August 2012 Blog Posts (5)

Driving under towering redwoods early Saturday morning, down a long dusty washer board road into the heart of Jackson State Demonstration Forest, just inland on the northern CA coast, I finally rolled to a stop in front of a rustic cabin behind an aged Mendocino Woodlands Association Sign. I had arrived for my next challenge.  

With Marathon Nationals in Bend, Oregon only a couple weeks…

2011 -- 2:20, 11th place, one week after Terrible Two; tired at the start line, cramped hard at mile 20, rolled in totally spent...

2012 -- 2:21, 12th place, feeling fresh all day, a 'B' race en route to Nationals, 80 - 90% effort, felt solid, in control, ready for another lap at the finish...

This is a course Jim and Shiloh would excel on -- fast start into the park, rocks everywhere, punchy climbs, bumpy descents and elbow to elbow competition onto the best…

This past weekend was a great homecoming to racing, as I competed with 699 other racers in the Annadel XC.

If you have read my prior blog posts and/or know me, you know I had a massive knee injury on Father's Day weekend in mid-June, which resulted in two surgeries and a month off the bike. While I resumed road riding gently after about four weeks, it has been a process to rebuild my atrophied leg muscles and recondition my lungs and heart. I am still not fully recovered, but…

Just a week out from the 12 hour suffer-fest in Humbolt, I found myself on the start line in the dark at 5 AM for the Mt. Tam Double. I wasn't there to race I told myself. This was simply one more double event on my way toward my 50X50 goal: completing 50 double centuries by the time I complete fifty laps around the Sun.

Unlike many doubles that aren't timed and times are kept personal, this event started under a banner with a over-sized digital clock and went off with a race director…

A good finish last year earned me a chance to preregister for the all mountain class.  It can be tough to get in so I took advantage and signed up. 

The race start had changed from a mass start of the combined pro and expert classes to separate starts for the two classes.  This made me think I could roll up the start line just a few minutes before go time, and still have good start position.  I was wrong. I ended up abut fifteen rows back from the line which I'm sure slowed me down…