Santa Ynez

After being so horribly sick the week leading up to Sant Ynez, I really didn't expect much. I was just glad to be out of bed and back on the bike.


Here I am with SuperD stud Brant, and Carlos from the Pomona Mountain Bike Club demo'ing a Tomac Carbide.

After a warm up lap on Saturday that included a slightly scary but mostly hilarious staredown with a 2-ton bull protecting his herd (with 3 other riders cowering behind me, ready to offer me up as a sacrifice if they were allowed to pass unharmed) and Randy letting me slumber Saturday night in the unofficial official team trailer to escape the 30-40mph winds blowing through the valley, I was actually in a good mood.


The wind died down on Sunday and the weather was just about perfect. I tried to follow Coach Gareth's advice about consuming approximately 300 calories an hour during the race, and fell short, but I still felt good. A couple racers in other classes acted as dangling carrots to keep my ass moving at a good pace and I ended up 15th out of 21 people.

Sea Slaughter

I got super-sick: slightly sore throat on Tue-Wed went full-throttle on Thursday with a sinus headache and all-over aches. I didn't leave my bed for 4 days and even took Monday off cuz I started coughing up phlegm balls bigger than the Olsen twins.

So, uh, yeah, Sea Otter will have to wait for next year.

Sagebrush

Next came the long-awaited return of the Sagebrush Safari near beautiful San Diego. Still reeling from the UQ, I didn't have a great start on the punishing road climb that begins this long race. Once into the singletrack I was able to settle in and have an amazing time, but was too far behind at that point to do any damage to my field. I do love the course though, with its twists, bumps, slickrock sections, technical climbs and the swoopy "bmx" section near the finish. Thanks to King James for feed zone support and to Darter (http://www.michaeldarter.com/) for the a few of the sickest picks ever.

Ultra Fail

Well in March was the 2nd running of the Ultra Quest. The 40+ miles of singletrack and 12,000 ft of climbing (including a lot of hiking) is an all day epic for some. Finishing in 8hrs 12min last year, I felt that if I drank and ate smarter than I had last year that I would finish better. Well, my body had other plans. Leg cramps started twinging at about 2 1/2hrs in and it pretty much went south from there. At over 10hrs on a hot day I was worked and barely moving, and decided that I couldn't go on even though it was a "short" 45-60min to the finish. But since only 26 finished out of 46 who started, I was only extremely disappointed (instead of severely disappointed).

Here I am about the only time I was really having a good time, on the Carbide tripoddin' down the first sketchy dh of the day.