It's Not Like You Love Your 4th Child Any Less...

...it's just that you don't have the energy to care as much what they look like.

LOTOJA 10

I ended up getting a different Hotel in both Logan and Jackson than the other guys on my team this year because of what Kevin did last year. I figured i would rather have it be a little harder logistically but get a good nights sleep than be awakened in the middle of the night by the fire engines again.

When we rolled out in the dark just after 6:30 it was around 35 degrees. I shivered for the first hour. About an hour and a half in, the pace picked up climbing the first climb and i got dropped by the lead group. I caught Cousin Kevin who lasted 2 minutes longer than i did and we rode together. My intention was to ride with the lead group as long as i could and if i couldn't stay with them, i would drop back and ride with Jose and Lil bills dad, who was doing it for his first time.

Still Smiling at 20 miles into the ride

As i pulled into Montpellier, somehow, i dropped Kevin. I sat up and soft pedaled for a minute waiting for him and my legs started cramping. It is a funny thing that as long as i would keep a nice consistent cadence going i would be fine, but any time i tried to speed up or slow down, i would cramp. I got the time split back to the Jose group and it was around 25-30 minutes. I knew my legs couldn't wait that long so i had to keep going. I set out doing a mellow pace and figured Kevin would catch me from behind. I stopped and waited at the top of the geneva climb and saw a group of cyclist that looked like Kevin was in it so i started descending with them. It wasn't Kevin but another guy from our team riding in a different category. I rode with them for a couple of miles and then sat up and soft pedaled some more. I had a pedal giving me problems and luckily my wife and Jenn drove by so i had them pull over. I had a spare set of pedals in the car. I have learned over the last 5 years that over 206 miles, just about anything can happen. While i was switching my pedal, Kevin pulled up. We rode together for the rest of the day. He flatted going through a construction zone so I stopped with him for that. We got that fixed and he pulled from the last right hand turn all the way to the finish to keep our time sub-10 hours, if only by a few minutes.

Like the jerk that Lil Bills dad is, he had Jose pull him the last 15o miles while he suffered, and then he jumped him at the line to come in one place ahead of Jose.

You may be looking at his outfit saying, that is a really cool helmet. I thought those are only available in the Europe and not the States, but wait, it doesn't really match the rest of his biking costume. What gives?!?

In typical LOTOJA fashion, Lil Bills Dad wanted to kill me and said it was the longest and hardest day of his life and he would never do it again, but by the next day he was already trying to figure out how he could do better next year. SUCKER!

Luckily next year, we are taking it at a much different pace.

If i can't keep up with a 60 something year old fat man and a one legged pirate, i am really in trouble.

The old man did climb all the way up to Snowbird yesterday which is a great improvement from when he tried to climb little cottonwood a couple of years ago. I can't figure out why he didn't want me to film it this time?

Thanks to the best looking support at LOTOJA. not just for Saturday, but for all year long, juggling around my rides.

Why you should NOT go Mountain Biking with Cousin Kevin aka the Green Hornet

I am embarrassed to admit that aside from an occasional race, i have never really mountain biked in Park City. It never fit in with my schedule. I was always crunched for time with my bike rides, so driving an hour before i even started riding was tough to justify. This weekend we had someone offer us their condo at Deer Valley so we jumped on it. Cousin Kevin was up there too so he and I met up early monday morning and went for a ride starting at Deer Valley's mid mountain lifts. We cruised up the recommended uphill route which turned out to be a lame service road.

We came back down homeward bound and Kevin insisted on riding as many of the freestyle features as he could find. We got back to the bottom and talked to someone and they pointed us up the mid mountain trail and up team big bear. Kevin had to be back for his pedicure at 11 so we ran out of time. Instead of coming back down the way we came up, Kevin thought it would be better and faster if we blazed our own trail back.

With loose rock and 45 degree angles, your brakes actually don't do any good. It was only after we finally made our way back onto a trail that Kevin decided to pull his junk out and relieve himself, much to the surprise of the guy that came around the corner a few seconds later.

Here is some video of Kevin on one of the freestyle features. You tell me if he rides like an 8 year old little girl.

Uninvited Guest

When Megan decided to get a cat for the girls, we knew we didn't want it to be an inside cat. We figured we could just leave the garage door open 6 inches at the bottom and it could come and go as it pleased. We went out of town for labor day weekend and poured a bunch of cat food in a bowl and left. When we returned home, all of the cat food was gone, which was a little surprising since the cat is still fairly small.

We got everything unpacked, got the kids to bed and Megan went out to the garage to get something out of the outside fridge. She caught a raccoon eating the cat food while the cat was hiding terrified in the corner.

Instead of running out of the garage when Megan came out, the raccoon went and hid in another corner of the garage behind a shovel. Megan came and got me, so i retrieved our BB gun, which ironically we got in our first house to keep the neighborhood cats from using our yard as a litter box. After shooting the raccoon 4 times and it not even moving, Megan suggested i use the shotgun she gave me for my birthday a few years ago. Apparently she has no idea what a 12 gauge would do to a raccoon or our garage at short range. I told her i would use it if she agreed to clean up the mess. A few shots from the BB gun later and the raccoon ran off into the night.

Now we need to rethink this whole cat thing. Maybe we will get one of these instead.