sheeps and lambs

Last Friday night, Dave and I made the drive to White Pine(you have to read "White Pine" with your very best southern accent) because we had gotten a tip that there may be many, many super cute baby lambs at the farm. It turns out that Mr. Ram figured out how to sneak over to the ladies' side of the fence, and, well, you know how it goes.

Dave managed to snag one

not a sheep

happy memorial day

enjoy some chalkboard pantry art.

Dear DSG,

I hate you.

After lots of debating with myself, I decided to give dirt, sweat, and gears a go. That was a bad decision. The rain we've been having made the course unrideable and downright miserable. It took me three hours to go about 8 miles of a 10 mile loop, and I should have bailed earlier. Most of that time was spent scooping mud off the tires and out of the frame so the wheels would turn while I was pushing it. I figured my bike weighed about 50 lbs with all the mud. Well guess what, someone found a scale and weighed a bike after it had come off the course...92 pounds. 92 pounds!!! I believe it - I couldn't even lift my bike to carry it!

It wasn't all bad though. Free beer and good people can make any bad experience go away. Erin even came down from Nashvegas to hang with us in the mud.
If you want to see the mud for yourself. Check out www.cyclingdirt.com for some good videos. The site is done by the same people that do Flotrack, so you know it's good stuff!

SERC #5 AKA Kenda Cup East Opener

First XC mountain bike race - first win. I think I'm going to go ahead and retire before they make me upgrade to expert class and I start getting my butt kicked. Press release on the way. Stay tuned....

This race was a much more manageable and totally more enjoyable (and not because I won) 16 miles rather than the 100 that I suffered through the previous weekend. For all you runners, this is more like the 3k-5k of the mtb world. Yay!

Oh yeah, you know how it's been raining every day since umm, forever? My drivetrain was none too happy.

Here's the short and sweet report
Lap 1
Neutral start behind a motorcycle, sat in third for a few minutes as we started to to climb. I figured that if I had any chance, I should try to gap some people here, so I went by the two people in front of me and pulled away. I was really surprised no one went with me, but I kept going until the downhill, sloppy, wet, slippery singletrack section of the race was hit. Since I didn't think risking life and limb was worth a Sport category win, I pretty much farted around and was really careful until we got back to the road section to start the second lap. Apparently, I was too careful because two big guys surprised me on the road with the second place girl in tow. Tried to latch on, but they gapped me too quickly.
Lap 2
Quickly caught the girl that passed me on the climb, put some distance between us, and decided that I should probably work a little harder on the scary sections if I actually wanted to win. So, that's what I did - I scared myself a little and it worked. Go me.

the lady to my right threatened me about spraying my bottle of bubbly malty type alcoholic beverage
(ok, not really, it was more a request to not open it)

I wish I had a picture of me post race because I have never been so muddy in my life! I asked if there was a place to clean up, and I was directed to the river. I had no choice, I was going in.

Knoxville had a nice representation in the single speed category - Dave 3rd, Caleb 4th, and Doug Parker 5th.


You're doing it wrong! A. why does everybody put their arms in the air? and B. why are you going to hand me all this stuff if you want me to put my arms in the air?

Cohutta "race" Report

Well here it is - the down and dirty

5am - wake up call via G's phone in the next tent. It was dark and a little cold, but we managed to get everything packed up and ready without leaving anything.

7am - race start. I wasn't really sure what to eat, but I figured something similar to what I used to eat before cross country races would do pretty well. Unfortunately, I didn't bring oatmeal or pop-tarts, so I ate a banana and part of a bagel and hoped for the best.

the rest of the day:
Uphill on the road, downhill on the road, single track stuff, more downhill on the road, then a flat sometimes rooty section with a big nasty looking rocky section at the end. Said rocky section really isn't that bad, but some dude with a megaphone scared the bejesus out of me when i was almost through it and freaked me out, so I screwed up and had to stop before I killed myself. Stopping resulted in me pissing off some lady behind me and she yelled at me. Oh well, she'll get over it.

The next few miles were uneventful. Rolled through the 18 mile aid station, hit the fire road and started to do some climbing. Next was the paved road section that had some massive rollers that were really tough on the big ole' mountain bike. Finally, I came to a really crowded highway. Wait. Highway? F@#*.

Yep, any doubts that I am, in fact, my father's daughter were removed when I missed an obvious turn somewhere around here:

(would you like extra miles with that?)

After I turned around, I somehow ended up back on course and started picking off the stragglers at the back of the race. I passed some guy who encouraged me by saying "well, you're not going to podium...". Well, buddy, I got some news for ya...neither are you.

Anyways, after climbing for what seemed like days, I got to the 34 mile aid station at noon. After climbing for what seemed like many, many more days, I got to the 50 mile aid station. Here I downed some boiled red potatoes doused in salt, some chips, and a cookie. I decided it would be smart to avoid the offered hotdogs, although, they did look tasty. Thank you, thank you volunteers for refilling my camelback and lubing my chain while I was stuffing my face.

On to the 64 mile aid station where more face stuffing was done, although, by this time, I was starting to really feel the heat. More climbing was followed by a nice flat section, and then more climbing up to the 80 mile aid station.

At mile 80, I sat down, had a banana and something else that I can't remember. By this point I was pretty much dead and was dreading the last 10 miles of the race which were all single track. I was quickly revived when Bruce came up behind me and dumped a bunch of cold water on my head. WOW, that was amazing. Thank you sir, may I have another??

Quick recap
time to mile 34 - 5 hours
34 mile station to 80 mile station - 4 hours

The last 20 miles were a lot harder than I had anticipated. I figured most of the climbing was behind me, but I was WAY wrong. So, I put my head down, got in a rhythm and up I went.

Next up, 90 mile aid station and the beginning of the end. Decided to roll through the last aid station because I just wanted to finish. On my way by the guy there yelled "it's all down here from here!!" Liar. Into the single track I went. The first bit was down hill - rocky, bumpy, typical East Tennessee fare then it went uphill again. Seriously, more climbing? I was over it. The last 9 miles or so seemed like they lasted forever. It seemed like I hit every root and rock possible - even if I tried to avoid it, I still hit it. My right hand was no longer functioning which made shifting impossible, and mentally, I was toast. Finally, I got to the 2nd bridge on Thunder Rock and starting crying because I knew I was practically done. All I had to do was ride down the nice, smooth, paved road, hang a right, then a left and I was DONE.

last 20 miles - 2 hours 9 minutes
overall time - 11 hours 9 minutes

Fellow Knoxvillians
Dave - 7:51 8th in single speed category with a 30 min improvement from last year
G$ - 8:51 Cohutta first timer and crazy single speeder
TEAM ED - Dad busted out in 9:19, best time ever by a couple of hours! (Are we going to have to get you tested?)

Not bad for no training - next big, dumb race is the Lumberjack 100 in June. Busting out the single speed for that one!

Whew!