Another Year, Another Couple Hundred Miles

During most bike races, at some point or another, i think to myself...."Self, remind me why we are doing this again?"
Unfortunately, during a race that takes over 9 hours, those thoughts tend last a lot longer.
Fortunately, within seconds of the race ending, i can't remember having those thoughts and can't wait to do it again.

We started at 6:37 with a lot of guys from the team in my start group.We knew it would be fast and painful and that most likely, not everybody would hold on to the lead group.
The only person from our team that could hold on to the winning move half way up the strawberry climb was the Robot. He killed it and had a great ride this year taking 5th.
The rest of us regrouped into a couple of different packs and chased for remaining 160 miles.
I dug a little too deep trying to stay with the leaders over the first climb and paid for it the rest of the day.
I spent much of the day looking at cousin Kevin or DC's butt. We eventually got into Teton Village 3 minutes slower than i did last year with a 9:46.
Despite it being a long and stressful day for the wives, Megan did a wonderful job setting a personal best for feeding me.

After seeing a bunch of friends finish and spending a little time in the icy stream, we made our way over to the Hotel.
We showered, changed and found a restaurant that would take 20 of us for Dinner.
I ordered everything on the menu and we finally made it back to our rooms around 10 o'clock for some much needed sleep.

It wasn't until just after midnight that the fire alarms started going off and we got a frantic knock on the door saying we needed to evacuate the building.
We hurried and got dressed and made our way out into a smoke filled hall, and then outside the building into the parking lot with a couple hundred other drowsy hotel guests.The fire department was called and eventually started trickling in 15 minutes later.
After about a dozen Volunteer Firefighters eventually showed up and made their way in and out of every room a few times and checked the whole building twice, they came out and announced that it was safe to re-enter the building, but if we heard a fire alarm during the night, that we should take it seriously and evacuate the building immediately.
As megan and I were making our way back to our room, I saw the hotel manager waiting at the door of Cousin Kevin and his wife, who were a couple doors down from us.
Apparently, after dinner, Jenn was either cold, or Kevin wanted a special mood set, so he lit a fire in the fireplace in his room. There was a little plaque in the rooms on the mantel that told how to light a fire in the fireplace in every room except Kevin's. Someone had stolen it so all you could see on his mantel was a little bit of glue left over from where the sign was. Unknowingly, Kevin neglected to properly open the flue and ventilate the fire so it started a backdraft and after a few hours of smoldering, the smoke eventually started seeping into the hall and rooms surrounding his room. One of the guests woke up and called the front desk, which led to a frantic manager running up and down the halls with a fire extinguisher, knocking on everybody's door and telling them to get out.
On behalf of me and the other 300 guests that were able to stand in the freezing cold parking lot in the middle of the night, after just riding our bikes 206 miles, I want to say, THANKS KEVIN!

We eventually got back to bed around 2:30 AM.

FYI: if you have a comb-over, even if you are evacuated from a building in the middle of the night, make sure your comb-over is combed-over

#3 goes to school

It is a strange concept for me to tell my kids when they are doing something bad that if they don't shape up, i won't let them go to school...it works though.
They love it and i am ok with that. At least they are not smoking crack.
#3's first day is a teddy bear party. She is very excited because this year she goes for 3 days a week.

Top of Utah Half Marathon

Another fun weekend vacation in a crappy 1 star motel to attend a race of some kind.If you can't read the giant sign that was made, it says "WOW, MOM!"

The #1 fans gave out lots of sweaty high fives at mile 9.

I have commented to Megan several times about how biking is superior to running and you can easily tell by looking at the peoples faces that are doing each sport. Runners almost always look like they are in pain and on the brink of death where cyclist, on the other hand are usually smiling and look like they are having a great time.
In this picture, Megan made a conscious effort to make it look like she was having a good time.

It's amazing the lengths she will go to to get an hour and forty seven minutes to herself. It was a new PB.
In order of appearance from left to right:
1.The Clydesdale who decided to forgo any running the whole week before and instead supplemented his training with several homemade cookies every night instead.
2.The wife of the clydesdale who did a great job on her first ever half marathon
3.axl rose's much faster and much cuter female counterpart
4.The bake-a-holic
5.the suburban cowgirl who finally got a pair of real running shoes
6.the running sixpack who is 9 weeks great with child
7. the sucker husband that had nothing better to do on saturday morning.

Don't Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out

I have read a few accounts lately of how mothers cry when their kids go back to school.
I think there will definitely be tears shed at our house today.... tears of joy!

More Bike Races

Saturday I took part in the 1000 warriors race from Park City to Snowbird.
I was feeling good for 92 miles, but missing all of your feedzones will eventually catch up to you.
I was on track to get in around 20-25 minutes faster than i did last year until i hit the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and then it was lights out. A climb that usually takes me a little over 40 minutes took around 85 minutes. That's what happens when you have to get off your bike every mile and go and stand in the shade and stretch your cramps out and try to stop the dizziness and stars.The next day, we went downtown and #3 did her first bike race. After learning to ride her bike a few months ago, she figured she was ready to race her bike. She did great and got a free hot dog, a waterbottle and a medal at the end.
Since we were already down there, we figured we would stick around and watch the pros race.
Zabriskie drilling it in a 4 man break, wearing a plain jersey after being fined for wearing the wrong clothes earlier in the week.Jose found this picture that someone else took of #4 being dropped from a helicopter at the downtown crit.

When a friend of mine had his first baby a few years ago and they went in for a check-up with the doctor, he asked the doctor when he could start throwing the baby up in the air. The Doctor replied with a horrified look that it was never ok to throw your kids. I wish you could have seen the look on #4's face because she loves it, just don't tell our doctor.

Some days you're better off staying in bed

The corner a dodge neon came fish tailing around into my lane almost hitting me head on



The gas station we sat in for 30 minutes drinking hot cocoa trying to stop shaking so we could get back on our bikes and ride the rest of the way home


The clouds that eventually dropped rain and hail on us with winds strong enough to blow Eric off the road








The souvenir of hitting a wet spot doing 30 mph around a corner

4 Canyons Day 'o Fun Take 2

It was so much fun last year that we did it again this year.
Last year i fell short of 13000' of elevation gain by a few feet so this time i made sure to go back down one of the canyons a little bit and come back up.

I added a few miles, a few hundred feet in elevation gain and shaved 4 minutes off my time.
The weather was much cooler this year and i wasn't expecting to have my teeth chattering as i descended the last canyon at 1:30 in the afternoon in the middle of august, but they were.

Lots of people came for parts of the ride but only, jose and jj were there for the whole day 'o fun.
jj's comment after we started down the descent of the last canyon was something along the lines of "i don't know whether to hate you or thank you."