Two Wheel Blogs

Many of you probably already know, but the photographer from the Ouachita Challenge has finally posted up the images from the event.

Here is a pic of 2-Old looking strong at the finish. The next photo in the line up is me (notice I come AFTER 2-Old).

I have not had the time to find any others, but there may be another pic or two of us in there...

The OC guys posted the race results overnight. The unit and I somehow screwed up royally and came in middle of the pack.

We thought we had our strategy down to the pedal stroke. Eat a lot. Drink a lot. Walk dang near everything that even remotely resembles a climb. Stop for mechanicals - ours and everyone else's - even if it was just for the conversation. We stopped a bunch of times to take pictures. We chatted with the volunteers and race officials at the rest stops and check points.

I really thought we had a lock on the back of the pack. I guess it was not to be. Unit took 13th and I took 14th in the single speed category.

Next year - and you know there will have to be a next year - we'll get it right. More stopping. More chatting. More photos. I'm going to make Unit wear my CamelBak in addition to his own on the theory that the extra weight might throw off his balance and put a damper on his descending skills. Without the extra weight of my CamelBak full of food and other stuff I didn't need I will descend more slowly, thereby costing us a few extra seconds that could spell the crucial difference between nearly last and dead last.

If I ever wanted a handful of good excuses not to work out this week has brought them to me. And coming off the big Ouachita Challenge weekend those excuses are oh so tempting.

Taking part of Friday and all of Monday off for travel got me good and behind at the office. I bet I had two feet of virtual paper to shuffle Tuesday morning. It's up to 2½' now. And then there's this weather thing. What? Who turned winter back on? It's April and I used my SPF 30 this weekend. Now the furnace is on again.

And then there's the emotional letdown following an epic event. There's something about finishing a thing you didn't really know you could finish that makes you want to sit a bit and bask in it. I climbed the mountain. Now I want to sit up there a while and watch the clouds go by.

Gotta train though. I trained right up to the OC. The weather's no excuse, not while I have my trusty trainer waiting for me. Tuesday I was back at it, blowing out the pipes. Yesterday I hit it again. Today was all about strength. Tomorrow's a night ride. Three hours of trail riding should bring a whole new dimension and meaning to Good Friday.

Just a quick update...The fine people in Arkansas are in the process of updating the website....I expect that results will be posted soon.

....not that we even made the list probably...look for us somewhere near the bottom.

And if my name appears before 2-old's rest assured that it is only because my name comes first in the alphabet! He was strong, and in charge on Sunday!

Just an excuse to post a picture of my butt!

No seriously, I thought this picture was beautiful in many regards...It shows the sky with no clouds (awesome weather), it does a phenomenal job of showing how steep the hills are both across the trail and up the trail, it shows me bowing to the domination of the hills, and it shows the randomness of the rocks/boulders....oh yeah, and that is my Lycra-clad butt in there too!

OK really, this is it. The last one. I have more but I refuse to bore you any more than I already have.

You know the photo they use on the Ouachita Challenge web site header? The one of the cyclist crossing the river? That's the river in the photo behind me. We'd just crossed it.

I really had some mixed feelings about this time. The river crossing comes up really fast. Being my first time riding the Ouachata Trail I didn't know to expect it. Had I known it was coming I might have stopped for a few shots. As it happened Unit and I came up on it and just plowed right through. There was another racer to our right who had stopped, probably to walk through (portage?) the river. We probably splashed him good. If we did he didn't complain about it.

And why would he? That water was cold and it really felt great. It was probably only about half hub depth, the 29er wheel being the universally accepted standard of measure.

We ascended the bank on the other side and my second thought was concern that I'd soaked my camera. (My first thought was how good the dogs felt swimming in their little Shimano swimming pools.) I fished it out of my jersey pocket and it looked OK to me. That's when I realized I'd just missed the signature photo-op of the entire race!

We were climbing away from the crossing so I quickly snapped a few over the shoulder. The guy who'd crossed about the same time with us got a good laugh out of that. Just some good-natured kidding. Note though, he didn't offer to take the camera and shoot one of the Unit and me.