SS for life.....

Bodies Revealed was pretty darn cool, recommend it to everyone! I am jealous of Marja's anatomy experiences now. Way too cool!Go out and ride...

On the mound...

The A's played the Rockies yesterday here in Cameron Park. Last minute, we put Cameron on the mound as Daniel didn't want to pitch. How'd it go?

First batter....4 pitches and Cam's first K...

Second batter, Cam was a little excited and was trying to aim too much. WALK.

Cam calms himself down on the mound taking some deep breaths... 5 pitches later he gets his second K...

Next, Cam is throwing hard but walks the next batter. He's rattled, but again takes a deep breath throws the hardest pitch I have seen him throw, strike 1! 3 pitches later he has 3rd K for the inning!

Not bad for his second outing on the mound! A's win 6-2....

Saving Cam's pitch count for the next game!!!

Its that time of year...baseball, gymnastics and bike racing. WAIT, its always that time!

...its been awhile. Cameron and Annika's social calendar and my trying to race a bike make time a precious commodity. But who doesn't know that and face the same issues! There, my whining is done!

Annika's team is rocking the gymnastics meets, they have taken 2nd in each of their meets so far. The girls range from 6 (Annika) to 8 years old. The team they finish right behind is 9 to 13 years old. Hopefully this weekend the girls will finish ahead of them. They are super excited!

Cameron has had several firsts in the past few weeks. He pitched his first baseball game, he pitched the final inning of the season opener. He struck out the first batter, the second grounded out. He then walked a batter, and let me just say he handled it well because his face turned beet-red and when I told him to take a breath and relax, he shook his head "no!" Let me just say he only threw 3 pitches after that, and strikes and all with some heat! He closed out the season opener in fine fashion. The usual shy-guy said he loved being on the mound!

Since the A's have won 3 and lost 2. Each loss was by one run. The boys really look like they are having fun and are executing well. I love coaching baseball. I know many will mock me for saying this, but baseball is the greatest game ever invented, hands down. There is something so magical about it, it takes me back to being a kid...I won't bore you! You just have to have played as a kid to understand it. Think I will go watch Field of Dreams now...

As for me, well Marja and I headed down to Boggs V this past weekend. An 8hr race out in the woods below Clear Lake. Carlos, the promoter, set up an amazing course different than years past. Pete came down to run the pit for us. We spent Friday evening setting up the pit with Pete and prepping for Saturday. Pete was camping out of his van that night, and lucky for us we had a room in a local Bates Motel as it originally had been forecast to rain. When we arrived back at the venue Saturday a.m. Pete said it was by far the coldest he has been camping....man we owe that guy!!

The start came up quick and we left Pete a wee bit unorganized as we totally forgot to get all the food laid out for him, etc. But in typical Pete fashion he took incredible care of us. The start was a neutral roll out a fire road to the top of the course. After about a 1/4 mile the car pulled off and the race was on. Lots of team riders tore off. I kept a good pace with a lot of the other single speeds right around me. I am not known to start fast so I wanted to work on that in this race. We topped out and I was in a pack of a dozen just off the lead pack of ten or so. I was stoked with my start.

We twisted on some fun single track for a a while rolling along on the frozen ground....did I mention it was cold! Still some snow here and there, riding through it making a pass here and there. Just as we drop on to a small stretch of fire road my fender falls off...did I mention it was muddy?

Here is where my night mare begins.....we hit an S turn with several people ringing cow bells and hanging out...no worries right? Several minutes after that as I pass two guys on a steep little pitch on some sweet single track.... I recognize where I am and come to a skidding stop.

"...we are lost!!" The two I just pass go by with a serious attitude and keep on driving....I take a right on a piece of single track and pop out on a fire road and after seeing only two tracks on the ground I realize, unfortunately, I am right. We start climbing this fire road when we hit the start loop again for the main course. Wow we are screwed!

At this moment several things went through my head....

1. "Day is over, what a bummer"
2. "Marja and Pete are gonna kill me!!!"
3. "...cool, lets play catch up and see how we do!!"

I have a stem cap that was a 3rd place award from the 12hrs of Humbolt a couple years ago....I got third, not because I folded a chain ring 4 miles from the start finish and had to run on lap 2, but because when I got back to the pit I sat down and sulked. When Marja came through I headed out riding laps with her. I basically gave up on my race. After several hours, probably 8 or so, I checked the results and I was still in 3rd. So I busted out a few more laps to make sure I stayed in third.....that stem cap reminds me not to ever give up on a race!! Pretty confident I could have won it if I kept my head in it.

So off I went (turns out I rode 3.5 miles extra, with time spent panicking I lost about 22 minutes). I was dead last. I was slow going picking my way through the back of the pack. That's the only issue with great Single Track courses....takes a while to pass!

Finally I roll through past the pit and yell out to Pete that I got lost....He's laughing!

Lap 2: still trying to get through the crowds on the single track. Luckily there where two super slimy switch backs that a lot of people were walking so i could ride passed some people and then a log you had to ride over that found most people walking...cool I can get by too. That's how it went for that lap. On the last climb of the lap I catch up to Marja. She is moving! I tell her my tale of sorrow, she laughs and calls me an idiot (can't argue) and going out on lap 3 I slowly climb away from her.

Each lap feels a little better. Lap 5 I see Jared...surprised to see he is having a bad day, or at least mentally he is fried. He was going backwards. Lap 6 was tough, not sure why. Good news it was only slightly slower than my other laps.

Finishing lap 7, I see Mike in his pit...."huh????"

Pete tells me he is fried. I beat Mike at Cool 24 last year, he got me by 12 minutes at the Boggs 24 a month later. He is a super fast starter and crushes the shorter distances, my hope is that he goes too hard too early! Today he did, I got lucky! Pete also tells me Zol is only a 1 minute 30 sec. ahead of me. I was stoked.

Zol ended up putting a few more minutes on me as I ate nothing before heading out on lap 8...Bonk time! Good news was it was my last lap and I am very practiced in the art of bonking so I kept an okay pace to finish out the race.

For me, all in all it ended up to be a good day. Fought back to 5th SS on the day, would have had 3rd for sure had I not gotten lost and would have had to fight hard for 2nd with Mike Matthis, that man is on a terror this year. I would have definitely had time for a ninth lap.

Now Marja, she took 1st expert woman by 2 laps I think, and was 2nd woman overall behind Jamie Stamps in the Pro class. Her lap times were only 6 to 8 minutes off mine! Her last lap I think was only 1.5 minutes slower....looks like she will be kicking my butt before long!!

Thanks again to Pete for keeping us going with food and info on the other racers, couldn't have done it with out his help!!

The race gave me a good feeling heading into Cool next month. I was ahead of or would have been right with everyone I am competing with at Cool. These are guys that usually get me by 5 to 10 minutes in an 8 hour race. So in all I think my prep is going well. I have to admit, I am looking more toward Sea Otter next Friday than even Cool right now. I have yet to have what I call a "good race" at Sea Otter on the SS. Hopefully this year! Think my prep is there! 38 miles of bliss out of Laguna Seca!!

Now Marja.....lets just say she is going to crush the 8hr at Cool...

Cheers!!!