Back in the saddle again?

Pam's racing in Tucson and it's making me think it may be time to fire this up again... No not because I'm doing anything cool, but she is. As unconditionally supporting super fan #1 I may need to document something, like the hilarity that comes from changing your wife's flats.

UCXWC09

Unicycle Cyclocross WORLD Championships... My parking lot. Saturday. Be there. Suck it Portland!

Art collabo super limited edishhh uni up for grabs, sponsored by Blatz beer, and Wiener dog barriers! Its gonna be raw like sushi and on like Diddy Kong, so haters to the left!

It's really not all that far out there if you think about.

I Don't Know Which Makes Me Happier

Tater, AKA: Smoke Ring Man.

Or the email I just got from Kelley over at First Descents.

You raised $19,879 in case you wanted to know.

Thanks

kel

You Don't Know What You've Got Til It's Gone

Wow. I'm so glad I decided on that as Today's title... Otherwise I may not have watched this. Yep, 1:00 on a Tuesday.

So As you may have gathered, I haven't spent my month away from blogging totally getting my stuff together. "Hey maybe he has a job now". No I just needed a break. Wow, one whole month since Moab. In some ways it seems like yesterday, in another its a long way off.

Racing in Moab was an experience I'll always remember. I'm really proud of it as an accomplishment. I started thinking about it because I just wanted to see if I could do it. Finish.

Not quit. I felt like I had to show something for my summer of leisure. I didn't really expect to be in the hunt.

I have to thank all the people that helped me. Weather cooking, feeding me, working on my bike, communicating with Pam, or just cheering me on. I really owe a huge percentage of my success to my friends that hung out. Thank you so much! (Unfortunately, no one signed up for the chamois creme applicator position, so I had to do it myself. While this did keep people out of my Ruffles / M&M's "did you see where he just put that hand?", I still wound up with a severely chapped backside.)

Your brain goes some weird places in the middle of the night. I started talking to myself around sunset. I must have really looked like a certifiably crazy person as the night wore on. I passed people at some odd times: singing 'This is how we do it'; ringing my bell like a madman; perfecting the art of peeing off the bike. I got some long hard looks. More Pics here, Thanks to Ryan.

After finishing I was surprised at how OK I felt. I had some problems with my hands loosing feeling, and I really did shed a layer of snakeskin off my butt, but mostly I just felt hungry. Unbelievably hungry. 3 cheeseburgers a day hungry. Luckily our "Eat your way across the midwest tour" began almost immediately after the race. More on that later.

After the race, it was surprising how I just seemed to lose all power. When I told a fellow 24 hour participant my plans to race 'cross in a couple weeks she just laughed at me. She was right. It felt like I was trying to drive a 4 cylinder over Vail pass. I just had nothing. My cross "racing" in Kentucky just became a group ride in the mud. I had hoped to get my father excited about Cyclocross (the sport of the future) by dazzling him with my power and speed on Saturday. After watching me effectively 'push rope' against a stacked field he decided to skip Sunday's event.

Kentucky came a couple weeks into awesome road trip. We had already toured the boyhood home of Brian Peters, gone to Milwaukee and the Beechwood Blaster, and a quick couple of days in Chicago. (Pam did not win the champion's sweater this year in Beechwood. However, she has already began a focused training regiment to guarantee domination next year)

Soooo. The weather is still unbelievably good for riding right now. Actually, I think I'm going to take my wife on a bike date to Eagle RIGHT NOW! Peace out.

Some Things To Think About While I'm Away

Nothing To Do With Nothing

This video is a little mislabeled as "Brat Pack Mash Up", but it's still pretty awesome in that it features a few of my favorite 'I'm making fun of you' references... Molly Ringworm, Anthony Michael Hall, and Mannequin!

Holy Cow!!! I just realized the girl who was the mannequin, grew up to be the slutty Golden Girl! Wait, I'm confused again, I mean Samantha from Sex And The City. I get those sassy ol' gals confused.

The Last Hurrah

Oh man it's been a great summer. I'm watching it snow out my window and reflecting on how great the past few months have been. I can't believe how fortunate I am. While I didn't "work" so much, I'm sure that I will remember this one forever. The time I got to spend with my wife was priceless. We had a blast riding our bikes about 1,000,000 miles, and raising a little money / awareness for a great cause.

Originally, 24 Hours of Moab was something we wanted to do as a duo. I figured that would be a great way to end our summer fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, things changed a little and Pam won't be able to race this year. So I'm racing solo. If you REALLY don't have anything going on on a Saturday night, you can even follow along in realtime by clicking here.

If you've though of supporting us in the way of a donation to First Descents in the past, this is our last push. Some people support by mileage, hours, or even by how well I finish. It's up to you. So, if you're one of the few that committed to donating, but haven't had the opportunity, it's time to get on my wheel. Yeah we'll still be riding and traveling to race, (Wisconsin and Kentucky the next 2 weekends) but I'll be taking a little break from here while we're on the road.

Since my last post people are coming out of the woodwork to help at the race. Thanks! (And if you are the kind that reads comments, you'd think I'm a terrible friend)

Some Loose ends. Had an awesome weekend racing 'cross in Frisco. It's pretty much you can have on a bike. And the best part? It's over quick. The 'Big Dumb Animal' even came out to race on his 15 year old, never tuned, death-trap, bald tire bike. I'll post a picture of this thing later,,, it takes "Run what ya brung" to a whole new level.

And this pic of Pam that managed to slip through the Durango cracks.