Do you want to see my Big ???

Just when Carolynn and I thought Christopher had turned a page in his life and was starting to mature, we get a call from Northgate Middle School. His phone had been confiscated for, well the picture tells it all....

Get Well Soon!

The family went to visit my good friend and teammate Rich Anderson at the hospital after his Microdiscetomy and Laminectomy surgery this week. The procedures went well and hopefully he will be back enjoying a "pain free" life that most people take for granted.

I am praying for a speedy and complete recovery.

God's Country Race Results and Report

Here is a quick report and the results.

I am glad today is over. It has been a long month so far. Never again will I promote two event back to back. I am one tired puppy. My entire body ached last night, but I somehow got enough energy to get through today and also race myself.

I got to the line late because I was making sure Rich and everyone at scoring was set. By the time I got there I was at the end of 120 others. That is not the best way to start an event. I ended up passing over 110 riders and worked my way into the top 10. Took 2nd place in the 40 - 49 division which was good enough to earn me the championship in the Fat Tire Series.

Thank you to everyone who helped out. Special thanks to my wife Carolynn who busted her butt for two straight days and my son Christopher. I was really proud of how he helped me yesterday and today at the race. He said his back, arms and legs were really sore and wanted to know what that that was from. I said "that is called work son, hard ass work".

Thank you to all the racers who came out this year. I really appreciated it. Over 150 which is not bad considering that there were two very large events going on in Lawrence today.

Here are some pictures Carolynn and I took of God' Country Duathlon and MTB

Here are some more great photos from Roger's House of Photos.

God’s Country Duathlon and MTB

Top results below, with the complete results on Sunday.

Duathlon Results

Male Overall Title Tony Raboin 1:14:15

Female Overal Title – Karen Borgstedt 1:26:45

Best Overall Title (Duathlon and MTB)

Male – Josh Patterson

Female – Glenda Taylor

Male 20 – 29

1. Josh Patterson
2. Marcus Skala
3. John Waller

Male 30-39

1. Tony Raboin
2. Anthony Sherman
3. Ted Moore

Male 40-49

1. Rich Lueckert
2. Chris Locke
3. Kent Baker

Male 50+

1. Mike Classen
2. David Mathews
3. Jerry Meier

Clydesdale

1. Chad Wilkins

Female 20 – 29

1. Malarie Fellers
2. Kayla Davis
3. Molly Alvarez

Female 30 – 39

1. Angela Redfern
2. Emily Pastrovich
3. Vicki Peters

Female 40 – 49

1. Karen Borgstedt
2. Wanda Simchuck
3. Stacey Lamer

Female 50+

1. Glenda Taylor

Male Relay

1. Matt Mellor and Ryan Turner

Coed Relay

1. Gerard Arnatowicz and Jessica Hill

Mountain Bike Results

Expert Men

1. Aaron Elwell
2. Tom Price
3. Doug Plummer
4. Eric Struckoff
5. Eric Burch

Expert/Sport Women

1. Jenny Brack
2. Glenda Taylor
3. Emily Postrovich

Sport Men

1. Scott Stevens
2. Gerard Hart
3. JP Bracket

Single Speed

1. Dave Wilson
2. Telford Crisco
3. Jeff Arnaud

Master 40+

1. Craig Myers Arnet
2. Dave Pitt
3. Mike Classen

Beginner Male

1. Adam Keck
2. Dave Randel

God's Country Duathlon and MTB

I have been waiting for this weekend. Not only is it the weekend of the God's Country Duathlon and MTB races, but after this all-time favorite, I don't have anymore events to promote :-)

The technical guide is now available - God's Country Technical Guide.

Complete info www.fattireduathlon.com

Bone Bender Race Report

This year things have been going very well for me. All the training during the winter has started to pay off. It just goes to show you that with life, you get out of it what you put in.

Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey was yesterday. After a week of getting ready, everything was set for a perfect event. Friday, I worked with a great group of volunteers from the Earth Riders and Smithville Trail group to get everything setup for the BB3/6. The course was in perfect condition. We had everything in place. The only thing unknown was if we would have rain Saturday morning. The rain forecast was relatively low when I went to bed Friday night. The forecast was a little sketchy when I got up at 4:30am. They didn't know if the rain would make it here or not. Around 7:00am a few sprinkles started to fall as I was placing my last sign directing the racers to Sail Boat Cove. I checked my blackberry for a quick weather update. Things did not look good. Two huge bands of rain were on the way and another one was possible. Another muddy race at Smithville was cooking up…..

I actually thought that very few people would show up, but we had 137. Not bad for a first year event and a mud fest. We would have had close to 175 or more if that darn rain would not have hit us. Still we raised some good money for ERTA (over $2000.00). I hope everyone will come back to the Bone Bender next year so they have a chance to enjoy our great trails. We may consider moving the date closer to Summer time in hopes of having drier weather. Anyone have suggestions?

How did my race go you ask? Well, I didn't plan to race, but Todd and the Earth Riders stepped up big time by having scoring covered and all the other details, so I jumped in. No warm up, no pre-race bike check and no pre-race meal. No worries either. I was just going out to have a good time riding for 3 hours. I figured I would be finished with the 3 hour event to help with the awards in enough time.

I lined up for the running start to our bikes. I usually try hard to stay towards the front, but I just jogged to my bike, and was still was in the top 25. I rolled the old Mary Single Speed into the first muddy section of the course. Riders were all over the place. I just kept her straight and soon found myself passing riders every couple sections without even trying. It was actually very comical watching the riders slide out and/or crash. Soon we hit the back side of the course and onto Lake Side Speedway. I only saw a couple of tire prints so I knew I was towards the front. The next two miles were very challenging. The mud was sticking to everything. Wheels stopped spinning at the bottom and I looked down to a solid mud machine. I tried to carry the bike through this section of mud, but it seemed like it weighed 50 lbs. I used my hands and started to dig into the mud on my frame. I developed a technique where I would run at the same time as I was clearing off the mud from my tires. I would then clear my drive train with my fingers and I was off for another ½ mile or so until it got too bad again. I hit one road crossing and Rich told me that I was in 3^rd place overall. I did not know if the guys up ahead were in the 6 hour or not, but I put the old body in full race mode and set off to see if I could catch them.

The remainder of the first lap was not that bad. There was water on parts of the trail, which was good. I would hit the water and this would clear off some mud. I wish it never stopped raining. The event would have been better for everyone if it would have just rained all day. I hit the last 4 miles of the trail hard and distanced myself from the other 125+. When I reached the finish of lap 1 Carolynn told me I was in 1^st place overall in the 3 hour division. Brian and Dwayne were out front leading, but those studs were in the 6 hour solo division.

The next lap went well for the first 5 miles. I started to lap riders who were still on their 1^st lap. I tried to give them motivation telling them that the course is drying out and things will get better. I gave this up after some lady called me Dick Dobber. The sections of the trail that were muddy the first lap were actually starting to dry some and you could ride them (or at least I could as some were still walking). The parts of the trail that had water on them earlier was now ankle deep mud. Single Speed and frame clearance were the key words today. The ticket would have been a set of 700 x 38 cross tires on my 29er.

In the end I won the 3 hour Single Speed class and the 3 Hour overall. I have donated my winnings to ERTA. I felt guilty taking money from the promoter.

The Bone Bender is ON!

Please, no more emails. The Bone Bender is a 100% GO!.

Currently the trails are in awesome shape. Ready for Saturday's big event. The Smithville Trail crew and ERTA have put in 100's of hours to build and maintain these great trails. Including several truck loads of gravel on areas that tend to be muddy. Everyone will enjoy their hard work.

See everyone Saturday.

www.bonebendermtb.com

Easter "Snake" Hunt.

This Easter we went hunting, not for eggs, but for Christopher's California Kingsnake that had gotten out. Old Mike was fed last night and someone did not lock his cage. Nothing like having a 5 foot snake roaming around your house. I would like to know what is up with our 3 cats? Those things are worthless. You would think they would be the first to find the snake. Later that morning Carolynn heard a strange noise coming from our refrigerator. Looks like she found the prize egg....


BTW, don't tell my Mother, she will never come and see us up here in KC if she found out we had snakes running around our house....

I finally found some time to complete the Bone Bender 3/6 Hour Race Guide. Click on the logo to find out all you ever wanted to know about the BB36.














More info at www.bonebendermtb.com

2009 Ouachita Challenge Race Report

Here are some pictures that Carolynn took:



First let me state that 63 miles on a mountain bike with no suspension and no gears over trails like Blowout Mountain is a bad idea. Especially when you aggravate an old back injury like I did this past week. I almost considered not racing today, but Betsy and Sarah worked on my back during the week and I worked my butt off with two-a-day therapy sessions to be able to ride mostly without pain today.

Carolynn got us a cool place to stay this year. We ended up staying in the Duck's Unlimited cabin on top of this hill with my teammates Tige, Randy and Dan. I highly recommend the Mena Mountain Top. After a good night sleep we awoke to the sweet sound of rain. Sweet for me because I usually have a good day when it is muddy. Combine that with the fact that I was riding a SS I was looking forward to the rain continuing. This was not to be and it soon stopped which is just as well.

I missed the riders meeting and arrived at the starting line late due to getting all my food ready and giving Carolynn driving instructions. When I did get there I had to start in near dead last. I really wanted to be in the top 50 places on the start I could draft and save my legs for the numerous climbs that were to come. Starting behind 375 riders is not the best place to start. I spend the next 10 miles passing a couple of hundred riders on a single speed. I kept asking myself if I should be going this hard this early. The answer was NO.

Once we hit the Womble I was in a good spot, but spent a ton of energy getting towards the front of the race. The trails started to get a little rough and I was bouncing all over the place due to no suspension and a little too high of air pressure. Some guy behind me yells out "hey Cow Town, you have a hanging nut sac". I did not know what he was talking about. I thought he wanted by or something then I looked down between my legs and sure enough my seat bag with all my tools looked like a "hanging nut sac". The main strap had broken and a second toe strap that I put on was the only thing keeping in on. I decided I better stop and try to fix it. No luck there. I tried to fit the seat bag in my jersey pocket, but it was to large and barely fit. I took off, but about a mile later it falls out. Again I stuffed it as far as I could in my jersey pocket. Rode my ass off for another 3 or 4 miles passing a dozen or so riders in the process. The next time it fell out I almost left it there, but decided I better take what tools I really needed out just in case I needed them. I rode really hard again passing riders left and right on the way to rest stop #1.

At the rest stop I continued my nutrition plan which was an all liquid diet for this event. For the past 3 months I have used Hammer's Substained Energy, Perpetuem and/or Hammer Gel's on my training rides with good results. According to Hammer Nutrition, you are not to eat anything prior to your event other than Hammer products. Nor should you combine their products with any others. My teammate Tige learned this the hard way last year during a local 6 hour event when he mixed Accelerade and Substained energy together. Since Carolynn was going to support the team and go to the rest stops I was able to have her give me two cold fresh bottles at each stop. Each 28 oz bottle had two scoops of SE and 1 gel pack. The idea was to drink one bottle an hour which would give me about 350 cal/hr. Everything was working great until about the 4 hour mark. I started to get some cramps, which I think was from the lack of water. I should have only carried one SE bottle (w/an xtra gel) and one water bottle. Too many calories and not enough H2O.

The next 1/2 hour was mainly on paved road and gravel. The paved sections sucked on the old SS. I worked with as many riders as I could drafting off all the geared guys. I could not help much because I was all spun out. Once past the town of Sims, we soon hit the gravel road where the old SS actually worked well. Soon we were crossing Fiddler Creek and the Ouachita Trail awaited us. I was still riding strong and soon found myself in 2nd place in the Single Speed division. The leader had "checked out" but I felt comfortable with my effort and good about the chances of reaching my goal which was top 5. A few miles from feed station #3 I was starting to get some leg cramps. I began to have trouble climbing and had to walk some steep sections. A few riders passed me including a couple single speed guys. Once past #3 and what I thought was Blowout Mountain, I still was in the top 5 and felt good. That was until we picked up our first token and the course volunteer informed us "welcome to Blowout Mountain and enjoy the trip". What a blow to the old mind.

The remainder of the race was a true suffer fest. The downhills were the worst. The old Ouachita trail is hard with tons of rocks and climbs. Not something that you enjoy when you have hit the wall. My teammate Garet Steinmetz caught up to me on Blowout Mountain, but he was also having some cramping problems and stopped to drink some pickle juice. What? That is what I said. Seeing him gave me some motivation and I picked up the pace some. I actually caught up to him on the final section of trail past feed station #4 and was hoping we could work together on the final road section. On that final section another teammate, Mike Classen caught up to us and we rode together for awhile. I was able to climb o.k., but was not able to descend as fast as Mike could on his full suspension bike. As Mike rode away from me on the final decent I cussed myself for not getting a suspension fork :-) On the final 8 miles of gravel road, Garet came flying by me in his 44 x 12. So much for working together. Must have been the pickle juice....

I put in one last ditch effort to catch the remaining riders that I could see ahead of me. I did not know if any were in my class, but I gave it my best shot. At the finish there was just one guy who I did not catch. And wouldn't you know it, he was the 5th place Single Speed finisher. I finished about 8 seconds short of my goal. Now that hurts. I spent the entire trip home wondering were I could have made up that 8 seconds. Damn that "Hanging Nut Sac".

This was my second time coming down for the Ouachita Challenge. Last year I decided to start racing in more long distance events like the OC. After each one I said I was going to stick with short distance events, but I aways seem to sign up for another. Already looking forward to next years event.

Bike setup:

2007 Haro Mary Single Speed 18' with stock rigid fork.
Gear ratio: 2 to 1 , 48.7 (32 x 19 w/175 crankarms)
Tires: Maxxis Ignitors, tubless with Stans.
Wheels: Chris King hubs with Stans ZTR Arch rim.
Brakes: Avid BB5's
Bars, seat post, stem, seat : Team issued Ritchey Logic.



Here is YouTube video from overall winner Jeff Kerkove. His teammate, Sonya Looney won the female overall title.



More YouTube...

God's Country Duathlon and MTB Races

Here is the tentative updated flyer for the God's Country MTB Race. Thank you Kristine for catching all my errors. Let me know if there are more.

I think I might plan on racing my cross bike just for fun of it.....or maybe not. The old back is not feeling too good. Might have over-done it at the Black Locust. At least me legs still feel good for this weeks Ouachita Challenge.