Finding God--3 Easy Steps

I found this pic in one of my mtb magazines almost 15 yrs ago while I was in seminary. Being the preacherman that I am, I couldn't pass it up. It hangs on my wall.

March of Dimes Run/Ride

March of Dimes Walk

Sunday May 6th 2007

Seth and I felt like pros this weekend. We did a tri in Lexington on Saturday then the March of Dimes Run/Ride or walk Sunday. It was as close to a weekend of racing that I have been able to do. I asked Seth if he was up for a 5.5 mile bike ride. The route left Clifton Middle School to Alleghany High School and back. About as flat of a course as one can find around here. He said he was up for another race so off we went. We started in the back of the pack. It was a mad dash to the first turn. There were baby strollers, walkers, and noodlers creating havoc so we had to pic our lines carefully. I was running and Seth on his Lightning Blue crit bike. We made our way to the front of the pack by the first turn and he put the hammer down. I did all I could do to keep up.

We passed about a dozen high school students with one other guy in the lead. We made it to the turnaround in 2nd place. Well that is where we lost some time. See I forget that a little boy likes to ride through puddles and the parking lot was full of them. "Daddy, can I ride through the puddles?" No, I answered, the baby strollers are about to catch us. Of course I let him ride through the puddles--for about 10 minutes while I chilled and drank some water. Once he was done, off we went to the finish. Total time about 55 min. with a 10 min. break. Not too bad. And all for a good cause!

the course

Post race was funny. He went around telling everyone he did the entire course while drinking his gatoraide. There was another kid that looked to be about 7 on a bike with training wheels that kept teasing Seth for wearing a helmet and demonstrating all these cool tricks, ie-ride with one hand, turn circles slowly, and other tough trial manuvers. Seth responded, "Yeah, but you still have training wheels!" At a boy! Good comback.

one of my youth, kara, and her friend.

Lexington Road & River Relay

Lexington Road & River Relay
May 5 2007
Seth's first triathlon

Wow, what a day for a race. Weather was great and I had a strong "stoker" to pump us up the hills. First the equipment. This is Seth's new 29er ss. Well, not exactly a 29 but probably to scale for his size. This is an old school Motocross Mickey bike. Not many of these left. Most of the kids bikes you get now have all the fancy shocks and gadgets that brake in a few days and weighs 50 lbs. This baby weighs in at 32 lbs.







Keith Simpson let me use his Old Town Discovery Scout canoe. Great canoe for the river! Sturdy and no keel so that it handles the rapids with ease.





Boy does it take a long time to get ready. Not only do I have to remember my stuff but his too. I wasn't sure on the temps so I wanted to make sure I had the right extra clothing with us in case it gets chilly for the little guy. Sure we ride bikes in the park and play hard but he has never done a real tri. Here are the specs:

3.5 mile run

9.1 mile bike on pavement

2.2 mile canoe down the Maury

1.3 mile road/trail run to finish

Total of 16.1 miles

Notice we are sporting the El Toreo team jersey. We stopped by Ron's that week and picked him one up. He was really pumped that he was part of the Taco Team. Everywhere we went that day, he would tell everyone about the big race he was going to do. Funny thing is the night before, we were watching some survivor show on the Discovery channel. This episode was about a guy and gal who got lost in the Amazon forest for about 6 days. They reached a point where they wanted to quit and give up. Seth said, "They shouldn't quit, they need to keep trying." What a great opportunity for a pre-race lesson. Our motto for the day was:

NO WHINING-NO QUITING

I wasn't sure if we could finish and I wanted him to enjoy it and have fun. Maybe he might want to do another. The race begins around 10am and we take off. The first of the run was down hill to the river, then run along the river. Once he felt comfortable riding, he kept asking, "daddy, can I speed up and pass people?" I was trying to keep up with him.

He spots Keith and makes his move around him





crossing the bridge and about to head along the river.

It was all I had to keep up with him. He was flying along the river. The was one small climb I had to help push and we got to the top and he takes off again. We did the 3.5 miles in about :30. That has got to be the most he has ever ridden the bike and now we have 9.1 on the tandem.

Now for the new tagalong tandem. These things really rock. Great way to drag the kids around while getting a great workout, especially on the hills. I heard the course was a little hilly so I opted for a easier gear ratio. Plus I figured if I had to walk, then my mtb shoes would be better than the roads. After the first mile, the course has a 2 mile climb. Not sure the grade but it felt like 12% pulling an extra 70 lbs. Glad I had the granny gear. I like to stand climbing but wasn't able to do that because it would cause the tandem to rock back and forth. We nearly caught one rider at the top then a long descent. This is where I underestimated my speed. We hit about 12 and I hear, "daddy slow down I am scared." WHAT! I just carried you up hill and now we have a chance to get speed. Yeah, so I road the brakes all the way down holding around a 12 mph. The terrain was rolling hills and beautiful scenery. The main problem I had was he wouldn't stop talking. I am riding hard and all I hear is this chatter behind me asking me questions. AUGH. So I am trying to talk and pedal which I don't do very well. About the 40 min. mark I could tell he was getting a little bored. Not tired, just bored. So I sucked it up and played some games of I-Spy. Total 9.1 miles, 853 feet of climbing, 1:01, not too bad.

Oh yeah, at each transition, I have to remember to ask questions like, "are you hungry, thirsty, or need to go to the bathroom." Off to the canoe. We have been down the Cowpasture and the Jackson and he loves it. Especially the rapids. He uses my double end kayak paddle and I have the old school wooden paddle. The Maury was up which was nice, made the trip a little faster and we hit a few rapids. One small waterfall about 1.5 ft high, that was real cool for him. We paddled hard and reach the take-out in :45 min. Oh yeah, my canoe was the only one with a bike in it. I needed it to finish the final leg.

Out of the canoe, he gets back on the bike and I run. He can smell the finish and pedals hard. I think I didn't 'work him hard enough on the tandem. He had time and energy to find every pothole full of water to rider through. We came across the finish line with a total time of about 2:12. Folks were cheering for him and he like that part. He even started waving to folks during the last 100 ft. I thought he might wreck doing that. We were both pumped about the finish and performance. No whining and we finished the course.

Seth crossing the finish. Funny thing he would take his hand off the handlebars and wave to the crowd. He is working on the nohander over the finish. A big thanks to Claudia Schwab for taken the photos. She mailed me a few copies and the writeup from the paper. More photos available at http://www.thenews-gazette.com/photo_gallery/

Post-race nap.

Mountain Do Triathlon

What a glorious day for a race. Temps were in the lower 60's and a slight overcast. I did this tri last year and really enjoyed it. 10k trail run, 2k kayak, 20k mtb. Hungry Mother State Park is a great location and offers wonderful hospitality. VA has some of the best parks in America, but then again, I haven't been to that many parks outside of NC, SC, and GA.

Over the winter, I purchased a used Wilderness System Tsunami kayak. Great kayak for open water and local rivers. Not the best for whitewater but will handle smaller rapids, if you know what you are doing. The first day I tried it was in the upper Jackson. I rolled it in the first 100ft of putting in. No, I don't know how to roll it so I guess I flipped over. I wanted to get a feel of how it rocks side to side and I flipped it over. I didn't have a spray skirt at the time so I came out of it and that is some cold water. Pulled it up on the shore, dumped the water out and headed on. Since then I have done a little better. More on that later.

The run and mtb are done on the same 6.2 mile loop. The trails are non technical, rolling and wide which creates some fast times.

Gun goes off about 10am and off I go. Over the winter I started back running and snowboarding. Gee, I haven't posted my snowboard adventures. The winter running really paid off. I do not consider myself a runner and really don't enjoy that much. Why do it? I don't know. Anyway, my goal was to finish it in 50 min. Last yr I did it in around 56min. Ran the whole time and felt good, hey, I kinda enjoy this. Picked up the pace and worked the hills hard leaving a few folks behind. The last mile is on pavement, which I really hate running on, so I picked up the pace a little and finished right at 50 min. I am pumped.

Grabbed my hat and gloves and off to the kayak. Jumped in and a volunteer helped push me off the shore. Hey wait, I forgot my paddle! No, not really. Around the lake we go. The Tsunami has a slight keel to it so it tracks well and is easy to paddle. Slight headwind going out but it was nice heading back in. Back at the beach in about :36. Problem, after running hard then sitting cramped in a kayak, the legs forget how to move. I jump out of the kayak and almost fall. Man, my legs were tight and stiff. My calf started to cramp. That isn't good. Well, maybe the bike will loosen them up.

Now the fun really begins. Helmet and glasses on, and I take off. My legs felt like they weighed 100lbs each. Slowly getting the leg speed up and I start to pick some folks off. There is always someone in front of you so it is nice to have a goal of catching them. I continued to fight the right calf cramping but never locked up preventing me from pedaling. Continued to catch folks and feeling a little better. First lap in :27. I picked up the pace a little and the calves started acting up again. Maintained a good pace and picked off about 6 places on the mtb with 2 of them in the last 1/4 mile on the road. Now that was fun.

Finished with a total time of 2:26:07. 4th place in men's 39 and under 9th in individual men's overall. The turnout was a little lower this year with only about 40 participants in the men's division. Winning time was 2:05:22. Fastest run time 39:50 and mtb time 48:48. That is smokin. I picked up 8 places in my division and 16 places overall after the run. Maybe more running next winter.

Overall, had a blast and didn't get passed by a girl!

Next race this Saturday in Lexington. Lexington Road & River Relay

Another tri this time with my teammate Seth.

Middle Mountain Momma Pre Race Report

I often wonder how and who marks the courses that we race on. How many signs, staples, and time does it really take? I had a great opportunity to find out as I signed up for the new reality TV show "dirty jobs." Well there is already a show named that about but I want go there. So here was my time to give a little back to the racing community that I enjoy and Douthat Park. Dale Heath and I started out at the beginning of the race course with all material needed. Man, that stuff weighs a ton. 2 staple guns, 3 boxes staples, about 100 signs, 2 rolls of orange tape plus the needed nutrition to get us through the day. Notice the color coordination of Dale (very important) and that big suitcase under the saddle.After about 1 hr of making the list and checking it over and over, we were off, Time 10 am. Notice my prerace #78. Yeah I figured since I won't be able to do the race because it is on a SUNDAY, the one day a week i have to work, I would make this my race and see if I can crack Dale. Besides he is carrying the 20 lbs of material.

Off we go. I love the new Douthat Park Mtb shirts, on the back it says, "It ain't flat." Got to get me one of those. That might be a great logo for the race T. I won't bore you with all the details of aligning the arrows the perfect degree and height, but I will say a lot of thought does go into it. Dale demonstrating the proper technique.

ATTENTION ALL RACERS!

VERY IMPORTANT INTERSECTION.

XX RACERS BEAR LEFT

STAY ON MIDDLE MOUNTAIN TRAIL AND GO OUT OF THE PARK

ALL OTHERS TURN RIGHT ONTO SALT STUMP.

I THINK I CAN I THINK I CAN

Down off of salt stump across the road to Mountain top. I forgot how steep that is. Fortunately there was only 1 tree down on the down side of Mountain top. With the help of a little saw, the branches were cut away and it is now ridable but watch out it is on a fast descent. Notice the orange ribbon indicating the possible danger!

don't forget to take time and smell the flowers

what a blessed sight, no not me, the small structure marking the final descent to the finish.

It is now 6:30 pm. 7:30 hrs total time with 3:40 min of ride time at around 21.5 miles. 4k feet of climbing, 89 signs, 297 staples, 50 yrds of orange tape, 1 footlong subway club, 2 cliff bars, 100 oz of fluids, and 1 rice krispy treat, and we were done! Well, until after the race then it has to come down.

For those who help make racing possible, THANK YOU, its lot of hard work. Be sure to thank all the folks who help promote, put together, and volunteer to keep this sport alive! ps. for those that preroad the course last weekend and came across numerous trees down, most have been cut and removed by the park rangers, so give them a big hand too.