Bigfoot Boogie Snowshoe Race

It was a beautiful day in Traverse City, MI on January 17, 2014.  Weather was a little overcast with temps in lower 20, no wind and lots of snow.  Snow is important when you want to use your snowshoes!  But running in your snowshoes in heavy snow is a big challenge.  The race started at 9am and we all were ready.  The key (besides training) is know how to dress.

This year is our 3rd year of running the Bigfoot Boogie.  It is a lot of fun if you like cold, lots of people on a single track and lots of snow.  The Bigfoot Boogie is a 5k or 10k race in snowshoes around the Vasa Trail at Timber Ridge.  The 10k is a two loop.  The trail is on the groomed Vasa trail but most is thru the woods on single track.  If you want to pass someone there is effect of running in deep snow.

I started the race too far in the back of the pack.  Note to myself when people are lining up be sure to be lining up in the correct place.  We all had to move over to the start line (which was marked Finish line).  When moving over I moved back too far.  I should not be so nice and become passive aggressive, but didn't want to look too pushy.  Anyway, I thought once we start I can pass most people since the Vasa Trail was wide enough.  But I think others had that same idea and I was not able to get around poeple before we started the single trail.  The snow was deep and not packed at all.  I had been running in our hayfield and it was not packed or groomed.  There were a lot of snow drifts in our field and at the time of training I was very upset that I had to run thru those.  But as I was running the race I felt comfortable, but not as fast as I wanted....I just couldn't get around those people.  When I did pass, I had to go outside the trail which was about a foot deep and that took a lot of my energy.  So I did my best....waited til I had a chance to pass on the Vasa Trail.

I did the first loop with lots of people around me or infront of me...but then on my second loop it was just me, the snow and the time clock!  I keep thinking I must be last I must push on.  I ran the whole thing but the big hill...yes I had to walk up it.  But most of the people who were in front of me were walking also.  They were the last of the 5kers and they moved to the side and cheered me on.  That really helped me focus back on the trail and made me run again.  I wished I had done better.  Don't we all say that once we finish - well I know I say that.  I wish I had done one more training run, one more leg press!  one more bike ride - I have a real job and a family that takes time away from this excerise stuff.  Oh well it is what it is!  I did it and I finished.  No I didn't get the big Big Foot man but I did finish 2nd in my age group and finished in the 58% in womens and 68% over all.  I got a cup full of chocolate candy and husband that said GOOD JOB I am proud of you!

Here is Chuck Brenner and me before the race started.



Jana Turpin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a Way to Ring in the New Year...

So Sara and I finished off the year with a 5k in Detroit on New Year's Eve. The race was on Belle Isle which always provides cold and windy conditions. Not a lot to talk about a 5k race other than run and run fast. We finished together in 22:50. Sara finished 2nd in her age group and I took 12th in mine.

On January 4th we started the new year with a 50k at Yankee Springs "The Yankee Springs Winter Challenge". We couldn't have asked for better conditions for a winter challenge. The wind was mild and the sky beautiful blue with bright sunshine. Footing was tough and the hills were just as bad. We had to do two 25k loops of a combination of the mountain bike trail and the Chief Noonday trail. After our two loops and nearly 7hrs of running we reached the finish. Sara placed 5th in the women's division with a finishing time of 6hrs, 23min. I took  3rd in my age group with a finishing time of  6hrs, 55mins. What a great way to start off the new year and looking forward to even more races in 2014!

~Chuck

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…