Sac river race.

Pain and suffering is two words that seek attention to detail. In this case it was the last 3 miles of the race. When your in a race and you been by yourself for a while it doesn't matter what place your in you always think somebody is going to catch you, at least I do. Ghost racers have been chasing me as long as I have been racing, you know what I mean. The start of the race went good, got a good lead into the single track and just tried to stay smooth. This course was tight and twisty with some rocky rooty sections and lots of thorns. There were not to many good places to hammer unless you wanted to burn yourself for later. I pushed it pretty good on the first lap to get a solid lead and then settled into a good pace for the next three laps. Getting to the end of the 4th lap the cross country leaders came through. Jumping on there wheel was fun until I jammed up my chain. Chris came by chasing them down and I went after him for a little fun. I lost sight of Chris once we hit the single track going into my last lap. I was holding a faster pace on this lap then the 3 previous and having a good time. I guess about half way through the last lap a racer came up on me pretty quick and for some reason I was thinking he was in my class. I should of known better heck he came up on me quicker than the leaders of the cross country race. So when he wanted by I let him and jumped on his wheel for a bit then attacked him. It wasn't long and I was feeling pretty blown so I let him by. I was still pretty convinced that he was in my class so I kept on his wheel the best I could. I am still not sure how either one of us didn't flat and am pretty stoked at this guys riding ability. Long of the short he wasn't in my class and had peddle issues at the start of his race and was just making up lost time. Thanks for the ride Aaron hope I didn't interfere with your race. So for me the last 3 miles was a race within a race, I was almost a minute faster on my last lap than my first! Kept the HR above 180 for the last 3 are so miles. Pretty stoked that I could go that hard at the end of a 3hr race. Thanks to all the people that made this race happen, great course, good food and lots of shwag.

Results. Garmin link.

Rammstein.

Listen, get stoked, go ride!

Berryman Pre BT Epic ride.

I love big rides and I am loving the SS. So it only made since to want to do a 24hr on the SS. Saturday's ride was some training for that. I did a little pre ride of Berryman then the plan was to meet up with Mitch, Greg, Todd and John at the Bass river resort. Which is the start of the BT epic race. The pre ride of Berryman went great other than a flat and a lot of cobwebs, I had spiders crawling around in my helmet when i got done, cool stuff! Made it over to Bass river resort in about perfect timing. Everybody was pretty much ready to go. I remembered a lot more of the race course than I thought I would and the trail seemed to be in really good shape. Only real issue was the heat which was about 95 plus degrees. Lucky for us there is some creek crossings to cool off in. We ran into the trail monster crew making the trail that much more enjoyable for us. It was hot riding the bikes I couldn't imagine hiking, pretty hardcore stuff. We ended up doing about 38 miles of the course, we left out the Ozark trail section down towards Hazel creek. Awesome ride guys!

St Joe race.

Back in 2003 I did my second beginner race at this place. I have not done a race here since then but remembered it was a fun place to ride. Mr Grumke was putting this race on, it was race #6 of the Midwest fattire series. I am still very impressed with how much he did with this trail. After pre riding the course a week prior and having a hard time following the course ( some of it was missing and you were blindly going through the woods following just arrows) I wasn't sure what to think. Mr Grumke had his reasons and when it was all said and done he put together one awesome course. By race day the course was fast and dry and I was still trying to figure out if I wanted to ride the SS are not. So with the hot conditions it was a given that I would be more efficient on the SS. The Marathon class had the usual suspects with Mitch hiding out in the back thinking the easier you go out the better chance you have making it to the end of the race. It worked out great for him taking a nice spot on the podium. The race started out really good for me with the SS. I didn't know what to expect on the first lap but everything went perfect. I got out front from the start and had all my lines pretty dialed in. The heat was a big factor for the whole race and I am glad I am finally learning how to pace myself a little better, stayed as hydrated as I could and got in 5 laps which was my goal. Zach snuck in 5 laps also and didn't finish to far behind me for second place, great job man. Missed Jason at this race, I think he would of loved this course. Also owe him a congrats on getting the State jersey from the Rhett's run race! Results. Garmin link. from St Joe race.

Great Father's Day and a great Birthday.

This one was awesome other than the hot temps!! Took the family to St Joe park for the mountain bike race that I was doing. I was pretty worried about them getting over heated but figured that they could go swimming in the lake if they got too hot. Found out later that the water smelled really bad so they never went. I should of figured that out because every time I came through on a lap they were there cheering me on. Good stuff. St Joe park I think is mostly used for motorcycles and 4 wheelers and they have a big area for them that Lucas got to check out, he was pretty stoked. The race took up most of the day but when we finally made it home we grilled up some pork steaks, hamburgers and of course some hot dogs, favorite after race food. My wife and Lucas made me a really cool present have to show some pics on that later and she made me my favorite Danish Birthday cake. Also Big Happy Birthday to Mitch got some of that Birthday cake for you next time we hook up. I will do a race report later. Hope everybody had a great Father's day!

Tour Divide race.

Here is the home page. You can follow it here, pretty cool stuff.

Happiness.

Finding happiness is like finding yourself. You don't find happiness, you make happiness. You choose happiness. Self-actualization is a process of discovering who you are, who you want to be and paving the way to happiness by doing what brings YOU the most meaning and contentment to your life over the long run. Lucas doing what he loves to do!