First Race

The reason I didn't call this the first race of the year is cause it felt like my first race ever. The road back after some extra pounds and 4 months of antibiotics is going to require a little work.

I'm glad I have mental support from Tom who told me that if I'm going to go that slow on a race course, I need to put flashing harzard lights on the back of my bike.

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