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September 2007

9.30.07 Pando- last CPS race and, for me, the last mountain bike race of 2007. It was a great day, beautiful weather. I raced expert again as well. Brent ran the course completely in reverse- which made for some interesting spots and turns in the 3.9 mile course.. The race also went right up the ski hill at the start, for each lap and for the finish as well! I got behind my whole group at the starting climb. For most of the first two laps I could see a couple of the racers in my group. But by the end of lap two, I could only see one guy. As I came through the lap chute he was finishing his climb up the ski hill. At the end of lap three, however, as I came through the chute he was only half way up the ski hill- I'd gained on him. I was riding at a steady 11.3 MPH and by mile 14 I caught him on the wide track in the back of the course and passed him on a slight climb. I ended up finishing ahead of him by nearly 4 minutes. I finished 11 of 12 racers at 2hrs08minutes, 11.0 average MPH with 21.3 minutes per lap.

I think I will stay in expert next year. I will put a 2007 season wrap-up and assessment on my 2007 biking page.

9.28.07 Raining in Kentucky pretty steady today- the afternoon and evening drive home should be interesting.

Joel Miller created this cool video of the race at Addison, capturing it with a helmet camera aimed behind him so he could get riders' faces as they passed him.

9.25.07 I had the most interesting 21 mile training ride of the whole year tonight! Joni was taking a Kent Trails ride with a couple of her regular Tuesday riders on the Kent Trails- departing from Prairie bound for Byron Center. I decided to ride down Wilson to 84th, go east to Byron Center, and then meet up with them. But the sky got darker and darker. I gambled (and lost) and thought I'd be able to skirt the weather. However, the wind picked up and by the time I reached the intersection of Wilson and 84th St., the rain changes from a light patter to a full-blown deluge. It was literally like riding through a waterfall. The wind was out of the west and blowing so hard I had a difficult time staying on track. But when I turned east with the wind to my back it practically pushed me up the road. I tried to ride in the small paved shoulder but it was somewhat a gutter and I was riding in a constant puddle. I rode until I reached Byron Center Road and went into the Shell/Subway and got paper towel from the employee and dried my phone to call Joni. I then wrapped it in saranwrap from the Subway. By now the rain had stopped and I headed north on Kent Trails toward home. Trees were down forcing a dismount in the first couple of miles north of 84th. I will email Kent County Parks Dept tonight to let them know. Off to Kentucky for work tomorrow- next ride may be Friday.

I finished the CPS points tabulation through Addison tonight too. I mailed it to David Moore, but he and Kristhal had their 7lb baby girl today so he may not get it linked as he has other things to deal with! CONGRATS to you both!

9.24.07 Addison was a fun event- what a fast fast course- nearly the whole trail is hard packed and nearly like riding pavement it rolls so fast. the course was about 7.2 miles long. Here are some photos of the event

I raced my first Expert category event- After the first hill in the first 1-1/2 miles I didn't see anyone in my category (expert men 40-49) for the rest of the race UGH! I thought I was lapped on lap three by the lead racer but looking at the results it does not appear that way. The racer that passed me apparently was BEHIND me and caught me to beat me to the finish by three minutes. My average was 13mph. I could have done that for another six hours or so, but I just could NOT get enough speed to keep up with the expert racers. Oh well, interesting experiment. I averaged 13.0 mph, 32 minutes per lap and rode 29 miles. (I later rode another lap with Joni on her first of two beginner laps).

I was 11th out of 12 racers but racer twelve DNF'd after one lap. Reviewing the results doesn't actually look too badly for my performance. I am 24 minutes behind the first place finisher. Places 1 through 9 are grouped from 1hr44min to 1hr54min. Place ten was three minutes ahead. So not bad for a first expert attempt. I also checked out the sport category and my three lap time would have placed me in the middle of the sport pack perhaps even 4th place!

Brenden raced single speed and came in 8th with 1hr45min and was 20 minutes behind the leader in his group. But the leader blew the curve because he had over six minutes on place two through six! Brenden was only ten minutes or so behind this group of racers. He is thinking he will train and concentrate on SS next year as his sole race category.

Joni did the beginner race two laps as well. She finished with 1hr44minutes, but her lap one was 63 minutes- she is always a bit slower on the first lap with lots of other racers on the course and if they want to pass, she tends to stop to allow the pass because she's nervous about people passing while riding- and quite a bit of Addison is single track which makes passing difficult if one is not very experienced. So her second lap was a lot faster at 41 minutes! Nice job.

9.19.07 I am not impressed with THIS hotel! Comfort Inn in Oshawa Canada is where we stayed last night for our Wednesday visit to GM. First, my key would not work on the my room door- apparently the magnetic lock mechanism won't trigger. So if I decided to leave my room and then re-enter I'd need a front desk person to use the master regular key! Then this morning I noticed the peep-hole was plugged in the door- the little glass you look through was gone so they just plugged it with tissue. I could also hear people getting ready this morning at 5-6am as if we were sharing a room.

Dinner last night was good- we were directed to a location a couple miles away that was much like a Celebration Cinema Village with a theatre and many restaurants. We found BJs Mongolian Buffet- basically a re-packaged BDs Mongolian BBQ like we have in Michigan.

Getting ready this morning and I find my shirt has a tear in the sleeve near the elbow- it's an older shirt. I tossed it in the trash and got out the shirt I wore yesterday, now all wrinkled, and ironed it. I don't want to risk the other shirt tearing more while I sit in a meeting!

9.18.07 I had to cancel my debit card from my bank today. Monday I noticed two unauthorized charges on my account. One was a renewing charge from Classmates which I did NOT authorize- I'd joined in the past at one point- a few months ago I think, to check out some of the features of the site- but it was supposed to be a trial basis. Apparently they figure it's an automatic renewal unless you SPECIFICALLY go back and cancel- I hate those types of programs. Another charge was from "Reservations Rewards"- a site or program I've NEVER heard of... I called and they apparently are part of (or on) the Classmates site and they hit me with a $10 charge- which I found was to be MONTHLY! I got that cancelled immediately and refunded as well. I found the Classmates portion will not be refunded so I am a "gold" member through December- whoopie!

9.17.07 Had a bit of activity on Sunday- fixing plumbing- ugh! not my favorite task, but the pipes for the kitchen sink had been leaking. Today I got out and rode 20 miles because I will be driving 7 hours each day to Oshawa Canada and back for a visit to GM.

I also decided to start a Ride Log Which I should have done at the start of this year.

I forgot to post this photo- I had someone take it for me right after the 24 Hours of Drummond Island. Below that is a photo of the Mackinac Bridge at night.

9.16.07 HANSON HILLS-WOW- what a grueling event! The 12 Hours of Hanson Hills is now history. It was a very, very tough race. I ended up with a third place position, 105 miles. I averaged 9.9 mph, 10 laps, with 10.7 hours of forward motion (I stopped after 11 hours).

The race was 10am to 10pm. The course was about 10.7 miles long. It starts out with a mile of two track and then begins ascending on a long, long singletrack climb. Just when you think you've reached the top, it keeps going. Once up to the top, the course winds up and down, with a few other steep climbs (though shorter) put in for good measure.

It was cold yesterday, low 50's F, so I kept my bike jacket on. The race started and there was a long line of riders in singletrack riding wheel-to-wheel. It was tight enough that a couple of times you could hear someone's front wheel rub the rider in front's rear tire. I don't like riding in such tight lines as it doesn't give you enough view of the upcoming trail, as well as everyone has different pace on climbs and descents. So I began working my way around this particular group until I'd cleared the front rider and was able to move ahead at my own pace.

I pulled into the tent at the end of lap one and stripped off the bike jacket and put on another jersey so I had a base layer, longsleeve jersey and a shortsleeve jersey for layers. Back out on the course. I kept a sub-one-hour pace going for five laps (averaging 11.7mpg). I started to think I might be able to do a lap an hour. But on lap five it started a light drizzly (and COLD) rain. This made my riding miserable. I pulled in from lap 5 to put the bike jacket back on and change water bottles. Out on lap six, I was watching the clock and mileage and realized I would be close to missing my time to the lap-chute. I picked up the pace, but reached the chute at 6:03- Dang! I still had a chance if I rode hard on lap seven to get seven laps in seven hours, so I tried to ride faster, but failed to reach the lap-chute by the end of the seventh hour- missing it by six minutes. From that point on, the best I could maybe do was 12 laps- and only if I went out after the twelfth hour. But it was not to be- the cold and the climbs slowed me down too much. On lap 10, I was simply out of gas. It was now very dark and I had used only a handlebar mounted light. Between the light and the lack of energy, I thought this lap would never end, so I decided to call it a day when I got to the chute- which was just before 900pm, with one hour left to the race. I could have gone out for another lap. If I had enough energy and finished lap 11 by 959pm, I could then do lap 12- so certainly achieving this was possible- HA- if I weren't so spent. But in the end it would not have mattered.

I was in a very competitive group this day. There were four other racers in the solo-40-plus. I took the opportunity on a couple of occasions to review the lap scoring posted- 6,5, 5, 5, 5. Later 8,7, 7, 7, - darn! The results were first place with 12 laps, second place with 11 laps, third place with 10 laps (me). Apparently the guy who wanted first place wanted it bad. He went out for his 12th lap at 958pm (two minutes before the cut-off) because he found out the second place guy had eleven laps. Unfortunately he was out there on lap 12 until nearly 1145pm - over an hour-and-one-half! Had he not done that lap he'd be in second place. My position at third would not change, regardless. Fourth place had 8 laps so I had buffer on that side.

HIGHWAY INCIDENT: On the way home, I just missed a head-on collision! I took US-127 south to US-10 west. US-10 is an expressway for ten miles or so as you go west where it finally merges to become a standard two-lane highway. I was nearing this merge-point when a car coming at me flashed brights. I had my brights on, so - OOPs! I shut my brights down, then it hit me- I was STILL on the expressway point and I quick zoomed to the exit to M-115. At the bottom of the ramp I went through it in my mind then drove back up onto the expressway- sure enough- the car that flashed brights was going east in the left lane of the WEST bound expressway! I quick called 911 and while explaining to the dispatcher she indicated a couple other calls had just come in to report the same situation.

9.11.07 Mild 25 mile ride tonight- Joni had her Tuesday bike ride with co-workers which they did from Johnson Park near the house- So I met up with them and rode Kent Trails to John Ball Park, where I did five climbs up the hilltop road as they rode back down the trail to Millenium Park- where I caught up with them for the ride back to Johnson Park. Her co-workers left then and we rode the Scenic Drive hill in the park after which she went home and I rode up Wilson to OBrien and over to Kenowa for the ride back home past Riverside. No ride Wednesday- Susan Jacoby is speaking at the Center for Inquiry-Michigan (formerly Freethought Association of West Michigan) meeting. I will likely do some ride on Thursday. Friday evening I will drive to Grayling and camp on-site for the race, which runs 10am to 10pm Saturday.... stay tuned.

9.10.07 Rain... I intended to put in20-30 miles tonight when I got home but it started a cold rain by the time I went to leave. I am not quite ready to weather the weather, so to speak. I know that once race season is over, I will need to put in some cold weather road riding to stay in shape, but with a race coming up on Saturday, I won't risk illness or injury riding this week in poor weather. I will plan on 80-100 mile rides in cold weather after the end of September.

9.09.07 Points are up in the FunPromotions Endurance Cup Point Series- I am 48 points ahead of the second place racer..so I will need to race regardless- I need only do better than any of my other events, I think, to hold first place. But I have goals to meet at Hanson and will ride to win.

Cheryl had her family reunion today at a park between Ferrysburg and Fruitport. In an effort to train, I decided to ride there and back- each way was nearly 40 miles. It was a great 77 mile round trip ride today. Except I forgot to close my Hammergel flask completely and it leaked all over my bike and water bottles during the ride back, necessitating a cleaning when I arrived at the house.

9.05.07 First in points series!! whoo hooo! At this time, I am first in the Men Solo 40+ age group in the FunPromotions Endurance Cup Point Series- and this doesn't include the recent Drummond Island race in which I got first place. First will get me 51 points and put my total at 201 points. He counts your best five events and I have only done five so far (I missed Cannonsburg). But if I can do at least as well as I did last year at Hanson on Sept 15th it will replace my lowest scoring race so far. I should end up the season in first place- the awards banquet for this is at Boyne in October again.

No riding for a couple of days now- recovery from the race and other calendar items. I will get back out on Thursday and Friday depending on weather. I also want to ride to Fruitport (for a family gathering) and then ride home- which cumulative total will equal 80 miles.

My goal at Hanson on the 15th is to hit ten laps. I'd like to try to win the race, but last year 8 laps got me third place. The course is 8.5 miles, so ten would be a good ride.

9.02.07 Whew! Finished! My first 24 hour event. I didn't really achieve any of my goals during this event- not the initial goal nor any goals developed during the event, but I'd say it was a success anyway.

I left home at 500pm and reached the DeTour State Forest Campground at about 1100pm. I set up camp, had a bite to eat of my curry-spiced rice&blackbeans, and went to bed. I had the alarm set for 900am. I then grabbed a cup of coffee in DeTour at the "garage" coffee shop and got on the ferry. The owner of the coffee shop exclaimed, upon seeing my Founders Ale shirt, that she loved that beer and drank it everytime she went to Rockford!

The race! the course! The course is 6.7 miles with little elevation. Nevertheless, it is a grueling course in a few areas due to the bumpiness, roots and rocks. The first single-track off the start may as well be called no-track! Literally a 5mph traverse across rocks and roots with absolutely NO real trail tread. This last about a half mile. A large portion of the trail then goes onto 4wheeler/snowmobile paths- not quite two-track- as well as on legitimate two-track. During the event we passed numerous four wheeler recreational riders and I also passed three jeeps out trail riding. The course also skirts a golf course so we crossed (and rode a bit) golf cart paved paths and so had to watch for golfers. There were grassy sections to ride which were very bumpy due to the embedded rocks under the surface.

I started strong- riding at a pretty good clip and hit lap 5 just before 3pm. On the next lap I had a flat on the course and fixed it, rode lap seven then just as I left to ride lap 7, flat again! I had just started the lap so I walked back to the tent and replaced that tube. I couldn't find the damage to either flatted tube so I can only presume it was a small hole from the pointed rocks on the course. These two flats cost me,effectively, the time needed to ride two additional laps.

Back out on the course and riding steadily, stopping at just before 800pm to put on lights and take out my contacts to put on my regular glasses.

By 1030pm I was getting really tired. I came into the chute just before 1100pm and decided to take a break and eat. I don't normally eat food during the 12 hour events- prefering to rely on the Hammer products. But for this 24 hour race I figured I'd need some solid foods. So I got my Wentzel stove out and heated up more rice&blackbeans to have a hot meal. I also drank some Silk Soymilk (a 50-50 mix of chocolate and vanilla). After what amounted to an hour's break I went back to the trail. I had had a goal to ride steady all 24 hours, stopping only to get food and supplies, but this stop somewhat blew that goal.

Riding until about 300am, I stopped again and made coffee and took a half hour break or so near the fire pit- some of the 12 hour racers had a good fire going. I went back out about 330pm. I got to the driving range about 400am and as I crossed the range to the next trail section I heard the wierdest howling, wailing sound! Not sure what it was but it was off to the left and nowhere near the course. Another rider was coming behind me so I slowed and we mused on what this creature might be.. dog? coyote? We rode ahead into the single track and as we popped out onto the two track to find a local in a truck just parked in the road with the domelight on and the rock music blaring.

The temperature dropped and the humidity went up during this period and by 500am, I couldn't see to ride as my glasses were getting too much condensation on them. I pulled into the tent at a bit after 500am to put my contacts back in. My light was also blinking down- The Blackburn system blinks down to lower levels of brightness as the battery depletes. I was concerned about the light actually going out- I didn't know when this might occur since I'd never done a 24 hour race and never drained my light completely- so I got out my back up light- and it was DEAD. This Cateye light, unfortunately, uses AAA batteries and I had no spares- aargh!. It was now after 5am, so I decided to lay down in the car and wait for the sky to glimmer some light.... and FELL ASLEEP. I woke suddenly at 710am to bright daylight! DANG! Out of the car and back on the bike! Later, Brent came riding by me and I mentioned this and he said I only missed about a half hour of daylight.

Just after 900am I was coming in to the last mile or so to the chute on lap 21 and I knew if I rode hard from that point through lap 22 I'd get #22 counted by 1000am. So I rode as hard as I'd rode for any lap until then and cleared the chute with nearly ten minutes to spare. But that lap beat me. I knew at that point I'd not get to 25 laps, so I determined to ride two more laps and call it a day. I then got into the chute at about 1140am and ended my race.

I took first place, but my only competitor was Brent- and he rides part time because he's working his own event- but I feel like I earned the position regardless! Net results- 1st place, 158 miles, 24 laps, average MPH 9.8. I also had 14 laps by midnight which was as many laps as the solo 12 hour leading rider had. An interesting fact, using the average MPH and the milage- I only had forward motion 16 hours out of twenty-four! Which means I lost 8 hours of ride time during the event! Jeez- how did that happen? Even those pit stops add up.

After the Sunday awards banquet- good food by the way, the spinach salad and dressing was excellent- I headed toward home. I stopped by the garage coffee shop and the owner was sitting out front. She remembered me- of course I was wearing my Founders shirt- and I said I was going to buy another one but did she want to trade a Founder's IPA for a large black coffee? She did and I was on my way with a great cup of coffee and she settled onto the patio with a great beer. I got across the Mackinac Bridge and got gas in Mackinac City, as well as a RedBull. I then drove straight home- I wasn't really tired, though I'd only had just under two hours of sleep since Saturday at 900am. By the time I went to bed at home at 1030pm after three Founders IPAs, I'd been awake for over 36 hours with only that 5-7am catnap. All in all, a successful race.