This Past Month...

So much has happened over the last month.

4 weeks ago

we spent my last week of summer before school in Sedona with Daryl and Melanie having some fun and quality creek time with the dogs

















2 weeks ago

For Haven's Sake was a blast!!! Tom and Kim had everything nailed and the event ran like a well oiled machine. We raised a bunch of money for a great cause and a fun time was had by all.

Thanks again to everyone who volunteered, contributed, and attended!
















Last Weekend

Camped and watched Sara and Tom race the St Mary's Food Bank race in Flagstaff.

Sara and Tom both finished in 2nd in the respective categories.























Also, Jeff, Norma, & Coco stayed with us Saturday night cause Jeff was doing the Skull Valley Road Race on Sunday. Layla and Coco got to have round 2 of their weekend's play. Here is Layla after they rolled in the dirt for hours in Flag.















As of late, I'm just working on motivation to start riding again after some bloody pee, infections, and medication battle.

Really?

10 years of marriage!

Good thing he didn't kiss me for the first time with that nasty moustache!

Prescott 12 Hours at Night

Tom, Tom, and Kim drove up this weekend for Prescott's inaugural 12 Hours at Night sponsored by GO Adventure Recreation. It was something new for me. I've never done a 12 hour race that was entirely at night. The race went from 8 pm Saturday till 8 am Sunday. Big thanks to Tom Ament industries for making me some ghetto lights to get me through the event. Tom makes awesome little lights that are super bright with long run times.

As we were getting ready for the race a storm started moving in. Here is me in deep thought looking at the lightning dancing around.




We got some pretty crazy lightning and wind for the first few hours but no rain. The weather added a little excitement.

Getting ready!!!



Starting the race I knew I had my work cut out for me cause I saw that Taylor Lideen a young up and coming endurance racer was there. I've raced with him before and he is super fast. We hit the first 5 laps pretty hard which didn't allow me to get any of my hamburgers consumed. So I was running on Gatorade, water, and GU for about the first 1/3 of the race. On the 6th lap Taylor put a little time on me but I was surprised to see him off the course and packing his car up at the end of the 6th lap. Turns out he had some stitches in his had that started to open up on him. So him dropping out allowed me to slow things down a little and get some solid food in me.
'
Anyway, It was the best 12 hour course I've ridden. It flowed nice and there was not any spots that I really hated. I'll be looking forward to this event next year.








I ended up winning the Men's Solo geared category with 15 laps and 135 miles. I have to thank Sara, Jeff, and Layla for the support. Would have been a lot harder without them.















Kim killed it on her first 12 hour race! She won the women's single speed category with 13 laps which would have been enough to take second in the men's single speed category














Great job to Tom Stack too for his 3rd place finish!!!

Haven's Benefit details

Mark your calendars and check out the awesome flyer Kim made!
You can register ahead of time at BikeReg.com.
An event website has also been set up at forhavenssake.sports.officelive.com. From there you can register for the bike event, make direct donations, and find links to all of the businesses that have contributed to make this benefit happen!! You can read more about Haven and her fight here.

Event for Haven

Sara and I will be helping Tom Ament in putting on a fundraiser event for a special little girl who is going through a very rough time.

Haven has been battling Neuroblastoma Cancer and ROHHAD. This link will give you details on what Haven and her family are going through right now.

http://haveyroo.blogspot.com

Misty & Kris of Vassago Cycles (The parents of Haven)are great people and great contributors to the cycling community so we are going to try to do something for them in this difficult time.

Haven is currently going through a very aggressive type of chemo where she has to stay in a "Clean Room" for the next several months. Kris is currently staying in the "Clean Room" with Haven. Here is the latest Vassago announcement

Vassago Cycles


The Event
Mark your calenders cause the event will be held at the McDowell competive loop duing the evening on Saturday, August 15th. It will involve a time trial, night fun ride, beer, food, raffles, and camping.

Specifics and flyer will be posted in the next week or so. Keep an eye out for details.

Jackpot

Eighty five dollars = 1st place Flagstaff Finale

One hundred seventy five dollars = Arizona Pro Female State Champ

And I did it on my big wheels.

Thank you Vassago.

I-L-L

I-N-I

Zach, Layla and I were back in good ole Pville the last week of May. It went by way too fast. I flew back to Prescott after just a week so I could make it to my first day of microbiology. Fun stuff.

It was a nice trip though, action packed but not to much. Spent some time with our families and some good friends. I forgot my camera half the time but managed to get a few (like 5) pictures.

Traffic to welcome us back.












Post Thursday night ride at Adam and Stacy's











































Relaxing after a Sunday morning ride

Zach and his parents walking the doodle

Sweet nothings

(Selle Italia needs a redesign)









Sara: Geeez...Look what I did to my saddle!!??

Zach: Yeah.

Sara: Man. How do you suppose I did that?

Zach: Your giant ass.

Rewind - Mogollon Masher

BEFORE

What may turn out to be one of my favorite races in the MBAA series and I'm almost a month late in posting about it. We drove up to the Mogollon Rim fairly early Friday in the new VAN. We were meeting Jeff and Vienna to camp for the whole weekend.

The set up in the van. Layla is laying on a nice comfy futon mattress.

The views from our campsite, on top of the rim.

Our campsite.

Vienna getting the dogs settled. My favorite picture from the trip.

Once we arrived, Jeff, Zach and I suited up and went out for a preride. I loved the course. It reminded me a lot of Nine Mile. Alot of people did not like it because there was not enough climbing (huh?), but after the Prescott MBAA race and the Whiskey 50, I was ready for a "flat" course. And despite the protests of flatness, there was climbing. It was nice and gradual, no crazy steep climbs. It was good. Lots of pedaling. That's probably what people didn't like. It was beautiful with pines, aspen groves, and open pastures. The snow had just melted so there were a few mushy water crossings and 2 creek crossings. Fun stuff.

After the ride we got settled in (Thanks Vienna for setting up camp!) and celebrated Jeff's birthday.


The race venue turned out to be about a 20 minute drive from our campsite...yet I still somehow ended up running late. I barely had time for a warmup and we were off at 8:45. The race went well. I loved the trail even more the second day. The course was set up lollipop style; each loop was about 9 miles. The double track up to the feed zone turned out to be a killer and the 2 way traffic section back to the finish felt like 5 miles since it was all uphill.

First place! (dang I look old!)

Zach had a good race with photo finish at the end with his friend Tim (who lives in Chino Valley).

And then he puked.

The altitude must have gotten to Tom. He finished second.

Jeff dnf'd. If I remember he flatted...maybe twice.
After the race we chilled around the campfire. Tim, Robin and their 2 dogs joined us that night. We had 6 people and 6 dogs! We should have gotten up and rode Sunday morning, but we were all feeling a little groggy. We had breakfast and cruised. Stopped in Payson for some killer Mexican food and Zach slept in the back the whole way home.

AFTER

Vassago Love and Flagstaff

We were just about packed and ready to go to Flagstaff for the race this weekend when that lovely brown UPS truck pulled down our dirt road and brought me a big box of love from Vassago. It contained our kits and everything else we could ever want including a little dolly named Tom.

A big thanks to Misty, Kris, and Vassago!















I you look close you will see that little Tom wanted to drive to the race...





















We got to Flagstaff and I did my volunteer work and waited for Tim and Elizabeth to arrive for a nice relaxing evening. We had dinner by the campfire and it was off to bed.

The morning was different than usual because I had to do some more volunteering so I couldn't hand Sara bottles in her race. Tom (Not the dolly) and Kim got there in time for Kim and Sara's race so Tom handed the ladies bottles in their race.

My race was another battle. The top five finishers in our Cat 1 class have been so close the last few races and it was no different this time. Tom Faeh and Tim Allen got away a bit for 1st and 2nd but 3rd - 5th were back and forth the whole time. I wound up in 4th with Marcus Hayward who is leading the series 15 seconds ahead of me and Rob Shaver just a little behind me. It is going to be interest to see how the series shakes out after low races are dropped and the final being weighted heavier.



Rockin the new kit!!!!















Queen Sara sporting her 1st place medal and me with my 4th
















After the race we headed to Sedona for some R & R at the Quail Ridge which is now partially owned by the Bike n Bean crew. So it is officially the coolest place for mountain bikers to stay with a great pool and hot tub and is only around the corner from the Bean. Tim Allen met up with Tim, Elizabeth, Sara, and I for some refreshments by the pool Saturday night. Tom (not the dolly) and Kim ditched us for some unknown reason and didn't join us in Sedona.



We did do some hiking at West Fork on Sunday before heading home.




















And then there is this guy

For now...

We had a great weekend camping and racing!! More later, test in the morning.

mongolian bbq

We are off to the Mogollon Rim tomorrow for #6 MBAA race.  This will be our first camping trip in the new rig.

Tim's not coming up for this one.  I think he should reconsider.  

I wanted to make these for you and Elizabeth last weekend but I ran out of time. All your talk after the race inspired me.

These cookies are my specialty. They are damn good, so if you are a cookie person you should start drooling now.

The Whiskey

What a race. I have not done many endurance races, but I am going out on a limb to say this has to be one of the coolest. Super fun singletrack with some scary loose rocky downhill sections and you have to love the 11 mile dirt road down to Skull Valley... Especially knowing that you have to climb up and beyond the point where you started to head down. Lots of climbing and then the course ends with some more great singletrack....all downhill after one last short killer of a climb. That's the climb where everyone starts (or continues) to cramp big time.

Zach, Tim and I got downtown with plenty of time to spare. It's such an awesome race...from start to finish. It's so laid back at the start, you can head up with just a few minutes to go and weasel your way up closer to the front. I started with Zach, and Jen, Spring and Heidi were just a little ahead of me.

I had a completely uneventful race, which is the way I like it. No crashes and no mechanicals. I handled the water bars better than last year, made that last torturous climb, and improved on my time from last year. The climb back up from Skull Valley totally killed me. I must have swore 50 times that I would never do the fifty again!! Can't decide if it's more physically or mentally difficult. Couldn't have been on a better bike. The Vassago did me good. It's amazing how awesome I felt on Sunday after that race.

I ended up in 8th place... Not what I wanted but totally appropriate given my experience in longer races and my current level of training. School has ruled my days. There were some serious hard core ladies there like Lynda, Sonya, and Sarah. Wow, they are fast. Spring and Heidi kicked my butt up the road (ya damn roadies :)!! ) and had great finishes at 5th and 6th.

And the fun doesn't end with the riding. As you head in towards the finish line, you have an entire crowd of people cheering you on! It's so great. This year they finished the weekend up with a band on the square. How cool. I love this joint.

Zach had a great finish at 19th out of 139 in his age group, bettering his time by 16 minutes.   First time Whiskey Riders Jeff and Vienna both did the 15. This was Vienna's first race!! They both did awesome. Tim's first time too.  He did the 50 and was doing great until he stopped to help the dude who peeled the skin off his knee. Elizabeth was a trooper and hung at the house with the Doodle and Oliver during the race. Tom had a pretty good crash that took some time from him but Kim got a FIRST PLACE!! ha ha!

Unfortunately, I left my camera at home and didn't get any pictures after the race, but I did take some pictures of the course the weekend before during a preride. 

Here's my bike, the Optimus

Zach, just before the waterbars.

Tim heading down 260.

A view up 260, which was in GREAT  shape, thanks to the MAN - John Shumaker.

View of 89A from 260.

And a few pictures of the gang on the square.

The only disappointing thing about the weekend was that our friends from Illinois did not make it out here this year!!  NEXT YEAR WE BETTER SEE YOU!!!  YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!

Bandersnatch

Been riding mine all week and love it!!! It fits me so much better than the the Fisher did. You gotta love the Vassago Wetcat geometry. Started building Sara's today

Need New Vassago Stickers

Here is the new diesel 4x4 race vehicle!!!! Plenty of room for bikes and sleeping. Tom and I aren't going to be Element twins anymore. The only thing it is missing is some Vassago stickers!!!
























Sara getting ready to do a little wrenching. If you look close she might have a ziptie in her hand.