Ray's Blog

2007 September 9: Tour de Tahoe

2007-10-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last year Analisa and I tandemed the Tour de Tahoe and had a lot of fun doing it, although Analisa's knee started giving her some serious unwelcome grief towards the end. This year, we decided to do it again (minus the knee issues) accompanied by her father. In the 11^th hour (well, technically, the day before the ride), Schuyler announced that he really wanted to do the ride as well, so he joined our posse as well.

We got off to a bit of a late start because of a pedal/cleat snafu that Analisa's dad had that resulted in everyone but me going back up Kingsbury Grade to the house so he could do an equipment changeout. While I waited for everyone to come back down to the Horizon Casino to start, I biked around solo on the tandem for half an hour to stay warm. I've never pushed the riding-solo-on-a-tandem-gee-did-I-forget-something gag so hard before! Eventually my homies showed up and we got going.

The first part of the ride took us along Route 50 to the South Lake Tahoe Y (this Y is a road feature, not a community center kind of place). This chunk of road has more traffic (and traffic lights) than the rest of the route, so it was a little bit nerve-wracking. Since it's pretty flat, we were able to make good time on it to get to the more pleasant parts of the route. At this point, the four of us were sticking reasonably close together. Analisa and I tended to be a bit faster, but we got passed up when we stopped to adjust her cleats. It didn't take too long after that for us to regain the lead, however.

Shortly after passing by Camp Richardson, we hit some sections of climb that slowed us down significantly. We both felt that we were going a lot faster than we did the previous year, though (it's slow going uphill on a tandem). And we definitely made good time on the big downhill just before the first rest stop at Emerald Bay. The four of us regrouped there, took care of bodily needs, and adjusted our clothing, since the day had warmed up nicely from the chilly early morning.

For the next chunk of the day, we ran into Analisa's dad and Schuyler at random times on the road and at every rest stop. We were enjoying ourselves and making [what we felt was] pretty good time the whole way. At the Homewood rest stop, I ran into one of the guys I know from Sports Ltd, and I also ran into 40% of the übertandem I once met while biking in Carson Valley. (One day a year or two ago I was biking down there when I came upon a family tandem with four active riders-- the last of whom was reading while pedaling-- and a little kid in a trailer. I rode for a bit with them, chatting and marveling at their steed, which could be configured for anywhere from two to five riders. The father of the family and the daughter (one of the daughters?) were riding around the lake on two-fifths of the full bike.)

Finally we hit something I'd been looking forward to for a while: the official lunch stop at Kings Beach. We stayed there for a while, and I stuffed down more food than I'd been expecting. I'd been PowerCranking the whole day, and my hip flexors were getting pretty sore, especially on the right side (does that mean I have a nasty asymmetry in my pedaling stroke?), so the nice long rest felt great for me.

But eventually it was time to move on. Analisa and I left the rest stop, seeing Analisa's dad and Schuyler for the last time until the end of the ride (this is foreshadowing. We didn't know this at the time!). We powered up the hill out of Kings Beach, passing all kinds of people. We went at a more moderate pace through Incline Village, because I kept taking little "holidays" where I would stop pedaling for 10 seconds or so to give my hip flexors a rest. Once we were out of Incline Village, though, we made pretty good time on the rollers and the big climbs in our path-- good enough that another couple on a tandem found it desirable to get in our draft. We talked with 'em some, and they seemed very friendly. They hung with us for quite a while, until they stopped at a water stop that we bypassed.

After a long climb (given the state of my hip flexors on those PowerCranks, it felt like about 50 hours or so!), we finally reached the last rest stop at Spooner Summit. That was quite a relief to me, and I was looking forward to the nice descent. While we were chillaxin'-- and earlier, while we were riding, too-- we received props from various other riders who had been impressed at the wicked pace we'd been maintaining over the course of the day.

Analisa listened to a voicemail from her dad, who said that Schuyler was kind of flagging (this was a nontrivially longer ride than he'd ever done before), and so the two of them were going to ride the rest of the way together. (Or, if Schuyler was feeling sufficiently cooked, he'd catch the sag wagon to the end of the ride.) Analisa and I wanted to get more information on how Schuyler was doing, but cell phone coverage was a bit spotty, and we couldn't get in touch with her father or Schuyler. So eventually we hopped on our bike and headed down from the summit, figuring that no matter what, we'd all get back together at the end of the ride.

We were in the mood for some speed, so we pedaled hard down from Spooner. We got up past 50 mph, which is faster than I'd ever gone on that hill! (Of course, it helps that we were on a tandem.) Anyway, we flew by everybody and got back to the rolling hills starting around Cave Rock. From then it was an easy and relatively quick ride back to the start of the ride, except that I kept on taking more little pedaling holidays and whining about my hip flexors.

We waited around for a while, trying and failing to contact the rest of our group. Finally we saw them riding past the finish-- Schuyler had gutted it out and done the whole ride, finishing with Analisa's dad. Good stuff! Analisa's dad bought Schuyler an official jersey from the ride, which amusingly enough he hadn't been interested in the day before when we signed him up and I offered to get him one.

Interlude: it turned out that in addition to Schuyler having gotten kind of tired, his butt was bothering him a lot for the latter portion of the ride. When Analisa's dad noticed that Schuyler was spending most of his time riding out of the saddle, he figured out what the problem was, and the two of them came up with a somewhat unseemly solution involving Analisa's dad's gloves.

We were all relieved to get back home, clean up, and stuff our faces some more.

The latest on Big George Ventures

2007-08-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday, August 2, the Douglas County Commissioners had a meeting of potentially critical importance to Big George Ventures. The meeting began at 6pm and continued until about 1:30am (no joke!). I had no idea that it was even possible for a County meeting to go on so late!

The Jethro's Casino project won approval by 3-2 votes of the Commissioners on a variety of fronts. The big news for us, however, is that towards the end of the meeting, it was decided that Jethro's Casino and Big George Ventures were to attempt to work together with the County to come up with a joint plan of some sort to create something "really special". That's music to my ears, since I think it's the only possible way that Big George Ventures and the Casino team can both end up happy!

The plan at present is to work like crazy and put something together for the October 11 Commissioners meeting. There's actually even less time to get this done than it sounds like, though, because whatever we come up with needs to be submitted to Douglas County three weeks or so before the meeting.

More on my real estate project and the Beverly Hillbillies theme casino

2007-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

As always, Robbe and I are working like slaves on our real estate development project, Big George Ventures. Lately we've been doing a lot of politicking: we're trying our hardest to "make nice" with the guys who want to build the Beverly Hillbillies Casino.

The problem is that we don't view the Casino project, as currently laid out, as being very compatible with our adjoining single-family residence project. There's a lot of Douglas County Code that suggests that the County doesn't view these projects as compatible, either, and pretty much everyone who knows enough about the projects to have an informed opinion seems to be of a like mind.

So what to do? We're trying hard to work with Douglas County and the Casino folks to put together a joint plan of sorts that will work for everybody. It's possible that multi-family residential-zoned land and/or commercial-zoned land will play some sort of a role in this. Robbe and I think that there's a lot of potential to make something that's terrific for the County and its citizens, but so far, a lot of the progress that gets made on this tends to be in the wrong direction. Robbe and I are still very hopeful, but we're worried that what we're going to end up with at the end of the day is a big lawyer-fest.

2007 July 14: Death Ride

2007-07-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Death Ride. In 2006, I tried to ride the Death Ride on my road bike with PowerCranks, but I'd been doing so little biking in preparation that after two passes, I felt like-- well, death!-- and bailed out.

This year my road bike is in the shop, so I rode my tri bike (the same one that I almost died on in 2004). I've been doing a reasonable number of bike rides, but they've all been short, like 90 minutes or less, which isn't the ideal training for a rode that's 129 miles and 15,000' of climbing.

I actually had a posse of four other people I signed up with myself for the Death Ride, but I got three "haven't been training" bailouts and Analisa has been sick, so our group was only one out of five for actually showing up. However, Ed and Nancy were signed up, so yesterday morning super-early I drove over to Alpine County Airport to pick them up, and then we went over to Turtle Rock Part to start biking.

I'm gonna make this terse, because I'm just not in a big writing mood these days.

First climb, I rode with Ed & Nancy. Long climb, but feeling good. Went down the backside of Monitor Pass and then waited at the turnaround point for them. Ran into Rocky from Tahoe Sports Ltd.

Second climb I rode with Ed a bit and with Rocky a bit. At the top, I hung out and talked with Ed & Nancy some more. Lost one of my bike cleat covers, unfortunately.

Went back down the "front" side of Monitor and up Ebbetts Pass. Near the bottom, I ran into Rocky again. He was cramping up and pretty much out of fluids, so I shared my Cytomax with him and continued up. While I was chillin' at the top, Ed showed up, saying he had a bit of a headache, so I gave him some ibuprofen, which apparently was very helpful.

Ed and I went down the back side of Ebbetts, which I would swear seemed much longer to me than the 1600' or so that it actually was. We hit the turnaround point and started climbing, sticking together the whole way. After a very brief stop at the top, we headed back down, undecided about whether or not to stop for lunch.

When we got to the lunch stop, we decided to do it up and get a sandwich and whatnot. I was feeling really good, but Ed was thinking of calling it a day-- among other things, his stomach was bothering him. So I stupidly said, "Well, if you're not going to climb Carson Pass, how about if you give me a pull back over to Turtle Rock Park?"

From the lunch stop to Turtle Rock Park, Ed proceeded to ride like the wind with me on my tri bike trying desperately to stay in his draft. By the time we were 2-3 miles out, I was feeling distinctively more used up than I'd been at the lunch stop. And it was hot-- about 93 degrees! I was regretting having descended from the relative coolness at the top of Ebbetts.

So since it was wicked hot and I was starting to feel a bit drained, Ed and I made a pact to do only four passes this year (he had already pretty much decided that before). I figured that I was a little tired and sore, but overall feeling good, and so why throw that away?

I'm not sure this decision to bail out even though I was feeling reasonable counts as an epiphany, exactly, but I think I'm not feeling a huge need to do really long, hilly bike rides going forward. The way I'm feeling today, I'll only do the Death Ride in the future as a social thing-- so if there's no social motivation to do it, I won't do it. Same thing with other similar events.

Post-ride: today I still feel good, although the ol' legs are a bit tired.

Huge Tahoe wildfire

2007-06-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

I realize that my blog has been pretty poor thus far. I figure it's pretty mandatory to have at least one token entry about the fire that's currently raging around the South Tahoe region.

The fire started Sunday afternoon over by Meyers, maybe 8 miles from my house as the crow flies. Because of how dry things are and the winds, it spread really quickly. That evening lots of "charcoal crispies" showed up at my house-- burnt-up black things that carried on the wind. No live embers came this far, though.

Monday the winds were calmer and the fire fighters were making good headway in containing the blaze.

Today it's been dry and windy, and the fire has fought back hard. It jumped across a firebreak and is causing evacuations in South Lake Tahoe proper, not just on the outskirts. I have heard that South Lake Tahoe High School burned down, but I haven't been able to verify that online thus far.

Things are smoky everywhere. You can barely see across the lake.

So far around 200 houses have burned, and maybe around 3000 acres. It's pretty hard to know how reliable these figures are, but whatever the true numbers are, this is a big fire. Fortunately, the fire isn't catching people unawares, and the last I heard, there's only one minor injury so far. But there are a lot of people who've been displaced and who have lost a huge part of their lives.

2007 June 23: XTERRA Tahoe City

2007-06-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

In 2004 September, I did an XTERRA triathlon with my main man Cedric, and it was a terrific race. Somehow I hadn't gotten around to doing any XTERRA since, but I decided to remedy that this season with the newly-minted XTERRA Tahoe City race.

June 22, the day before the race, I dropped my mountain bike off at Tahoe Sports Ltd to have them do some very minor stuff (I'm quite familiar with the rule that you shouldn't mess with your gear right before an event/race, and I have violated that rule rather flagrantly in the past). An hour later, I got a call telling me that there's a crack in the frame by the dropouts. Oh, no!

The store hooked me up with a Giant Reign something-or-other to ride for the race. I thought numerous times of ditching, given the circumstances, but I decided to go for it anyway.

That night I headed up to North Tahoe, where I planned to stay at Analisa's family's ski house, which happened to be located a mere 12 minutes or so from the race venue. Just before departing my house, in a whirlwind of activity, I grabbed a bag of gels to consume, grabbed my helmet, etc., threw the bike in the car, and ran off. Some time later, on the road, a little voice inside my head told me that I had forgotten my bike shoes. Bugger! (Why don't those stupid voices pop up earlier?!) I thought again-- quite seriously!-- about bailing out, but I had plans to do dinner with the kids up in North Tahoe that night. So I turned around, drove the 20 minutes or so back home, and grabbed my bike shoes. It turned out that I had also forgotten my helmet, gloves, and headband; somehow, in my haste, I had left them in a pile in the laundry room.

Now fully equipped, I started off once more towards North Tahoe. I had a nice dinner in Truckee with the kids and Pavlo, and then went over to the ski house. I set the alarm on my watch for some rather early time, then settled into bed to read my book about the Donner party (which, I should mention, turned out not to be a raging kegger).

A bit later, I looked over at my watch on the nightstand, and it was totally blank. I guess (I haven't verified yet) that my battery choose that time to die on me. Great! I set the alarm on my cell phone.

Next morning, I got up bright and early and realized that I hadn't remembered to bring any of my staple foods (like bananas and energy bars) for starting out the day of an event. So I had a minimalist breakfast of a little bread and some dried mango, and headed over to the race check-in area. Everything with check-in and setting up my transition spot went quickly, so I had a while to wait around for the start of the race. A little problem I encountered setting up was that I couldn't find that bag of gels I had brought. So the only grub I had on hand for during the race was a single gel packet they handed me at check-in, plus an old Tahoe Trail Bar (those things are great!) that happened to have been in my Camelbak for who-knows-how-many months.

On to the race...

The swim leg was two 600-meter laps of a little course in Lake Tahoe. In between the laps was a short-- maybe 60 meters-- beach run. Since I'm not a fan of getting into the water before the start of a triathlon (which some people ironically call "warming up"!), I jumped in at the start, and suffered the shock of entering 57-degree water. Soon enough, I was feeling pretty good, though. The whole course was very clear, and the water was super-shallow-- I wouldn't be surprised if the depth of the course never exceeded 7' or so. Things were so clear and shallow, in fact, that while I was swimming, I saw several crayfish scuttling around on the bottom of the lake. (This makes me feel confident in my plan to begin commercial lobster-farming operations in the lake! Oops-- that was supposed to be a secret.)

The first last took me 12 minutes or so, but I was starting to feel hungry and tired (maybe I shouldn't have lifted weights the day before the race?) around a third of the way into the second lap. Not a good sign! I finished it up nevertheless and ran the 500 meters to the transition area, where I had a devil of a time removing my wetsuit, because my hands were a bit numb from the cold water. My perseverance and cussing paid off, though, and I eventually got myself ready to get going on my loaner bike.

The first part of the bike leg was a decent-sized climb-- perhaps 800' of elevation gain or so. I wasn't feeling all charged up, but I did OK. I started to get really hungry, so I ate my one gel. Because I was wearing a tri-suit that zips in the front and my race number safety-pinned in front, it was kind of a pain to unzip to go to the bathroom. So even though I was feeling kind of inclined to stop and take a leak, I didn't do so, and (worse!) I eased up on my drinking.

The bike course continued with two loops around a reasonably flat 9-mile course, much of it something along the lines of a nondescript fire road. I continued on my merry way, getting gradually slower and slower. Eventually I stopped and underwent the big effort required to take a leak. Once I got going again, I felt a whole lot happier. More willing to drink, too, but the damage was already done, and I was started to feel kind of dried out.

I finished the first loop and started the second. A ways into my second trip around, I did a time check on my Garmin Forerunner 305, and found that it had gone inoperative. This race was looking to be fraught with hardware problems! There'd be no more time, speed, or distance information for the rest of the race for me.

By this point, I was starving, too. In a pathetic excuse for an epiphany, I remembered the Tahoe Trail Bar that I had in my Camelbak. I immediately stopped and wolfed it down. It perked me up some, but it was too little, too late. I kept on slogging through the bike leg, but I was going dog-slow and my heart wasn't in it at all.

Finally I finished that interminable second loop and rode the few miles back to the transition area. I had gone so slowly on the bike leg that right near the transition area, I passed a few people who were just about to finish up their run (the 6-mile run that I had yet to begin). No bueno!

Against all reason I decided to continue the race, although at that point, for me, using the word "race" to describe it was a bit of a farce. How bad could a 6-mile run be? So I started running uphill with the carefree spirits caused by a bonked brain. Because I had done the earlier portions of the triathlon in super-slow-motion, I encountered hardly any people.

The course shortly departed the road, continuing up-- and up-- and up-- on a trail. It didn't take me long to determine that I wasn't quite as enthusiastic and energetic and I had mistakenly believed. I downshifted and started walking. After walking uphill for quite a while, I decided that I wanted to bail out, but I didn't know the "ideal" place to do it. So I kept walking uphill. Finally I came to the start of a loop, where there was an aid station. The guy manning the aid station described the run course as a "lollipop shape", and he said most people were taking around 25 minutes to run around the loop (before they had to head back down to the race start).

"I'm bailing out!" I proudly announced, as I grabbed a cup of Gatorade. Then, ignoring the loop at the end of the lollipop, I walked all the way back down, cleaned up a little at the transition area, and then went down to the race start to bail out more officially and to get my cheeseburger from the post-race barbecue.

You can see proud evidence of my bailage here.

When I got home, I saw that I had left my big bag of gels on my desk. Bad idea!

Beverly Hillbillies theme casino?!

2007-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

In 2005 October or so, I started a real estate development company, Big George Ventures. We're trying to build eco-friendly housing in Carson Valley, Nevada, about a half hour distant from my home.

In 2007 April, we learned that some folks were trying to put up a casino right next door to our flagship (and only at the moment) development, Georgetown Village. Moreover, it's not just some little neighborhood casino-- it's a huge Beverly Hillbillies-themed casino resort! There are times when fact is stranger than fiction, and this is most definitely one of those times.

2007 May 20: Auburn International Triathlon

2007-06-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

This was another excellent Auburn event. Brad Kearns been putting on his half-iron-length World's Toughest Triathlon for a few years, but for 2007, he decided to put on an Olympic-length event (and a duathlon) as well. Since I think that that's exactly the right length for a triathlon, I signed up for that, instead of the grueling half-iron course.

Robbe & I met up in Auburn-- he flew my plane down, and I drove down. I picked up both our race packets and was amused to see that Brad had given me and Robbe bib numbers 1 and 2, respectively, because I'm a friend of his and because Big George Ventures is a sponsor of his races. Just a wee bit of pressure, there! Well, not really-- much as I would love to be a contender in events like this, such a thing is quite far from reality.

Robbe & I had a very tasty-- and extremely lengthy!-- African-style meal at Latitudes in Auburn. Then we went to our hotel room, tried on the Big George Ventures tri suits that Brad had gotten for us (!), plotted strategy for the next day, and hit the sack. Robbe asked me how fast I figured I'd do the race, and I decided to shoot for 3:15-- I hadn't been doing that much biking (er, or swimming or running, now that I think about it), had had a sick spell and two recent weeks on a ridiculous diet, it's a very hilly course, and a litany of other excuses. Plus it's always better to under-promise and over-deliver.

The next day, we got going a little later than we should have. We had to pull our stuff together, eat a little bit, get dressed for the race, check out of the hotel, drive to the T2 area, set up our transition spots, bike around 7 miles (most of it admittedly downhill) to the T1 area, set up our transition spots, get race numbers and sunblock on, hit the Porta-Potty, put on our wetsuits, and get into the water. We were actually so last-minute that although we were indeed in the water, we were still slowly making our way to the start line when our wave started. (So in fairness, you should consider taking around a minute off our swim times.)

I believe that originally, the course was two 750-meter laps around a loop, but it was re-jiggered very shortly before the race began to be a single 1500-meter lap around three buoys. (Maybe it would have been a good idea for me to attend the meeting beforehand where Brad discussed the particulars of the course!) Since I wasn't exactly the fastest swimmer in the water that day, I didn't have to worry about trailblazing and figuring out the correct path all on my own-- I had plenty of people to follow. Nevertheless, until very close to the end of the swim, I continued to wonder if I hadn't somehow screwed up, or if I was going super-slow and actually did have another (slow!) lap to do. Anyway, the swim went pretty well, although it would sure help my triathlons if I learned to swim at a decent clip.

Next up: the bike leg! While I was in the transition area getting ready to ride, Brad offered copious commentary about Big George Ventures and how I really seemed to understand that rushing through the transition can hurt your overall triathlon, since I sure was taking my sweet time transitioning. Eventually I got going and began the gradual climb away from Folsom Lake.

Good bike leg (although faster would certainly have been welcome)! Nice scenery, mostly well-kept roads, helpful volunteers, the works. It felt great to be out there zooming along on my tri bike, which I really don't ride often enough over the course of the year. I finished up with plenty of umph left over-- I have a bad habit of doggin' it a bit too much on the bike leg and having a little too much zip at the start of the run. At least, I do that for Olympic-length triathlons. Empirically, for longer triathlons, I guess I don't really have too much juice for the run.

I ran with my bike over to my running shoes and saw Brad hanging out there. We exchanged a few words as I transitioned, and then Robbe showed up on his bike. It turned out that the cough that had been bugging him on and off for months had started acting up a few miles into the bike road, and so he had wisely decided to bail out on the rest of the day's amusements. This was a tough call for him, because it marked the first time in his long and distinguished career that he DNFed. It was probably even tougher since he was totin' bib #2. But every endurance racer knows that he who bails and walks away lives to race another day, right?

OK, just a 6.2-mile run left. I started running towards the bathroom, prompting both Brad and Robbe to yell at me something like, "No, other way, other way!" By signs and gestures and words I made them understand my short-term mission, which I accomplished admirably. Then I headed onto the trail and into the depths of the run. If I didn't dawdle and take too much more than 50 minutes, I'd break 3 hours, which sounded like a decent goal at that point.

I was shortly pleased to be able to take a right turn at a fork in the trail. Why pleased? Because the Olympic-length run course consisted of a single loop, but the half-iron-length course had two loops-- a first loop to the left, and then a second loop to the right (the run leg in a half-iron triathlon is very close to twice as long as the run leg in an Olympic triathlon). I have memories of that half-iron course from the past few years, and it's a rather long and hilly and difficult run. So it felt good to be able to skip the first loop!

Most of the first half of the run was downhill, although not brutally so. It was pleasant, although it kind of made me think about the fun I was going to be in for on the second half! I was feeling very healthy and energetic for most of the first half, though-- and how hard could it be to rattle off a little 3-mile uphill, after all? Especially when I'm used to living up high at 7400+ feet!

Unfortunately, shortly before the turnaround point, my IT band started bugging me. This is a symptom with which I am all too familiar, but it doesn't normally start acting up during such a short run. From that point on, I had to "run-walk" the rest of the course-- I ran until the IT band got to be too painful, and then walked for a bit to ease it down, and then repeated. I saw my goal of 3 hours slipping away from me! But my Garmin GPS watch kept me informed about my pace, and it seemed like I was making reasonable speed even when I walked,even when the course went uphill (which was most of the time). Perhaps I could make it after all!

Until the very end, I wasn't sure about that 3-hour mark. But you can see here my proud 67^th-place finish in an official time of 2:57:58.6.

2006 November 23: Manchester Road Race

2006-12-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever gotten as soaked during a run as I did during this year's turkey trot. More later...

2006 September 16: Auburn Century

2006-12-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

Another big PowerCrank ride. More on this later.

2006 September 10: Tour de Tahoe

2006-12-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

My second ever ride around Lake Tahoe. This one was on the tandem, with Analisa. More later!

2006 July 8: Death Ride

2006-12-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

My first ever Death Ride bailout! I did two passes on my PowerCranks and then called it a day.

Lots more to say, but I'm not saying it right now. Later.

2006 June 4: American's Most Beautiful Bike Ride

2006-12-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

My first ride around Lake Tahoe! Took me long enough to get around to it. More later-- this is a placeholder.

2006 May 21: Strawberry Fields Forever Century

2006-12-06T17:51:00.000-08:00

This was a wet one! More later-- this is a placeholder.

2006 May 20: Auburn International Triathlon

2006-12-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

I did the Auburn International Triathlon, formerly (and futurely) known as the World's Toughest Half Triathlon. More later! (This entry is kind of a placeholder entry.)

2006 February 26: Eric Nageotte Memorial 5K Snowshoe Race

2006-02-28T21:59:00.000-08:00

My first ever snowshoe race! I was going to do one the previous winter, but just beforehand I managed to separate my shoulder, and I wasn't interested in pursuing any activities that might involve falling and stressing it.

By the way, as far as I know, snowshoes races don't grow on trees, so you gotta get 'em in whilst you can. In fact, I know of only two snowshoe races in my neck of the woods (both races are recurring annual events).

Anyway, I showed up at Camp Richardson, the site of the race. Recent spring-like conditions had been pretty harsh to much of the snow in the area, so at the last minute, they completely re-jiggered the course. Instead of a 5K loop, they made it into a 4 mile (approximately) out-and-back course, chosen carefully so as to go through snow as much as possible. Even so, there were a few snow-free spots we had to trudge through.

There were probably 20-30 people who showed up for the race. I had no idea of what to do for pacing for this event, since I had cleverly avoided ever running in my snowshoes for more than 50 yards or so at a time. At the start, two people started out together, then me and another guy, and then everyone else behind us (since I don't have eyes in the back of my head, I don't know the details of the configuration behind me). I started out at what seemed at the time to be a good pace, and indeed, it certainly seemed good enough to raise my heart rate pretty quickly (I wasn't wearing my heart rate transmitter belt, so I don't have any actual numbers to report).

Maybe five minutes into the race, I forged ahead of the guy I was running with, moving into a decisive third place. I could see that one of the two guys up front had taken off ahead of the other one at a good clip, and I was gaining on the #2 dude. I worked my way up to just behind the #2 dude, and ran in that position for a while, certain that at some point soonish, I'd pass him.

Unfortunately, what actually happened is that I fell apart a little. I was working pretty hard! I just couldn't keep going at that rate. So I slowed down a bit, and watched #2 recede into the distance. Even the newly slowed-down pace was a bit much, and I was really starting to wonder where that damned turn-around point was! When the trail started heading uphill (nothing steep-- just a small grade), I decided I was pretty beat and that my calves were already hurting plenty, and I stopped running and started walking.

#3 passed by me, as did another guy, putting me in fifth. How far out did this course go, anyway?! At this point I was doing a mix of running and walking. Finally the guy in the lead passed by me in the other direction, still going at a nice pace. A bit later, the other three guys, all together in a clump, passed by in the other direction. "Almost there" (or something like that), one of them said.

I slogged on to the turnaround point and started running back. It didn't look like anyone was very close to me. Since the -and-back portion of the out-and-back was mostly flat or downhill, I ran most of it (at a somewhat more moderate pace than I started the day with). Boy, this course was long!

Finally I arrived back at the start, having crossed paths with everyone else in the race other than the four guys ahead of me. I'm not sure what my time was; I think it was around 44 minutes. I was pretty out of breath from my exertions, and I sat around coughing and recovering and eating for a good 20 minutes or so after the race.

Next time I vow to start out at a more reasonable pace! Being able to see my heart rate might be helpful, too, although I should really be in tune enough with myself to have some idea of how hard I'm working. Mebbe I'll get a pair of running snowshoes, too-- e.g., the Atlas Dual-Trac or Dual-Trac SL.

2005 November 24: Manchester Road Race

2006-02-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

This is the same "turkey trot" Thanksgiving day race I ran in 2004. Once more, my brother Larry & I took to the streets of Manchester, CT to show folks what we were made of.

Thanksgiving 2005 was a snowy day! We drove over to Manchester more than a little bit worried about what kind of conditions we were to be subjected to. It turned out that the roads were pretty much snow-free, though, and the temperature during the race was actually quite nice (after the race, once we'd started to cool down, things seemed distinctively chilly).

As usual, Larry and I started out together. I started us at at a pretty good pace, and I figured that I was going to beat him good, since I'd been living up at altitude for about a year and since I tend to do longer training runs than he does. But when we got to the big hill in the race, it was pretty clear that I was having a tougher time of it than he was.

Some time further on, I fell behind, and I just didn't have it in me to keep up with him. I was a little surprised at how beat I felt, but there was nothing I could do-- I watched Larry slowly recede into the distance ahead of me.

Even at the end of the race, I didn't have a big kick to deliver. Our finishes put Larry at 31:06 and me at 31:31 (see here for details). This was actually a nice improvement for both of us over our times in 2004, so I'm actually happy with my performance; I just wish the course hadn't mugged me so bad in 2005!

2005 September 17: Auburn Century

2006-02-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

I did this ride with my college friend Jason and a posse of his cycling buddies. It was a long but pleasant day that I'll recap here in a big hurry because it's been a while since the actual ride occurred.

It took us a while to actually get going on the ride because some of our posse took a wrong turn and rode halfway in to Tahoe (from Sacramento) instead of going to Auburn. By the time we started cycling, there was plenty of light, and things had warmed up enough that I decided not to take a jacket on the ride.

I was all set to get dropped, because I had my PowerCranks on my Google bike, but I hadn't had a chance to put a lot of miles on them. Until you really get used to them, they make riding tough!

We mostly stuck together until I couldn't take it any more, perhaps 30 or 40 miles into the ride. After that, I rode on my own. Beautiful scenery, good grub, all that.

...and afterwards, we all went for an excellent dinner at the house of Royce, one of Jason's buddies.

2005 July 9: Death Ride

2006-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

My third Death Ride. Because I let a ton of time elapse between the ride and the write-up, I really have nothing much to say here. It was a nice ride (ridden on my new "Google" bicycle); no big issues arose; I did all five passes. I have so little to say here that I'm clearly only making this post for the sake of completeness...

2005 May 21: Auburn International Triathlon

2006-02-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

Brad Kearns's "World's Toughest Half" was re-christened the "Auburn International Triathlon" in 2005 (plus the course was modified a bit). This event was great in 2004, so I had long been looking forward to it in 2005. Misha joined me on this venture for his first long-course triathlon, too; he would have driven up with me and Alex, except that he had to head back to the Bay Area after the race (Alex and I went up to Tahoe) to party hearty.

A day or two before the race, we learned that the triathlon was being modified into a duathlon. Apparently, late-season snow melt had overwhelmed the swim venue, filling it with debris and making it incredibly cold. Swimming was out! To space the racers out a bit (thereby avoiding an accident-prone bike start en masse, the swim was replaced with a short (5K?) run. I was philosophical and unperturbed by the substitution (I probably said my usual "It's the circle of life" line--possibly many times-- and of course I knew that replacing the swim by a run could actually only help my ranking). Misha was a bit bummed, since this was going to be his first long-course triathlon, but what can you do? It truly is the circle of life.

The 5K out-and-back run was a good warmup. We ran down down down into a canyon, turned around a pylon or something, and then of course had to run up up up. I tried not to work too hard, since I had never before run before biking, and I didn't want to have any unpleasant surprises. I came back into the transition area plenty happy, hopped on my bike, and headed out for the great unknown.

Oops...I once more let my website get way out of date with a half-baked trip report, so I have little other than very vague memories to contribute for the rest of the ride. To sum things up, the bike ride was nice, although I did not finish it with enough juice leftover to run a hilly 13.1 miles! So I ran some, I walked some, and I eventually finished. A great day's work, with terrific views, and a bit of inspiration to train harder for the 2006 race. Results here.

Alex took a bunch of pictures of the event.

2005 May 15: Tilden Tough Ten

2006-02-26T18:55:00.001-08:00

This was a 10-mile running race that my uncle Steve told me that he was going to run. Unfortunately, when race day arrived, Steve was under the weather, so he wisely decided to forgo the race, although he showed up near the end to see my spectacular finish.

The ten miles is an out-and-back course that's mostly on a paved trail, although the last mile or so of the "out" leg (and the first mile or so of the "back" leg) is unpaved (and steep, steep, steep!). As you might guess from the name, this race is billed as being tough. In fact, it's so difficult that instead of just having "Tilden Tough Ten" T-shirts, the organizers have three sets of tiered award T-shirts: for people who finish under 80 minutes, for people who finish under 70 minutes, and for people who finish under 60 minutes.

Alex and I got up early and drove up to the race site. It was a bit chilly, and Alex was tired, so after the race started, she hopped back over to the car for a snooze. Before hitting the sack, she snapped a few nice pictures. I, unfortunately, had to stay awake for the duration, of course.

Things started out pretty well. I made good time, although I found myself getting winded more easily than I'd been expecting (in December, I moved up to a house at Tahoe located at an altitude of 7400', and so I was sort of planning on having Super-duperman lungs for all sea-level ventures going forward). I kept up a good pace down the big hill (it's rough enough terrain that you have to pay close attention lest you turn an ankle, too!) to the turn-around point, although I started encountering people on their way back a little earlier than I would've liked.

The nice thing about an out-and-back course is that you get to see what you're in for. In this case, you do the easy part of the race, and you have plenty of time to think about what you're going to have to deal with once you turn around. Things slowed down significantly for me (and for everyone else, too, I reckon!) as soon as I hit the turn-around. But I pumped my arms up the hill gamely enough, and in less time than I had feared, I had made it back to the paved trail and to more moderate climbs.

From here on, I was distinctly short of breath. Since I knew the worst was behind me, though, I tried to maintain my speed. I had visions of a big finish kick ("I'll really push hard for the last mile!"). While I didn't totally crash and burn at the end, I certainly didn't wow anyone with a ginormous speed burst, either. I finished in 68th place with a time of 75:41, and I promise you that I worked for that 75:41! I was a little bit bummed that my five months of living up at altitude apparently hadn't turned me into a human rocket, but I was pretty pleased with how hard I made myself work.

2005 May 1: Wildflower Olympic Triathlon

2006-02-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

After last year's painful debacle on the Wildflower Long Course Triathlon, I decided to downshift and do the Olympic Triathlon at Wildflower in 2005. Misha was in on it, too (his first triathlon!), on his new Giant road bike. Diane signed up as well, hooking up with two other women to do the Olympic Triathlon (she was going to do the bike leg).

Alex and Misha and I drove down together, Misha and I picked up our race packets, and then Alex and I went to our hotel (Misha camped out in classic Wildflower fashion). Diane and Ben drove down together, picked up her packet, and went to their hotel; we then had a pre-race-day pizza dinner with the two of them during which Ben showed me his fancy new Garmin GPS watch.

Next day (race day!), we were all hanging out at the race start, waiting. Diane was rather antsy because she hadn't yet found her two teammates (a swimmer and a runner). Time was getting pretty tight for her to touch base with them and plan for the race! She was contemplating doing the whole triathlon herself even though she wasn't really equipped properly to do it, since she hadn't been planning on it ("Should I buy a new wetsuit?!"). Fortunately, the missing teammates showed up at the last minute, saving her a bit of trouble.

Skipping over to me (since this is really my story) now...I must lamentably admit that this is one of those after-the-fact writeups that I really should avoid doing. So I don't have a whole lot to recollect about the actual race! Did a little swimming, a little biking, and a little running. On the basis of my Wildflower Long Course experiences, I had warned Misha in advance about the utter monstrosity about the run course, telling him that it would be largely off-road and steep beyond measure. It turned out that the Olympic run course was much saner than I expected, lacking hairy off-road killer hills. It's possible that it just seemed like an easier course (since it was 10K instead of 13. 1 miles!), but I think it genuinely was easier.

I finished the race happy and not feeling mugged. Results here. Misha and Diane also had good days, as did Li Moore, who I hadn't known in advance was racing. Brother Shawn "Big-time" Simpson was also on hand to party, so I chatted with him a bit afterwards.

During the race, Alex put her new bike through its paces. I'm not sure where this should go in this writeup, but I felt it should go somewhere, so here it is! Alex also took lots of pictures.

2004 November 25: Manchester Road Race

2006-02-26T18:54:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty good for some years now about getting some exercise on Thanksgiving Day before the big meal. This year's exertions involved considerable advance planning: Larry and I ran the Manchester Road Race, and we ran a race a month in advance solely to get seeded for the Manchester Road Race.

Larry and I ran this race in 2001 unseeded, and there were so many racers running with us and getting in the way that I swore I would never again run it without seeding. We didn't run our pre-race race fast enough to get seeded in the fastest group (those who were expected to run on Thanksgiving in under 30 minutes), but we got seeded in the second group of the three seedings-- 35 minutes and under.

After some warming up, Larry and I took our spots in our seeding group. When things started, we had plenty of company running alongside, but enough room that we were actually able to run our own pace. Early in the race, ending around two miles or so in, there's a big climb that wiped me out more than I'd been thinking it would. After that climb, I had to ease up a bit-- fortunately there were no other real climbs further on.

Near the start of a downhill, Larry needed to stop to tie his shoe. For some reason, I was afraid of getting overrun by the mass of humanity running near us if I stopped with him, so I selfishly forged ahead. After he tied his shoes, Larry sprinted to catch up to me, but I think his superhuman effort at that point wore him down.

We trundled on down the hill, always onwards, onwards. The course flattened out for the last chunk, and I picked up the pace a bit. Larry was still winded from his sprint, and he fell behind. We finished the race fairly close together, both comfortably ensconced in the 30-35-minute range. Results.

2004 October 17: KC101 5K for Breast Cancer Awareness

2006-02-26T18:51:00.000-08:00

Larry and I were planning on running the Manchester Road Race this Thanksgiving, but we wanted to get seeded to avoid
starting with thousands and thousands of huddled masses. (We had
run the Manchester Road Race in 2001, and we found that because of how
many people were on the road with us, we only got to actually run in the last mile or so of
it.) So we needed to run a certified course in advance of the
Road Race (and we needed to run it quickly enough!), and this little
course in New Haven was what we found. We figured that we'd have
really fast times, since New Haven doesn't have any hills.

We ran this race with Melissa, who has been known to be rather fleet of
foot. The three of us warmed up with a little running around the
Yale campus and then lined up near the front for the start.

Bang! Larry and I set out at a decent pace, with Melissa right
behind us. Within 3/4 mile or so, she decided that we were
pushing a little too hard, so we dropped her.

We soon learned that we were wrong in believing New Haven to be
hill-free. New Haven might not have many hills, but this little 5K
course certainly made the most of the hills there were. At our
monstrous pace, the course was tough going! Larry & I hung
together for a long time,
but then Larry started pulling away, and I didn't feel like I
could/should do much about it. It turned out that the hills were
his undoing, though. In the last mile or so, I caught up to him
on a hill, and we ran together for a bit more. Coming up on last
half-mile flat stretch or so at the end, I sped up, but Larry was out
of gas. I pulled away from him and passed someone else to finish
reasonably strongly (although rather breathlessly!). It turned
out that I was third in my age group, so I received a little worthless
trophy for my efforts, and I must admit to being oddly pleased to have
gotten
it. The guy between me and Larry was in our age group, so even
though he barely finished behind me, he was fifth in his (our) age
group.

As Larry and I cooled down, Melissa hove into view. She had spent
most of the race in second place among the women, but near the end the
leader faltered and she took the lead. She won handily and was
given a free pair of running shoes for her efforts.

The three of us talked with other racers, and we all decided that--
certified or not-- the course was not
5K. Even taking into account the shockingly substantial hills,
the race took more out of everyone than a 5K should. (Larry and
Melissa made some noises about how they're going to verify the course
distance; I imagine they haven't followed through yet.) Nice
race, though, even though it kind of beat us up. And most
importantly, of course, we got our seeding for the Thanksgiving race.

My final time for the race was 20:04, and Larry's was 20:13.

2004 September 25: XTERRA Nevada

2006-02-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

XTERRA is a series of offf-road triathlons that has been gaining momentum over the past few years. In 2004, Cedric and I decided we'd take part in XTERRA Nevada, which is held a few hours from the Bay Area in Tahoe's Incline Village. The XTERRA Nevada course consists of .75K (maybe .5K?) swimming in Lake Tahoe, 32K mountain biking in the mountains above Lake Tahoe, and a 5K trail run.

Cedric and Alex and I drove up the night before the race. I couldn't find us accommodations in Incline Village, unfortunately, so we stayed at the Resort at Squaw Creek, which is totally excellent, but which isn't quite ideally located.

Race morning had us showing up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and slowly fighting the bikes off the top of the car (I have since replaced my bicycle racks). We brought the bikes and other race equipment to the transition area and then walked across the chilly wet grass towards the lake. We stopped to put on our wetsuits, which helped warm us up significantly. Then we continued down (ouch! Pebbles underneath bare feet!) to the lake to hang out for the race start.

Cedric & I posed for a few pictures while waiting. The water was cold enough (62 degrees) that I dreaded entering it, so I didn't get in before the race (I seem to make that decision often!). With a bang! the competition was underway, and all the participants took running starts into the lake. My thermal worries melted away as I had the most pleasant swim I've had thus far in a triathlon-- the water felt great, the lake was beautiful and crystal clear, and I somehow had plenty of space to myself.

After the swim, I slogged out of the water and jogged (ouch! again) back towards the transition area. About a minute into my transition, Cedric joined me (we had placed our bikes next to each other). After pulling myself together and making a final decision on whether or not to bring my water with me for the bike ride (my mountain bike frame can't fit any water bottles, and a Camelbak seemed like overkill...), I got going on part two of the triathlon. (I can't remember whether or not I did end up bringing water with me. Probably I did.)

After a short stint on the road, the long line of bikes started climbing up into the hills above the Pondarosa Ranch (yup! The one from the TV show). It was a pretty tough climb up rather low-traction sand and gravel, and it took a lot more out of me than it should have. I screwed up and chose a bad line at some point (in retrospect, I should have paid more attention to where on the path everyone else was biking!) and had to walk my bike briefly until I found some traction; naturally that was when Cedric came upon me and passed me.

Once the big climb was done, we continued riding along some singletrack. I didn't know what proper mountain bike or XTERRA racing etiquette said about letting people pass, and I guess I should've let people pass me more often. In my defense, I wasn't actually the limiting factor for most of this section-- I was right behind someone else who I couldn't figure out how to pass. I gather now that I should have communicated to him that I wanted to pass him, and then he would have pulled over at an appropriate spot. Next time!

Things eventually widened out to a fire road for a few miles, and then we had the big descent down to lake level. The first part of the descent was packed dirt with occasional medium-sized rocks in the path-- nice, classic mountain-biking riding. The bottom part, however, was a lot of sand. I was amazed at how fast people were descending (it seemed like a lot of people passed me here!), because I was scared to go very fast on this stuff. Even at the speeds I was travelling, I felt as though I was on the edge of control (except for one corner, where I was definitely out of control, and I almost lost it).

I made it back to the road and the transition area in one piece and put on my trail running shoes for what would be the longest 5K run of my life. There were no big climbs on the run, but there were a lot of little ups and downs, and after the bike ride, I didn't have a lot left to give. There were some minor off-road-ish obstacles to overcome (like going over a log to cross a creek), and those slowed things down as well. Nobody passed me during the run, and I passed a reasonable number of people, which presumably means (yet again) that I didn't work hard enough during the bike leg. The run course wound around the race start/end area and thereabouts, never getting too far away from it; this made it difficult to guess how much running remained at any given point. Towards the end, I thought I was on the final stretch, and so I sped up, but then it turned out that the course zigged and zagged for a while more before the end.

Cedric and I found each other and compared notes. He had beaten me by some huge amount on the bike leg, so he had been hanging out already for a while. We both agreed that the race was an awesome experience. I'm definitely planning on doing some more XTERRAs! My swimming and running were acceptable in this race, but hopefully I'll improve my mountain biking beforehand...

After cooling down and wandering around some more, Cedric and I gathered up our stuff and brought it all back to the car, where Alex was snoozing.

Alex's pictures of the event are located here. My results are here.