entire race. Plus he looked so cool in his XX2i glasses, I really think they made him faster.

On the water, things were going pretty well, except that at one point Judy and Vanessa were floating backwards down the river, then there was a little issue of T-boning Lori and Jenny at one of the CP’s, but hey, no one ended up in the water so all was well.

We were soon floating under a train trestle and there was a train on the tracks, I tried to get it to honk, but it just gave me a little beep, but get this when the 4 girls came under the train it blew the horn super loud. I’m kind of thinking that having Keith in my canoe was really cramping my style, how do you get the train engineer to give you a good toot with a guy in your canoe, it just doesn’t happen. In Keith’s defense, he was sort of doing all the work, paddling hard while I was busy taking pictures, so I guess having a guy in the canoe isn’t all bad.

We soon made it to the beach where we pulled our canoes out, put our wheels back on our bikes and also had a gear check. While in gear check everyone had to show their headlamp and Keith couldn’t find his, he poured his entire pack out and finally found it. You could just see him getting frustrated because he knew he had it. What is really funny is that Keith is the most organized guy you could possibly know, he is the guy that keeps it together for everyone else and to see him not find something was so crazy. I guess we all have those days, I just never thought Keith did.

So with gear check complete, we all passed, we started carrying the canoes up the hill. If I were going to whine about my tailbone this is where I would do it at, but since Lori trumped me with the whole chin incident, I guess I can’t whine. So we carried the canoes up the hill and lucky for me the boys felt sorry for my all but forgotten tailbone and grabbed my canoe and took it to the top of the hill. Thank you so much boys, that was really nice of you. The beach was really muddy, so there you go, you now know what a great day it was, because now we had mud and blood. But really, the mud was in all of our bike cleats and we had to stomp around and try to get it out so that we could clip in for the next bike section. It was kind of like a really bad rendition of River Dance.

So after all the dancing was done we were on the bike riding down the trail, we even passed the little train on the tracks with the conductor working on it.

Chuck: Stop right there! None of the men-folk were dancing, we stomped the mud out.

Patrick said he might want to throw his bike on the train and have that conductor take him to the finish. Oh, but we are not quitters so that never happened. I think Patrick was onto something though, he knew that the Alt Road hill lie ahead. I have ridden the Alt Road hill before and I knew it was bad, but I had kind of forgotten about it. You know like after having a baby, you say, I will never do that again, then, before you know it, the joy of the baby makes you forget the pain and you do it all over again. Well, it’s like that, the joy of finishing the Castlewood race of a few years back, took away the memory of how bad that hill was, but guess what, I along with my teammates got to live the glory of the Alt road hill again. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to forget how hard it was this time, well at least until the next time I do it. The good news is we all made it to the top without the use of an oxygen tank, Jacob staying right up front. Then we were afforded the glory of the ride down the other side of the hill, it was so great, I was rolling at over 30 mph. This was also the point where we found out the limits of youth, Jacob was finally wearing down, I think he said he was tired and he was riding further back in the pack. So it took 8 hours and 3 minutes, plus the Alt Road hill to put the hurt on Jacob. Next race, I think we should make Jacob ride Alt Road Hill right off the bat, maybe then we will have a little leverage.

It seemed like it took forever to ride to CP 22, but we finally made it and when we got there Jason, Laura and Carrie Sona were working the CP. We picked up a new trekking map, checked on time and joked around with Jason about not having enough reentrants on the course. If you had competed in the Berryman race, you would understand why this was a big joke, every single clue for the Berryman race was reentrant and reentrants are not always easy to find. We told Jason we knew he didn’t setup the course there wasn’t enough reentrants on it.

So we had 50 minutes to be through the finish line, so we headed out hoping to get 3 CP’s, but quickly found out that the team was dragging. As we headed into the woods, we saw Team SLU, who we happen to know as Andrew and Aimee coming out of the woods with all the CP’s, they wished us luck and headed to the finish line.

We trekked through the woods to the top of a very long steep hill and found the CP, Jacob, Jenny and I were the keepers of the passports all day, so we not so quickly punched the CP and decided to call it a day, better to get back with only one CP out of the bonus O-section then to miss the cutoff.

We all ran across the finish line with Jacob and Patrick sprinting it out to the end. What a motley crew we were.

So after some pizza and beer, it was cold diet coke courtesy of Mr Keith Timmins for me and Lori, the two Diet Coke Alcoholics on the team, we hung out and waited for awards, that is after I put on my brand new Wal-Mart clothes, yeah I was styling! Guess what, our girl’s team, ROCK Racing Rebels, won first place and picked up some great gear, including some cool Yurbuds.

I want to thank God for the great weather he gave us, the volunteers for spending their day working so we could race, Mr Timmins for the Diet Coke and Bonk Hard Racing for putting on such a great event.

One last thing, I think most of the team is hooked and will adventure race again, although one member said he would prefer to do it in the summer, because if we hadn’t been so lucky with the weather and had the cold and rain that came the next day, we may have lost him on the course.

Castlewood 8 Hour Adventure Race 2011

2011-12-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

On December 3rd, ROCK Racing’s Robin Rongey and Chuck Vohsen, held somewhat of an Adventure Racing clinic, well actually we got 8 of our closest non-adventure racing friends and talked them into competing in the Castlewood 8hr Adventure Race with us. This was the first adventure race for most of the team, and what a great team it was. The weather was perfect, the race was fantastic and teammates were the best we could ever ask for. I think everyone is now hooked on Adventure racing, so me and Chuck’s job is done.

If you would like to see the race from the view of the ROCK Racing teammates, take a look at the video, I think it’s Oscar worthy.

Castlewood 8 hour Adventure Race in 4 minutes
Check back soon, the Race Report is on the way.

Wishes Do Come True

2011-11-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

The coveted ROCK Racing shirts are here!

Trek Mountain Co-op Ride 2011

2011-11-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

As the end of 2011 neared, I wanted to hold another Trek Mountain Co-op Ride. My plan was to have a night ride on the GORC trails on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The problem was I was still recovering from a bad tailbone break and was really worried about crashing. I mean I can crash in the daylight, like I often do, but there is a much greater chance of me crashing in the dark. Because of that I decided that I should probably stick with a ride in the daylight.

I know that this time of the year is crazy for me and I’m sure it is for most other people too, so I decided that an early morning ride was best. Then we could stop for breakfast after the ride and everyone could still make it home with their whole day still in front of them.

At 7 am, we met at The Cyclery and Fitness, our favorite bike shop, and discussed how much air to put in our tires. Lucky for us, it was a really nice Saturday morning, and I mean nice, it was 50 degrees at the start of the ride and it was the 19th of November. Me and my gang of spandex adorned Mountain bikers headed out for some great single track riding. We had riders from all walks of life, all ages, singled, married, moms, dads, and of all abilities, expert to beginner. A few of the women were worried about being too slow and not skilled enough to ride with the gang. A few of them almost didn’t come, but I talked them into it. What is really funny is that they were all great, they tried everything and there were no crashes. In fact, I was a bit jealous, I wasn’t that good when I started mountain biking.

When we got to the trailhead, there were 4 more riders waiting for us, that made our group 14 riders in all.

We made a decision on route choice and sent the faster guys up front. We started riding through the single track that, by the way, was really in great shape, everyone riding at their own pace while grouping back up at trailheads.

The whole ride in 5 minutes, it’s almost like you’re there!
We had so much fun, we all challenged ourselves with the better riders giving advice to the newer riders on how to ride through the tougher technical areas. We all tried to ride over a large stack of logs, I know in the video the logs don’t look that big, but believe me they were much harder then they look.

About half way through the ride, Russ had a flat front tire. The thing is Russ recently cut his finger off and changing a tire with a pin sticking out the end of your finger is no small task, So Mark and Dan helped with changing the tire. What I found funny was if you notice in this photo, it was the GIANT that had the flat, not the TREK.

With the tire fixed we all headed back out to the hard trail so we could hit loops 5 and 6. When we got to the trial we waited for everyone to come off loop 4, as everyone rolled out of the single track, we noticed that Russ didn’t appear. We were quickly concerned, we didn’t want him crashing and messing up that finger, plus if he got hurt, his wife might kill me for talking him into this whole mountain bike thing. Mark rode back, and in just a few minutes rolled into sight again, Russ had a second flat on the back tire this time, his tire had been snake bit when crossing a creek bed with some concrete blocks in it. Where he flatted, he was on a part of the single track that was just a short bushwhack up a hill to a road. Russ decided that he was getting a sign from a greater power to get off the trails and he was not tempting fate anymore, so he pushed his bike to the road and had his son pick him up.

We felt bad for his luck, but not bad enough to go home with him, so we rode trial loops 2, 5 and 6 then headed back to town for some much needed breakfast. We lined up in Panera, and got frightened looks from the other patrons, it seemed as though they had never seen a spandex adorned mountain biker gang before. We had some great food and great conversation.

Russ even showed up, only not on a bike, but in his truck. He even pulled the splint off his finger and showed us the pin sticking out of his finger and all the stitches, it reminded me of Frankenstein. I almost felt bad whining about my tailbone hurting after seeing that. Well, not that bad, I still whined, in fact even today I’m still whining, go ahead call me wimpy.

Oh yeah and Mike W. told me that for a small fee, he will sign a release for me to use the likeness of him in my blog.

Thanks to everyone that came out to ride, it would not have been such a great ride without you. Thanks Trek for providing breakfast, we appreciate your support of the mountain biking community!

Icebreaker Clothing Review

2011-11-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

Report by Robin Rongey, with Chuck comments in red:

Chuck and I have been lucky enough to have trained and raced in Icebreaker gear all year long and now we want to give the gear a real life review. If you haven’t heard of Icebreaker it is a company in New Zealand that make technical clothing using Merino wool. I know what you are thinking, I went there too at first, how on earth can they make tech clothing out of wool. I’m sure you may have this preconception that wool is itchy, hot and heavy. Everyone in my generation thinks that because we were all forced to wear those heavy wool coats and sweaters as kids and the entire time we had them on we whined about them being itchy. When I was a kid, I would say, when I have kids, I’m not going to make them wear this stuff. You know what’s really funny, my two girls try to sneak and wear my Icebreaker gear, so much for my kids not wearing wool.

I laughed when I read that. So true! My Mom used to make me wear this one blue sweater when I was a kid. I hated it!

As for athletes when we think of wool we think of bike racers back in the day wearing the wool jerseys. I always think about Bob Roll and Team 7-11 wearing the wool jerseys and riding the steel frame bikes. Even though Bob Roll is one of my hero’s and retro everything is cool, I wouldn’t want to wear the wool of his day.

Today though, we don’t have to wear the wool from back in the day, we have Icebreaker Marino wool, it is soft to the touch, does not itch, keeps you dry, no matter how sweaty you get, it’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It never feels clammy, I know that when I sweat in the dry-fit, poly tech materials, I may feel dry while working out, but if I stop for even 30 seconds, I’m cold and clammy, it kind of feels like slime. For instance, If I head out on a 10 mile run, then walk around for a few minutes after finishing, my shirt will feel like slime when I pull it off.

Now, when I wear my icebreaker gear and do the same run, I never feel cold or clammy after stop and when I pull the shirt off, it may be damp, but there is no sliminess to it. Oh and it doesn’t stink, I might be crazy, but oh my gosh, any of my dry-fit clothing smells awful after a workout and in fact it pretty much smells awful a lot. I have tried washing my gear in every kind of detergent imaginable and it always has this smell, I can’t seem to get rid of it. My friends have told me that same thing about their gear, I don’t know why it holds the stench, but it does. I have been wearing the Icebreaker gear all year, and I wear it every time its clean, and it still smells fresh, no stench attached.

So let me get specific. I first tried the socks, bike shorts and bike jersey. The socks are the best socks I have ever worn, we even wrote a review about the socks because they are so great, you can see the review here for full details. I was a little worried about the bike gear, thinking it would be too hot, but like I said earlier, it is so breathable, it’s not hot at all. As for fit, the shorts fit so well, it’s like they mold to my body, I almost feel like I’m riding in a second skin, it almost makes me feel like I’m being bad riding naked. Both Chuck and I have worn the bike shorts so much, it’s a wonder that we don’t have holes in the butt of them.

Funny thing about the shorts is they fit a little odd when you are standing up putting them on, or getting ready to ride. But as soon as you are on the bike, they are perfect. I bet they were designed on a hunched over body model.

The jersey fits great also, and mine has a really great design without being too girly for me. We were even stopped during a race once and someone asked if we were wearing Icebreaker jerseys.

We also spent a lot of time in the base layer and running shorts and shirt. I would say of all the Icebreaker gear I own, my favorite is the base layer, it feels so good, fits like a glove and there is no chaffing anywhere. I wear it riding, running and I even wear it to the gym as a shirt. The design of it is so cool, with red stitching that really stands out, I have gotten a few cool shirt comments at the gym. The base layer paired with the bike jersey is as good as it gets during the workout.

As for the running shirt and shorts, I love the shirt, and I have never once ended up with chaffed under arms after a long run, which is an almost always occurrence with cotton or tech fabric. The running shorts have never chaffed my legs, and let me tell you, I have huge quads and no matter what I wear, I have to bath in bodyglide before I run and I still end up with chaffing. I have never once used bodyglide with the Icebreaker running shorts and I have never once been chaffed after any run, even long 20 mile runs. Again I wear these shorts every time they are clean, at least 2 or 3 times a week and they still look like new.

All the Icebreaker gear I have, washes well, wears well and when you touch it, you know that it is great quality. Those must be some high class sheep they get this wool from. I know I can go online and get the information about where the wool came from, that was used in the item I’m wearing, but really, all I care about is how it fits, how it wears and how it smells. Chuck on the other hand is a true engineer and he loves all the technical stuff, he can tell everything about the wool, he read up on it.

It’s true. I’m just geeky enough that I really did enter the BAA code to see where my shirt came from. Kinda cool knowing that.

This would not be a good review unless I talked about the hat and gloves, oh… my gosh, I love them. The hat especially, it fits great and is just the right length to cover my ears without covering my eyes. And when it’s really cold, my head is warm and the outside of the hat is covered with frost, so you can see how it wicks the wetness away. I don’t know if you can see it in this little photo, but there is frost on my hat.

The gloves are great too, if I had any negative to say, it would be on the fit, mine don’t fit my hand well, they are kind of loose, but I might just have the wrong size, because chuck’s fit him great. Here is a shot of Chuck and his wife Lori at the finish of the Checkpoint Tracker National Championship race in Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. I wish I were the one standing there with him in full Icebreaker gear, but if you had read my last few posts you would already know why I wasn’t. I broke my tailbone just days before the race and Lori graciously stood in for me. This is a really cool picture though and it shows just how reliant our team is in Icebreaker gear.

So one last thing, not only did we spend the entire year working out in Icebreaker gear, but we also did some just hanging out in it. I love V neck T-shirts and I was lucky enough to have a Black V neck Icebreaker shirt. It goes with everything, jeans, casual pants, dress pants even shorts. When my mom saw me wearing it, she said that is a really nice shirt, where did you get it. I said mom this is wool, she was so surprised, she couldn’t believe it was wool, she had to feel it and still wasn’t sure, I finally had to show her the tag and of course go online and show her how I could see where the wool came from by the ID number. Not much surprises my mom and not ever would she wear a shirt like mine, she thinks she is too old for what she calls kids fashion, but she said, I would wear a shirt like that. There you have it, Icebreaker got a thumbs up from my mom, now that is a true test of quality and style.

My overall rating for Icebreaker clothing is EXCELLENT, If I were to change anything it would be the fit of the glove. Don’t do anything else, this line of technical clothing is perfect, I’m not sure how it could get better.

The next thing on my agenda is to try an Icebreaker sports bra and running tights, I checked the website and they have them, if they are even half as great as the other gear, I will be in tech gear heaven.

Psycho 43 in 4 Minutes

2011-11-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

If you want to see the race first hand, take a look, it's almost like you're there.

Psycho 43

2011-11-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

Report by Robin Rongey, with Chuck comments in orange:

Dirty Kanza? HELL NO! Hahaha every race she swears off, ends up becoming her favorite. Anyone got a cross-bike for sale? Oh and I guess you want to know why I say this. Just fifteen days after a bad break to my tailbone, I along with my ROCK Racing Teammate, Chuck competed in the Psycho 43 in Milford Kansas. It’s a long story that starts like this.

Chuck and I registered for the Psycho Expedition Adventure race months ago, it was to be our last race of the 2011 Checkpoint Tracker series. The problem was when race day came, it was 15 days after I broke my tailbone and I was just barely starting to do very short workouts again and had not even attempted to sit on a bike. I had not been to the doctor since breaking it, but I did not want to miss the race and Chuck had no backup for me, so it was me or we both had to bow out. If you know me, you know I can’t walk away from any challenge. When I asked my manager at work for a vacation day, so I could go to the race, he said “I’m sure you are doing this AMA (against medical advice)”, I just smiled. It was better not to answer that. So I had a plan, I just had to get it past my doctor.

I saw the doctor on Thursday morning, where he told me I could start doing regular tasks as long as I could stand the pain, I took that to mean, I could do anything I wanted as long as I could deal with the pain. He was not real happy with me, but he said he knew I was going to race, so he told me what meds to take and when, and then he said “You are the toughest person I know”, but we all know, there is a very fine line between tough and stupid.
I bet the doctor was afraid to tell her no. Can't you just imagine her on the edge of the exam table ready to pounce on the poor guy and start choking him?

I went home that night and finished packing for the race, that was because I was so sure I was going, I had already packed my bike and camping gear in Chuck’s van. On Friday morning I met Chuck and we headed for Kansas, flat Kansas, as we believed it to be. Ha Ha, it is so funny to say now. I just want to know, who started the rumor that Kansas is flat, because they should be slapped. We drove through the Flint Hills and the barren prairie, talking of how this race was going to be so easy and we were going to finish in no more than 16 hours, although we had 20 hours to complete it. What is really laughable is, the entire time as we were making plans to smoke this race, I was wiggling around in my seat to try and get my tailbone to stop hurting, like it would magically be fine when I started racing. We drove past the Ft Riley Military Base and into Milford, still completely clueless to what lay ahead.

We went to the campground, setup our tents and headed for race check-in, where we received our maps, all six of them and some notes on changes to the race course due to impending weather conditions. It was expected to be incredibly windy on race day, so two canoe points on the big lake were cancelled, which put the race course mileage to 85 miles.

We started plotting maps, which usually takes us 1 to 2 hours, but there were so many points and only two of the six maps were of good quality, so it took 3 hours to plot the points. I hate blurry photocopy cardstock maps! Some of the points were hard to understand, so we conversed with Team Orange Lederhosen, who was also competing, they had similar questions, but we got it figured out.

We headed back to camp for a few hours sleep before the bike drop at 4:30 am.

I could not sleep, due to both nerves and one sore butt. I think I slept 15 minutes the entire night, plus it was freezing and I had not brought a warm enough sleeping bag. Apparently Chuck had the same issue, he was freezing all night and didn’t sleep well either. I’m now asking for a zero degree Big Agnes sleeping bag for Christmas this year. We made one last check of our packs and loaded the Supefly and Top Fuel in the truck at the bike drop, then headed to the starting line where we got last minute instructions and we then scrambled into a bus for a 45 minute bus ride due North. I couldn't stay awake at all for the bus ride, it just went on and on. This is when we realized that this race might be a little harder than we originally thought.

The first trekking section wasn’t too bad, but the issue we were having was that all the clues for the race, were just random items, like tall tree or boundary marker, not terrain descriptions, like you find in most adventure races, so it was a bit of a different animal for us. One of the clues was boundary marker. It ended up being this sign post. That kind of clue doesn't do much to help a team navigate. Give me a reentrant, creek bottom, or saddle any day.

One of the CP’s was on a cliff side overlooking the water and we could see the long bridge that we were going to have to cross in the coming hours, it looked very ominous with the wind howling, it almost made me shiver.

We finished the section and headed across the long bridge into 30 to 40 mph winds, it was wicked and we were running into it, we knew then that the wind was out of the southeast and we would have to head directly south and east to make it to the finish line. We were about a 1/3 of the way across the bridge when two trucks came from opposite directions and crossed right by us. Scary!

The next leg was the bike, I was not looking forward to it for two reasons, first I didn’t know how my tailbone was going to handle it and second we were told that this was the toughest single track section in the area with grueling rock gardens, that safety was first, so it might be a good idea to push the bike through some of the rocky sections. Once on the bikes we headed into the single track and quickly found that it was tough going, but we were doing alright and although my tailbone was hurting, it wasn’t awful. We picked up all the checkpoints and headed out to the road, my butt was thanking me for smooth pavement. Too bad we turned directly into the wind. It’s hard to explain just how hard the wind was blowing except to say, if we didn’t pedal on the downhill, we would have stood still, the wind was that strong, it may have even pushed us backwards up the hill. I seen tumbleweeds blowing by, and dust clouds were getting all stirred up. Good thing we remembered sunglasses.

The pavement didn’t last for long, soon we were riding on gravel and packed dirt roads for miles heading towards Ft Riley, picking up CP’s along the way. We rode mile after mile of heavy graveled road, not crushed limestone, but big rock that feels horrible on a broken tailbone. There were hills, one right after the next, the kind that are just far enough apart that you don’t get any momentum on the downhill to help with the next uphill. Chuck helped as much as possible by riding out front and letting me stay in his draft, but even with that, it was such an effort to get through the wind, that my tailbone was screaming and I was struggling to keep moving forward. I had no idea that this race would be more like an Epic Gravel Grinder rather than an adventure race, if I had, I may have used the old broken tailbone excuse and stayed home. By now it was after noon and we needed to eat, but we couldn’t stand out in the wind, so we found a nice storm drain to sit in and have lunch. Adventure racing takes us to the most scenic places.

Although, the day started out with temperatures in the 30’s, it had warmed up nicely, but due to the strong winds, we needed to keep warm without getting overheated. Lucky for us we were both wearing our Icebreaker base layer which kept us warm in the wind and dry even though we were sweating from working so hard to ride into the wind gusts. I can’t say enough about how great Icebreaker stuff is, if you haven’t tried it, you really need to.

Finally we reached Ft Riley, we signed in and headed to the next CP, but we had to keep stopping because Chuck was picking up used artillery and putting it in his pocket.

I have no idea why he wanted the stuff, but I was secretly glad that every time he stopped to pick something up, I got to get off my bike seat for a few seconds. Cmon! thats 50cal brass with machine gun clips, it don't get cooler than that! geez girls. We even made a couple turns to the west, they were just short stretches of gravel road, but it gave us a little bit of a tailwind, unfortunately, it also gave us a strong cross wind, so there were a couple times for both of us where we were thrown sideways across the road by the wind. My only thought was, if I go down I hope I land on my shoulder and not my tailbone, better to have a broken collar bone then to land on my tailbone and make it any worse, plus I knew if I landed on my head, I would be fine, my Hardnutz helmet had already saved my noggin a couple times this year, so I was sure if I hit my head it would be fine. Some might say that it would be fine because there was nothing in it, but don’t believe that.

When we hit the checkpoint we were told that we missed the cutoff, so we would have to skip the next 3 points and head to CP46. That meant more miles of gravel, hills and wind. I was now on the verge of tears, but was trying to hold them in. My tailbone hurt so bad that I just wanted to scream, not that anyone would have heard me with the wind howling like it was. Heck, we couldn’t even hear cars coming up on us and one pulled up next to Chuck and scared him so bad, that I was a little worried he might crash, but he kept his wheels on the road. Besides seeing all the artillery on the road we also saw a giant snake, I’m just glad Chuck didn’t want to bring it back with him.

At CP46, we sat down and ate a Honey stinger waffle and hashed out our go-forward plan. Although my Trek Top Fuel was really grabbing the gravel, and the shocks were taking the brunt of the beating, my tailbone pain level was about past my limit and we both knew that I wasn’t going to make it anywhere fast, and if I didn’t get off that bike soon, Chuck may have been taking me to the emergency room for some really good pain meds. The plan: We would ride the 7 or so miles back to race HQ and from there do the trek to the Xterra Challenge and the mystery event, then pick up all the trekking points that were left, excluding those that we would have to bike too.

The Xterra challenge was really cool, we had to use a rope to pull a Nissan Xterra SUV across a parking lot. It’s funny how much work your tailbone does, who knew almost everything you do uses your butt, I felt every step of that challenge. Oh of course since I was doing all the work pulling the SUV while chuck was playing movie producer, it was probably much harder than it should have been. And to top it off, the movie he made while pulling the car, didn’t even come out good enough to use in this blog.

Next we were off to the mystery challenge, and guess what it was, whatever you just guessed I’m sure it is wrong. It was Karaoke, this is not a challenge that Chuck or I wanted to take part in. We both bucked up, and sang “Sweet Home Alabama”, it was probably the worst rendition ever. There was certainly no applause for us. Team Torti was up next and they knocked it out of the park with this awesome performance:

So after that crazy challenge we headed out on a trek for the last of the CP’s. Finally finishing at the Anchor Inn, where we had hot pizza and cookies.

We chatted with Team Torti for a while, hit the showers that were nice and hot and headed back to camp for some well-deserved rest, lucky for us, the night was a little warmer and we both dressed in every clean item of clothing we had with us, including our recovery socks, so sleep would be much warmer this time. The night continued to be windy, so windy that I thought I was in OZ, but come to find out, it was just the shock waves from a 5.7 Earthquake in Oklahoma.

I’m very glad I attempted the race, It wasn’t our best performance, but we did everything we could to make it work and we finished. Going into this race we both agreed that we would do whatever it took to finish and not worry about how fast. With that said, I guess we did exactly what we set out to do, like always, it was team work, I couldn’t have done it without Chuck.

Ok, I gotta add something else here. The girl spent this whole race in the Pain Cave. All of us endurance racers have been in there before at some time or other. So we all know how tough it can be to keep focused and pushing forward. I have to say I was absolutely impressed with her ability to keep going when I know that butt pain was BAD. I heard her moan and gasp a few times, and seen some glassed over eyes but I never saw a tear. I don't know if you call it perseverance, indomitable spirit, toughness, or just stubborn beyond belief. Whatever it is, the girl has it, and I was taken to school.

Now how do I get some more pain meds from the doctor without having to admit that he was right, my butt was not ready to race yet.

2011 Checkpoint Tracker Championship Race

2011-11-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Team ROCK racing was looking forward to this race all year. We had adventure raced in LBL several times before and are somewhat familiar with this great wilderness area. The race was being produced by Bonk Hard. They are top-notch race directors, so we knew this was going to be the race of the year. We signed up the first day registration was open.

About a month before the race the UPS guy showed up at my house with a box from Swiftwick. It contained two pairs of socks, and two pairs of arm-warmers. All registered racers got the gift box. Very cool.

Unfortunately the best made plans go astray. Robin was injured during the Warrior Dash only 4 days before the race start. She begged, pleaded, and probably threatened the doctors, but bone breaks of that significance are not something to mess with. She would not be able to compete. Her injury story is here.

Luckily, my wife had spent most of the summer cycling and was in great shape for her first adventure race. The original plan was for her to continue training the rest of the year and make the Castlewood-8hr her first race. But, we made some last minute changes and Lori was on the team. (Lori added race comments throughout the report in red). We loaded up the adventure van and made the drive to KY with Robin following in her own car. She decided that even if she couldn’t race, she wasn’t going to miss all the fun. So she was going to be a race volunteer. You can read her Championship Non-Race report here.

We checked in at race HQ and then checked into the Lake Barkley State Park Lodge. This place was perfect for a race HQ. Nice rooms, a restaurant, workout rooms, racquetball, and Wi-Fi. My kids would be able to keep themselves entertained and fed while the parents raced.
p.s. they are teenagers, it's not like we left toddlers running around, unattended to get into trouble... oh, yeah, they're teenagers, nevermind...

One of the women at check-in mentioned something about driving to the race start, so we delayed unloading bikes and gear. Pre-race dinner was scheduled to begin at 5. I’ve learned at other races to never be late for food. So we got to the dining room right at 5 and checked out the awesome looking buffet as we found a place to sit. I looked around the room some and seen lots of racers I recognized. Then at the table next to us I saw Ian Adamson, the world famous adventure racer! This was going to be a great event. The food turned out to be fantastic. Best pre-race food I ever had, and plenty of it!
Chuck forgot the most important part of the meal...dessert! They had apple and cherry cobbler w/ icecream, yum...

After eating way too much, we went to the pre-race meeting. Robin said it was ok to eat 2 desserts because I was racing tomorrow. It started at 8 and I got there early too. I think this is the only time I’ve remembered to bring a paper and pencil with me. So I made a few notes like:

Red trails at Energy Lake are not correct.

We are allowed to portage at CP35.

The Trace highway is off-limits except to cross

Jason answered all of the racer questions and ran through the race rules and gave us some safety cautions. Then he called for team captains to come up to the front and get maps and cluesheets. We picked up two 1-24,000 maps and a cluesheet with 37 checkpoints. As other racers were still picking up maps, I was checking mine out. Whoa, this was going to be a long paddle. Then I spotted a 10hr limit on the second orienteering leg. That is the longest one I’ve ever seen. At least it wasn’t all reentrants like last month’s Berryman.
Now I have been to some of the pre-race meetings before, but never as a participant. Always tying to figure out where Chuck and Robin were going to be and try to get some good pictures of them. That's what I know how to do, try to find them at one checkpoint or another and take pictures. As I sat there looking at all the checkpoints, I was really wondering how I was going to survive? I can do this. He knows how slow I am going in, so no surprise there. I just had to stay awake and on my feet and just keep moving. No problem, right? I can do this... I was hoping that I would soon believe what I was telling myself. It helped as other racers who knew what had happened and how I got there, would offer words of encouragement. They said I would be fine...
Jason told us we’d be getting more maps and checkpoints at the bike transition. We were told to be ready on the start line at 6:45, with a race start at 7:00. The race crew and volunteers would transport our bikes to the TA at CP37 for us after the race started. We left the pre-race meeting and went back to the room to do last minute gear checks and plot maps.

I showed Lori the plotting method that works so well and we made quick work of plotting the points. Then we busted out the highlighters and planned the route we would use to attack the individual points. Once we started plotting the big second O-section it was obvious that we would not get all the points. I plotted a route to about 14 of the 22 points, taking in the most concentrated areas and easiest to get. The canoe points would be easy to find, but there was a lot of distance between them, not much route choice there. Once all the maps were plotted and folded up in the map-case, we tried to get some sleep.

Both (haha yeah I know) alarms went off right as planned. I hugged my kids and told them not to burn the place down or anything while we were gone, and drove down to the start line at the lake Barkley State Park Beach.
I was starting to get a little nervous, I mean I knew I would return because Chuck had to have a partner with him to finish. I was fairly certain that he would not leave me in the woods. I mean he would drag my body back across the finish line if he had to. DNF really isn't in his vocabulary...
We parked bikes and gear in the designated area and went over to the start area.

Jason gathered us all up for the National Anthem and a prayer. All of the Bonk Hard races start like this, very cool. I’m not sure who did the prayer, but it was great and started like this: “Dear God, thank you for bringing us all together to this beautiful lake that was created by you and the Army Corp of Engineers….”

Jason had us all line up under the start line, it was about to start. The photographers came out to get some last minute pictures. Then, the evil race directors pulled a last minute change on us. “Everyone grab paddles and PFD’s, then line up again.” Haha, only in adventure racing! We grabbed the gear and re-lined up. We were being sent out for a short fast paddle leg around the beach swim area, then run into the first O-section.

The race started and it was chaos, racers dodging all over to get in the boats and then frantic paddling to make the small loop and get back on the beach. O
Ok, all was going according to plan. We had not capsized, still fairly dry and made it back to shore! Yeah! Then it hit me.... I still had 30 hours of this fun to go!

I bet they got some great pictures. We paddled past Ian Adamson in one of the course marker canoes and I swear he was sitting there laughing at the madness.

Once out of the water we trekked into the O-section and were rewarded by running directly into all three of the CP’s.

Lori was impressed. Her old man really can find checkpoints.
I really do have to say that I was impressed with his navigational skills. He led us straight to them as if he had been there before, this is kinda funny because he gets lost in the Mall!

We came out of the woods and found a good canoe. A couple of them had broken handles, and a couple other had broken seat backs, so it was good to be choosy here.

Navigating on rivers is easy, you just follow the water. It gets more difficult on lakes, especially big lakes. From water level, islands can look like a shoreline, and a peninsula can look like an island. But this was early in the morning with bright sun so we didn’t have any trouble, except for the wind. 10mph and straight on in our face for the whole 8K paddle leg into the LBL wilderness area. We made good time and only got passed by one 2p male team. When we were about 500m meters off the western shoreline we crashed into a sandbar. It was a surprise and seemed totally out of place.
I had noticed another canoe heading south and thought "why are they going that way?" Once we hit the sandbar that was only under water by about 6 inches it became clear. I wasn't about to question the master...

We paddled around a little and found a way through the shallow areas without having to get out and push. Then we crossed energy lake cove to the canoe takeout, we dragged the canoe out of the lake, stamped our CP, and trekked to the TA to begin the second O-section.

The TA for the second O-section was at the guest center for the Energy Lake campground. They had a lighted building with water and tables and chairs. Team Virtus was there volunteering, they punched our passport and gave us our time to be back. Those guys were really funny This section had a 10 hr time limit, we would have to be back by 9:06 tonight or take some wicked penalties. We headed out and found the first 2 CP’s right where we plotted them.

The attack plan for the third point was to follow a bearing across a wide low area with no contour in the land. It was kind of risky following a bearing that long, but it was the only reasonable option. The bearing led us through the thickest brush and thorns we seen the entire race. After what seemed like forever we climbed up onto the road we were shooting for and turned East. I was suddenly so hungry. The kind of hungry you only get during long adventure races. Lori took my picture when I found a perfect snack.

So right after my snack we another team heading West on the road. They hadn’t found the CP yet and were convinced that we were too far East. I had a different opinion, and after comparing maps we separated. A few years ago this would have really messed with my navigation. I guess I’ve gotten confident enough now to go my own way. This time it paid off, we found the CP right where it was plotted about 5 minutes later.

We were close to the next CP when we ran into Bill from Mid Rivers Adventure. He is a fantastic adventure racer and navigator. He was racing solo this weekend because his teammate had a last minute injury.

After gathering a couple more CP’s we started the long trek back toward the TA. We stopped on the way and picked up CP 13 just after dark.

When we arrived at the TA there were a bunch of teams putting on rain gear, eating and filling water bladders. We got through transition quickly and trekked down to the canoe put-in.

The canoe was amazing. LBL is dark, no lights anywhere, the sky was clear, the moon wasn’t up yet, so we could see all 100 billion stars. The paddle was straight forward, about 6 miles, with two CP’s before the take-out. We got them both and even managed to stay dry during the short portage.

It was about midnight when we got off the water and started a 2.5 mile trek to the bike transition. We had to carry our paddles for the next couple legs of the race. I was a little worried about this part, because they are two-piece paddles. I strapped them up in my Osprey Talon pack, and it was like they weren’t even there. They carried perfect.

About halfway through the trek we heard several packs of coyotes howling across the hills to each other. It was totally cool. I tried to record them with my camera, but it didn’t come out. It really made you feel surrounded by the ‘wild’ and helped make the adventure.

The bike TA volunteers were from team Orange Lederhosen. They had a giant fire going and were keeping busy with all the racers coming through. We armed up for a few minutes and got the bikes ready to go. We rolled away from the TA at 1:30.

The long hours and miles were starting to put a hurting on Lori. She had really toughed this race out so far. She had been road riding all summer, but had not trained for a race of this length. She is also pretty new to mtn biking and had never ridden in the dark. We decided to cut the bike leg short and not risk injury or a DNF out on the LBL single-track. We were back by the Orange Lederhosen fire by about 3:00am. We ate some more, warmed up, and Lori got in a short nap.

By this time it was really cold, my bike computer said 37 degrees, and we were still wet from the canoe leg. I pulled my Icebreaker gloves off to dry them by the fire a little and was surprised by how cold my hands were without them. They had been keeping me warm even though they were wet from paddling. Wool is amazing! We were both wearing Icebreaker base layers too. It worked so perfectly. Over 65 degrees and sunny in the afternoon, wet and 37 degrees at night. That’s a huge temperature difference to expect one baselayer to handle, but the Icebreaker does it excellently. Lori was wearing an Icebreaker hat and baselayer. I’m glad her hat was such a bright color, made it easy to keep track of her in the woods.

We rode out in the dark toward the canoe transition. The paddles rode nicely in the pack again. I wont be so worried about carrying them in the future. When we got close to the ramp we could see the fog. We got off the bikes and stacked then in the designated area. They would be transported back to the finish by race staff. We decided that it would not hurt our race results to wait out the fog and dark until the sun came up. We waited by the fire for about a ½ hour, then there was some light getting into the sky. We loaded up the canoe, checked the map, and headed out on an East bearing.

This fog was so thick, we couldn’t even see the side s of the cove we were in. I’d guess we had about 20ft visibility. Staying on the East bearing was difficult, each time I checked the compass we were off. We eventually caught a 2 person female team. They were trying to find a way through the mid-lake sandbars. We worked together with them and found a way through without getting out to push. They were on the same heading as us so we kind of stayed together.

A four-person team caught us. They were paddling hard. It was Bushwacker. They are awesome racer, so I thought it would be best if we did this foggy lake crossing in a little group. We paddled really hard to hang on to Bushwacker and the other 2p team. Lori thought her arms were falling off. When the sun came through in little patches I spotted the state park marina. Finally! After an hour of paddling I found our first landmark. We lost Bushwhacker, but continued on into the finish line just fine on our own.

Robin was the first one there to get our picture with the foggy background and give a congratulations. We had our picture taken by this pro photographer, and made out way over to the food.

Game faces

Smiles

I was glad to see the Bonk Hard baked potatoes under the finish line canopy. They always taste so good after a long race. Then the volunteer scooped a couple of spoonfuls of chili in there and I threw a handful of cheese on top. Man it was great.

After a short afternoon nap we met Robin and my kids for the post-race banquet and award ceremony. It was top-notch, white table cloths, waiters, waitresses, bartender, and giant buffet. The food was great. There was some gear giveaways, that I wasn’t lucky enough to win, but they were great prizes.

Ian Adamson showed some race videos and answered questions. I learned a few race tips from him that we will have to try out. Then the CEO of Swiftwick came out and gave away some socks to everyone with a tattoo. This was a great weekend! Lori completed her first adventure race, my kids didn't destroy the lodge, and ROCK Racing scored some points for the 2011 series. I can't wait for next year! They announced that the race will be in West Virginia and will include ropes and white water rafting.

CPT Nationals the Non-Race

2011-10-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

So why do I call it the non-race, because for me that’s what it was. If you have read my previous blog post you would know that I broke my tail bone, just six days prior to Nationals. So for six days I laid on the couch taking pain pills and crying every time I thought about missing nationals. If you know me, you know the entire time I was crying I was trying to find a way to go to nationals, and I finally found a way. No there was still no way I could compete because I could barely walk, but I did find a way to be at the race.

I emailed Jason, the race director, and asked if he would have a volunteer spot open where I would not have to walk much, and he quickly replied that he had a spot for me at race headquarters, which was the start and finish line along with CP 4. Next I had to find a way to get there, I couldn’t ride with Chuck because his family was going and there was no room, so we planned on him stopping at my house and me following him, and if I couldn’t drive, we would pull over and he or his wife Lori would drive my van. It was a good plan and it worked out well.

We made it to Lake Barkley in Kentucky and although I had tears in my eyes a few times because I wanted to compete so badly, I keep thinking at least I’m in the middle of all the excitement. Lori was my stand-in for the race and this would be her first adventure race and it was 30 hours to boot. So I would be the cheerleader and team photographer at this race.

We all signed in Chuck and Lori for the race and me as a volunteer. We checked into the hotel which was fantastic, my room looked out onto the Lake, it was beautiful.

We all headed to the pre-race meal it was the best meal I have ever had at a race.

Next we went to the racer meeting where the racers got their maps and instructions, then were sent off to plot points before the race start.

I stayed for the volunteer meeting where I got my instructions and found out that I would be working with Jollett and Beth at race HQ. We would be recording times as the teams came through CP4, and then when they finished. We were also in charge of making the coffee, hot chocolate and chili for the racers when they finished the race. Lucky for us, Beth’s husband Martin helped out also, so we had plenty of backups if anyone needed to leave during the race.

At 6:00 on race morning I was at HQ helping with setup and strategically placing my lawn chair to see all the action. I was sitting out on the beach with the bikes to the right of me and the canoes to the left of me.

The race would start with a run across the beach to grab the paddling gear and run out to the canoes where they would do a quick paddle and land back on the beach to start a trekking section. The racers took off and made the first paddle loop really quickly then headed out on foot.

After an hour teams started coming back in, so I had to put down my cold diet coke and get to work.

I would yell the time and team number, while Beth would document it.

Jollett was busy using the cow bell to try and lead the racers to the tent, so she could punch their passport.

A few hours later we sent the last racers out on the second paddle, we tried unsuccessfully to call the lodge to turn in times so we had to change the plan and start texting the times in. Since that was one thing I could do without much movement, it became my job. Once we had all the times reported, we had many hours of nothing. Jollett took a drive to the airport to pick up one of the racers girlfriends, and Beth and Martin took their son into Murray to do some skateboarding. I had nothing pressing to do, so I just hung out at HQ and watched the guys move truckloads of bikes to the bike drop. I also spoke with random people who wondered what was going on. I spent a lot of time explaining adventure racing. Most people thought it was crazy, but they wanted to know everything about it. I might have even converted a few non-athletes into adventure racers.

At almost midnight I went back to the hotel for a few hours sleep before the racers started finishing. When I came back to HQ at 6 am Saturday morning, two teams had already finished, Wedali, a four person team and I soloist, who I happened to know, Bill Stevens.

So I went back to sitting and waiting, my tail bone was killing me so I also spent some time laying on the picnic table.

It was really foggy out and we could hardly see the water, but we kept ringing the cow bell hoping the racers in the canoes could hear us.

Soon a few more teams came in and then I saw them, it was Chuck and Lori and they were smiling, I was so happy for them, I thought I might cry. They ran up through the finish line and I knew they had fun, they weren’t yelling divorce threats or anything, they were just two happy racers, finished with a long hard race.

While Chuck and Lori ate baked potatoes and chili, I continued logging in times and reporting them via text messages. Chuck and Lori headed to the hotel for a much deserved shower and nap, while I stayed and waited for the last racers to appear. The fog had finally cleared early in the afternoon and I took a few pictures of the beautiful scenery.

So race day ended and I got some really great schwag for volunteering, actually more than the competitors got. I was given a pair of HI-TEC running shoes, a cool fleece jacket, a pair of Swiftwick socks and a really great Checkpoint Tracker ball cap. I made out like a bandit. Maybe I should think about being a volunteer instead of a racer in the future. Well… maybe not, I could never give up adventure racing, no stupid broken tailbone will stop me.

Warrior Dash 2011

2011-10-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

I decided that there was no way I could possibly write a blog post that could give the Warrior Dash press that it deserves. So this will be a video blog dedicated to the race that beat me. Oh, so you want to know how it beat me. Let me try and give you the story before my keyboard explodes due to the tears flooding it. Yep, you read that right, the tears. When I say the race beat me, well it really did.

I entered the race to run with my daughter China, who is a cheerleader not a runner, but she can really run, so this would be a piece of cake for her.

The race started and all went well, we were having a great time, the obstacles were so much fun, even though they were too high for my liking. China went first and coached me over all the tall obstacles since I’m afraid of heights. Telling me not to look down and telling me I could do it. This is the funny part, I got over all of them only shaking a few times too. We ran to the finish line, making it through the fire pit without catching ourselves on fire and slid right into the mud pit.

Lori and Chuck were with us with Michelle not far behind.

We all swam through the mud pit and slide down the muddy hill to the finish. Of course Beer Man and Beer Girl had already finished because they had an earlier start time than we had, they were already in the Beer tent living up to their names.

The WWF wrestlers finished just in front of us also, they looked awful tough, and there was no way I was going to pass them.

I know what you’re thinking what could have gone wrong, well, during that last ten yards when I was sliding down the mud hill, guess what, there was rock sticking out of the mud, it wasn’t big and I didn’t even see it until it was over. Yep, I hit my butt right on that rock, while I was sliding along pretty fast, it hurt so bad I was not sure I was going to keep my breakfast down. I got up and put a smile on my face and got my medal and a few pictures. You would think with all the junk in my trunk there would have been no way this could have happened, I still can’t believe it, this will go down in “Robin Stupid Things” history. In just a few minutes it started hurting so bad I could hardly walk, it almost killed me to jump in the lake to get the mud off. With China’s help I got some dry clothes on, but it was all downhill from there.

After I was home I took a shower to get the rest of the mud off, then went to urgent care, where I asked the doctor, to please tell me I was being a big baby and just to buck it up. Stupid doctor, he just said “sorry, but you have a really bad break in your coccyx, which is the bottom of the spine otherwise known as the tailbone, and you need surgery.

So I had to wait until Monday to see an orthopedist, where he told me the same thing and told me how lucky I was and that there was NO WAY that I could race at Nationals on the next Friday. So my crying from the pain turned into uncontrollable sobbing because I would have to miss Nationals. I tried every way possible to talk him into letting me race, but it was a BIG FAT NO . So right now, I’m in the middle of a pity party, tears and all, still trying to figure out a way to go to Nationals. I know one day I will laugh about this, but for now I’m trying to estimate the number of tears I have lost, since that’s about the only thing going into my workout log for a while.

Trek Superfly 100 Review

2011-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

It may not be love at first ride, but it will end in LOVE
By Trek Mountain Girl

Superfly 100

I LOVE MY SUPERFLY! But it was not love at first ride for me. Since the Superfly doesn't come in a model designed specifically to fit women, I had to make some modifications. I swapped saddles for a women's specific saddle, and swapped the Bontrager Big Sweep handlebars for one more specific to my size and last but not least the Bontrager 29-2 tires that came on the bike were not suited for the Midwestern trails of mud, roots and large river rock, so I swapped them for knobbier tires and made them tubeless so I could ride with lower air pressure.
My favorite bike shop made all the changes possible and had me back on the trails in no time. If you ever make it to Edwardsville, Illinois, you should stop at The Cyclery and Fitness, I'm sure you would like it as much as I do.

I had to get over a learning curve going from Shimano to SRAM shifters, but now that I have gotten used to the push-push activation, I love it. The shifting is smooth, solid, and predictable. On my previous bike I had to 'feel my way' into the gear changes. With the new SRAM, I just click and it's there. This leaves me focusing on the trail and the competition instead of shifting.

My hands are pretty small so I really appreciated the adjustability of the Avid Elixir R hydraulic brakes to let me set up the reach from the handle to the bar so it was customized to my finger length and angle.

I got the Fox F29 fork and Fox Float RP-2 rear shock dialed in on air pressure so I float over trail obstacles without ever losing the feel of the trail. I love the 2-position pro-pedal option on the rear. I can let it soak up big bumps when bombing down hills or flick it to pro-pedal for more stability on climbs.

The frame is stiff in all the right places. I never feel flex when leaning into a tight turn or when really applying power to the pedals. I think the stiffness comes from the giant E2 head tube with the large diameter bottom bearing.

The 110/100 mm travel in the suspension is just right for the cross country racing and the adventure racing that I do. Any more length would just add extra weight, and any less would impact my comfort level (which gets to be very important in 24 hr races).

I am also happy that for the 2011 year Trek added some carbon armor on the down tube in front of the crank, and along the chain stay. Both of these areas are so easy to damage on the rocky trails in eastern, MO. I know mine have taken some good hits and there is no damage.

I know you are waiting to find out about my final thoughts on the Superfly. This is why I now LOVE my SUPERFLY in less technical terms.

1. It rolled over every rock and root, like they weren't even there.
2. I flew up and down the hills like I was riding the flat, it just rolled smooth as butter.
3. I never once felt the saddle, it was like I was sitting on air, thanks Andy!
4. The handle bars felt like they were made specifically for my build.
5. The tires grabbed the dirt and just took me where I wanted to go.
6. After banging the down tube on more rocks than I want to think about there was no damage to the bike.
7. With the float dialed in just right, my lower back was not sore at all.
8. My hands felt great because I wasn't reaching for the shifters and the brakes, they were right were they needed to be.
9. It was the bike that everyone told me it would be. I was almost too happy for words by the end of the ride.

So it might not have been Love at first ride, but it is definitely LOVE now.

Crest ZTR Review

2011-10-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

I've always got my eye out for a good deal, especially when it comes to race gear and bike parts. I've bought parts and frames from Ebay, Craigslist and from individuals in bike forums. I've met sellers in parking lots, movie theatres, trail heads and gas stations.

So when I seen the ad for a pair of Stan's ZTR Crest 29in wheels, I immediately set up a meet at a local gas station. They were in such great shape, I could have been convinced that they had never even been ridden on. We agreed on a price and I took my new treasure home.

A few days after the Berryman Adventure race I pulled the Bontrager wheels off of my Superfly 100 and started the swap. The first thing to do was remove the disk brake rotors. They are held on with six T-20 Torx head screws.

The next thing up was to remove the 10 speed Shimano cassette. Easy to do once you have the right tools.

A cassette removal socket with guide pin:

And a chain whip:

Then it was simple to transfer the removed parts to the new wheels. The only things to watch on the brake rotors are to keep them clean and pay attention to the direction of rotation. I torqued each screw in a star pattern with a new application of blue Loctite.

Be careful when moving the cassette, it is a stack of spacers and rings that could get confusing if you mix them up. I lifted the stack off the old wheel and moved it to the new wheel without setting it down. I put a light coating of synthetic grease on the rear wheel hub to prevent it from seizing over time, and installed it with the same tools I used to removed it.

The Stan's yellow rim strip and tubeless valve looked great. They were in perfect shape and had been installed perfectly. I got my hopes up that I wouldn't have to fight with getting the tires to seal in a tubeless set-up. While I was doing this I noticed that the ZTR's have 32 butted (1.7 / 2.0) black stainless spokes per wheel, the Bonty's I was replacing only had 28. This is cool. I get a much lighter wheel set (1575 grams) with more 4 more spokes per wheel (more spokes = stronger and easier to straighten when I eventually bend one).

I pulled the Kenda Slant Six tire off of the Bonty old rim using a couple of Park Tool tire levers.

I got them fitted onto the new ZTR wheels without any hassle. Remember these tires are directional, so check before you install them or you are going to make a mess with the sealant when you have to take them off.

I put two cups of Stan's sealant in each tire, after shaking the bottle good to make sure the rubber particles were well suspended.

I should patent my invention for seating tubeless tires. In the picture below you can see it. The 1/4 diameter automotive vacuum hose and small hose clamp work great with the nozzle on my air compressor. The tires popped onto their beads and sealed instantly. The other two set of wheels I've set up tubeless before this leaked for up to two weeks before finally sealing. (As I write this - a week after set-up- I still haven't had to add air)

Now with the work completed it was time to ride! I took the bike to Indian Camp Creek. It is a fairly easy local trail with a good mix of creek bottom flats and easy climbs. It is a great trail to ride fast. I took off through the winding tight turns in the creek bottoms and I could tell right away that the wheels were light and fast. My confidence in the wheels grew fast and soon I was leaning through the dusty corners trying to feel any flex in the wheels. There wasn't any.

While I was riding, I noticed that the tires looked fatter on these wheels. They are the 29 x 2.0 size, but they looked fatter than some other 2.1 tires I have ridden. I looked on Stans website and found out why: ZTR wheels use Bead Socket Technology, which is a fancy name for a lower bead hook height combined with a wider rim (24.4mm). The bead design allows the tire to stretch out to a more natural rounded shape and reduces sidewall flex. No wonder I was feeling so fast in the corners!

I rode over to the smallish climbs these trails have and rode up them easily. I was able to lift the front wheel over obstacles without a problem. I can't wait to get these wheels out to some trails that have some real climbing (ie Matson Hill).

The tubeless Kenda Slant Six tires were hooking up incredible! I had the tire pressure at 28 rear and 26 front. It felt just right for my 170 lbs. I didn't expect to feel increased traction from a wheel change, but it's there all the same. It must be from the reduced rim height/increased width combination.

Both hubs are Stan's 3.30. The rear has a different sound than any previous wheels I've ridden on. When freewheeling it sounds like a rattlesnake. Kinda funny, I guess I'll get used to it. For now I'm going to take it to mean that I'm getting good multi-point pawl engagement.

The ZTR Crest wheel is really light weight so it is recommended for cross country and light trail use with a maximum rider weight of 190 lbs. Sounds perfect for adventure racing where a lot of the riding is gravel/dirt roads. I'll get a few long races on them this fall and find out what they will be like long term. So far they look like winners!

Photo Friday

2011-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Berryman Adventure 36hr 2011

2011-09-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

I decided months ago that this was the year to try the 36hr version of the Berryman. It turned out to be on the same weekend that Robin had committed to being the Director for the Miles for Meso 5K in Alton, IL. Click here for her blog report. So that left me looking for a teammate, fortunately a friend suggested I get in touch with Megan. I sent her an email and we met on a group run at Lost Valley, she was obviously an adventurer at heart and agreed to do the Berryman race with me. We trained together a couple of times over the summer, and raced together at Conquer Castlewood.

As race day got closer Jason sent out a couple of email and FB posts looking for volunteers. Lori and my boys decided they would volunteer at the race and would even take one of the remote overnight camping transition spots. She has some great stories to tell about the weekend. I'm going to try and talk her into doing a guest blog post about it.

The drive to the race was in a VERY full adventure van. All of my usual race gear and all the camping gear for Lori and the boys. When the van was fully packed I hooked up the bike rack only to find out that my Superfly doesn't fit on the 90 year old POS rack. I gotta get one of the new KUAT racks. So everything had to be unloaded then repacked all around the bike.

Finally made it to BASS and set up camp and went to the campground office for the pre-race meal, pasta, salad, chicken, and awesome brownies for desert.

I went over to racer check-in and found out that my friend Lo (an awesome mtn biker) was volunteering for the race as well. The pre-race meeting started right on time. We walked down to it a few minutes early and got a good seat. They did a cool demonstration with some Lights and Motions lights, they turned off all the pavilion lighting and held up a checkpoint flag in the dark then someone turned on a headlamp to let us see it. Jason gave us all the race info and an 11pm start time. The volunteers passed out maps and clue sheets.

The terrain feature that gives me the hardest times when navigating is always reentrants. So "We are going to die out there" was in the front of my mind when I looked at the cluesheet:

Megan and I worked on a picnic table in lantern light, quickly plotting the 37 checkpoints from the cluesheet onto the map, and then used our usual highlighter method to draw in some route choices. There were several places on the plan where we kind of took our best guess and decided we would make the final decision during the race depending on how we felt and what the actual terrain looked like when we got there.

Since I had such a bad time with blisters at Thunder Rolls I was determined not to go through that again. I had done some research and found out that a lot of adventubre racers use Hydropel as a lubricant and water-proofer. I was testing it this race. I pulled the tube out of the first aid kit and lubed my feet up and put on my socks and shoes then headed to the start line.

The race started right on time with the national anthem. The first leg of the race was mtn biking. We started off using the same start that the berryman epic mtn bike race uses.

If you've been to the Epic you know that means hills. The group took off at a fast pace, Megan and I held back, sticking with our pre-race plan of not going out to hard and burning out early. So we were one of the last teams into checkpoint 1.

During the ride to CP2 the rain started. It was a downpour. We rode into clearing at the bottom of a jeep trail and found a big group of 8 or 10 teams trying to sort out the location of CP2. They had decided that we were all on the wrong jeep trail and rode back up the hill leaving Megan and me by ourselves. Two years ago, or even a year ago I would have ridden back with them, but I think I’ve finally learned to trust myself and not the crowd. We rode out the backside of the clearing and found the CP a few minutes further down the trail.

There was some controversy over the location of CP3 at the pre-race meeting. But when we rode up to the pond, I shined my bike lights out over the water and the reflector on the checkpoint flashed at us. We ran around the pond and punched it.

Another bike CP and we rode into the first transition area at the Berryman Campground where we got a shock. We received a 2hr time penalty for riding in the road instead of the trail. It was my fault, I never read the clue sheet. I was just glad it was only a time penalty, and I knew this would be a race for CP’s.

Megan pulled out a field stripped MRE (I learned some new military lingo this weekend too) while I refolded our maps in the waterproof case. She offered some to me, it was beef stew. I’m not very particular when it comes to food, especially in a long race. But this stuff was bad. I ate another two or three scoops anyway. Calories are calories.

The next section was an 8hr trekking/orienteering leg for CP6 trough CP20. It was still dark but the rain had stopped. Every CP on this leg was in a reentrant. I had some navigational difficulties (800 damn reentrants per kilometer) in this area and only found 4 of the CP’s before we decided to head back to the TA. There were some significant penalties for coming in late.

We rode out of the transition on the Ozark Trail, crossed highway 8 and worked our way to the Hazel Creek campground picking up a few more CP’s along the way.

Hazel Creek is the campground Lori and my boys were volunteering at, so we rested and took some time to see how their adventure was going.

We ate a little more. I finished off my PB&J sandwiches and an Ensure while Megan pulled out another MRE. Chicken Noodle. Way better than the beef stew! We had a six hour time limit on this leg. My goal was to get out of there and be on the bikes before dark. We found the checkpoints that we could and rode away to Huzzah Slab.

It got dark before we reached the slab, which was a low water bridge and gravel bar. So by the time we rode into the canoe transition we were tired and wet. Megan rolled up by the fire and slept. I worked on getting my shoes and socks to dry out by the fire. It wasn’t long before we were joined by several other teams who all had the idea of resting and drying out by the fire.

After about an hour we decided it was time to get moving again. We loaded up the canoe and tied on our glow sticks. The area had received a lot of rain in recent weeks, so the river was really flowing well. It was way after dark, but the moon wasn’t up yet, added to that was some really thick fog building up on the river. We paddled out and were in trouble right away, we came close to capsizing on some logs that we never saw. Then we got hung up on a shallow gravel bar and decided to wait there for the other teams that were also leaving the transition. This worked out to be a great plan. Six canoes navigating the fog together was much better than us on our own. The canoe leg was only 7 miles, but it took us 2.5 hrs to navigate it in those conditions.

We reached the canoe take-out and were gear checked. All of our gear was correct, so I checked maps and figured out the attack plan for the last 3 CP’s. Unfortunately the canoe take out was on the West side of the river and the remaining CP’s and finish line were on the East side. So we waded across the Huzzah River just North of hwy 8. All the time we spent at the fire drying socks and shoes was wasted.

Once across the river we climbed to the top of ridge to look for CP35. We met up with team Salomon HK looking for the same point. We compared maps and decided to work together for the next couple CP’s and into the finish. We found 35 and shortly after got 36, and had a great time talking to team HK while trekking. We mostly talked about food and race gear, but also told some race stories. Team HK had some great stories from adventure races all over the world. It was a real privilege to travel with them. Yung, if you get to read this….Good Luck at XPD in Tasmania! We’ll be watching for you on-line.

Link to XPD

We finally made it to CP37. The finish line. Jason was there to greet us and tell us about the new cluesheet and map with an additional 15 miles of paddling and 13 miles of mtn biking. He also warned us that there were less than 6 hrs of race time remaining and the top teams were taking over 7hrs to complete the additional map. That made our decision easy. We would not risk going over the time limit to pick up a few extra points.

We stayed around the finish line only long enough to eat some awesome Bonk Hard baked potatoes covered in butter and salt-n-papper with the HK team. Then went back to camp to get a couple hours of sleep before the awards ceremony.

Bonk Hard always has the greatest race prizes and this time was no exception. Megan and I were called up for 3^rd place two-person coed, which wasn’t a big deal since there were only three teams in our division. She picked out a set of Yur-buds and I grabbed a great pair of Columbia waterproof insulated gloves.

I finally met up again with Lori and the boys and found out that Bonk Hard is VERY good to their race volunteers. The each received a very nice Columbia hat. They all got a free pre-race dinner, and spent the last bit of Saturday night in a heated and very comfy BASS cabin.

Oh and by the way. The Hydropel worked great. No blisters even though I had wet feet for at least 28 of the 30 hours of racing. I will be using it again next month at the Checkpoint Tracker Championship Race.

ROCK Racing in the news

2011-09-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

ROCK Racing's report from this summers Urban Assault race was just published in Women's Adventuremagazine online.

Use this link to check it out: Reader Stories

Litchfield Triathlon 2011

2011-09-18T15:52:00.001-07:00

You see it was a nice cool morning, so cool, that the 72 degree water at Lake Lou Yeager was warm compared to the air. So the Litchfield triathlon started out with a bit of a brisk wakeup call. The water was cold enough to be wetsuit legal, but since I was doing the Sprint race, I thought that I could buck it up for 400 meters, I was right, the water wasn’t really bad at all. I mean after getting hit and kicked a few times, then getting my goggles kicked off and treading water while getting them back on and then sucking in some gasoline fumes from a idling boat, the cold water didn’t seem that bad at all. In fact I looked at my time as I ran out of the water and was pleasantly surprised, it was 9:57, I know, right, that looks like a bad time, but for me that is a really good 400 meter swim time. I was pretty darn happy.

As I ran across the beach, I heard a couple “Go Robin’s”, one was from Alan an old college mate, his wife Rhonda was competing in the Olympic distance race. I didn’t see who the others cheering me on were, but I heard them, and I have to say Thanks. It gives me such a boost when I hear people cheering for me during a race, it makes me want to make them proud.

I wish I could say that I cleared transition quickly, but really I’m not sure what I was doing in there, I must have been kicking back and relaxing, because it seemed like it took 10 minutes to get out on the bike, it wasn’t really that long, but it sure felt like it. Finally I hit the bike mount line and was out on the road. I was riding my Pinarello FT1, it’s a super-fast bike, the only problem is, my body can’t seem to live up to the bike.

As I pushed up the hill, I started passing people, this wasn’t a very big race, so there weren’t hundreds of people to pass, but still enough to start chasing. I passed 4 people right off the bat while I was trying to get into a zone. Then I kept passing, I got passed by one guy then a girl. I chased the girl and we changed places 6 or 7 times throughout the bike, she finally dropped me after we turned back into the wind for the last 4 miles of the bike. The bike was an out and back and after I made the turn, I saw a lot of friends who cheered me on as they came by on the other side of the road heading for the turn around. With about a half mile to go, Herbie, an old friend’s brother, who I hadn’t seen in years, caught up to me, as he rode past me, he said “hey good looking” I really think I might have been in love! Well that is until he passed me and hit transition right in front of me, I don’t think I love him anymore.

Into transition I went and at least this time, I didn’t sit down and have a spot of tea, I was actually in and out of transition in about a minute.

Right out of transition onto the run, I headed up a hill that went on for about a half mile, then it made a turn and went downhill for about a mile. See this sounds really good doesn’t it, 1 mile of downhill, haha, don’t even think it, the run course was also an out and back, so at the turn around, I had to run uphill for a mile and uphills are not my strength. As I made the turn at the halfway point I saw a Metro Tri Club teammate of mine, Gary, and I knew he would be passing me soon, I know what a fast runner Gary is, so when he passed, which wasn’t too long after I saw him, I asked him to pull me in, well Gary was not very helpful, he just ran off without looking back, I don’t blame him, I didn’t want to drag my trunk full of junk up that hill either. I also saw Russ, a new club member and a first time triathlete, oh my gosh, he was moving, even though I had a pretty good lead on him, I was thinking he might just pass me if he keeps up that pace. I also saw Herbie again, and even though I had fallen out of love with him, I was glad to see he looked so strong, I think he was really having a good race.

I made the corner and headed downhill for a half mile to make the last turn into a 200 meter uphill to the finish. I hit the finish line feeling way better than I should have, just goes to show you I could have gone harder. I guess since I am in such crappy shape right now, I held back some in fear of bonking before the end of the race. Rookie mistake, I should know better than to hold back, but in my defense, my mojo has been off since Monday when my supposed teammate, Chuck, talked me into signing up for Ironman Wisconsin. Well that is the excuse I’m using anyway. My time didn’t suck though, it just wasn’t near my best.

After I finished I turned around to see Russ finishing only about 20 seconds behind me, he had a great race and as it turns out, he won his age group, not bad for his first sprint triathlon. Just a couple minutes behind Russ, Herbie came in, he looked really strong, by next season he will be kicking my butt. Then I turned around to see that Russ and I had a cheering section. Russ’s wife Andrea, brought my daughter China and her and Russ’s daughter Madison out to cheer. They had made some signs to cheer us on, but the funny part was they showed up just as we finished the race. We need to get a more punctual cheering section.

Russ reenacted part of the race for the girls and I showed off my muscles.

The girls took a picture of the some of the zillas, we were missing one Rhonda, she was competing in the longer race, so she was still out on the course.

I also ran into a friend from work, Mike, that I didn’t know had started competing in triathlons. This was his first Olympic distance tri, so China and I hung out to take a few pictures of his finish, he finished looking really great, now I have to deal with yet another guy that’s going to start beating me next season.

Oh and I have to tell you this, as I was racking my bike before the race, a guy near me said “hey I read your blog all the time”, I thought wow that is so cool, I got recognized from my blog. He was doing the Olympic race, I saw him again after the race, and he had a smoking fast time. I asked his name, it was Robert, so next time I see him, I can say, did you see my shout out to you in the blog.

I had a good swim, an ok bike and ok run, I think I could have worked harder on the run, I guess I will have to come back next year to redeem myself.

One last thing, a BIG THANKS to the city of Litchfield, all the volunteers and the race management crew who brought us this race. This was a very well managed race with a well-marked course and great volunteers working the race. As fellow race director, I know what goes on behind the scenes to pull off a great race, and you guys have it right.

Photo Friday

2011-09-16T06:37:00.001-07:00

Look at our Nice Rides

Miles for Meso

2011-09-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Come Join Us for one of the Greatest Races in the Midwest.

You can run with the Pro's, that will for sure give you bragging rights.

Bring your family and friends, this is an event you don't want to miss!

All proceeds fund Meso Research

Click here for registration and more information

Council Bluffs

2011-09-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Having a little fun at Council Bluffs on Friday night, I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night.

We did a little bear hunting, Mike and I planned to feed Chuck to him, but the truth is, that bear would certainly want me over Chuck, I have way more meat on my bones.

But after spending some time in the dark, and a few honey stinger waffles we all made it out alive.

Photo Friday

2011-09-09T06:14:00.000-07:00

Found another cool trail artifact while riding last weekend.

Thunder Rolls 24 hr 2011

2011-08-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

Let me ask you a question, if you drove into a small town in Northern Illinois and saw a little roadside park with a scenic river view, would you:

A. Think oh how beautiful
B. Think oh I want to canoe on that river
C. Read the sign and decide, this is going to be a great race

If you are ROCK Racing, which would be Chuck and I, you would pick C, then you would think, I know I’m going to die. I hope my PFD will float my body back to shore.

So that is how our latest adventure race started. The Thunder Rolls AR was held in Oregon, Illinois starting and finishing at the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Camp. The camp was great, it had lots of room for camping, a nice big dinning hall, and lots of showers with hot water. We rolled into camp on Friday afternoon, checked in and pitched our tents, even though we knew that we would not be sleeping for at least another 30 hours. We wanted the tents to be ready so that when we finished the race, we could just crash, more on that later. In our race packets we were given, mustard that Chuck loves and couldn’t wait to get, Zanfel, that I love because I knew that I would have poison ivy by the end of the race and a really nice North Face Fleece pullover that was a kind of bright green. We love good schwag in our race packets.

We ate dinner with all the other racers in the dining hall. We shared a table with the team Three Blind Mice, and listened to some great race stories while we ate spaghetti, green beans, salad, bread, berries and yogurt. I’m not much on healthy eating, but the food was all good. After dinner the fun started.

At 7 pm there was pre-race meeting, we were given maps, a clue book and some instructions, we also found out that there was going to be 55 check points, this was the most check points we have ever had in a race.

We found out that we would have nine maps, six of them (1-24,000 USGS) were given to us at the race meeting the other three (1-15,000 O-maps) would be given to us 15 minutes before the race start. The last maps we received were made by Lidar. They were really great maps, you could see things on them that you can’t see on regular USGS maps.

Chuck: The LIDAR maps were incredible. They were the best maps we’ve ever gotten for an adventure race. Awesome detail and all the land features were dead-on. Here is an example of a LIDAR map, you can see all the detail.

After receiving our maps we had to drive to the bike drop, we needed to check my tire because I was running tubeless, but having problems with the seal on the tire and air was leaking. So we ran out and put some air in my tire and hoped it would hold until we made it to the bike transition. As long as I was riding the seal was fine, but when the bike would sit for any amount of time it would leak. We put our race numbers on our Trek Superflys and checked our lights, then left a gallon of water to refill our packs when we got to the bike drop sometime in the next 24 hours.

We then drove back to the camp and went to the dining hall to plot points. We were really having a hard time for some reason and we couldn’t find the right maps, we asked team Three Blind Mice and they pointed out that there were some smaller numbers on the map. It was funny, Chuck and I couldn’t see the numbers, we both need to start bringing glasses with us. Once we saw the numbers everything went well, we had the points plotted in just over an hour.

We hurried back to camp and checked our gear and loaded it into the van, so that we could drive to the race start. We figured after the race was over we probably would be so tired that we wouldn’t want to walk back to camp, plus we had to drop off all of our paddling gear at the start.

We jumped in our tents for a 30 minute nap before the race started, but neither one of us could sleep, it was really nice getting off my feet for a while though. At 11:30 pm we were at the race start getting our last map, we quickly reviewed it then walked over to the starting line for last minute instructions. At Midnight the gun went off and all of the 24 hours teams went out on the run. There was no moon and it was pitch black out, about all we could see were headlamps flashing in the woods. We went directly to CP1 with no problems finding it. Of course since this race was setup as an Old School Expedition style, you had to get every CP in order, if you missed a CP you were finished, so the first few CPs were basically follow the herd of racers and you will get there, but as time moved on the teams got split up and went different directions, so there was no more following, you had to know what you were doing. That is unless you are me, then you just follow Chuck and say which way, when he says we need to head north, I say, which way is north. There is a problem with racing like we do, if something happens to Chuck out in the woods, we are definitely going to die because I would never get us out before we starved to death.

We trudged through thick thorn bushes, they were everywhere, all the shadows of the night made things look really scary, it was like being in a horror movie, sometimes I just wanted to hide in a bush until daylight, but I didn’t, I just kept following Chuck. After a few hours we were scratched up and bleeding from all the thorn bushes and I think I was completely wrapped in spider webs. We just stopped short of one web when we saw it shinning in our lights, the spider in the web even caught a bug and wrapped it up in his web so fast it was unbelievable.

We headed along a corn field, the corn was really high and the night was so dark, as we walked along the edge of the field, I couldn’t help but think of that movie “The Children of the Corn”, I was just waiting for something to grab me, but the only thing that was grabbing me was the thorn bushes, so many times I almost tumbled to the ground because my legs were tied up in the thorn vines. Our legs were really cut up and we had long pants on, we saw a couple guys in shorts and their legs looked like hamburger. I bet they learned a lesson or two about dressing for an AR.

We continued to find CPs without a problem, one right after the next, CP8 we found on a dead tree at the top of a small knoll. It was in an area where there were at least 8 teams looking for it, we found it and moved on, that CP gave us a big lead. We finished the first 20 checkpoint O-section and headed to the paddle. We were now 4.5 hours into the race.

We hit the canoe transition, put our glow sticks on the canoe and took off up the Rock River, we thought it was pretty cool for ROCK racing to be on the Rock River.

It was spooky paddling down the river in the pitch black. We had to turn off our head lamps because the bugs were so bad that we were getting gin our eyes and sucking them in our mouths and nose because the light was drawing them to us. So we paddled in the dark, watching the shadows from the trees on the water. We hit something in the water, and the canoe kind of tipped, but then we were off of it. I thought it was a log, Chuck thought it was a sand bar, but we really don’t know what it was, it was just way too dark to see it. After picking up the first CP on the river we were paddling through some low spots, which also had some low hanging branches overhead. I don’t know how I did this, but I got my paddle stuck between an overhead branch and in a sand bar at the same time, it almost clothes-lined me. I thought for sure I was going into the water, but lucky for me it just jammed my forearm into my elbow and I stayed in the canoe. Now I had something to complain about for the rest of the paddle, I kept whining about my arm hurting and had to change the way I paddled so it would hurt less.

Chuck: I got to watch all that from the back canoe seat, it was really pretty funny. I mean how can you get both blades of a paddle stuck at the same time? We were moving downstream at a pretty fast pace, she almost got swept right out of the boat. The best part was when the same thing happened again about 500 meters later on another low hanging branch.

At CP22 we had to pull our canoe out of the water up a steep slick bank and then run to the rappel. As we headed to the ropes we could see shadows on the ground, I thought there was some people behind us, that shadow looked too skinny to be mine, but it was mine, I’m going to start taking all my pictures in shadows if they make me look that tall and skinny.

At the rappel we had to hook on with carabiners and slings and do a fixed line traverse over a narrow rocky ridge to the rappel. On the way out to the rope, Chuck slipped and fell a few feet, I guess that is the reason we were clipped on. I was hanging on for dear life, I hate heights. When we got to the rappel, Chuck went first and on the way down his pack got caught up in a tree, but he got out and made it safely to the ground.

I was scared and the lady working the ropes talked me though it, once I got to the bottom it was fun, I think if we had time I would have liked to try it a second time. And as you can see, we were wearing our Hardnutz Rock Hard helmets, you know Hardnutz aren’t just for biking anymore.

After the rappel we ran back to the canoes and headed down stream to the next “O” section. We were pretty quick getting there, I love down stream paddling. We pulled our canoe on the sand near the island, ate a honey stinger waffle, punched the CP and headed to into the brush.

This time the vegetation was different from the last “O” section, there was less thorn bushes and more stinging nettle. We had a big discussion on what was worse the nettle or the thorns. I thought the thorns were worse, while Chuck thought it was the nettle. The nettle was so high we had to hold our arms up as we walked through, but even doing that our arms were still burning and my legs were even burning thought my pants.

Once again we went directly to every point, seeing very few other teams. We weren’t sure if we were ahead or behind at that point. CP26 was on a rock ledge overhanging the river, we had to scramble out on the edge to get it, but the view was awesome.

We came across a bunch of giant mushrooms, I turned around and saw chuck with one on his head, I guess that is what happens when you reach that point of sleep deprivation, you do stupid things.

Chuck: just seemed like a good idea at the time.

We finished the “O” section and headed back to the canoe and we started seeing tons of teams, the 12 hour race had started and we were seeing those racers along with the 24 hour racers. We stopped for a couple minutes to eat, Chuck had a PBJ and I had a fruit cup. It was the first time I tried bringing a fruit cup and it was really good, I will do that again. I had to eat it fast though because I thought Chuck was going to grab it out of my hand, it was almost like a vampire seeing blood. We then saw Forum Dental, we had been passing them back and fourth all day, which is good because they are usually faster than us, so we figured we were really having a good race. They got in the canoe before we did, but the way things were going, we would see them again soon.

Coming out of the “O” section we had one last paddle to finish. On the way I pulled out the camera and was taking a few pictures.

That is until Chuck told me to quit with the picture and help paddle, what nerve he has. I should have said not until you quit splashing me. Every time he would take a stroke he would splash water on my back, by the time the paddle was over I was soaking wet, good thing it had started warming up by the time we made it to the bike drop.

Chuck: That was getting pretty funny. Every time I would lift my paddle, water would sling over Robin in the front of the canoe, maybe these canoes were shorter than normal.

This is the bike drop at night, I didn’t have a shot of it in the daytime.

When we got to our bikes, my tire was low again, so we started to pump it with a little frame pump, but then the volunteer had a floor pump and let us use it, that was a life saver. While in transition Chuck drank a Monster energy drink, boy did it wake him up, when we took off on the bikes it was all I could do to stay with him. I should have drank one too. Monster was a sponsor so all the transitions had cold Monster waiting for us.

Chuck: I never tried Monster before. I know you should never try anything new in a race, but it was in coolers jammed with ice, and looked so cold and good, I had to get one. They taste kind of weird, but the energy boost thing is for real!

The bike legs had more hills than I had anticipated, I mean we are in Illinois, there are no hills in Illinois, unless you go to Oregon, and then there are plenty of hills. We made it through pretty quickly, the roads were pretty nice with some sections of rock, but it was not too bad to ride on. It did however enforce my thought that I don’t want to race the Dirty Kanza, gravel is not my friend.

After the bike we rolled into the Grasslands for the last “O” section. Chuck had been worrying all night about this section, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to navigate in there, but it turns out that most of the navigation was no different than any other we have done. It was however all open to the sun and very hot and sandy. Sand was poring into our shoes and we were starting to feel blisters popping up. As we trekked down a hot dusty road, we could see up ahead a couple little girls in front of a house that was out in the middle of nowhere. They had a cooler of cold water and some cups, and had made signs cheering the racers on. They asked all kinds of questions and gave us candy too. It was almost like a mirage, we wondered if they were really there or we were just seeing things. Then out of nowhere Forum Dental appears, so it wasn’t a mirage the little girls and water were really there.

Chuck: When we first seen them from a distance, the first thing I thought, was maybe it’s a lemonade stand. I was ready to dig money out of my pack and buy one cup of lemonade after another. Those little girls could have made a killing off me. But how great is it that they were out there doing it for free!

We drank water out of cups that had probably been used by a bunch of racers, but we didn’t care, it was so good to have ice cold water. Then it was back to work, we picked up 3 CPs back in this section and CP40 was in what was called a tree house. I think of it more as a death trap. I told Chuck, I didn’t care if my job was to get the punch, I wasn’t climbing up in that tree house, so he did it and it even scared him. The entire rotten wooden structure shook with every move he made, plus he had to get through some really thick thorn bushes to get to it. He did it though, now that’s a good teammate, taking one for the team when his partner won’t do it.

Chuck: As soon as I saw that tree house I knew I’d be the one going up. The first time we did Thunder Rolls in 2009 we had to climb a forest service fire lookout tower. That was when I first learned that Robin’s fear of heights was for real, she did the climb, but it was white knuckled and wobbly knee’d the whole way.

After coming out of the woods we headed to a CP way far out, on the way my feet were starting to hurt so bad, I stopped and took my shoes off to see if maybe there was something in my shoe, but it was just that my feet were covered in blisters, so I put my shoes back on and kept moving. We made it to CP 44 which was a rock face, we punched it and moved on to CP 45, after walking for what seemed to be hours through grass and stickers we finally found a creek, but we walked up and down the creek for 30 minutes and could never find the CP. Now it was starting to get late and we knew we had to get to the finish line before the midnight cutoff. We knew that it would take an hour to get back to our bikes and then were not sure how long it would take to ride in. So we made the decision to go back. Team Scorched Earth that we helped earlier came by and said we could look for CP 45 with them and maybe we could find it, but we chose not too, that was the biggest mistake of the race.

So we went back to the bike transition, took off our shoes and socks and rinsed all the sand out, but it was too late, the blisters were so bad there wasn’t much we could do. We put our bike shoes on and then realized my tires were low again, so we pumped them up and headed in. We figured out a route that would be a little shorter and on less traveled roads so we headed that way, stopping at intersections to make sure we were on the right track.

A car of teenagers came by and yelled at us, we weren’t sure what they said, but we know it was probably words of encouragement. Gerry the race director also drove by and asked if we were doing ok and we said, all was good and we would see him at the finish. About 13 miles later we rolled into the finish line, happy to be finished and ready to get the shoes off our feet. Chuck had some really ugly feet, even without blisters those are some ugly feet. I wasn’t showing anyone my feet.

We had another racer take our picture at the finish line, unfortunately it didn’t turn out very well, but maybe the picture turned out just the way we felt. We sat down and chatted with Gerry the race director for a while and told him what a great event he puts on, because it really is a fantastic race, it’s challenging, but still fun, with some really fun stuff thrown in, like the traverse and rappel, it was a lot of fun even for me, “Misses afraid of heights”. Of course we had pizza, how can a little frozen pizza cooked in a pizza over out in the middle of nowhere taste so good. It’s like the best thing I have ever eaten in my life. I guess if I would eat it the next day, it might not be as good, but at that point in time, you couldn’t give me anything better. Even if there was a mouse running around under the table with the pizza ovens on it, we didn’t care the mouse wasn’t going to eat much.

After pizza we went back to camp and took showers then laid down in our tents with a plan to get up in an hour at midnight to go look at the results, but we both fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I yelled over to Chuck’s tent and asked if he went to the awards, he said he fell asleep. So we got up, packed up and went up the finish line to see the results. We were 4th in 2 person co-ed and 1st in 2 person co-ed masters, but what really frustrated us was that if we had stayed and gotten CP 45, we would have been 2nd in the 2 person co-ed division. I guess live and learn, we kicked ourselves all the way home for bagging it and going in without CP 45.

Oh and as we walked to the finish line we saw a baby deer.

One last thought, Chuck did the best navigating he has ever done, all the racers were talking about how hard the course was and how they had such a hard time finding certain CPs, but we went directly to every CP without problem, except of course CP 45. I think if our feet had not been hurting so bad, we would have gotten all the CPs. Look out, next year we are coming back with a vengeance.

Urban Assault 2011

2011-08-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day it was today and I have no idea what I could have done to make it an even better day, EXCEPT compete in the St Louis Urban Assault Race. The Urban Assault is in my opinion the most fun anyone can have on a bike.

Rock Racing, which would be me and Chuck, have been waiting for this race all year, and we must have been really excited about it, because we were race number 7. We think that means that we were the 7th team to sign up for the race, even if it’s not the actual reason we got lucky number 7, we are sticking to that story.

We had picked up our race packets on Saturday, so on Sunday we arrived at the race start, ready to go. The bikes were piling up fast, we picked what we thought was going to be a great place to stage our bikes, but soon started to rethink our plan. After seeing the number of bikes being staged, I think there was twice the number from last year’s race, and the way that the bikes were arranged, we decided that our original plan would take us into the mass of bikers during the start and it could get ugly. The new plan meant moving our bikes to the opposite side of the starting line, but it gave us a better route to follow, that we didn’t think would be as crowded.

As we waited for the start of the race, we scoped out the competition, everyone was racing, the biker chicks, the country girl, a couple girls with really good karma and of course Lori and her teammate Michele. This year’s race appeared to be the biggest and fastest race ever in St Louis.

We lined up on the starting line for a lemond start, which means we have to run to our bikes. I wish I had a really good starting line picture, but this year our personal photographer, Lori, who is Chuck’s wife, decided to compete. After a couple years of watching us have all the fun, she decided it was her year to join us, which is really great for her, but really bad for Chuck and I, now we have to take all our own pictures. It is really hard to stop and take pictures when you are trying to finish in the fastest time possible.

We were up front in the first row at the starting line, in the first wave. We had to take a quiz of 32 questions a couple days before the race and we got an 84% on it, which put us in the first wave. There were 3 waves total each wave started two and half minutes apart. The first wave is the only place to be and since that’s the way Rock Racing rolls we were right there. Our first stop was at the Planetarium, where we picked up the mystery clue. It was a picture of a sculpture of an old fashioned bike, and we had NO idea where to find it.

I called a couple friends hoping for some internet search help, but luck was not with us, no one was answering. We decided to just follow the route we had mapped out while we tried to figure out the mystery point.

We hit the café Ventana first, for a quick round of big wheel racing.

Next we hit Bike Works, where we had to build a tower on an oval sled out of foam brick puzzle pieces that spelled out the Cliff Bar logo, then lift it over our head. We put the puzzle together, but when lifting it, it fell apart, so we had to start over. I guess the second time was the charm, we grabbed our bead and moved on.

We still didn’t know the mystery point, so we stopped and called another friend, as he was doing an internet search for us, Chuck got the answer from another racer. The problem was, we had already passed the point and it was not a good move to back track at this point, so we made the decision to follow the loop as planned and then go back for the mystery point.

The next stop was the Bug Store, where we had to tie our legs together with an old inner tube and run through an obstacle course. It was fun watching Chuck climb through a hulu hoop, I made it right through without problem, see there are a few things I do better than Chuck.

We took off heading for the Brentwood swim club, and let me tell you, there is no way to get there without being sucked into a vortex of hills. After working through those hills, we hit a bike path that brought us into the back of the swim club. Oh and I have to tell you this, while we were rolling through the hills, Chuck told me that I had gotten much better at hills this year, now that was the best compliment he could have given me and even though I was gasping for air and so tired I was about to fall off my bike, I think I actually smiled. We jumped off our bikes and were told to jump in the pool with our helmets still on and swim to the bottom to collect 3 cans of beer and it had to be 3 different kinds of beer. Chuck jumped in shoes and all, I kicked my shoes off and jumped in, by the time I headed for the first can Chuck came out of the water with all three cans. So out of the pool we climbed and of course I had to put my shoes back on.

The next stop was Mesa Cycles, we made it there quickly and found out that one teammate had to ride the other teammate on the handlebars of a little trick bicycle and the teammate getting the ride had to grab two flag football flags off volunteers, and the volunteers were moving around, plus the area was on a hill. It was way tougher than it sounds.

Now we were off to the mystery point, which ended up being at a bar called the Handlebar lounge. We found it pretty quickly, but it added an extra 10 or 15 minutes to our time. There was no use getting upset, I mean we were having fun and just the fact that we aren’t from St Louis was a disadvantage to us, unless we frequented bars in the city we would have no way of knowing where this point was. I’m sure there were many other teams that had the same disadvantage as we did, so I’m am by no means complaining, this is why it is called a competition.
We made it to the finish, showed them our beads and headed to the sprinkler for some cooling off. This race director really knows how to treat its competitors, there is always a sprinkler available to cool off under after the race.

As Chuck and I stood under the cool water a guy came by and asked if I was the girl with the race blog, I said yep, you found me, he said that he read it all the time. That is so cool, that someone recognized me from my blog. Chuck took a picture of the guy while he was walking away, so here’s to you, number 164, otherwise known as the caped man, I thank you for reading my blog.

We ran over to our vans to get our ID’s so we could get a couple free beer tickets and on the way back I came across Leo, a very interesting spectator. I asked if he would mind getting a picture with me, at first he seemed a little afraid, I really don’t think I’m scary, of course maybe he is related to me because all my brothers are afraid of me.

We hung around and checked out the different tents, ate some chips from whole foods and Chuck had a beer, while I sucked down a couple bottles of water. We chatted with some fellow adventure races and found out that we didn’t make the top 3, we figured that would be the case after the mystery point fiasco, but it’s all good, I wouldn’t miss this race for anything.

Before we knew it, we turned around to see Lori and Michele finish the race, they had a really great time and I’m sure we have now lost our personal photographer forever.

We can’t wait for next year, maybe we should start frequenting the city in hope of finding the mystery point faster next year.

Alligator Creek

2011-08-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy racing season and I finally found a spot to schedule in a triathlon. The Alligator Creek Triathlon is in O'Fallon, MO barely 15 minutes from my front door. So I registered and was assigned a 53:30 time offset for my swim start. On race morning, I arrived a few minutes before 7:00, about an hour early. I grabbed all my gear and headed to the bike racks. I always use a 5 gallon bucket to carry my gear in, then it doubles as a stool when I change shoes. When I walked up through the transition area, I think I got the last available space on the bike racks. Anyone that got there later than I did had to lean their bike on the fence or on the ground.

Once my spot was all set up I went to get body marked, then waited for my swim start. It was set up as a sepentine 300 yd swim. A new swimmer went into the water every thirty seconds. My time was called and off I went.

I was one of the worst swimmers for years, but right before the Branson 1/2 IM last year something clicked for me, and I finally started swimming instead of fighting drowning. I ended up doing this swim in 6:05. Still slow, but my fastest ever. Also the first time I ever passed anyone in the water.

The bike course was great, one lap, 18 miles and pretty hilly. Police and volunteers at every intersection, I never even had to tap the brakes for car traffic.

The run started out the same road as the bike, then went out through a subdivision for a one lap hilly 5K. Just like the bike leg, the course was well marked and there were volunteers at every intersection and two water stops. Never a question over which way to go.

The finish line was on a bike path in the park.

At the race pavillion finishers were well fed with Pantera's pizza and O'Fallon Gold beer. The beer was so good. It is one of my favorites.

While i was chowing down on pizza, a woman with a beagle on a leash went by. This dog had to be about 100 yrs old. He stopped the woman and started barking at me, in that way only old beagles do (Baaaarrraaaaaarrrrr). Too funny.

Why does every race seem to have at least one person with their helmet on backwards? Haha I got this picture as she finished the bike course.

This was a great event and if I get a hole in the schedule next summer I will definitely fill it again with this race.

Next week is the St Louis Urban Assault! Watch for the report on it soon.

Edwardsville Crit 2011

2011-08-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

The Trek Mountain Girl, that would be me, went on-road one more time this summer. Since Edwardsville was hosting the Rotary criterium race, and I live in Edwardsville, I thought well I should probably do it. I’m not a fan of crits, because they are kind of boring, just riding in circles and chasing fast girls, hoping that I can grab a wheel and hang on.

Neither, heat, humidity, fast girls or common sense could keep me away from this race, plus I am the reining Hometown Hero, so I’m kind of obligated to show up. The best part was a few friends decided to show up too. Kate, Judy, Maggie and Chaeronea were all there, plus 4 other girls that I didn’t know. There were also a gang of juniors who would be starting a few seconds after the Cat 4 women, so we would all be out on the course together.

I decided since this wasn’t really my kind of race that I would not worry about winning and worry about getting a good workout in and having fun. So I started the day by breaking out the helmet camera, you know the one that makes you look like a complete dork when you wear it. Yep, that is what I looked like, a major dork, but I’m kind of like the honey badger, I don’t care, I wanted to get a video of the race, so I wore it. Funny thing is people kept stopping me asking if I was going to put it online. Well of course I am, why else would I do it, if I couldn’t use it for a great blog post. With the helmet cam in position I took off from home on my bike, thinking I may as well get in some miles, so my warm up for the race was 15 miles. After the nice hot warm up, we lined up for the race, and we waited for the start and then we waited some more, and we were dripping wet with sweat as we waited and then after 40 minutes, it was start time. Well by start time, my long warm up had worn off and it was like starting over. The longer we waited for the start, the more nervous everyone got. I’m just glad that Kate didn’t puke on me, but I kind of had the same thought she had, if we didn’t start soon, I would just puke on the starting line. Good thing for the race promoters that we started before that happened, it wouldn’t have been a very good start of the race day.

The race was off and I had my helmet cam rolling. It was a fast start and I fell in behind Maggie, then after a lap I moved past her and stayed with the group for a while, next Judy pulled around me and I sat on her wheel for part of a lap then I took the lead for a while. Well the lead behind the first 3 girls, all of whom I didn’t know. Judy and I went back and forth for a while then Judy took the lead, she was about 20 seconds in front of me for the rest of the race.

So Judy took 4th and I took 5th, with Maggie, Chaeronea, and Kate not far behind. We all had a great time and it was probably even better for Kate, and Maggie because this was their first Crit and they both did fantastic.

I rode a cool down lap, stopped by the church where they were giving out free ice water and filled up my bottle. That water was a life saver.

I rode up and talked to my family who couldn’t wait to get out of the heat, so they headed home, while I got a free message, and I have to say I’m sorry to the poor girl who did that for me, I know I was sweaty and smelled really bad. So thanks for dealing with me and still keeping a smile on your face while you did it.

I went to the van and changed into dry clothes, I’m not sure why because I was still sweating so badly, that they were wet before I even had them on.

I then spent the next 6 hours taking pictures of the other races. I watched Wade and Darrell in the Cat 5 40+ Men.

I saw Joel and Doug battle it out in the Cat 5 race.

Then I watched Andrew and Antonio battle it out in the Cat 4 race.

I watched Matt smoking the wheels off his bike in the 3 race.

Of course I watched, Andy, Anothony and Zach in the Cat 1 / 2 race, well that is, what I could see of them, since they were moving so fast it was like a blur when they came by.

After hanging out in the heat all afternoon with the Metro Tri Club gang, I headed home to download video and pictures. I knew I had taken a lot of pictures, but when I got home I found out that I had taken 1800 pictures. Come on who takes 1800 pictures, what kind of loser am I. I guess when everything is digital, it’s free, so why not. I had some pictures that weren’t great, but I had tons that were really good with a few really spectacular ones. If you want to wade through them, be my guest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rrongey/sets/72157627260344597/

Well until next year, the Hometown Hero is signing off, I’m going back to being the Trek Mountain girl, I have to get ready for the next big adventure race, plus my Superfly is feeling a little left out these days.

Culpepper Sprint Triathlon 2011

2011-08-04T05:23:00.000-07:00

When I think of vacation I think of beautiful places with fun activities and what is more fun than a triathlon in a beautiful place. Now if you ask my children about the perfect vacation, they might not have the same requirements as I do.

So when we planned a vacation, we decided that we should visit family in Virginia, we had never been there before and hadn’t seen my uncle and aunt in over a year, so this sent me in search of a triathlon near Stafford Virginia. I found one in Culpepper VA, just 37 miles from Stafford. It was perfect planning on my part. It was a sprint triathlon, but a long one, with a 750 meter swim, 16 mile bike and 5K run.

My girls were not so happy when they found out that most everything in the area had to do with history, while they were looking for shopping malls and swimming pools. Even though we had planned to spend one day in DC, against the girls wishes, since it was over 100 degrees, we nixed that idea and went to the outlet mall instead, the girls got lucky.

After a couple days of shopping, it was race day. I drove out to the race site and found that it was all hills, not the best course for the tri bike I brought. I guess I should have looked at the course ahead of time, duh! I figured I was just there to have fun, no pressure, so no reason to worry about the bike. I lined up and checked in and got body marked, I was number 333 that was a cool number to have.

Next I found my rack in the transition area, that’s when I realized that this was no small town triathlon, this was a big time race with high caliber athletes and the bikes made my bike look like a Wal-Mart bike. No worries though, just have fun is what I thought.

Next I headed down to the lake to take a look around, it looked really nice, but with the temps so hot the water felt like bath water and I found that running in and out of the water was going to be a feat since there was large gravel and stones to run across.

I hiked back to my bike, ate a Honey Stinger waffle and did one last gear check, making sure I had water because it was already really hot, low 80’s.

I lined up at the lake, I was in wave 4, it looked like there were about 100 people in each wave. I talked to a couple guys and asked about the course. I asked if it was really hilly and they said “where are you from” I said Illinois and they said, “well to you it will be hilly”. I found out really quickly that it was HILLY, in fact there was no flat at all on either the bike or the run.

I started the swim, got swam over the top of about 4 times, kicked, hit and pushed and then finally after about 5 minutes found a nice line with few people, way on the outside, and it allowed me to fall into a nice rhythm and pick up the pace. It was kind of late though and my swim time sucked as always, but at least I felt ok and never hyperventilated when I was being swam over. It was a long run to my bike and then a really long run up a grassy hill to the bike mount line, it really made my transition time slow. I took off hitting the first uphill about 30 seconds into the ride. At one point during the ride I thought I had a flat tire, but it was just the combination of a big hill and soft pavement that made it feel that way, my tire was fine. I continued to pass riders moving up in the field after that horribly slow swim. It didn’t seem long and I was running my bike back down through the grass back to the transition area.

I quickly changed shoes and took off on the run. There was a guy in front of me with two prosthetic legs and he was flying, then all of the sudden, he stopped turned around, went back about 20 yards and high fived some little kids. I don’t know if he knew them or if he just decided to give them a high five, but they were all cheering for him. He was a big guy, but he was really moving. Since the run was an out and back, I saw him again after the turn around and he was still moving pretty fast. At this point I thought, I will never complain about my little aches and pains again and I wished I was as tough as that guy was.

I ran through a cheering crowd and some great volunteers to the finish line and heard the announcer say over the microphone that “Robin from Edwardsville, IL was finishing. I grabbed a bottle of water and walked back to transition. I grabbed my bike and all my gear, I was pretty sure that I did not finish in the top 3, so I didn’t plan to hang around.

As I walked back to my van, I realized how hot it had gotten during the race, but oddly I felt pretty good on both the bike and run, my times weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either. It was hot, but the humidity wasn’t like it is in Illinois, so it didn’t seem that bad.

After loading my gear in the van I started it up and took a look at the temp outside, no wonder it felt hot.

So I drove back to Stafford where my girls were waiting, telling me to hurry and get a shower because they wanted to go swimming. There is no better way to cool down from a hot race then to hang out in a swimming pool all afternoon.

The Big Question: where do I spend my next vacation, I better start looking for races now so I can pick out a vacation destination.

Photo Friday

2011-07-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Checkpoint Tracker Adventure Racing from Paul Angell on Vimeo.

Been there, done that. Want to do it again!

Broemmelsiek Challenge

2011-07-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

This was one hot race weekend, both Saturday and Sunday the temps were in the mid 90’s with the heat index well above 100 degrees. Of course we picked this weekend to do two events. Saturday was the Great Urban Race, that Chuck and I competed in. You will have to see the Great Urban Race post for all the details. In a nutshell, we ran for 3 hours and 24 minutes in the heat, in the city of St Louis, it really wore me out, but was so fun that it was completely worth it. Day two of the weekend was the Broemmelsiek Challenge Mountain Bike race. This race was originally scheduled for a date in June, I had not planned on doing this race because I had another event on the same day, but lucky for me, or maybe not lucky for me, it was rained out and rescheduled for this weekend.

Since both Chuck and I competed in the Broemmelsiek Challange race, but not as a team, we decided to post each of our viewpoints in this race report.

Robin's View of the Race

So I headed out in the morning, picked up Patrick and Kate, and we zipped on over to the park, after a short stop at QT. The three of us can’t go anywhere without stopping at QT, it has everything we need, but I really go there for the fountain soda that I mix myself. As we pulled into the park, Chuck and Lori were already there and had a tent up right next to the bike chute. It was a perfect place because we could stop for water and food if necessary as we completed each lap.

We unloaded our bikes and got our coolers and gear situated for fast transitions. My Superfly was ready to go with my race number attached, I had a great number 444.

Chuck, Patrick and I all planned to ride the Marathon race, while Kate rode CAT 3, this being her first ever mountain bike race. Both races were scheduled to start at 10 am and the temp was about 90 degrees at the start of the race. We pulled up to the starting line and were told that if we were riding marathon and came through the finish line before 3 hours, we had to go back out for another lap, so anyone ending the race before 3 hours would earn a DNF. This was good to know, I might have to slow down if it was getting close to 3 hours and I didn’t want to start another lap, I would want to make sure I didn’t cross the line until after 3 hours if it was close.

The gun went off and we took off, it was really crowded, but we were led through an open field for a while before we hit the single track so there was time for the racers to spread out. Since I had never ridden Broemmelsiek before, my plan was to take it easy and get the lay of the trail on the first lap. As soon as we hit the single track, we turned a corner and went down into a creek bottom with some deep sand and rock. The guy in front of me went down and I had to do a quick turn to get around him, I somehow stayed up and made it through, don’t ask me how, it had to be all dump luck. That was about the only luck I had all day you will see why when you get to the raffle part of this post. Next I came past Patrick on the trail and we rode together for the rest of the lap.

The course was all single track, but part was in the woods while other parts were dirt trails in open fields. It was like riding in an oven when we came out of the woods and hit the open fields. I was drinking constantly and still felt like I needed more. Before I even finished the first lap, my gloves were dripping and my shoes had sweat squishing out of them. I finished lap 1 in 31 minutes, I didn’t stop at the tent, but kept riding. Patrick and I were once again together and as we passed a small pond Patrick said if you wanted to go use that pond, I wouldn’t judge. I think that was his way of saying you look death warmed over and maybe you need to cool off in the pond. Or he was trying to trick me, so he could get in front of me. I’m not sure which it was. My next lap seemed faster, but I had to stop twice when people in front of me crashed or got off their bikes.

I finished lap 2 in 32 minutes. I still didn’t stop for water, I just went on because I thought I had enough water to make another lap. By the time I finished lap 3, I was starting to bonk, so I stopped at the tent. Kate was there after finishing her race and she quickly handed me a Gatorade and then filled my pockets with ice. I ate some sport beans while she worked to get me back on the trail. I checked my watch and pulled off a slow 35 minutes for lap 3. I headed out for lap 4 and I was soaking wet and covered in dirt that had started to turn into mud and the mud was drying, I felt like I was turning to concrete and that was exactly how my body felt. In fact, one creek we rode through had some gray water that looked and felt like quickcrete. I’m almost sure the mud and quickcrete was turning me into an immobile statue.

I was now starting to slow down, but was thinking it was a good thing, because I did not want to do six laps so I didn’t want to go too fast and finish lap 5 before the 3 hour time limit was up. So as I powered through lap 4 I dreamed about how I only had to do one more lap then I could stop and stand under the water hose. Coming through the chute at the finish of the 4th lap I stopped once again for water. This time both Kate and Lori were at the tent and quickly filled my camelbak with water, filled my pockets with ice cubes and gave me an update on the number of girls in front of me. They also told me that after lap 3 Patrick was about 10 minutes behind me. I finished lap 4 in 36 minutes, I was really starting to slow down. I have to hand it to Kate and Lori, they did not once mention that I looked like hell and smelled about the same, they just smiled and did everything a great support team does for their rider. Chuck, Patrick and I were very lucky to have them there working for us. Even though I ate a handful of sport beans during my stop, I was really starting to feel tired, lap 5 was tough and to make it worse the CAT 1/2 race had started and the riders were flying past me, I had to keep riding over to the side of the trail to let them through. I didn’t want to slow them down, so I would just move over to the side of the trail when I heard them coming. They were like a flash of lightening when they rode by. Every single rider said thanks and were very gracious telling me good job and to keep it up. A couple of the riders even told me to make sure and drink, I guess I was looking pretty bad by then.

I came through the chute heading for the finish of lap 5, stopping at the tent. Kate and Lori told me that I was 4th and the third place girl had a pretty good lead on me. The time was 2:51, and I didn’t really have a reason to do a sixth lap since I wouldn’t be able to catch the 3rd place girl, plus I really didn’t want to do another lap so this was the perfect reason not to cross the line before the 3 hour point. I hopped off my Superfly and sat down in a lawn chair in the shade of the tent and watched the time. The one thing I didn’t want to happen was to have Patrick come by and go out again, because if he did, I was going to have to go. At 2:59:30, I got back on my bike just as I saw Patrick coming toward me. I slowly rode to the finish line and crossed it at 3:00:14, Patrick finished a couple seconds behind me. We stood at the finish line and waited for Chuck, he came through about 4 minutes later, but he had completed 6 laps, while we only completed 5. He also almost fell off his bike because as he pulled his leg over the bar, it started cramping up. We were all moving pretty slow at the end of the race, I just hoped I could make the ride of about 200 yards back to the tent.

I was really glad that I had worn the red Trek kit, I would have miserable in the black in the heat.

We went back to the tent and hung out drinking QT sodas and eating Honey Stinger bars.

As I looked down at my legs they were so dirty, I didn’t want to touch them.

I finished in 4th place, and there were these really cool trophies made out of a CO2 cartridge and a piece of a tire. I really wanted one because they were so cool, so I was a little sad about 4th place. Come to find out, the Marathon division didn’t get the trophies they got money, so then I felt better about missing it by one place.

As we hung out at the awards ceremony, they started giving away attendance prizes. I think they chose every single number except mine. Chuck, Patrick and Kate all won something, but I didn’t win anything. The race director started throwing out schawg and Kate caught a shirt and gave it to me. So at least I ended up with a shirt that had a scary clown dripping blood out of his mouth on the front of it. Hey, I’m not complaining, any prize is a good prize.

All it was a good day, even with the heat. Best of all, Kate finished her first mountain bike race. Now we have to talk Lori into trying one.

Chuck's View of the Race

Since the reschedule date was one day after the very hot Great Urban Race, I didn't have any goals for this race, other than have fun, and call it a good long ride training day. 5 laps seemed realistic, 6 laps would be awesome.

The race started at 10, which was later than I would have liked, as it was already getting hot. I had thrown the shade canopy in the car on the way to the park. This turned out to be a great decision. That little bit of shade was awesome.

We lined up for the race a few mins before 10. The CAT 3 and Marathon division started together and right on time. So we were all on the line together, Patrick, Robin, Kate and me. We had a quick trip around the grass field to spread us out before the narrow sandy creek.

I fumbled with getting my Garmin started for a few seconds but had it up and running before we hit the creek and woods. The loose sand and creek rock had everyone slow and single file until we hit the beginning of the singletrack.

The Broemmelsiek trails are great, 100% singletrack, lots of woods, but there are several sections of fields to ride through, they are really fast and smooth, but the sun out there could bake you.

The trails through the woods were fast and dry, there weren't even many roots to ride over, and very few rocks. No extended climbs, and I can only think of one section of switchbacks.

I would check my Garmin at the end of each lap and kept surprising myself by hitting 27 mins, 29 mins, 29 mins. My legs were still feeling strong and I started to think 7 laps was possible. The expert class and Sport class was now out on the trails. They were so fast, it was hard to stay out of their way. I got off the trail every time I heard them coming up behind me. Mtn bikers are so cool, everyone that went around thanked me for giving them room to pass.

Lori was all over the trails taking these great pictures of us, she must have walked miles.

I made 2 stops to swap out water bottles at our canopy, one at lap 3, and one at lap 5. Kate had finished her race already and was a huge help in getting bottles and ice out. Thanks Kate!

Starting the 6th lap, the Garmin said I needed a 30 minute lap to be able to go out for the 7th lap. I felt like I had a chance at it, so I rode hard, I was tired and hot and feeling a bonk coming, but I stayed focused on the time, talking to myself the whole last lap. "I got time, I can do this, don't let up"...Check the garmin, talk some more. I finally came through the creek at 2:58 and the finish line at 2:59. Lori, Robin, Patrick, and Kate were all there telling me the race was over, I wanted to argue, but as soon as thought about it, I remembered having trouble getting the timer started at the beginning, and I had auto-pause turned on, so I lost some time there too.

So I ended with six laps. I stepped off the bike and almost fell over. My leg locked up in a giant cramp. Ha! I'd have never made 7 even if I went back out. We hung out for a while in the canopy cooling off then went to the awards and all of us left with an attendance prize. Of course Robin's creepy blood-puking clown shirt made us all jealous.

Great Urban Race 2011

2011-07-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

They say it's good to come outside your 'comfort zone'. In this race we were way outside the zone. We also discovered right off that we were at a huge gear disadvantage. I gotta get a smart phone. The answer to so many of the clues could only be found by Google. We made due with the phone-a-friend method.

We had a nice lady on the street take a pre-race picture of us.

Which didn't work out so well. So we found a second nice lady on the street to take a pre-race picture.

Inside at the pre-race meeting we met the SLU rowing team

The clues were passed out to all the teams in envelopes which we tore open at the word Go!

We figured out the first couple of clues on the sheet and then took off running, deciding to think about the rest while on the move.

The first challenge we completed was forming a Conga line with 4 strangers. I think they had more fun than we did, and even took our pictures for their facebook pages.

We talked to some waiters at an outdoor restaurant about one of the clues and decided we had to go to The Fudgery at Union Station. On the way there we completed the "picture of both teamates on a strangers bike". Guess the guy figured we couldn't ride off with it, he had my camera for collateral.

We stopped in front of Union Station to figure out some more clues. Robin did phone a friend and landed us a few answers. I called Lori and she got the work search answer. In the couple of minutes this took we got to winess a fight that started in the park and moved into the street stopping traffic, then ended with some dude running away with an armful of clothes. First time that's ever happened during a race.

So we ran the rest of the way into Union Station, so we could sing to the fudge guys. Ok this video is so bad, but it cracks me up. I have to put it in. The fudge guy had a "WTF?" all over his face.

Teams had to feed each other a sample of fudge after singing. I can't believe people pay for this mushy nasty stuff.

I don't know what to say about this one

When one of the clues turned out to be Upper Limits, I thought for sure there would be some cool rock wall climbing, but it turned out to be a riddle with pictures of mountains.

The big mistake of the day was the clue "make a donation to childrens hospital". We were feeling pretty smart about getting toothbrush, toothpaste, and soap from the Hyatt hotel concierge for the donation. We got tickets and rode the Metro out to the hospital only to find out that the donation FOR the hospital had to be dropped off at Office Depot, over 2 miles away. We blew an hour by not carefully reading the clue. We ran hard to make up the deficit.

After Office Depot another clue led us to the Moolah Theatre where we had to watch a film clip and write down it's name and leading actress.

I talked to some students drinking beers at an outdoor cafe and we got sent straight to another clue on SLU campus, for a picture in front of their airplane display. It was getting hot and humid, their beers were looking really good, I thought more than once about jumping over the wall and ordering one with them.

Next in line was the Fountain Restaurant. It had same goofy looking art-deco interior paintings and we had to take a picture of a teamate doing one of the art-deco poses. Robin got elected. :)

Our next challege had us meet a famous celebrity at a local hotspot. Queen Latifah. Thanks to Patrick or we never would have found the answer to this clue. We were blocks away at the Fox Theatre.

I wish I would have gotten pictures of the weedeater guy on the way to the last mystery checkpoint. He was really bizarre, two weedeaters propped on this old bike with milk crates full of crap. He was riding along yelling "Taxi! Taxi! Taxi!" which turned into whistle blowing shortly after we ran past him.

The last checkpoint was Self Inflicted Tatoos. Robin got some ink, and I got a picture of her afterward with her artist. I think she is planning to go back for more.

We ran in to the finish well ahead of the cut-off time so we had to hang out for awhile waiting for awards. There was a two-person band playing on the patio.

We got some cool looking medals and found out that we had finished high enough to get qualified for the Great Urban Race national championship race in New Orleans to be held this November.

Photo Friday

2011-07-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

New Socks and Road Dirt

Tour De Donut 2011

2011-07-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

This was a Tour like no other, it had everything, fast bikes, fast competitors, a great course, a great race director, a town full of cheering residents, and of course some blood. Like I always say if there was mud and blood we had a good time. We were a little short on mud, but a friend of mine made sure there was plenty of blood left on the pavement.

So me and about 1620 other people rolled into Staunton and jockeyed for a parking spot in the field next to the starting line. I was lucky and got a great spot this year right by the pavilion. I quickly got my bike out and ran it up to the start line, where I laid it down in the road to save a spot at the front of the line.

Next it was over to registration where I grabbed my number and I was so surprised when they didn’t give me # 1.

Next I went over to pick up my shirt, I have always given the shirt to my girls because I hated the design. I have been a very vocal complainer to the Boeing Bike Club about getting a new design. Well guess what, this year there was a new design! The new design is really great, I love it. My girls are not getting it this year. And well, I’m not saying they changed the design because of me, but I’m JUST SAYIN!

I trotted back to my van and kitted up for the race then milled about talking to a couple hundred of my closest friends. I even ran into the illusive Steve Parks, better known as the owner of the Cyclery, only the best bike shop in the country and of course my favorite hang out. I think this was the first time I have ever seen Steve ride the donut. He is super fast though so of course I knew I would only be eating his dust.

I ran into my nemesis Terry Eldridge we have had a little rivalry going for years, but it seems the only time I can beat him is when he is injured. Of course I did some trash talking and told him I was taking him out at all costs and he gave it right back, telling me I would only be seeing his backside as he flew past me. So the battle was on and I told him to bring it.

It was getting close to time for a warm up and Jenny and I were making plans to have our spots on the starting line held while we warmed up. It was a good thing that the entire Rock Racing team was there so that we had people to hold spots.

A friend of mine gave me a heads up that there was a change in the course and that when we hit Main Street this year, we would have to take a detour, so Jenny and I headed out for a warm up and found the course changes. I’m glad we did, because there were some really tight turns and some rough road to watch out for. We also had news that some of the roads had been rocked, which really surprised me because we had rode the course just a few days earlier and none of it had been recently rocked. I was a little worried about this because loose gravel scares me. We took in all the changes and discussed our strategy.

You see, just as in past years, I treat this race with the respect it deserves, it is THE TOUR you know, so months before the race, I started enlisting a number of very fast guys to work as domestiques for both myself and my friend Jenny. On race day this year we had 5 very fast guys lined up to pull us, hopefully to a podium finish. We lined at the start with Mark, Joel, Chuck, Darrell, and Andrew. Now don’t go all girl on me you guys, you are listed in random order, it has nothing to do about who is the fastest. You can all just think you are the fastest.

You see, everyone of these guys are super fast and any one of them, if they wanted to, could ride fast enough to be in contention for a podium finish, but instead they choose to work for me and Jenny and for that I am thankful. We could never do it without them, well maybe Jenny could, because she is tougher than me, but I know I couldn’t.

The Metro Tri Club had an outstanding turnout for the race, so we decided to get a quick picture before the race started.

So the national anthem was played and the gun went off, then me along with about million more people rolled out. The pace was a bit slower on the way out this year due the changes in the course. There were a few tight turns that kept the pace down. I was pretty nervous until we hit Renken road, where there was more open space, because there were so many people and no matter what the race director requests, there are always recreational riders up front who have no business riding in a tight pack at these speeds. I just try to watch everything around me and stay out of trouble.

Our strategy was to send Joel and Andrew out front with the first group, so that they could count the number of girls in front of us, then we would regroup at the 1st donut stop. The rest of us would try to stay together as best as possible coming out of town and then once on Renken road we would regroup and form a pace line with the guys doing all the work. That is exactly what we did, the pace was pretty fast, but it was working for us. As we pulled through the first donut stop Joel and Andrew were waiting for us. Andrew had donut sugar all over his face, I think he had a snack while he waited. Mark waved to Joel to take off and we all fell back into a pace line. We pulled up along side another group pacing a girl, while Joel reported on the status of the girls in the lead pack. We rode side by side with the other pace line for a while then we pulled through and took the lead. We soon dropped that group and were making the turn to climb Possum Hill. As we started up the hill I felt my body starting to say NO. At the top of Possum Hill, I tried to quickly grab some sport beans out of my pocket.

I love sport beans and since they changed the packaging to have a zip top, it is really cool because if you don’t eat all of them, you can seal them back up and not waste them, but…. The problem is, when you are trying to eat them while riding fast, it’s really hard to get them out of the bag and into your mouth, and therefore, you end up slowing down. In the wake of trying to eat something, I fell off the back. Mark rolled back to check on me and I told him to go pull Jenny. I didn’t want to slow her down because I waited too long to fuel up. He said, he and Chuck would stay with me while Joel, Darrell and Andrew would pull Jenny if it came to that, but for now let’s try to get back on. Just before the second donut stop Mark sent the guys and Jenny on, and about 2 minutes after that, I started feeling human again, the sport beans had kicked in. We worked for a while to try and get back on, but were just a little too far back. As we made the turn just past the second donut stop, we hit some deep gravel where the road had been chipped, but lucky for us it only lasted about 25 yards. When we hit the pavement again, we caught a few of the Tri Club guys, so we all started working together for the last leg. Mark did most of the pulling, but Chuck and Pat helped out when they could. We turned onto Renken road again where we would hit a couple more uphills and one really fast downhill. As we crested a hill and rolled into the really long fast downhill, we saw a crash just at the bottom of the hill. I could see that there were some Tri Club guys in the crash and yelled to them, but Jim was standing at the edge of the crash site and waved us on, they had it under control. Plus the police were there and we could hear the ambulance coming up behind us. About 100 yards after the crash there was a second crash with a Metro East rider down, he looked to be in pretty bad shape, but there was no carnage, so we were perplexed as to what happened. There were a couple guys sitting with him, so we rode on past. Finally we were at the top of the hill, so just to be safe I sucked down the last of my sport beans and headed into town, I was starting to feel really good so Mark picked up the pace and we started dropping a few guys that had hooked on to our train. Me, Mark, Chuck, Pat, Mike and another guy I didn’t know did a fast sprint through town to the finish, as we came through the stretch with the BBQ contest booths, we were cheered on by the crowd, some BBQ’ers that I know were standing and waiting to see me and made sure I heard them cheering me on. There is nothing like having tons of people cheering you on at the end of a race, it was like a stage in the Tour de France. We made the last few turns and rolled through the finish to see Joel, Darrell and Jenny, Andrew was no where to be found. Then all of the sudden Andrew appeared. I asked him if he dropped everyone and he said no. He was eating a donut at the second donut stop when we rolled through, he yelled to us, but we didn’t hear him. After he finished his donut he tried to catch us, but couldn’t, so he finished a little behind us.

Being a domestique is a thankless job, but I try to make some type of payment for services. This year it was socks, all the guys got socks, very cool socks too.

Chuck’s wife Lori was riding in the race this year and was still out on the course, so I told Chuck I would ride back out with him to help pull her in. I thanked my guys for their hard work, congratulated Jenny and headed back out on the course with Chuck to find Lori and pull her in. As we were riding out, I was thinking just maybe we would catch her at the second donut stop and I could eat some donuts, but to my dismay, she was burning up the pavement and we met her with only 8 miles to go. I heard her say something as we rode past to turn around, I think she said “eat my dust Chuck”, as she pulled away from him.

I finally caught her and as I passed I heard Chuck gasping for air and knew that Lori had stomped him.

We finally fell into a nice pace and started working for Lori. When we heard a guy pull up behind us and say “Aren’t you Rock Racing? You have a great blog.” We both looked back, it was Luke from Team Virtus. Luke hung with us for a couple miles and we discussed upcoming adventure races, including nationals. He also gave us some pointers on radio orienteering since we are going to have to do it in the upcoming Thunder Rolls 24hr race.

As we made the turn onto Hackman road, Lori flatted, we stopped and Chuck gave her his bike, I pulled for her the rest of the way in and she had a fantastic finish time. Lori said “so this is what it feels like to upgraded” and just like at the Tour de France, the domestique gives up his bike for the leader. As we were riding away, we heard a loud pop, I knew that wasn’t good. We found out later that Chuck’s C02 cartridge blew up in his face, and he ended up riding the bike in on a flat tire.

I rolled up on the sidewalk and saw my nemesis Terry, he was all bandaged up and looked like hell. Sorry Terry, I just had to say that.

He told me the story about the crash, he said a wheel came out of nowhere, and it happened so fast. He hit his head repeatedly on the ground, of course we will never know if it hurt him or not, if you know what I’m talking about. HA HA sorry again Terry, it was just too hard not to say. His helmet was crushed, so he was in the market for a new helmet. I quickly locked my helmet up in the van. I told him I had to run, because I owed a guy some money for taking out my rival and this guy didn’t come cheap. He tried to punch me, but I ran away too quick.

I ran into the Donut Boys, they are the two tandem riders that have tattoos on their calves with the golden donut and it is marked for every year they have won the tandem division. It was a sad day for them though, they got second this year. It’s ok, they plan on training harder for next year’s race.

Oh and we can’t forget about the guy with the donut hair cut, some people will do anything for this race.

I spent some time chatting with people I knew and I came across a couple of the guys I ride with on Wednesday night, they were sitting in the shade taking it easy and waiting for awards.

So I stood around chatting with a few of the women racers and of course I sported my Zillawear for all to see.

The results were posted on the stage, so I went up and took a look. I was 3rd overall women in road time, with a 2nd in the 40-49 age group and Jenny took 2nd overall women with a 1st in the 40-49 age group. Can you believe it, 2 of the top 3 women were in the 40-49 age group, just my luck.

As we waited for results, Christian the race director was giving away attendance prizes. He kept calling names and no one was there so then he said, “if this keeps up, I’m going to start giving stuff to my friends”. Of course I yelled, “I want to be your friend”! So he says come up here, I’m giving you a prize. He starts to hand me a prize and you know me, I can’t just say thank you and go. Instead I say, “Can you give me a helmet, I need one.” So he gave me a helmet, I then walked over to Terry and handed him the helmet and said, “It’s the least I can do after paying the guy to take you out”. Everyone started laughing, it was funny and Terry got the helmet he so desperately needed. Thanks Christian!

So the awards were given out and I had to pick up a couple for friends that had to leave, in the end I was wearing medals, which only one was mine. I sure loved the sound of them clanking together. I also made sure to get a picture with the Queens of Staunton, it wouldn’t be a donut without them.

And of course I couldn’t leave the race without a picture of my favorite donut race director.

All in all, it was a fantastic race, Great course, great friends, the best domestiques anyone could ask for and of course the biggest donuts around. Thanks to all the volunteers and the Boeing Bike Club for putting this race on, it is the highlight of my summer.

Photo Friday

2011-07-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the annual Tour De Donut.

This year we decided to study donut eating technique and proper attire with a real pro.

Photo Friday

2011-07-01T18:58:00.001-07:00

Hardnutz and Treks, it don't get any better than that!

In !!

2011-07-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

Registration complete! In 111 days we will be racing in the North American Championship.

Photo Friday?

2011-06-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

What do I call Photo Friday if I post it on Saturday, and it's not a photo but a video?

Short video clip of me made by Patrick when we were training for MR340. The weekend before the river was closed to recreational navigation.

Goomna Adventure Race 2011

2011-06-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Once again the Goomna Adventure race came on with a bang, of course it was from thunder, lightning and pouring rain with just a few tornado warnings on top of it all. This being Goomna race day, I should have been prepared, out of the six times I have competed in this race, five of them were in these exact conditions. I quickly packed the adventure van and headed out of the driveway, stopping at the end of the driveway for a quick picture of the weather conditions.

I quickly made it to Korte Recreation Center in Highland where the start/finish would be.

I pulled the adventure van into a parking sport, Patrick pulled the adventure truck in and we had a quick chat with Mark Rosen the race director about a delay in the start of the race. All the while the thunder and lightning continued. Chuck pulled up next and we quickly unloaded and started setting up camp.

We hung around under the tent waiting for the weather to pass.

Mark called all the teams into the Rec center to pick up maps and give out pre-race instructions. Plus it gave us a chance to hit the bathroom another time, it wouldn’t be a race if I wasn’t in the bathroom at least ten times before the start, and don’t let my guys make you think they are any different, they go as many times as I do. So after a quick trip to the bathroom where I stood under the hand dryer for a while to try and dry off my rain coat, we headed upstairs to find out the fate of the race start. This just proves how much rain we had, our water proof jackets were wet all the way through. We did find a nice place to sit during the map pick up.

After picking up our maps, Mark told us the storm had about blown through, so we would be starting the race in 30 minutes. We quickly made our way out to base camp and plotted our maps using the master map and then highlighted our route. When we were planning our route, we had no idea we would be plotting for two teams, more on that later.

Mark called all the teams to the start, where one team member would have to run to the gazebo about 400 meters away and pick up the team clue, then run back to the transition area. Patrick took this task on since he is the fastest runner on our team. Since we did not know what discipline we would be doing first, Trek, Bike, or Canoe, he decided to run in his sandals rather than put on his running shoes.

The run was fast, but Patrick rocked it and made it back to camp super fast, where we tore open the envelope and found that we would be trekking first. I call it trekking because that is what it is in most adventure races, but in this race where it is so short 5 to 7 hours, we don’t trek we run, and we run as hard as we can, or as fast as the slowest teammate, which happened to be me. I think we did ok though, we were passing teams on the run. If we knew Highland better we could have cut some time off, but Chuck being the master navigator that he is got us right to every point.

Off to the first CP we went, when we arrived at CP1 we found that we would have to do a 2 minute plank before we could move on. Since we are probably the masters of the planks, this was one easy task. If you have been following the blog, you would have seen our planks in the past. After finishing our planks we grabbed a new clue and headed for CP2. During our run to CP2, we figured out the clue and decided to hit it after CP2. On arrival to the CP, we found out that each teammate had the task of carrying another teammate down to the end of the tennis court and back, we each had to carry someone. I went first and carried Chuck since he weighed a bit less than Patrick. Then Chuck carried me, and then I was lucky enough to get a second ride from Patrick. Even though Chuck has been accused of being a skeleton with skin, I still had a hard time carrying him.

The next CP was on “the unluckiest street with the tallest water fountain”. It was the water tower on 13th street. The challenge was a math problem, where we had to figure out what race number five different people had. We figured it out quickly and moved on. Next we ended up at the playground next to the fairgrounds, where we had to do 30 pull ups between all team members. Me and Patrick really sucked at this, so Chuck had to do most of them. Patrick and I are now starting a P90X club, so that we will no longer be an embarrassment to Chuck.

The next CP was at the pool at the fairgrounds, I had to run to the rock wall, get into the pool and climb up the rock wall, while Chuck and Patrick did a 1 minute wall sit. I quickly pulled off my jersey and shoes and ran to the wall, as soon as I stepped on the first few rocks I started slipping off the wall, Patrick yelled across the pool telling me, to take off my socks. It seems that even IceBreaker socks can’t take on a wet rock wall. As soon as I pulled the socks off, I scrambled up the wall even beating the guy next to me who had hit the wall the same time I did. I have to say, I did rock that wall. When I made it to the top, I just dropped into the water rather than climbing back down, it was faster and way more fun. I swam to poolside, Chuck pulled my jersey and pack over my head and we were off to the next CP in less than 30 seconds.

On the way to the next CP we came across the Red Bull van, we had to stop for a photo opportunity such as this.

The next CP was a basketball toss, we each had to make two free throws, no matter what Chuck says, he sucked at this. He went first and it took more than a few tosses to make his two baskets. Next I went making my first basket on the second shot, too bad it took about a hundred more shots for me to make the second one. It’s just a good thing we had Patrick there to save our butts, he made his two baskets in about 5 shots. It’s a good thing there were 10 year old volunteers there to show us up, when we came in they were making shot after shot, but I have to hand it to them, they didn’t laugh at us once and encouraged us the entire time we were shooting baskets.

We had a longer run this leg, where we ended up at the Highland Bank. Originally we were to take a flashlight and navigate through a drain tunnel under the road, but due to the heavy rain, we wouldn’t be allowed to swim through the rushing water to get to the end of tunnel. Instead we got our passport stamped, grabbed our flashlight and ran back to transition. At transition we found out that we would be going to Silver Lake for the canoe leg next. After we all ate a Honey Stinger waffle and drank some Gatorade, we headed out on foot to the lake.

The wind was really starting to pick up, we hoped it wasn’t too bad once we were in the canoe. Chuck and Patrick drug me through some grassy fields and out onto the road where we ran to the water works and found out that we now had to do 60 jumps between us. Ok, so I know you think big deal, how hard can that be, well it’s not as easy as it sounds. We had to jump onto a concrete block that was about 2 foot high. Patrick was great at it, that Insanity training he had been doing really came in handy. Chuck was ok at it, but I sucked, I think I only did 10 out of the 60 jumps, Chuck didn’t do much more then me and Patrick did the rest. I guess you could say Patrick rocked the concrete block.

Adventure racing is a great sport for discovering your weaknesses, but luckily it’s a team sport, where not everyone has the same weakness. We are definitely a team that has better endurance skills rather then game skills.

We headed across the dam, where we chased off a bunch of geese and ducks, and then we ran through a bunch of geese poop, then slide around in some mud, finally making it to the canoes. Once at the canoes, we received our first CP location on the water. We pulled the canoe down into the lake where Chuck took the front, Patrick took the back and I sat in the middle on the bottom of the canoe. At first we really sucked at paddling, which was a surprise because Chuck and Patrick have been paddling for months in preparation for the MR340. We finally figured it out at the first canoe CP, we traded paddles around so that Patrick had the longest paddle and I had the shortest, then we were flying. We started passing other teams on the lake. At the next CP, I got out of the canoe and ran the trail to the next CP where I met the guys. I was having a great time running through the trails around the lake, but I came to a Y in the trail and didn’t know which way to go, so I stayed right, well come to find out both ways would have gotten me to the CP, but of course I chose the longer one, the guys had to wait about two minutes for me to show up. I jumped in the canoe and we headed for the next CP, we flew past 3 teams on this leg, and then headed back across the lake to the canoe takeout. The problem was the wind had really picked up and we were paddling against the white caps.

After some really tough paddling we made it back to the take-out and drug our canoe over a steep, muddy embankment. I kept slipping back down into the lake, finally Chuck yelled, “we have the canoe, go climb up the other side”. I was on the verge of a face plant into the mud, but don’t worry the guys said if that happened they would have been sure to get it on video for later use. Good thing I was able to crawl to the top without face planting.

It was now a fast run back to transition where we grabbed food and jumped on our Treks, me and Chuck on our 29er Superflys and Patrick on his 26er. I think it’s time for Patrick to move up to a big boy bike.

We headed out eating, the boys were eating Honey Stingers, but I chose a hamburger, that was a mistake. Although in 12 and 24 hour races a burger is great, it doesn’t work so well as quick energy in a short race. I know that now, but it’s just a little too late, lesson learned. My energy level was just not up to par and the guys had to keep slowing down for me. I was doing ok for a while, but wasn’t on my usual pace. A couple miles into the ride, a team caught up to us, but they didn’t pass us, actually they sat back and rode our wheels. A couple times they pulled up to us and asked if we race much. At first we weren’t sure what was up, we thought they were just taking advantage of us and using us for the draft since the wind was so strong. We even slowed down to a really slow pace to let them pass us, thinking we would take our turn at drafting. After a while we figured out what they were up to, they didn’t know where they were going so they were just following us to all the CPs. We kept riding out front, we went through the flooded section of road then when we hit the gravel we tried to do a shake-n-bake by setting up a draft line, but they were staying on.

First they had youth on us at least 20 years, they were strong and we started calling them the meatheads and legs, because the guys were muscle bound and the girl had legs. We devised a plan to see if what we thought they were doing was correct. Patrick had broken a spoke, so we decide at the next intersection we would stop and look at his spoke then they would have to pass us. Guess what, they stopped right behind us and just stood there until we took off again and then followed us. We knew what was going to happen. They would make the last CP and then burn us on the way back, since the course was an out and back, there was no navigation on the return trip. That is exactly what happened, when we hit route 4 we stopped, let them pass us, because now they would since they knew the way back. We then took a risk on a different route thinking it might be a little faster, but ran into them at the next intersection.

I know that there are no rules against following a team around during a race, but it’s really poor sportsmanship. If you can’t navigate, learn how, don’t just follow another team. It really is poor racing etiquette. Not to say that I wasn’t part of the problem, had I been on my game, we would have smoked them even with the fact that they were riding bikes that were more of a hybrid than a mountain bike. Smaller tires go faster on the road. We followed behind them and about 3 miles from the finish they shook us which was about the same time I bonked as hard as I ever have. I was out of water so we stopped and Chuck gave me some of his. I was shaking and on the verge of puking and crying, I held it in, and Patrick and Chuck talked me into forcing down some sport beans. I got a handful of them down and we headed to the finish. What’s really incredible is, in just minutes I began to feel better and picked up the pace all the way to the finish line. We crossed the finish line to the cheers of the volunteers and the race director.

All in all it was a good day, we finished the race and found that it had to be a good day because I had blood, it’s always a good race if there is mud and blood, and we had both.

We also should feel a little bit flattered, I mean the meatheads and legs would have never beaten us without following us the entire bike leg, even though, we were all at least 20 years older and me being the oldest on the team probably had 25 years on them. They may have trumped us this time, but more often then not experience will trump strength in traditional adventure racing.

We all sat down and didn’t want to get up, it was so relaxing to be hanging out under the tent lounging in chairs.

Mark came by to chat and we had a volunteer take our picture with one of the greatest race directors, who pulled the race off in the worst of conditions.

We want to thank Mark and all the volunteers, this is such a fun race and without them, there would be a hole in our race schedule. Oh and Mark if you’re reading this, I have one suggestion, every year the volunteers have these great distressed t-shirts that are so cool, next year forget the tech shirts we have tons of them and give out those really cool t-shirts like the volunteers get.

One last picture or maybe two, this is me trying to look tough after the race, even though I could barely stand up. And the last is Chuck and Patrick looking tough before the race or maybe they were looking at "legs", I'm really not sure.