An update and an open apology

Didn't do the Solvang Century. Ended up helping a friend with some stuff.

Didn't do the March Triathlon. Stress fracture - left foot. Hopefully it's better by April 10th.

Now for the open apology part...the triathlon race director was cool enough to refund my entry fee since it was a medical problem. Cool. We already had a campsite reserved at the race site, so I figured to try to be nice I'd offer to volunteer since they were cool enough to refund my entry fee, and since we were already going to be there. I've also raced a bunch and relied on volunteers, but never helped out myself, so I thought it was time.

I got up early and headed down to the transition area. They told me they needed some help marking peoples' race numbers on their bodies. I grabbed a marker and jumped in. I didn't really get any training, I just tried to copy the other folks marking racers. We marked the backs of hands, biceps, left quad and right calf. What I didn't realize was that we were supposed to put their race number everywhere but the calf - that was supposed to be their age group. Oops. Let's just say the race officials were probably pretty surprised when there were folks in the 529, 213, 417, etc age group.

I wasn't done there though. I was marking a guy I knew and after I had marked his hand and a bicep, he asked me, "How did you know my number?" I replied, "Uh, I don't." As I had been yakking I never got around to asking him what number he was. I just marked him with the same number of the racer I had previously marked. Oops. We couldn't find anything to clean him up with so I scratched through what I had written and tried to make it look like his number.

When I saw him after the race I asked him how it went...and called him by the wrong name...for the second time that day. So in light of all that, I just wanted to offer an apology for all the mayhem I caused on Saturday. Maybe I should stick to racing instead of volunteering.

Upcoming sufferfests

March 12 - Solvang Century. May do about half (and quit very near our house) at a 25 mph pace with some dudes or do the whole enchilada at a much mellower pace with a different batch of dudes. Oh and I'm not registering, but I won't utilize the rest stops, so it's not stealing, just leveraging the mass numbers of cyclists on the road to stay a bit safer.
March 27 - March Triathlon. Did it two years ago and am hoping for a better result. Which would require better training. Hmmm, perhaps I need to temper my expectations.
April 10 - Are You Tough Enough. Trail relay from Montecito to Nojoqui Falls. Should be fun and a good tune up for Ragnar SoCal two weeks later. Also the first race with a team presented by the Syndicate!
April 23/24 - Ragnar SoCal. Route was changed and doesn't go through Malibu. Picked up more distance and hills. I couldn't be happier. Looking forward to escorting Ginet on her leg through some rough neighborhoods in LA on my bike, in running shorts. Who's gonna even think about attacking her, when they've got my milky white thighs distracting them!

Hope to have so good stories to share...

Oh yeah, and that one too

Back on January 30th, I raced in the Cat 5B division of the Poor College Kids Road Race with some guys in the club I'm part of. We had a good time and managed to put one of our guys (Paul) into 4th place, just missing the podium.

The race started fast. I was concerned Paul was doing too much work on the front of the pack too early in the race as we approached one climb so I caught him and offered some wise advice. (This coming from a guy who is in his third organized road race - yeah I'm a real genius.) I told him to take it easy and he said he was just trying to soften the pack up. Oh, yeah, good idea, and I faded back a couple of spots. I manged to stay in near the front of the pack most of the race, but when we were about 2/3 of the way through one guy attacked. I was sitting third wheel then, Paul was second, and the guy on the front had been there a while so he didn't have the gas to go get the attacker. I didn't want Paul to because I knew he had a better shot at a good result than I did. So I went after him and told Paul to come with me (what a hero, eh?). Well the problem was that I used up a ton of energy chasing the attacker down, and I brought the whole pack with me. (Usually you want to leave them behind.) So when we reached the foot of the last climb in the race I didn't have the giddy-up in my legs to stay with the pack. I managed to claw back a couple of places on the climb and descent, and work my way into a true middle of the pack finish. Oh well. Lessons learned that I will apply in future races.

That's how it went

The 25 Hours of Halloween went well. We managed a second place (of only four teams) in our division. But it was good enough to take home a pint glass. Riding at night was fun. On top of that we were blessed with a full moon and decent weather. The team members kept things mellow, but we managed to lay down some decent lap times. What amazed me were the dudes racing in the solo category. Solid. Also very cool was a team racing on a Project Rwanda bike (scroll to the bottom of the link for a good pic). The whole team shared one bike, so when they came in there was some seat adjusting and they were off. I think they may have been faster than us. Mildly embarassing.

I did have a couple of lessons learned: 1) Bring warm stuff to sleep in. I slept in the bed of my truck and woke up with a coat of ice on my sleeping bag! I know, in California of all places! 2) Bring many changes of clothes. Sweaty clothes don't dry well when it's dark and cool. It's hard to get your race face on when you are pulling on stinky, clammy clothes at 3 AM.

I'd do it again though. Currently tossing around the idea of a 12 hour race in Temecula later this year...