Traveling around.

Hello all. Last weekend Heather and I went to her friend Heather and Rick's wedding in Port Huron, MI. It was a good time...Heather's brother Eric and I got to make fun of people dancing. And they had an open bar, so Joyce saw my alcoholic side (she has pics to prove it!) . We also got to celebrate our little nephew Hayden's bday. Here he is opening up our gift, a talking dump truck named Chuck:

One good thing about weddings is all the good-looking women prancing around. I happened to lock eyes from across the room with one hottie in particular. We shared some good times, but then I found out she was married. Bummer. I did get a pic of us together though:
Otherwise not much is new around here. This Sun is the first WI cyclocross race. Should be a painful good time. Brooks and I will have to drive a whole 25min to get to the race site. :) Fun times...I'll talk to you all later.

Chequamegon and more!

Hello everyone! This past weekend Brooks and I went to Hayward, WI for the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 mile mtb race. What a fun, crazy race. It was my first time doing it. The race is HUGE...they hold a lottery each year for all the people that register, and they pick out 1700 racers to race the 40 mile event.

First off, I would like to thank Brooks for driving me down there, providing excellent pit support, and for taking pics (which might be posted here or on his blog). We left at midnight, got to the race start at 5am, put my bike on the start line to 'reserve' the spot, took a 2 hour nap in the car, laughed at some other race participants, and then got ready for the race start at 10am.

I had 3 goals entering the event:
1. Finish within 30 minutes of the winner.
2. Finish in under 2 hours, 45 minutes.
3. Finish in the top 250 racers.

Here is what 1700 racers look like on the parade start through town:
There were a couple nice crashes at the start once the race officially started...how could there not be with all those racers? I had a good start position since we got there so early, so I managed to avoid all the crashes and bottlenecks once the race ventured off-road. I felt good for the first 25 or so miles, but around there I started to feel my right leg wanting to cramp, so I eased off a bit. But all in all, I felt good. Very dusty, but good. Here is the only pic (from skinnyski.com) that I could find of myself during the race:
In the end, I managed to meet all 3 of my goals, as I finished in 154th place in a time of 2:35. The winner was pro racer Jeremy Horgan Kobelski, and I finished 28 min behind him. I think a reasonable goal for next year (if I get in again) would be top 100, as I was only 5 minutes outside of that. Anyone else game for next year? Brooks has expressed interest. Vino, Trent, Sears, Greg...?

More random news and events:
-- A big congrats goes out to Greg and Josey, who tied the knot this past weekend!
-- Also congrats to Scotty and Kayla, who announced their engagement!
-- I heard a rumor (from a reliable source) that Brandon Van Leuven and his wife Gillian will be moving to Minneapolis from SoCal in a few months! Crazy.
-- Only a 3 day work week coming up, as Heather and I take off for Port Huron, MI for her friend Heather's wedding.
-- Brooks and I are going to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert on Wed!

And the beat goes on.

Hello everyone out there. The weather is starting to cool off here, making for pleasant evenings with no wind, nice temps, and no humidity. Too bad it gets dark so early.

Last weekend Heather made the hard decision to give up Birdie. We had been talking about it for awhile, as she hadn't been making any progress, and she was starting to cluck non-stop. So we brought her to a bird sanctuary, Feathered Friends, right out of Madison. They have had success with getting birds to stop their plucking, so hopefully now she will get the attention that she needs and stop the feather plucking. She will certainly have lots of friends...it was packed in there!
Tonight we are heading to the Journey/Def Leppard concert in Milwaukee! Don't stop believin!
Over the Labor Day weekend, Heather and I went biking on the Glacial Drumlin trail, which is a 52 mile trail from Cottage Grove to Waukesha. Nice and well-maintained. Here's Heather in an action shot:
Here's me, testing the limits of my new cranks:
The date is now set for when I will be heading to GF to help with the Ascend install for the Ski and Bike Shop; it will be Oct 5-8. Should be a fun time....lots of inventory, getting them ready to go live with the system, with some biking (I hope to bring both my road and mountain bike for some Thompson/Merrifield and TRSP loops) and Hub nights mixed in there.

Tomorrow I have a WORS race near Kewaskum, which is just over an hour away. Might be wet, as rain is expected today and tonight. We'll see what happens. Talk with you all later!