Tiffin, Ohio YMCA indoor Tri

My name is Shayne Thomas and I am new to the team.  First of all, I want to thank WSI Cycling and Team Active for allowing me to join the team. Many of you know me through Eric Cook and our triathlon adventures.  I am an age grouper, typically racing Master Clydesdale-fat, old, (and ugly).  I usually stick to Olympic and Sprint events in Ohio. I was able to get an age group win at the Cedar Point Sprint Rev this fall-(only because Eric chose to do the half).  Joining the team has given my training new focus.  There are many good cyclist and triathletes in my area, but, no comparable community to what Team Active has been able to build in Battle Creek.

As many of my fellow triathletes do in the winter, I have moved inside.  I ride a Trek Madone, purchased at www.Teamactive.com. shoes and trainer from there as well.  Graciously, my daughter allows me to ride in her ballet studio in our basement.  www.shaylathomas.com.  The only stipulations are that I have to mop up the sweat and use my own Pandora station-usually AC DC.



Part of the joy of multisport is helping other athletes get involved.  Twice in 2013 I have strayed from doing an individual event in order to participate on a team. This has served to introduce aspiring athletes to multisport.  For the New York Triathlon I participated on Team Sad Dads as the swimmer.  Jumping into the Hudson for my buddies was worth it, because, one of my teammates has already registered for his first triathlon in 2014!!  This week was my second attempt to get friends turned on to triathlons.  My friend Pam was an accomplished cross country runner and her boyfriend Steve was an All American swimmer. They wanted to attempt a triathlon in 2014, however, were overwhelmed by the thought of the logistics.  I agreed to serve as their cyclist on Team Wolfpack for some local races until they got a feel for multisport.  We did our fist training event at the Tiffin, Ohio YMCA indoor triathlon.  We got a second place finish and are looking forward to a spring team triathlon with fall individuals for each of them.  Happy New Year and may your 2014 race calendar be full of races with friends!!



 

Dashing through the snow......

On Saturday, December 14th, WSI Race Team volunteered their services at the inaugural Tinsel Toes 5K on one of the snowiest days of the season so far. The snow was falling all day leading to 4-5 inches of accumulation by race start. Running in the snow is tough; riding in the snow is even tougher. But what would a winter run through the lights be without a little snow? Almost 400 runners braved the cold and snow to participate. The WSI Race team led runners along the streets of Downtown Battle Creek and the unplowed linear path through the 5k course lit with beautiful Christmas displays. The lead runner finished in less than 22 minutes despite the snow. He even gave the bikers a run for their money on the unplowed paths, at times passing them. It has been rumored that Rudolph was also spotted on a bike that night!

A huge thank you to J.J. Ramon, Dwight Dunisick, Mike DeGraaf, David Goff, April Parrish, and Charles Elder for answering the persistent call of a crazy race director guiding the way “through the white and drifted snow.”



This event was a fundraiser for Girls on the Run of Calhoun County. Almost $8,000 was raised for the cause by this event!

And they're off.....

Last Night WSI Team Active Racing got together to kick off  planning for the 2014 Season.  Eric Cook was nice enough to host at his house and, since I was driving from out of town, I convinced him to go for a ride in advance of the team meeting.

That may not have been the best idea.  Dwight  joined us and is (for some reason) at mid season form and Eric is, well what Eric always is...a machine.  I was a bit late for our departure time after making some much needed purchases at Team Active, although I was dressed and ready to go, my bike still needed to get prepped and I wanted to put toe warmers in my boots and hand warmers in my gloves.  Not sure what the temperature was, I remember seeing about 20 degrees.  While I was prepping my gear, I told Eric and Dwight that I needed about 5 minutes.  Dwight said "Okay, you get all ready, then we will start spinning and warm up on our way to the 'Dump'."  I thought he meant, we would have time to warm up, not that we would get on the bike and proceed to ride at 22 mph right out of the driveway!  I got warm, but not much of a warm up.

We met Kathy at an intersection about a mile from the entrance to the Dump.  It was too cold to socialize too much, but very good to see her.  I had not seen her since she returned from RAAM.  The Dump is a great technical morass of cement, tar and tile and, if you go down, something gets scratched or broken.

Last time I rode the Dump was 3 years ago, that was in the middle of the summer and I was much more comfortable handling my bike than this ride when the ground was frozen and I was cold.  Nobody fell, though I did do some sight seeing a couple times, but all in all a great ride through the woods.  On the way home, Dwight pulled and I locked on to his wheel as if my life depended on it.

My feet were so frozen, that they were numb, and (you know the feeling) I wanted to cry they hurt so bad when they started to thaw out.  But then we went to Crazy Horse for some pizza and a beer...then all was good.

All got much better when I saw the team that I started riding with 5 years ago.  Mike, Eric, Kathy, Dan, Danny, Hannah, Devin, Chuck, Charles, Dave, Dave Sr., Eric, Cameron, Dwight, April, Keith, JJ, Groat, Josh, (and I probably forgot a couple guys), have all been around since I started riding.  (JJ brought his daughter with him, it was great to meet her too.)

There is something about the internal fight you have with yourself while you are putting out a big effort (or fighting the elements) and then get together with friends who do the same thing.  It is a fraternity and sorority and a family.  It was great to see everyone, go for a ride and talk about all of the great things coming for 2014.  I value our friendship and look forward to an awesome 2014.  For those who could not make it, we missed you.

Go WSI/Team Active Racing.  Jack.

2013 Detroit Invitational Cyclocross

Of course I was sick over the long Thanksgiving weekend.  Of course.  Fortunately, there were a few great things happening in the Detroit area  to take my mind off of how miserable I was feeling.  On the morning of Thanksgiving, Robert Herriman (an ultra-endurance racer from the  Detroit area) hosts a yearly group ride at Pontiac Lake Recreation Area.  I believe this is the 14th year of this ride, and about 60-70 people  were present for a moderately-paced, snowy lap at PLRA.  It's a great way to get your metabolism going prior to the day's mass consumption, and I only went over the bars twice due to snow-covered rocks...

Now, on to the main reason for this post: the Detroit Invitational Cyclocross race held at Dorais Park in Detroit.  My friend Tony Cressey  alerted me to this event, and I'm so glad he did.  This is a free cyclocross race held at one of the many Detroit parks that the city can no longer  afford to maintain, so a group of guys calling themselves the Mower Gang have taken it upon themselves to perform the upkeep on the park so  that the local kids have a place to play.  They do this out of the kindness of their hearts and have no government funding; if you'd like to check  out more of their efforts and possibly make a donation, please visit www.mowergang.com.  The event is organized by CX Czar Jeff Wood, and  sponsored by the Racing Greyhounds and Cycle to Fitness as a thank you to everyone they race against during the year.  It's a bit more  eccentric than your typical cyclocross race (is that possible?), featuring beer & bacon handups, an in-race card game, costumes, and a shortcut where racers must perform a tequila shot in order to pass.  Sounds awesome, right?

[caption id="attachment_766" align="alignright" width="200"] Photo credit: Bob Bruce[/caption]

I had planned on getting into CX racing earlier in the year, but a mishap with a sheet of 3/4" medium-density fiberboard ruined those plans - a broken big toe is not conducive to hopping barriers or run-ups.  Fortunately it healed prior to Iceman, but by that point in time, almost all of the CX season was gone.  So, DICX was my first cyclocross race.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I came down with a head cold on Thanksgiving morning, but there was no way I was going to miss this event.  It did take the fight out of me, however, so my race strategy was more along the lines of "let's not get bronchitis" than "LET'S WIN THIS THING."

The course was about 1.5 miles and featured a few sets of barriers, routes through very bumpy fields that really made me wish for front suspension, a segment across the old velodrome, a snow pile made from ice shavings collected from a local rink, a properly punishing spiral on a hillside, a run-up, and the previously mentioned tequila shortcut.  It was a 45-minute race, which turned out to be 6 laps.  My lap times were close to 10 minutes, whereas the truly fast gents were around 7-8 minutes per lap.  I was racing my singlespeed Traitor Crusade with a relatively heavy gearing, as I really had no idea what to expect of the course - I probably should have gone a bit lighter.  Anyway, the CX training I had done prior to breaking my toe paid off, and I had no trouble with my dismounts/re-mounts, barriers, run-ups, etc.  I only took the tequila shortcut twice, on my 5th and 6th laps, and I have no clue where I finished - there were probably about 150 racers, and I'm guessing I was mid-pack?  It really doesn't matter - I had a great time, and I highly recommend this event to anyone who has even a remote interest in CX.

Here's a link to a spectator video of the event, and here's a first-person perspective.

- Adam Cefai

WSI-Team Active Cycling Leads Out 2013 Dig ‘Em Dash

This weekend found me “uncharacteristically available” Saturday morning and actually home for the weekend. That meant I was able to help out at this year’s Dig ‘Em Dash, a 5k run located in downtown Battle Creek. This was the third and final event in the Cereal City Stampede, a series of races in Battle Creek to get people be active and get out in the community. Similar to when the team helps with “bike patrol” for the Oaklawn Hospitality Classic, team members ride the course and help to ensure the runners’ safety by helping at busy intersections with traffic control, watching for injured runners and offering words of encouragement to the racers.

The weather was just about as perfect as it could have been, cool to run and sunny. While I’m not that much of a runner, I know that running in cool temps is a whole lot better than blazing hot weather. While the likelihood of that happening this time of year was minimal, it could have been cold and rainy (like it was the next day), so Mother Nature smiled upon the race organizers for sure.

To help kick things off the Kellogg’s characters all made an appearance (since the event started right in front of their world headquarters, it only made sense). We got some nice “high fives” during our roll-up for the event and it was nice the announcer made several mentions of the team throughout the morning.

Towards the end of the event (there were runners and walkers) a couple of ladies finishing the walk were just about ready to make the final turn to the finish and gave a “woot” to me when I rode by. I get it… It’s not every day you see grown men riding their bikes around in spandex and shaved legs. Much to their surprise, I “wooted” back and turned around to come back and give them their own personal “biker escort” to the finish. I could tell when I turned around on my bike that was not what they were expecting, so of course I had some fun with the situation. Turns out they both worked at the Federal Center in Battle Creek and a bunch of them had come out to do the event. Exactly what the Cereal City Stampede wanted people to do!

While many of the reports you’ll read on this blog involve team members competing for medals, this is one of those events we do just because it’s a good thing. No awards or podium finishes… just supporting the community and being part of the event. I’m sure the weather had a lot to do with the great turnout for the event, but it was great to see so many people up early on a Saturday doing something fitness related.

After the Dash was over we all headed back to Brownstone for some coffee (thanks Dutch and Team Active for treating!) and then I got to continue my day of riding at Fort Custer with Dwight. We did the Red and Green loops and since I’ve not ridden out there much this year, some of the trail was new to me, so I had a blast. Dave and his kids were just finishing up when we came in, so we got to hang out with them a bit before packing up and heading home.

Great event, great weather, great friends and a great way to spend a Saturday…

Wrapping up the Tailwind & MMBA Series - Big M Resurrection & Addison Oaks Fall Classic

Big M Resurrection – August 4th, 2013 – Wellston, MI – Big M Ski Area

I didn't exactly forget to write about my second race at Big M this year; what happened was that the Big M Challenge and the Big M Resurrection were on consecutive weekends, and I didn't feel like turning this into a dedicated "mountain bike racing at Big M" blog.  Anyway, since I've previously detailed what riding at Big M is like, I'll just discuss the race.

In order to win the Tailwind series, I needed to place high at the Big M Resurrection so that my result from Pontiac wouldn't be taken into account.  I had placed 7th at Pontiac, and my next 4 races in the Tailwind series were all podium finishes; since the final standings are determined by your top 5 races, Big M would displace Pontiac if I finished higher than 7th.  So there's that.

Apparently not many people wanted to make the drive up to Manistee for the race, and we only had 6 people in the sport SS class, including Brandon Karbum, Colin Holsinger, and Pam Bufe. Jeff Gilbert was also racing sport SS, although he usually races elite/expert in the MMBA series - USAC requires a license to race elite/expert in the Tailwind series, and Jeff justifiably did not want to pay for a license to race for one day.  I had raced against Jeff a few times before, and was anxious to see how I'd do against him with a bit more experience.

Soon after we hit the trail, it became clear to me that this race was going to be won by either myself or Jeff.  We decided to work together early on in the race, and had outpaced the rest of the field by about mile 3.  About a half-mile from the end of the course, there was a huge sketchy downhill with lots of sand - during the first lap, I (being my usual, tentative self)

carefully descended this section at a snail's pace, burning up my brakes the entire time.  Jeff led during the second lap, and bombed the descent with maniacal (although oddly controlled) abandon, gaining about 20 seconds on me on that section alone.  I caught up with him about a mile into our third lap, and he was fading a bit during the climbs.  Knowing that my only chance to beat him would be to put some distance between us before that final downhill, I passed him with about 4 miles to go and increased my tempo.  I thought I had him about two miles before the finish as I couldn't see/hear him behind me, but apparently I didn't go hard enough, as he caught up to me as the intensity of the climbs faded right before the final descent.  Since I didn't really need the win to clinch the series, and also because I wanted to respect the fact that he was clearly faster on that section, I let him by.  We finished about 18 seconds apart for first and second.

Although there was one race left in the Tailwind series at this point, I had locked down the series win by placing 2nd at Big M.  And since the Tailwind series also counts as the USAC state championship series, I received a state champion medal for the sport/beginner SS category.  I had no expectations about this series at the beginning of the season (since I didn't really plan on competing in it), and I'm extremely happy with the result.



Addison Oaks Fall Classic – September 8th, 2013 – Leonard, MI – Addison Oaks County Park

The 2012 Addison Oaks Fall Classic was my first mountain bike race ever, so I was looking forward to competing there again with a full season of racing under my belt.  On top of that, the points competition in the MMBA series was tight, and I needed to beat Talon Tramper and Byrne Johnson here in order to secure 2nd place in the series.  Furthermore, Addison Oaks is a very fast, hardpacked course, with lots of passing opportunities.  There were numerous factors making this race an exciting one.

I rode the course the night before, relatively close to dark and just after it had rained.  I was running my standard Fort Custer gearing of 38 x 18, which felt good, but I decided to make my gear a bit heavier for race day based on the amount of two-track on the course.  This ended up not being the greatest choice, because I believe I over-estimated the two-track; also, there isn't a ton of climbing on the course, but you do spend the majority of the race on pitchy singletrack, where my larger gear wouldn't help me much.  Anyhow.

Aside from Byrne and Talon, a number of Tailwind series racers showed up including Tim Fargo and Brandon Karbum.  Also present was my friend Mike Tuomi, who had been racing geared this year but set up his SS for this race.  The 2012 Addison race had also been his first race, and he and I had placed 7th and 8th last year, respectively.  His results in geared had been very good this year, so it was great to be racing against him again.

I took the holeshot from the start and led a 6-person paceline of Mike, Tim, Brandon, Talon, and Byrne for about 2 miles.  Now, I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but Byrne crashed during the first lap by hitting a rock on a quick uphill turn that taco'd his front rim, bent both his top and bottom tubes, and tore up his forearms.  Fortunately he was alright aside from some trail rash, but his poor bike... I feel for you, Byrne.  (aside: this would be the first of many crashes on the day)  About 3 or 4 miles into the trail, right after some not particularly technical rock gardens, I went over the bars after hitting who-knows-what with my front wheel.  Honestly, I may not have hit anything.  Ghost rocks, maybe.  Tim and Mike went by me.  I got up and tore after them, burning up quite a bit of energy.  I was bleeding a bit from my knee as well, but it didn't seem too bad.  And my bike was ok, which is the most important thing, right?  I caught and passed them again on the longest section of two-track, and we rode together for most of the first lap.  At one point Tim washed out and fell behind, so Mike and I finished the lap together.  Now, I'm not sure where Talon came from, but he and Mike led the second lap.  My knee was starting to stiffen up from the fall, and I was having a bit of trouble pushing my gear to keep up with them.  About a mile from the end of the second lap, Talon went over a little rock/log feature and completely blew out his front tire.  He went over the bars in front of me and into a small group of trees.  It was a dangerous-looking fall, but fortunately he was ok.  But, like Byrne, his bike was not ok, and he could not finish.  He had been riding really strong too, and it would have been a great battle on the 3rd lap.  As it was, Mike and I finished the second lap, and he put the hammer down hard.  I don't know whether it was my gearing or the fall that had sapped my energy (probably a combination), but I had nothing to keep pace with him.  It ended up being his fastest lap of the day and my slowest, so we finished for first and second; Tim Fargo ended up with 3rd.  Aside from the carnage, it was a great race.  The folks who organize Addison do a great job, and there's free food and beer for the racers afterwards.  And Addison is a beautiful park.



By placing 2nd at Addison, I secured 2nd place in the MMBA CPS, which I'm very happy with.  There's one more race in the series at Pando in a few weeks, and I'll be moving up to expert/elite SS.  6 laps of hill repeats against some of the fastest dudes in the state.  Should be a blast!

Maybury, or rather, yrubyaM

Maybury Time Trial – August 17th, 2013 – Northville, MI – Maybury State Park

The 2013 Maybury Time Trial was the 8th race in the MMBA Championship Points Series, and a race that I had been looking forward to quite a bit.  I had finished 3rd at Yankee and 2nd at State Games, and since only 2 out of 3 of the CPS time trial races count towards your points total, the only way Maybury was going to matter to the standings for me was if I placed higher than 3rd.  There's also the time trial "series within a series" for the CPS (to encourage racers to do all 3), but I wasn't particularly concerned with that.  In short, I wasn't feeling much pressure for this race, and really just wanted to go out hard and have a good time on the trail.  Livening things up a bit was the fact that there were quite a few sport SS riders competing - Eric Wolting wanted to lock down the time trial series in his last race in the sport category (he'd won at both Yankee and State Games); Tony Cressey (who beat me by a lot at Pontiac) was back racing following a broken scapula suffered at Mud, Sweat, & Beers; my Wolverine Sports Club foes Tim Fargo & Fabrice Portes were in attendance; and Talon Tramper had made the trip with his Village Bike crew from GR.  Oh, I should also mention that they had reversed the course, which eliminated any benefit the local riders may have had.

A little about the course - Maybury is 75% tight, technical singletrack with lots of rocks & roots.  Reversed, there's basically no intuitive way to carry momentum, so it required a really active riding style (read: a LOT of work).  For the race, it was roughly a 10-mile loop, with 1.5 miles of grass/gravel/2-track at the start, 6.5 miles of singletrack, and then another mile or so of pavement/2-track/grass at the end.  The race organizers gave everyone a chance to pre-ride the course on the Friday night preceding the race, which I took advantage of.  I'm not sure it really helped me, because there's so much technical stuff that your brain just goes "Roots, roots, roots, rocks, roots, horrible switchback, surprisingly terrible climb (featuring: roots!), roots... bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..." Nothing really sticks.  But it was good to get a decent spin in my legs the night before the race, and it did give me a general idea of what to expect.

The morning of the race I was feeling pretty great.  For the past two weeks, work had been rough with long hours and high stress, and for the first time in a while, I was feeling scrappy.  Unfortunately, this didn't exactly translate to how I felt during the race, but it was a good way to start the day nonetheless.  My beautiful bride Jessica and my brother-in-law Eric were kind enough to accompany me, and we arrived at the park around noon.  I had a 1 p.m. start time, so I got my business together, chatted with Mr. Wolting, and cruised around for a warm-up that was probably too brief.  It was relatively hot out (high 70's), for what's been a very cool August, but otherwise the weather was perfect.  So, on to the race.

I was 5th off the line behind 3 Expert/Elite SS riders and one sport rider (Jonathan Bolenbaugh, I believe?).  I had a clumsy start, missing my pedal and jamming the nose of the saddle into my lower back/upper butt.  Ugh.  On the initial out-and-back grass/2-track, I could tell I wasn't going to feel great during the race - heavy legs, rough breathing, etc., likely due to the heat.  But cycling is suffering, right?  Push through it.  I caught the sport SS rider after about 2 miles in the single track, and he kindly let me pass.  After that, I was basically alone all race.  The expert/elite guys in front of me were clearly extremely quick, and I never saw them.  I did see some of my sport SS competitors on the trail where it doubles back on itself, and towards the end I could tell that Eric was making up distance on me, but I was never passed during the race (which, during a time trial, means you're cooked).  I kept my head about me, made sure I stayed upright on my bike, and tried to find the best lines through the root maze.  There was a climb at the end of the course that everyone had been griping about, as it really catches you off-guard, and I did have to do a bit of a run-up for that.  Otherwise, I felt like I was riding competently, but I didn't feel fast.  Eric caught up to me right at the end of the course, and he crossed the line right behind me.  That meant I definitely did not win, as he had started over a minute behind me, but other than that I had no clue how things were shaking out.  When everything was sorted, it turns out my time of 41:27 was good for second place.  Eric had tied with a geared sport rider for the fastest sport time of the day at 39:59, and Tony Cressey had finished for 3rd at 42:25.  Given how I felt during the race, I was very happy with this result.

[caption id="attachment_736" align="aligncenter" width="235"] You can do whatever you want with your arms when there's no photographer yelling "ARMS UP GENTLEMEN" at you.[/caption]

I'm likely going to be skipping the last Tailwind race at Stony Creek on Aug. 24th, so that leaves just two more MMBA series races at Addison and Pando.  Time to finish this thing strong. - Adam Cefai

Summer Races - LJ 100, Big M and Ore2Shore

As any of us have experienced; work trumps life, life trumps hobbies and, often-times cycling takes a back seat to all of the more ‘important’ things in life.  I am not suggesting that this is the way things should be, in fact, I try to operate in the exact opposite hierarchy- but it happens.  So far this year, training has taken a big hit and it shows up on the weekend races.  My goal this year was to try to crack the top 3 in the Sport Tailwind series (last year I finished 3^rd, but this year, the race organizers pulled out my strongest race-the stage race) and I now currently sit in 6^th after finishing the last race that I can make for the series.

 

Race season is far from over, but I want to catch up with a few notable races.  In mid June, I competed in the Lumber Jack 100.  Or rather, I showed up hoping that I could mentally overcome a huge lack of training (the volume in anticipation for the LJ100 is huge—at least it should have been for me).  Eric Cook and Charles Elder joined me and a buddy of mine (Kayo R.) at my dad’s cabin to prepare for the 100 mile race.  Without belaboring the details, my legs cramped so badly that after 50 miles, I knew my day was over.  I stopped at the remote aid station, hoping to find a short cut back to the start, and they told me that the fastest route was to follow the course.  I completed about 60 miles of the LJ100 and felt that I wasted my entry fee.

 

Early August, I returned to the Big-M to exercise some demons only to find that the demons were laughing at me all three laps of the Tailwind 18 mile race.  I finished DFL in 7^th place for my category.  (Prior to this I finished 3 races in a row one out of the medals-a completely discouraging reality check.)  I had signed up for the Ore2Shore the following weekend, so I stayed in the cabin to work out, stretch, eat well and focus on Life and cycling (I had recently been honored with a promotion to Director at the U in our Tech Transfer office).

 

The next weekend, August 10, was the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike race.  The Ore2Shore was in the beautiful back drop of the Upper Peninsula’s Marquette with a  crystal blue sky and crisp morning.  I love being in the UP and the 9:45 start helped keep it from being too miserable of a morning start.  The start was a bit of a wonky roll-out on pavement with a lot of eager riders trying to get to the front of the race.  I did not witness any crashes, but I saw some really stupid moves.  Some challenging short hills at the beginning of the race helped line us up into 2 threads of bikes and riders heading up the Negaunee country side.  I was feeling okay, but felt like I was losing places even though it was still early.  We then came to a train (yes a train) that was across the race course.  The race piled up as if we were salmon at a dam until the leaders saw that we were only yards away from the front of the train, so we rode quickly to get in front of the train before it started to move again (which it did right after we crossed).  We were bunched up and walking for quite a while until we got into the really steep climbs (one hill called misery hill) which was impossible to ride up due to everyone walking their bikes in the middle of the hill.  In these hills (about 10 miles into the race) there were some short steep down hills with some huge rock outcroppings.  My font wheel found a crevasse in one of these down hill rocks and I end-o’d and hit harder than I have ever hit before—so hard that my vision began to narrow because of the pain on my left side.  (I knew that the best thing for me to do was to just ride and hope that the adrenaline would mask the pain until we were done.)  This worked until a guy stopped in front of me in a huge sand pit 5 miles from the end, I slowly fell to my left side in the soft sand but the pain all returned as a reminder of my age and lack of training.  With a few miles to go, the effervescent Angela Bowers came flying by and made me forget about the pain and think about how lucky I was to be doing this.  I pushed this race as much as I could possibly push, hammering all the way through the last 2 miles of winding pavement to the finish line.  I finished in 3:30, which was 36th of 63 Men age 50 to 54…not bad,  but then the season has been a series of races against myself anyway.

Jack Miner, WSI Team Active Fan and part time racer!

Playing Catch-Up in the MMBA Championship Points Series

Big M Challenge – July 28th, 2013 – Wellston, MI – Big M Ski Area

After skipping both the Sweat Shaker and Boyne races, I found myself in 4th place in the MMBA CPS Sport Singlespeed category.  Eric Wolting has 1st in the series locked down, with 5 first-place finishes on the season including a win at Boyne, which was worth 1.5x the points (due to the drive and the distance of the race).  I skipped Boyne in order to defend my points lead in the Tailwind series, and even though that series has become my priority, I'd still like to finish as high as possible in MMBA.    Skipping those two races really cost me, so it was off to Big M on Sunday to try to make up some ground in another race worth 1.5x the points.



Since Eric has secured 1st in the series, he's moved up to Expert/Elite SS for the rest of the season with the exception of the Maybury Time Trial.  It's unfortunate, because the only races where we've competed head-to-head in an XC race format, each of us had a mechanical (him at Fort Custer and myself at Hanson Hills).  I would have liked another chance to race against him this year, but it looks like I'll have to wait until next year when I plan on moving up.  And we'll both be in the Sport SS class at Maybury, but we likely won't see each other on course due to the time trial format.  Anyhow!  Sidetracked.  Basically, the point of this is that the Sport SS class in the MMBA series has lost its rabbit, and the rest of us need to fight it out for the remaining series podium spots in his absence.  Prior to the race, Byrne Johnson was in 2nd in the series, Bob Kidder was in 3rd, I was in 4th, and Talon Tramper was in 5th.  All of us showed up for Big M.

Some background on Big M: it's a cross-country ski area located in the Manistee National Forest near Wellston, MI.  The Lumberjack 100 is held here, and due to the number of trails, race organizers can really get creative with course layout.  This means that, even for locals, it's going to be difficult to anticipate and/or prepare for the race route.  I hadn't ridden here before, and I really had no idea what to expect.  Based on a conversation I had with Byrne when I arrived, I decided to lighten up my gearing to 38 x 19.  I'd like to thank Byrne for the pre-race information, because if I'd have gone heavier, I don't think my legs would work anymore.  Sport racers were doing 3 x 8.5 mile laps for a total of just under 26 miles, and what turned out to be a TON of climbing.

We started right around 12:30 p.m. with temperatures in the low 60's.  It had rained intermittently all morning, but fortunately stopped for good in time for the sport/beginner races.  The conditions were actually pretty perfect, as the rain had settled some of the sandier sections of the trail.  I was first off the line and into the woods, and I decided to really push the pace for the first few miles to see if I could get some distance on the group.  After about a mile I had outpaced everyone but Talon, and he ended up hanging with me throughout the first lap and for part of the second.  The course included a monster climb about 2 miles in that was over a half-mile long, and I was able to drop Talon after our second time up.  For the remainder of my second lap and all of my third, I just kept a steady pace and tried to stay upright.  I did end up fading a bit from my first lap to my third, as I neglected to eat anything, and the course was not particularly conducive to taking your hands off the bars to drink, so I don't think I even finished the water bottle I had with me.  I definitely need to work on that.  Speaking of the course, it was great - tons of faster sections combined with a few severely punishing climbs and a series of intense downhills toward the end.  My lap times were right around 40 minutes each, and I finished in 1st place in my category and 13th overall in sport with a time of 2:01:44.

 

[caption id="attachment_725" align="aligncenter" width="215"] 2013 Big M Challenge Sport SS podium, minus the actual podium and Byrne Johnson (3rd place)[/caption]

I'll be heading back up to Big M this coming weekend for a Tailwind series event in order to protect my points lead, and then the Maybury Time Trial on August 17th, which I'm very much looking forward to. - Adam Cefai

Silver at the Lumberman Olympic Triathlon in Cadillac - Woot!

After spending all my racing season “on a bike” and doing some mountain bike and cyclocross/dirt road races, this weekend I completed my first of three triathlons for the season. Saturday was the Lumberman Olympic in Cadillac, MI and was the second year competing in this event. As with all 3 Disciplines run events, it was very well organized an early registrants even got a nice sleeveless 3D cycling jersey. It was also pretty cool that one of my college buddies from Alma came up from Hastings to join me. Rob has not been doing triathlons for more than a couple of years (at most) and was coming off the Half Ironman in Muncie, IN just a couple of weeks prior. Even though he said he’d never do another one that distance, like everyone that does a race that distance it takes a while to get over the initial “shock” and decide that it’s something you actually will want to do again. Doing the Olympic was a nice “cool down” for him and after the fact, we both agreed that running 13.1 miles was something neither of us would have wanted to do today.

As with last year, the night before there was a lot of rain in the area, making everyone wonder if the race would even take place. Mother Nature stopped the rain, but about fifteen minutes prior to the start fog rolled in across Lake Cadillac and standing on the shore you couldn’t even see the first marker in the water. Obviously the organizers were not about to let us in the water for safety reasons, so we waited for the fog to lift and started about 45 minutes later.

The temps were in the 60s at start, making the 74 degree water the warmest place on the course. After spending so much time on the bike, it was apparent about 15 minutes into my swim that I better spend a bit more time in the water before my “half” 70.3 mile race in September! I came out of the water in the last half of my group, but was confident that I’d be able to make up some time on the bike.

Transition went quickly and I was off and pedaling for the next 26 miles. It was an out and back route and most of the way to the turnaround it seemed like I was fighting a headwind most of the way. One of my friends, Shirley, passed me on the swim and I saw her leave just before me in transition, so my first goal was to catch her, which I did. However, she hung on (not drafting, of course, because that’s not legal) and stayed within sight of me exchanging “banter” along the way.

I hit the turnaround and was nice to feel the wind at my back for a change. There were a few hills at the mid-point, but I made quick work of them and passed several other riders, especially coming down the back side. With the tailwind I was carrying 27-28 mph on some of the flat sections, which I knew would help me with some extra “time buffer” when I got to the run.

Coming into the transition for the run I was able to quickly rack my bike, switch to my running shoes and toss on my hat before heading out for the last hour (or more) on the course. Typically an Olympic has a 10k for the run, which is 6.2 miles, but we were running around Lake Cadillac and that meant a 7 mile run was ahead. My legs didn’t feel too bad given that I had not done much ride-then-run work this year. I was expecting my legs to feel like I was running in cement shoes, but fortunately that was not the case.

The first three miles were uneventful and some of the faster runners (who I had passed on the bike) were getting their payback and passed me. I kept an eye on their “size” given that I registered for the Clydesdale category (racers 200 lbs. or greater) and fortunately all the runners were “skinny dudes” so I was comfortable that I was in the lead for my division. Right around mile four Shirley came by tailing a fellow Clydesdale. They both were carrying a bit faster pace than me, but I knew if I wanted to keep my position I had better jump on and follow for as long as I could. We ran together for the next mile or so and was at my max for most of the time. I can honestly say that had I not been following them my pace would have been slower, so the motivation was nice.

Just about around mile six I started to catch a second wind and picked up the pace. By now Shirley had gapped us, but I was hanging on and the two “big guys” were clip-clopping along together. When I made my move and tried to build a gap he didn’t have the steam to keep up and I pulled ahead. Then, just about a half mile later another fellow Clyde came around me carrying a pretty good pace and I couldn’t hang on and he ended up finishing just about a minute ahead of me, taking first and leaving me with second and a nice sliver medal to bring home to Alicia.



Looking back at my performance I was pleased overall with my results. Had I raced in my age group (40-45) I would have taken third and overall was in the top 20 males for the Olympic. I was proud that my bike split was the ninth fastest of the entire field, but it’s evident that I’ve got some work to do with my swim, and especially the run. Had I been able to carry a faster pace on the run I easily could have won my division. But in the end I’m just grateful that this “old body” is able to still get out there and complete an event like this in one piece (and still be able to walk the next day).

Next race is in August, where I’ll be headed to Ludington for the Lighthouse Olympic triathlon. That’s always a good weekend since my grandparents live in Pentwater and we make a weekend event out of it. It’s also a great course and I’ll be returning as the “defending Clydesdale champion” (if there is such a title). Then, it’s back to Cedar Point for the Rev3 half in September for my 70.3 of the year (plus, some roller coasters).

Keep the rubber side down...
Eric

P.S. A special thanks to my good friend Donna, who luckily was at her cabin in Cadillac and had an extra race belt for me to use Saturday. She raced the Racine, WI half the weekend prior, so she was not racing this weekend. But that didn't keep her from coming down at at 7 am to meet me. Thanks Donna, you rock!

Brighton Rec Repeat

Brighton Rec Repeat – July 13th, 2013 – Howell, Michigan – Brighton Recreation Area

After the Bloomer Park Daze race, I found out that I was leading the Tailwind Racing series in the Sport SS class.  At the beginning of the race season, I was only planning on participating in the MMBA Championship Points Series, but the scheduling of the Tailwind races made it convenient to compete in that series as well.  The only real scheduling conflict between them was on Saturday, when there were races at Boyne (MMBA) and Brighton.  I was in 2nd in the MMBA series prior to Saturday, and Eric Wolting, who is leading that series, had a pretty big lead.  So instead of trying to gain points in the MMBA CPS, I opted to defend my Tailwind points lead.

Having never ridden Brighton before, I did a bit of quick online recon which showed only about 200 feet of climbing per 6.5 mile race lap.  Based on that, I decided to run 38 x 18, which is what I usually run at the Fort, which has a similar amount of elevation.  At the park I ran into the usual east side crowd, but it was a relatively small field of just 6 participants.  We lined up around 1 p.m. with temperatures in the mid-80's, and hit the course.

I was first off the line and into the woods leading Tim Fargo and Nate Layle.  Tim and I dropped Nate after a mile or so, and after passing a few other riders from other classes, I dropped Tim about 2.5 miles into the first lap.  From this point in the race, I just kept my pace up to try to ensure I wouldn't be caught.  The Expert/Elite SS lap times were around 27-29 minutes, and I wanted to keep mine under 30.  I completed my first lap in just about 29 minutes, and on my way back into the woods, I saw Tim and Nate coming out to finish their first lap - this meant that I had at least a minute on them.  I tried to keep my pace consistent throughout my second and third laps, and apart from a brief moment of panic during my third lap when I thought Tim was close behind me, I managed to do so.  I also made the choice to have a GU pack at the beginning of my third lap to try and prevent the fading I'd been experiencing, which I believe helped quite a bit.  I finished in just over 1:30 for my second win on the season.



 

There are two more races in the Tailwind series, and four more in the MMBA CPS.  My goal is to protect my Tailwind series lead, and to finish in the top 3 in the MMBA series.  I'm going to keep my training intensity high, and possibly add in some running to increase my endurance.  We'll see how it shakes out! - Adam Cefai

Bloomer Park Daze

Bloomer Park Daze – June 30th, 2013 – Rochester Hills, Michigan – Bloomer Park

I'll try to keep this one short.  So: we're on the east side visiting family again, and I decided to race. Based on basically nothing but my own hubris, I changed up my gearing to 36x17, which ended up being a slight mistake.  Bloomer Park has a lot of technical switchbacks and tough, punchy climbs, along with a decent amount of roots.  And not much flat.  I would have been better off with 2:1, maybe a bit lighter.  The east side had a lot of rain the week prior, so there were some pretty muddy sections as well.  It's a 6-mile loop, and the Sport SS class was doing 3 laps.



I hadn't ridden Bloomer Park before, so my plan for the first lap was to stay on the leader's wheel to get a handle on the course.  And then I remembered I hate riding behind people in a race situation.  I was 2nd into the woods and, as usual, we got caught up in traffic from the age groups starting before us.  After about 3 miles of tight singletrack and some strategic passing of slower riders from other groups, the course opened up a bit and I passed the SS rider in front of me.  For the remainder of the 1st lap and the entire 2nd lap, I led two other singlespeeders around the course.  I tried to keep the pace quick in order to drop them, but they didn't seem to have any trouble staying on my wheel.  I tried not to think about that.  During the 3rd lap the traffic cleared up a bit, and on one particularly long climb about 2 miles in, I decided to drop the hammer to see if I could put some distance between us.  I believe it worked for a bit, but they caught me again shortly when we came into another section of switchbacks.  With about 2 miles to go, we got to the water crossing/mud pit that was  followed immediately by a 3' steep root ledge and a long-ish gravel climb.  On our previous trips through this section I was able to unclip one foot to kind of hop up the ledge (which was unrideable due to the mud), clip back in quickly, and start up the climb.  On this occasion I messed that procedure up, and the gents behind me were able to make a pass.  When I tried to go after them, I realized my legs were toast.  I had made two mistakes: my gearing was just a bit too heavy, and I shouldn't have tried to drop them on the long climb early in the 3rd lap.  As I finished the last two miles, I glanced behind a few times to see if any other SS riders were around, but I was well clear.  I cruised in for 3rd place in the Sport SS class with a time of 1:27:18, which was also 4th overall.

Lumberjack 2013 - Ten and a Half Hours of Fun

Ok, so maybe not "all" of the 10 hours and 32 minutes that it took me to complete the 2013 Lumberjack 100 can be described as "fun." But I can say my return to Michigan's first 100 mile mountain bike race (there are others now) went even better than I expected. This update is a bit late, given that the race was June 15th, but at least I'm getting this posted before the calendar flips over to July!

Friday night I traveled to my teammate Jack's cabin nearby the event just west of Cadillac, MI and met Charles (also on the team) and one of Jack's good friends from Ann Arbor, Kyle. While the cabin has had some improvements since my last Lumberjack (several years ago), I was pleased to see the record player was still going strong. Nothing like classic KISS to get you in the mood for 100 miles of mountain biking!

Race day came early and we were up and around by 5 am. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but the temps were expected to get into the 70s by late morning. While I showed up at the line with a sleeveless base-layer and arm warmers, I'd shed them half way through my second (of three) 33.3 mile laps. The start rolled out with just under a mile of paved road to get the blood pumping. Hoots and hollers filled the crowd as we funneled into the parking lot and through the rows of onlookers cheering us on. Then, the trail got REAL narrow and we went from riding 6-10 riders across to single file, which slowed things down considerably. It was slow going for the first 5 -7 miles, with people over-reacting to braking ahed of them, sticks on the trail causing issues (one guy caught one in his back wheel right in front of me and I barely missed his crash) and a constant dust cloud that kept me coughing well after the pack spread out.



Jack and I rode together for most of the first lap, which was nice to have some company. The trail was in great shape with some new sections added since I raced this the last time. A few years ago they changed the format to three 33.3 mile loops. The last time I raced it was four 25 mile loops and I will admit I liked this format better. Much of what was added included gravel two-track and other sections that gave your body a bit of a break instead of constant singletrack. There still was a LOT of climbing, with some of the hills simply un-ridable, forcing racers to get off and push their bikes up the hill. By the time I was on my third lap, even some of the hills I rode on the first lap seemed easier to walk up (or at least that's what my legs were telling me).

Coming in after my first lap I felt pretty good. I'm riding a new bike this year, switching to 29" wheels and also front-only suspension. Prior years I was on a more traditional 26" wheeled full-suspension, so I was anxious to see how a hardtail would treat me after 100 miles. My Trek Superfly SL Pro did a great job and I felt very comfortable on it, even finding after 100 miles that my back did NOT hurt (which was not the case with my last race). Heading out on lap #2, I was able to push it a bit and it was nice to ride the beginning part of the course at regular speed (unlike the first lap). At the mid-point I stopped at the aid station and this is where I made what would become a bad tactical decision. The volunteers cheered as you arrived and were very helpful, offering drinks and food to help keep you going. One of them said "How about a BP&J with Fritos? Everyone's been raving about them and they give you a nice sweet and salty snack." Why not, I thought. At the rate I was burning calories I figured it couldn't hurt and who doesn't like PB&Js and Fritos... About five miles later, I realized my gut didn't care for my food options and started to revolt. The remaining miles of my second lap were pretty difficult, because in addition to my gastro-revolt, the leg cramps started and I was beginning to crave ice cold Gatorade (but didn't have any in my cooler at the pit).

When I came in after lap #2, I was able to bum a bottle of Gatorade off another team (YUM!) and that really helped. My stomach issues started to feel better and I was ready to take off for my third and final lap. It was at that moment I looked back to find the three leaders coming across the finish line. After 100 miles of racing, I was amazed to see all three of them coming across the finish line within ONE second of each other! As impressive as that was, I had to get back to reality and accept the fact that I had another 33.3 miles to go. So off I went...

[caption id="attachment_675" align="alignright" width="224"] All Done[/caption]

On my last lap I didn't set any land speed records, as I had to stop several times to tend to my leg cramps. But when I was riding (and not huffing it up the hills) I felt pretty good. The bike was handling well, my back felt good and I knew that I'd be finishing the race. If you've ever rode the trail, you may recall coming in the final part of the loop you catch a glimpse of the parking lot, which is the sign that you're just about done. As with years past, the sight of the cars off in the distance caused an instant smile to come across my face. I had done it, and after coming across the line, realized that I did it in "record time" (well, for me at least). It's hard to compare "apples to apples" since this was 3 x 33.3 miles and prior races were 4 x 25 miles, but I'm going with it!

Finishing Line Video Link

Now, my training focus is shifting to triathlons for the remainder of the year and I've strapped on the running shoes again and hitting the pavement. I've got two Olympic triathlons coming up (one in Cadillac and another in Ludington) before my 70.3 distance triathlon at Cedar Point in September. I'll still find time to get in some mountain biking, however, as I've found that to be a great cross training workout and should help me with my biking and overall power. I'm also looking forward to getting back on the track with my good friend (and RAAM stud) Kathy.

[caption id="attachment_676" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Yeah, it was dusty out there![/caption]

State Games of Michigan MTB Time Trial

State Games Time Trial – June 22nd, 2013 – Belmont, Michigan – Cannonsburg Ski Area

I hate climbing.  Climbing on a single speed is pure torture.  However, it's also your chance to blow the doors off of everyone else on the trail.  Cannonsburg Ski Area, home of the 2013 State Games of Michigan MTB time trial, has roughly 600 feet of climbing over a 6 mile circuit.  That doesn't seem like much on paper, but the way the course is set up, you're either climbing or rapidly descending - there's very little opportunity to spin your legs out and recover.  So, in preparation, I rode the course on 3 occasions prior to the race (for a total of 5 laps) to figure out which gear I'd be able to push for 18 miles.  I started with 34x16, dropped to 36x18, and settled on 36x19 following my final prep ride.

Speaking of that...

The Friday before the race, I decided to head to Cannonsburg for a nice easy spin to loosen up my legs and make a final decision on my gearing.  I wasn't entirely sure how the race course was going to be set up, so I opted to ride the entire loop, including the complete skills section.  The skills section is divided up into two parts - the first part has drops and jumps that you basically just avoid if you're riding XC, and the second part has a steep climb and then some fast descents (and more avoidable stunts).  One section that isn't avoidable has a quick descent that ends in a roller which pops you up in the air before immediately dropping into a downhill turn.  You can probably guess where this is going.  I hit that roller, popped up, landed on the decline, carried way too much speed into the turn, lost my line, and ended up slamming the left side of my body (including my jaw) onto the trail.  I sat up and took stock of myself to make sure I wasn't severely injured: my ear was full of dirt, my right wrist was somehow jammed, my knee was swollen, and my jaw had some road rash.  I had also twisted my bars around on my steerer tube.  Fortunately I was ok to ride, so I muscled my bars back into position and gingerly finished the circuit.  Not exactly what I had in mind for the day.

Anyway, on to the race.  It looked like we were going to have a pretty full field of sport SS riders competing, with Eric Wolting, Byrne Johnson, and about 7 other riders registered.  As it turns out, only 6 of us showed up.  With this being Eric's home trail, I wasn't really fostering any ideas of winning - I was going to go out, ride hard, and see where I ended up.  I was definitely sore from my crash, but I knew I'd loosen up as I rode.  The organizers had arranged the course so that we were starting right up the longest climb, and they had excluded the section where I had crashed the day before (which I was grateful for).  My start time was 12:03, and with just a handful of other riders in front of me, I was on course.

The first climb was rough.  I had warmed up, but I still felt a bit like wet garbage.  My goal had been to catch as many of the riders that had started in front of me as I could during the initial climb in order to have less trail traffic during my first lap, but I believe I only caught two of them.  I then spent about a mile on the wheel of a 50+ rider in the singletrack before I could safely get by him on a two-track climb.  I passed a few other riders during my first lap, and checking my time as I started my second lap, it looked like I was doing pretty well - and I hadn't been passed by anyone who had started behind me.  As I started my second lap, I ran into some heavy trail traffic from the riders who had just started their first lap, but it wasn't anything unmanageable.  I passed a significant number of people on the climbs, and was passed myself by a few riders who had fresh first-lap legs.  Oh, I should also mention that it was nearly 90 degrees out, so that didn't help anyone.  Other than increasing fatigue and dealing with traffic, my 2nd lap was uneventful.  Coming around to start my third lap, I heard someone yell something along the lines of "GO WOLTING!", which meant that he wasn't far behind me.  This was not good news, as he had started 3 minutes back.  My legs weren't feeling great, but I kept my pace up as much as I could.  About halfway through my third lap, he caught and passed me prior to the creekside section.  There was no way I was going to be able to make up 3 minutes on him during that last lap, so I made no effort to try to catch him.  I focused on maintaining my pace, staying conscious on my bike, and finishing strong.  I ended up with a time of 1:22:14, which was good for 2nd place in my category and 13th out of about 120 overall.  Eric had absolutely crushed the course with a time of 1:17:58, which was first overall for the sport class.

I enjoyed this race quite a bit, and I was definitely happy with my 2nd place finish.  And although I love riding at the Fort, these hilly races are convincing me that I need to do more of my training on trails with greater elevation.  - Adam Cefai

First Race of the Year...

Days before my first mountain bike race of the season starts off like every other, I lack confidence in my ability and my mind fills with negative thoughts giving me reasons as to why I will lose and embarrass myself: I haven’t had much time in the saddle…there’s a new baby in the house and I can’t sleep...my bike is acting up when I shift in 2nd gear…I don’t know the trail…my wheels are 26inches…I am racing chicks 15 years younger and my flippen hair is turning grey…etc…

The race was at Dr. TK Lawless Park in Jones, Mi. It is a 10 mile twisty single track with lots of ups and downs. I have only ridden the course once so I was excited to hear that Dwight and David made plans for us to meet 9am Memorial Day to ride. Well Memorial Day rolled around and it was 50 degrees and raining. Dwight picked me up with our bikes loaded. I was under the impression we were just going to meet the Goffs, go have breakfast and if it cleared up we would ride. Wrong! Those crazy men still wanted to ride! Since little Goff (12 year old Dillan) was up for it, I didn’t want to be that wimpy girl and agreed to a lap. Really what the heck we were already there. The trail was greasy, our clothes were wet and glasses fogged. I have to admit it was fun, but I was happy to be back at the trailhead as I assumed we would be done and heading for some hot cocoa. To my surprise, little Goff wanted to do another lap! I grudgingly agreed, I figured screw it, my makeup was already ruined and I couldn’t get any colder and muddier than I already was. (Darn kid came from that crazy Goff gene pool!) Hindsight I am sure this experience greatly helped me!

Race day came with word that my nemeses Emily Andrews would be competing. Throughout the NIMBA series last year we were strongly pushing each other for podium placement. As much as I love her personality and how we antagonize each other on the trail, I wasn’t feeling ready for her this season…I anticipated a serious butt kick.

I was excited that Andrea was able to make a race with me as she is one of my best girlfriends and teammates. We were able to get a couple warm up miles in together. At the time it felt as if we were going to do our casual ride chatting about life etc…It didn’t hit me until we got to the start line that we would be competing, not just against other girls but each other! Since it was a time trial she was taking off 30 sec. behind me with Emily being a min. It was supposed to be a competition not a group ride.

You would think this was my first year racing not first race of the season. I had my long sleeve jersey on over my short sleeve with intentions on taking it off before the start. Unfortunately I freaked myself out over tire pressure and double checked that and then headed to the start. It wasn’t until I had a minute before takeoff when I realized I still had it on. Upon start, my silly self-fumbled to get into my clip. Soon after I finally got rolling, I was to make a left off the pavement and go up the sandy hill. I completely forgot about the sharpness and over breaked and climbed at about 6-7 miles an hour. I knew I was in trouble because Ryan (Andreas fiance’) was already there waiting to cheer her on. I wanted a redo!

[caption id="attachment_658" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Despite my concerns, I ended up doing pretty good. That's me in the middle... (first place)! :-)[/caption]

It didn’t take long into the single track to realize how greasy it was. I was slipping all over the place. At times the trail was tight, curvy, and rooty. I found myself looking down at the roots and not ahead at what was to come. My tires slipped all over the place, even rolling into a tree head on but fortunately I was going slow enough that it just stopped me in my tracks. The trail twisted around so when I saw a glimpse of a helmet or heard a break squeak I swore the girls were on me! It pushed me to go harder but that also came with additional mistakes. On the flats and down hills, I peddled as hard as I could to make up time. When I reached good speeds they were accompanied by screw ups on greasy corners. I didn't crash but had 3 dead stops preventing me from going off the trail. Finishing the race I was so disappointed in myself…I swore I couldn’t shake the girls and they were on me the entire time. I seriously wondered how I ever called myself a mountain biker. As I complained about my skills I saw two of the men I passed and started to realize they were the riders I was hearing on the trail! I finished in 53:25. I was shocked to find I had the lead by 4 plus minutes and really wasn’t as sucky of a mountain biker as I thought! The conditions were slick and everyone had issues!

~April Parrish

Hanson Hills Challenge!

Hanson Hills Challenge - June 2nd, 2013 - Grayling, Michigan - Hanson Hills Recreation Area

I put an exclamation mark in the title, because that's going to be the most exciting thing in this report.  By far.

After a hellish and unplanned 14-hour Saturday at work, all I wanted to do on Sunday was race.  I had a couple of options: the TK Lawless time trial in Vandalia, Michigan, or the Hanson Hills Challenge XC race in Grayling.  I hadn't ridden either course, but since the Hanson Hills challenge was part of the MMBA championship points series (in which I'm participating), I opted for Hanson Hills.

I left Kalamazoo around 8 a.m. and made the drive to Grayling in 3 hours flat.  Soon after arriving at Hanson Hills, I ran into Battle Creek locals Byrne Johnson and Jay Bridgeman (both of Custer Cyclery), and then rode around for a bit of a warm up.  Although it had been relatively nice out when I left my house, Grayling was another story altogether - it was somewhere around 40 degrees and incredibly windy.  On June 2nd.  No one was thrilled about this.  After we finished warming up and complaining about the weather, Byrne and I made our way to the start, where our class (sport singlespeeds) were first off the line.  Also present was Eric Wolting, who happens to be annoyingly fast; Pam Bufe (the lone female singlespeeder who has been at almost every race in Michigan this year); and a few local gents I didn't know.  The field was about 8 or 9 deep.

Before I get to the race, a few notes on Hanson Hills: having never ridden there, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.  I read some course descriptions online, which claimed it was "fast and flowy," and saw some Strava segments which showed about 600 feet of climbing.  I don't entirely agree with the "fast and flowy" description, and here's why: there are two long climbs (one at the beginning and one towards the end), and there are a TON of short, sharp increases in elevation that completely kill your momentum (mainly during the first 7 miles).  The majority of the course is singletrack, and much of the trail itself is rather soft with frequent sections of pothole-like depressions.  The singletrack isn't particularly technical, but it really seems like a nearly endless series of quick climbs and descents, only a few of which were smooth and "flowy" (i.e. possible to carry most of your momentum from the descent up the next climb).  Regardless of whether I agree with others' descriptions, I do believe it's an excellent and challenging course.

Anyway.  Based on what I had read, I decided to keep the 33 x 14 gearing I had used at the Stony Creek Marathon.  Again, I was running the heaviest gear of the group (nearly everyone else was running roughly a 2:1 ratio), and I took the holeshot at the start followed immediately by Eric.  The very beginning of the course was about a half-mile of two track that led into the long initial climb, and I was the first into the singletrack.  After about a mile, I washed out a bit on a sharp uphill turn and Eric went by me.  For the next six miles, I kept him about 100 yards ahead of me, but it was clear that the gear I was running was a bit too tall.  I was doing fine keeping pace, but a tall gear is basically useless when you're having to slow down and speed up constantly due to changes in elevation - it's just harder to get going, and when you do, you're slowed again by the incline.  I think if I would have run something closer to a 34 x 16, it would have been perfect for the course.  No matter - around mile 7, my chain started skipping.  And then it started locking up.  And then it fell off.

I dragged my bike off the side of the trail and, not having any tools on me, just sort of stared at it.  One of the links in my chain had bent and popped, and I didn't have any way to fix it.  As I was thinking about how far I'd have to walk back to the parking lot, Byrne stopped and offered me a chain tool and a multitool.  The man is a saint.  I tried to take the bad link out and shorten my wheelbase using my sliding dropouts to accommodate the shorter chain, but it was too short.  I then put the bad link back into the chain, kind of bent it into position (using my man strength while quietly crying) (the part about crying is a lie, possibly), and was able to get going again.  However, this repair took me over 20 minutes, and absolutely everyone in the entire sport field had passed me.  Since my chain seemed to be working as I didn't hear/feel any skipping, I thought I'd just finish my two laps and enjoy the ride.  No dice.  About two miles into my second lap, right after the initial climb, my chain broke again.  And this time, it flung quite a bit of itself into the woods somewhere.  Since I was behind basically the entire sport field and therefore didn't have to worry about trail traffic, I just coasted the trail in reverse back to the start.

While I was definitely disappointed, I'm sure worse things have happened in the world.  I mean, probably, right?  Eric went on to win our class, with a local rider placing 2nd and Byrne placing 3rd.  Now to examine my bike to figure out why I keep breaking chains, and to get ready for the State Games time trial in a few weeks.

- Adam Cefai

Another Collection of Race Reports - From Present to Past

Stony Creek Marathon – May 26^th, 2013 – Shelby Township, Michigan – Stony Creek Metropark

The Stony Creek Marathon was another race I decided to do without much forethought.  Held at Stony Creek Metropark near Rochester the Sunday before Memorial Day, it’s a marathon format which means that the shortest distance (for the beginners) is 30 miles.  The sport class rides 40, and the elite/expert classes ride 50.  Jess and I had plans to be in town for a family event on Monday, and I took advantage of free time on Saturday and Sunday to pre-ride and race.

I had never ridden at Stony Creek, so I went out on Saturday night for an easy pre-ride.  Tailwind Racing had marked the course by the time I got there, and it was a great combination of fast two-track and a couple long-ish sections of singletrack.  I still had my heavy 34 x 14 gear on my bike from Island Lake, and decided to lighten it up just a bit to 33 x 14 for the race.  There were only a couple longer climbs, and I figured that there was enough two-track to warrant a big gear.  However, I hadn’t done a race longer than 30 miles, so I was a bit concerned with my fitness, and since I run a rigid fork, I was a bit worried about how my arms would hold up through 4 laps of some rather rough singletrack.

I got to the park about an hour before race time, and lo and behold, ran into Jack Miner.  I registered, and Jack and I tooled around for a quick warm-up.  At the start, I encountered the usual east side sport singlespeed crew – Tim Fargo, Fabrice Portes, Brandon Karbum, and a few other riders for a field about 8 deep.  Again, I was running the heaviest gear out of the bunch, and I was keenly aware of the risk that my legs would burn out.  We hit the trail right around 10:15 a.m.

During the first lap, we encountered a lot of traffic from the classes that had started ahead of us.  I had the lead at the beginning of the lap, but Tim passed me in the 2nd section of singletrack and made a great tactical pass of some slower riders from another class that left the rest of us stuck for a bit.  Approaching the end of each lap was about 2 miles of two-track, and although Tim had pulled away in the singletrack section, I caught and passed him before the end of the first lap.  I pushed my pace pretty hard during the 2nd lap, and knew I was putting some distance between myself and the rest of the field – my 2nd lap was only about 20 seconds slower than my first.  During my 3rd lap, I began to feel my legs fading a bit, but about 2 minutes into my 4th lap, I saw that I had a pretty sizeable lead over Fabrice, as he was just finishing his 3rd lap (part of the course overlapped, and you would pass those heading in as you were heading out).  I tried to keep my cadence up on the two-track sections to maintain that lead, but my legs were getting heavier and heavier.  I had brought a few energy gel packs with me, but I don’t think I was timing my consumption properly, and was starting to feel pretty sapped.  I finally made it out of the last singletrack section onto the home stretch of two-track.  Right before the final climb, I took a look behind me and saw Fabrice about 200 yards back.  Shit.  I tried to pick up my pace, but all I could do was just stay ahead of him until we got to the final turns before the finish.  They had set it up so that you came out of the woods and kind of did a serpentine thing around their barriers before the finish.  On the second-to-last turn, Fabrice cut on the inside and got in front of me.  On the last turn (which was about 50 feet from the finish), he blocked me on the inside.  For 40 miles, we finished at 3:08.43.9 and 3:08:44.8 – less than a second difference.

Although I was slightly disappointed in myself for fading so much during my last lap (my lap times were 45, 45, 47, and 49), I had a great time racing and was very happy with a 2^nd place finish in my longest race yet.  And, while I consider Fabrice my nemesis (I’m kidding, he’s probably the nicest person on earth), it’s always good to have someone that can push you to perform beyond your expectations.

Island Lake Induction – May 11^th, 2013 – Brighton, Michigan – Island Lake Recreation Area

Island Lake Induction is a Tailwind series race held on the east side of the state at Island Lake Recreation Area.  Jess and I were in town for Mother’s Day, and although I hadn’t planned on participating in this race, I decided to go for it.

I rode Island Lake infrequently when I lived in the Detroit area, so I chose to do some recon the night before.  I rode a nice easy lap of the yellow route and found it to be very quick, with not too many climbs.  Based on that, I opted for a 34 x 14 gearing, which is the heaviest I’ve had on my bike.  The sport singlespeed class was only doing one lap of the 13 mile course, and I figured I could power through that gear for the distance.

I arrived at the venue about an hour before my scheduled start, registered, and ran into Jack Miner.  He and I rode around for a bit of a warm-up, and I made my way to the starting line.  I recognized a number of riders from Pontiac Lake who had done well there, namely Tim Fargo, Fabrice Portes, and Matt Fill.  As is common at the start of singlespeed races, we discussed what gear ratios we were running, and I learned that I was running the heaviest by far.  Uh oh.  Anyhow, we were given the green light, and we were off.

I decided at the start that I wasn’t going to get stuck at the back of the pack, so I tried to take the holeshot into the singletrack.  I was passed by Fabrice and Matt on a downhill section, and we made our way into the woods in that order.  Pretty quickly we ran into the tail end of the class that had started ahead of us, which caused some problems.  On a rather quick, tight climb, one of the geared riders got a little caught up – Fabrice and Matt were able to get around him, but I lost all my momentum and had to unclip and try to scooter my bike up a portion of the climb.  I believe I also was swearing quite a bit (not at anyone in particular, just at the situation).  During this nonsense, I was passed by another SS rider (Brandon Karbum) who had completely gotten off of his bike and was carrying it cyclocross-style.  Fortunately, the trail opened up a bit soon after and I caught and passed Brandon.  At this point, Fabrice and Matt were nowhere to be seen, and I figured I wasn’t going to be able to challenge for 1st or 2nd.  I kept my pace up, and passed quite a few other riders from other classes over the next 8 miles or so.  Incredibly, around mile 11, I saw Matt and Fabrice.  They had gotten caught up in a rather long train of riders on a section of singletrack where passing was not possible.  As the trail opened up a bit, I passed a few geared riders and ended up within striking distance.

The end of the course at Island Lake was about a half-mile of sand/gravel two-track going uphill for a straight sprint finish.  I passed Matt at the beginning of the two-track, which left Fabrice about 100 yards ahead of me.  Then I started absolutely hammering.  Fabrice hadn’t seen me since the beginning of the race, and he had no idea I was coming.  By the time I passed him I had built up my momentum quite a bit, and pushed my pace as hard as I could all the way to the finish.  Because I was running a heavier gear and was carrying speed, he could not make up the distance after I passed, and I crossed the line about 2 seconds ahead of him for my first ever win.  I’m going to try and do that more often.

Custer Stampede – May 5^th, 2013 – Augusta, Michigan – Fort Custer Recreation Area

I consider Fort Custer my home trail.  Although I started mountain biking on the east side of the state and rode recreationally while living in East Lansing, riding at the Fort really established my love of the sport.  After a series of knee injuries and surgeries (the last in December of 2010), and not wanting to risk any more joint damage from sports with a lot of lateral movement, I turned to mountain biking as my go-to activity for exercise.  I got back into riding in the fall of 2011 after my knee had properly healed, bought a nice 29’er in the spring of 2012, and had planned on making the 2012 Stampede my first ever race.  However, work got in the way, and I wasn’t able to start racing until the end of that summer.  The fact that I didn’t get to participate in last year’s race made my anticipation for this year that much greater.

There were two race routes this year:  one for the expert/elite class combining the red and green trails, and one for the sport/beginner riders using mainly green with just a couple sections of red.  I ride at the Fort frequently, and usually prefer riding the red loop – however, to prep for this race, I went out and hammered green as many times as I could during the two weeks before the race.  The green loop isn’t very difficult, but there are some technical-ish climbs where practice really pays off.  For gearing, I decided to run 34 x 16, which is what I was most comfortable with at the Fort, and I opted to run my dedicated race wheelset, which has Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25’s mounted tubeless on Stan’s Crest rims.

I arrived at the Fort about an hour and a half prior to my start time, chatted with my team members, visited the team tent where Jana Turpin and April Parrish were preparing food on behalf of WSI/Team Active for the race participants, and started to warm up.  Going into this race, I knew that Dwight Denisiuk and I would have a good chance of doing well in the sport singlespeed class.  Dwight is an experienced racer and overall fast [EXPLETIVE DELETED], and I wasn’t about to get trounced by interlopers on my trail.  However, we were going to have some tough competition: Eric Wolting had won the Yankee TT by nearly a full minute; Jeff Gilbert of Cross Country Cycle had placed 2nd in the 2012 MMBA CPS; and Byrne Johnson (a Battle Creek local) had placed 2nd here in 2012.

We lined up, and despite his pre-race declarations regarding hanging back to follow the leaders, Eric Wolting took the holeshot off the start.  For the first 4 miles it was Eric, Dwight, Jeff, Byrne, and myself.  About halfway through the Amusement Park (which was running backwards for the race), Eric’s rear wheel basically just fell off his bike.  He had been pushing a pretty intense pace, and if it weren’t for his mechanical, I feel like he would have been on the podium.  The four of us passed Eric and continued on into the remainder of the green loop.  After about another mile, Byrne started to fade and I passed him, which left Jeff, Dwight and myself.  A couple more miles went by, and Dwight started to fade a bit, so I took a pass.  At this point, Jeff was starting to pull away.  At the end of the first lap, someone yelled that Jeff was about 20 seconds ahead of me – that seemed manageable, but as it turned out, he was able to maintain his pace during the 2nd lap, whereas I began feeling my legs go around mile 15.  At that point, Dwight caught up with me.  He stayed on my wheel for a few miles as I struggled to keep my cadence up, and going into the final half-mile before the finish, he took a pass on a paved section.  He was running a bigger gear and there was no way I could keep pace with him there.  We finished about 14 seconds apart for 2nd and 3rd, with Jeff finishing about a minute ahead of us.

I was definitely happy with my performance on the day for my 2^nd podium finish of the year, and excited for my WSI/Team Active teammates who generally had fantastic results in their respective categories.  Along with that, I was grateful to finally be able to race at my home trail, and to spend the day with my teammates and family.



Pontiac Lake Classic – April 28^th, 2013 – Waterford, Michigan – Pontiac Lake Recreation Area

I had no plans of doing this race, which was a Tailwind series event at Pontiac Lake Recreation Area.  My wife and I are originally from the Detroit area, and we were going to be in town visiting parents/in-laws this particular weekend.  As it turns out, I also had to be in Troy the Wednesday before the race, which allowed me to ride the course in advance.  Since I always bring my bike with me when we visit family, I figured I might as well race.

I ran the same setup that I used for Yankee – 34 x 18 and Kenda Karma 2.2’s.  It was raining on race day, and Pontiac has a few tough climbs, and a lot of rocks, roots, and (when it’s wet) mud.  From what I’ve been told, this race is usually a time trial, but they were running it in a standard XC format this year.  I met up with Jack Miner (another eastsider) prior to the race, and we did our best to stay out of the cold drizzle in the tent he had graciously set up as we got ready.

The sport singlespeed class was 11 deep, and I recognized a few names from the Yankee TT.  Anyhow, the start came, and we were off.  A group of 3 or 4 riders absolutely bolted from the start, and I never saw them again.  I traded places with a few of the other guys throughout the race, but I never felt good enough to make a respectable effort.  I hadn’t warmed up because of the rain, and my legs were feeling heavy.  Along with that, Pontiac is an unfamiliar course to me, and I was really tentative on the technical sections.  The gent that finished right behind me fell about six thousand times, which was something I was desperately trying to avoid.  I finished the 10-ish mile course in 50:48, which was good for 7^th place.  It was also a 5 minute improvement over the last time I had ridden Pontiac, so I was relatively happy with that.  And at least I wasn’t at home sitting on the couch.

Yankee Time Trial – April 21^st, 2013 – Yankee Springs Township, Michigan – Yankee Springs Recreation Area

Although it’s only about 40 minutes from Kalamazoo, I had only ridden Yankee Springs once prior to this year.  It’s a great trail, with some rough climbs, lots of roots, and sections with excellent flow.  The second time I rode there was early this spring with David Goff, Cindy Gippert, and Chuck Brenner;  that was a ice-covered, slow, painful slog that made me want to put my bike in a dumpster.  I wasn’t going to let the trail beat me, so I made the drive to ride there five more times in preparation for the race.  This prep helped me figure out which gear ratio I needed to run, the best lines through the roots, where I could build momentum prior to the climbs, and which tires to use on race day.

For gearing, I ran 34x18 due to the amount of climbing on the course.  In retrospect I could have probably run a slightly taller gear, but as this was the first real MTB race of the season, I didn’t want to push my luck.  I used my backup wheelset for this race, which has Kenda Karma 2.2’s mounted tubeless – Yankee can be pretty sandy, and I didn’t want to chance washing out in the corners.

Also, I had forgotten that the starting times at this race were determined by when you signed up, and I was one of the first people to register last fall, so I was scheduled to start 3^rd with the sport group.  It was a pleasant surprise, as dealing with traffic during a time trial can be very frustrating.

So: I warmed up on the 2-mile loop about 30 minutes prior to my start, had an energy gel pack, and made my way to the starting line.  The weather was great, I felt adequately prepared, and I was off.  I had rested my legs for the two days prior to the race, but they still felt pretty heavy for most of my ride.  Not reassuring.  I tried to fight through that and focus on nailing my lines and hammering up the climbs.  I was passed by one or two other riders during my race, but neither of them was singlespeed.  I also stayed upright the entire time.  Bonus!  I finished, and checked my time on my watch – roughly 54 minutes.

As my teammates finished and we discussed our times, I realized that I might have done well for my class.  The organizers started to post the results, which is a tense waiting game as someone from your class could have started 30 minutes behind you, and you can get bumped further and further down the list.  When I first checked, I was in 1st, and only one other SS Sport rider had finished.  I did not believe that would hold.  After 20 minutes, I checked the results again, and I was in 3rd.  And amazingly, that’s where I stayed, with an official time of 53:55.4.  I really did not have any expectations for this race, and I was extremely happy to make the podium.  Although I had placed third in my class at the Lowell 50 last fall, this was my first podium finish for a real MTB race against a full field of some great singlespeed riders.

The Lowell 50 – April 6^th, 2013 – Lowell, Michigan

The Lowell 50 is a gravel road race held twice a year in the spring and fall with a decently challenging course offered in 50 and 28 mile distances.  I had participated last fall in the 28 mile singlespeed class as a warm-up for Iceman, and I really enjoyed the low-key atmosphere and the race route.  I again signed up for the 28 mile SS class, and met David Goff and Eric Kane at Fallasburg County Park, which serves as an excellent start/finish venue for the race.

Based on a conversation I had with the winner of the 36 mile singlespeed category at Barry-Roubaix, I decided to run 38c Bontrager CX0 cross tires and a tall-ish gear ratio (34 x 14) for this race.  Although it was a heavier gear than I ran last fall, I felt the skinnier tires and my fitness would be able to compensate.  This ended up being true for most of the race.

The weather at the start was sub-40 degrees, and the wind gradually increased to what felt like a hurricane.  Now, I have zero experience road racing, and really have no clue how to ride in a pack.  Along with that, I can’t keep up with geared riders on flat sections or downhills, where they can switch into the big ring and crank away.  So, I end up riding alone for long sections of these gravel road races.  I would normally be fine with that, but the wind seemed to have a personal vendetta against me.  I felt fast and strong for about the first 20 miles, and then I felt terrible.  There was no gradual decline – it was immediate.  Everything felt uphill.  The heavier gear and the wind completely killed my legs, and I was very grateful to finish.  I ended up at 1:44:28, which was (barely) faster than my time last fall, and good for 6^th place in my category.

I then enjoyed several complimentary donuts.  Seriously, free donuts at this race.

Barry-Roubaix – March 23^rd, 2013 – Hastings, Michigan

This race did not end well.  Sorry for spoiling the end at the beginning.

I was very much looking forward to my first race with my WSI/Team Active teammates - I felt like I was in decent shape, I had a new bike (2013 Spot Rocker SS), and I really wanted to start the season on a positive note.  I had ridden most of the race route with Dwight Denisiuk, Charles Elder, David Goff, and Cindy Gippert a few weeks before, and I felt confident in my gear selection for the 36 mile singlespeed class.  As it turns out, confidence played a negligible role in my result, and I learned it’s probably best to forget your expectations before a race.

The weather leading up to the race was relatively cold, and the gravel roads were still partially frozen on race day.  Due in part to the weather, I had a slow start, with my legs feeling heavy and my lungs not operating efficiently.  I started to warm up a bit around mile 5, and began passing a number of other riders as I found my pace.

Around mile 8, I came down a hill onto a flat section, and my front wheel slid laterally into an icy rut on the road.  I fell hard onto my left side, and the person behind me ran over my bike with theirs.  I was a bit bloodied, but I could have continued – however, the sidewall on my front tire was completely torn open, and my chainring was badly bent.   As I was not carrying a spare chainring or tire (what an oversight, right?), my day was done.  I hiked about a mile with my bike to a crossroad, and got a ride back into Hastings.

Clearly not the way I wanted to start my season, but I tried my best to only sulk about it for the remainder of that day, and reminded myself that there were plenty more races on the year.

- Adam Cefai

Getting Caught Up - A Collection of Race Reports

Fort Custer Stampede. Battle Creek, MI. 5/5

I raced the expert 40-49 div. which had 27 riders and was 2 rows deep at the start line. I positioned myself in the front row hoping for a top 5 start. As we got the go signal I got a good jump looking to make a move into #2 spot. Then my foot slipped out of the cleat causing me to almost go down and all the riders behind me to check up. I was able to calmly clip in and recover for a top 5 spot. The first two riders had dropped the three of us behind them as me were making our way through the slower riders from the waves that had started ahead of us. I was feeling good mentally after the first lap but the miles and lack of training this spring was adding up. I lost a couple spots just before entering the red loop. Trying to hang onto their rear wheel was the best I had until the switch back on the green loop at Erin's rock they had dropped me for good. I was left alone with no one to push or pull me I had to finish alone. I was pleased to finish 9th out of the 27.

Infiterra Sports Adventure Rage 28hr adventure race. Oscoda, Mi. 5/18-19

This race started at 5am sat. morn. and the cut off was 8am sun. morn. Our team was Andy Weeks, Paddi Thornburg, Sara Williams and myself. Even though the actual race didn't start until sat. morn. It really starts the moment teams get their maps and finish the race briefing which was fri. at 9pm. With a 5am start time and a 45 min. drive to the start. That left our team 2.5hrs to work on our maps and route choices, pack food and mandatory gear, leaving only 3hrs. of sleep. Awaiting the start with the other 19 teams we decided to just ease into the race not to rush and race our race. We started with an orienteering sec. with 6 CP's. which took us 4.5hrs. and we were 6th overall. We then moved onto a biking section on roads to the Rifle river single track. Locating CP's along the way. After completing the bike section of +-20 miles. We arrived at our first TA knowing we wouldn't have food or water for the next 7-8hrs. we loaded up for our first of 2 river paddling sections. With a 4mile run in between the two.The first was 7miles and the second was a mind numbing 11miles with 12-14 portages over downed trees that caused me to have a complete melt down. I threw my paddle into the canoe cussing and swearing as Sara told me I don't handle anger well ??????? I was tired of lifting and dragging that damn heavy aluminum canoe. I through so many F bombs. That's what makes adventure racing so fun?????? So we finished the paddle around 7:30

14hrs. into the race arriving at TA2 in 8th place. We then started a 10-14 mile trekking section along the AuSable river with 5 CP's along the way. We made it to the 5th CP at 12:30am to learn the leaders had finished. With a few miles left in our trekking we would arrive at TA3 at 2:30am sun. This was our last TA of the race which we finished with a 30+ mile biking section with an optional orienteering section with in it where time management would be crucial. As we arrived at the orienteering sec. around 3:30am a team we had been leap frogging back and forth with was going to bail and continue the bike section. I talked them into working with us to go get at least one CP. which proved to be positive. It took us an hour to go 1mile total before getting back to the bikes. We decided to leave the rest the CP's so we made sure to finish in the allotted time. With 20miles and 2CP's to go we only had 3.5hrs to finish. So we linked up with the other team and agreed to finish together. This was a great idea as it helped all of us stay awake along the ride to the finish. We came in at 7:40 am on sun. Finishing tied for 7th overall and 4th in the 4 person co-ed division. With only an hour sleep and a great post race breakfast I had the hardest time fighting the sleep monster on the 4hr. drive home.

Seahorse Triathlon 5/26

Not a lot to report with this one. I did the relay option with Danny Wolin as our biker and a speedy swimmer Kathy Roche-Wallace hooked us up with. Olivia came out of the swim in 25min. Handing off to Danny he did the 40k bike in just under an hour. I took the chip for the 6.6 mile run. We finished the olympic distance race in 2:22:45 with a first place in the relay div.

The next race on the calendar is RAAM which everyone can follow at GoKathyGo.com, on Kathy's Facebook page or on the RAAM website 6/11-6/24.

Chuck Brenner