Tough Mudder SoCal #1 Feb 2012

The SoCal Tough Mudder was held in Temecula, Ca. I have never been there but have passed it on the freeway going up to snowboard. Interesting to see what a beautiful place was within a stones throw away from the freeway. What is better than running along side a nice lake and seeing it from ground level or up from the mountains on a beautiful San Diego day. Not much.

One of the funny things I heard was while waiting in line for the shuttle. Close by were the port-a-potties and people were making good use of the wait time. One lady came out and said..."Obstacle one down". The few of us that heard it were cracking up. I do have to say I really do hate relying on shuttles to get you to the starting line. And I hate when they have school buses. They are designed for kids... not adults. I have my knees to my chest. I would suggest that they have a sign to let people know how far and in what direction the start lines it. No one really knew. And because there was such a back up with only three buses running, I know many people missed their set time to start. I am normally there, at the start, at least an hour before. I have my pre-race ritual and routine I like to do. I only had 20 minutes to handle registration, bag drop, load dump ;P, stretch and get in line before it was time to roll.

One of the things I knew would kick my butt was the huge mountain we needed to climb at the very start of the race. Everyone took off running strong being pumped from all the Hoorah yelling with the MC. Not many were still running after the first 1/4 of the way up. I was very happy to be up top. But was unpleasantly made aware that this was not the only hill. I failed to see that written any where. I would say at least 3/4 of the race was going up and down. So that put a hurt on me. It also slowed down my time for sure. Not to mention get clogged up behind people running down hill on single tracks was not helping either. I am surprised we did not have more people going down and taking other people with them.

I think it is a nice touch that on the Tough Mudder website they have a course map with the pictures and the descriptions of the obstacles. This a very cool bit of information to have. The pictures are close up and generic so they don't match up to the location so you can not see the actual terrain of the area. But it is still more information then you had if you have never done a Tough Mudder or not done one in this location. For this event though, the pictures were not as indicative of what I would encounter as I thought. I do get jazzed about the obstacles I see. Some of them were not there or were different. So I was a little unhappy about that. I was looking forward to having to get across on rings. No rings. I was looking forward to the wipe-out style platform run and jump. You did have the standard run jump but I thought the picture showed something different. No run and leap. Traversing across a wire while holding onto another one.... No traversing. Again no fire section to run through. Tough Mudder you are killing me here. Again this is the main reason I signed up to do your race in the first place. And two races later... .nothing. No Fire!

I was very proud of myself for being able to conquer every single obstacle on my own. The single runner. And to have stayed out of the water to complete some if that was the object. I made sure to motivate those that I passed. I gave helpful hints to how one might get through the next obstacle. Shouted encouragement to those that were having trouble jumping 15 feet into the water. I did help many mentally but none physically. All those around me at the time were handling it well or with teams.

I am not sure why they call this obstacle the Artic Enema. Or actually, it was called that in AZ but was called Blood Bath this time. This obstacle is a huge dumpster full of water. you have to jump in and swim under a wood structure in the middle. This makes it so you have to be totally underwater. That seems easy enough but to make it Tough Mudder material they feel the need to add a challenge, to this obstacle, by DUMPING TRACTOR LOADS OF..... wait for it.... ICE into it. I mean this water is cold. No really, you have no idea what cold is until you hit this thing. As soon as you jump in.... I am talking as soon as you even tough the water but have no where else to go but more into it... you are trying to get out. I mean your survival instincts kick in and your body hurts so bad that you dont even think about the small children and elderly folks you crawl over to get out. You have to get the F3*K out... and like 3 days ago fast. Having been through it.... they should call it "The Gender Changer". Every single person getting out was yelling at a level 10 times higher then they entered. All the guys were pulling on their shorts to see where our manhood had gone to hide. Every.... single..... inch of my body hurt from only 15 to 20 second exposure to that water. And talk about brain freeze.... FROZEN!
Before Ice BathAfter Ice Bath

Yes the calves were starting to get crampy. Right when I jumped into the rivers cold water one started to lock up bad. So I started to beat on it with my fist to let go. Then the other one wen. I had my feet on the bank with body floating in water grunting in some serious pain. I could not point my toe so swimming was NOT going to happen. "I seriously thought this race beat me down and I was out of the race". And with a mile to go.... lame. Well I dont go down like that. I sucked it up. There was a rope marking where to cross. I grabbed onto it and pulled myself through the water. The rope was loose so for most of the cross I was underwater pulling my way through. I was worried because I had three more obstacles but the skate ramp would be all calves having to sprint up and jump so major calf extension. I took a deep breathe, took off running yelling all the way and jumped knowing I had only one attempt let in me. So had to commit. Nailed it. So I finished the entire course, doing every obstacle unassisted and conquered all of them staying out of the water if you did not fall off obstacle. Awesome.
One of the cool things I really enjoy about the Tough Mudder. Well it is a challenge where you help each other through the course and you see that all over. Awesome. Helping each other over the obstacles. One guy came over and helped me stretch out my calves when I was down. People asking if you are ok if you are stopped. Encouraging each other as you run. There was even some people helping injured get through. Some even stopped the challenge to ride back with a team mate to medical. But also if you eat somewhere near by you running into other Mudders. The "Orange Bandana" is a sign of something we completed together. That brings us closer. And every single Mudder I saw always... always said hi and great job. And made sure to wave or say bye on the way out. Awesome.

Are you TOUGH enough? HELL YEAH! I plan to do more of these. I would like to have done every single location that they offer in time. So i will use this as a check list. SoCal and AZ down. Another one in Southern Californina, Texas and Utah would be the next ones up.

My time was 2 hours and 20 minutes. 20 minutes more for having to run a course that was mostly hills is not bad at all. We shall have to see what my time is next year.

My FIRST Mudder experience in Arizona
http://mudsweatpride.blogspot.com/2013/03/tough-mudder-arizona-2011.html

Tough Mudder Arizona 2012

Well I did it. I am officially a Mudder. A Tough Mudder that is. This was a challenge I had looked into and wanted to do for some time. I really wanted to kill this course so I was working out and doing longer runs. But then the last three weeks my workouts were next to nothing worrying about my move. So I was pleasantly surprised to have done so well.

I have to see the MC for the race was very good. He kept us laughing with comments like, "if you find a fellow mudder, face down talking to the worm, make sure to signal for help". As well as he had us take a knee for a while while taking the pledge. When people kept getting up he told them back down. And , "if you can not even hold a knee you might as well not try this course". Then when it came time to start he was great at firing up the crowd. Lots of "Hor-rahs". Something about being part of a large group yelling those out got me inspired. I was also inspired by hearing the Eminem song that goes... "if you had one chance would you take it". Well this was it and I was going to take it. I know I felt pumped when it came time to start the race. And of course they hit us with Rocky song. Nice.

One of the interesting things about this years course. They found a new place to host it. The Mesa proving grounds. And because of this extra space they were able to add 2.5 more miles and 4 more obstacles. The MC was like, "When you are out there hitting the course what is another 2 miles". I did not catch that until after I had run. Just about a half marathon. I was able to complete the course and its 29 obstacles in 2 hours. Not bad.

The course was nicely done. The run portion was broken up nicely to lengths that were broken up by the obstacles. The first one was military crawl under barbed wire in the mud. Not too bad. But then it was onto the ice bath. A dumpster that was full of water and they were dumping tractor loads of ice into it. Like the water in Arizona in January was not cold enough. I canonballed into this one and instantly was in full body shock from the temperature of the water. You had to go completely underwater to get under the beam so I just powered through frantically trying to get out the other side. If I was not awake by now I sure as hell was.

The Berlin walls were tough. 12 foot high walls you need to get over. I did try and fail a few times until I got the idea of how to complete the obstacle. A learning process and using of brute strength until I found the way to conserve energy that I would need on other obstacles. Next came a sets of hurtles. One was jumping over large hail bails. The trick was you had to jump early since the edges were very unstable. You could try to jump off something that would crumb away on you causing you to fall into the trenches and have to climb out.

I was not happy with the next section. One of the mystery events was a mini version of the Electric Shock Therapy. I have to tell you it hurt. You are army crawling in water getting shocked. This can not be legal. Well it was a taste of more to come.

More running separated running over debris. Piled up asphalt could lead to rolling an ankle or getting cut up if not paying attention. Running through tires and over junk cars. Jumping into small pits of deep water that you had to crawl out of and over a mountain of dirt to do it again. Like 6 times in a row. Man the legs were so heavy after this. Eventually coming up on a mountain of hay you had to get up and over. More walls to climb. Plenty of those. Then finding an obstacle of stacked logs you had to go over and under. Running into the cargo net reminded me of playing at the Sea World play area with Julian so I had some experience.

The obstacles over water were tricky. I did not want to fall in and find myself in more freezing water. Crossing the balance beam seemed easy enough. But I did not count on it getting very shaky towards the center. Any movement got magnified. Not to mention a lady monitoring this obstacle kept saying "Don't Fall". Man does that mess with your head. Well I did not fall. :P. Another tricky one was the Monkey bar. Now holding up your weight and doing this is not that easy. Especially over a longer distance and have you hands wet and dusty was not enough. They had some of the bars loose so they would twist in your hand. They wanted people hitting the water. But with a nice steady pace I made it. This was not as bad as the 15 jump. I seem to get a little nervous around heights that have no safe barriers. So it took me a few seconds to get myself to jump into the neon green water.

The ending was the hardest. It was the main Electro Shock Therapy section. You have to run through it and see how far you go before the electricity shuts your muscles down and you go face first in the mud. Well I wanted to do it right so I committed to it and went strong. WOW it leveled me. It was WAY more painful then the first electro shock section. I was not expecting that. I was sure cussing up a storm. They were ready for this so there is a sign to watch your young kids in this area since there is a high probability there will be profanity being yelled out. I was one of them.

I do have to say I was disappointed with one thing. The one thing I was super jazzed about doing and probably the one thing I saw first off when looking at this challenge that made me want to do it right then and there. The "Running through FIRE". I told everyone I knew that I was going to do this crazy challenge that involved running through fire. :D And come to race day.... nothing. Not sure why they did not have it. I think they have strict laws on burns depending on state and location. So I know if Tough Mudder could have had FIRE they would have had FIRE. Well I guess I will have to run another one to get that part of it.

But I was happy that I experienced a longer course. That I did each and every obstacle correctly. I did them all myself since I was running solo but acted as a team when I helped those around me that needed the help. I put helping others above my course time and felt good about it. I was in good spirits and passing the smile along. Excellent experience.

I plan to do more of these. Maybe in costume next time. But ones in CA. TX and FL are on the radar.

Official Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo_StnQVGS0

Dirty 6 Mud Run Arizona Sept 2011

I miss my little man more than words can express. My time without him is especially hard on the weekends when I would normally have had him. I have been trying to keep myself busy. Trying to get my fitness back and doing races I am sure will help.

This last weekend I did the Dirty 6 mud run at Rawhide in Arizona. I have not run 6 miles in some time but I signed up last minute and said lets do this. It was tough I am not going to lie. Expecially since I was extremely sore from doing legs in my boot camp class. I would not normally have done this but I was helping my buddy to teach his boot camp class while he was gone on a family emergency. So in teach his 5:30am and 7:15am class I did them as well.

There were not as many obstacle as I have had in mud runs in the past. Especially the ones I did in San Diego. But the slip and side was fun. The mud pits were small but deep so it was very difficult getting out. The giant tarp covered hill was fun to slide into the pool at the bottom. At the end they had trash bins full of water to dive into. I had a good run and was happy to finish. I am certain I was in the top 10 maybe top 15 for the 6 milers.

When I was done I ran back a mile to play in the giant tarp covered slide till my friend showed up so I could run to the finish with him. I did not realize how slow he was compared to me because i was at that obstacle about 15 minutes. Up and down. I was making the volunteers laugh with my jokes and how long I was there. I hope the photographer got some good shots of me.

After finishing the race with my buddy Tim I went back to the end diving pool to jump in again. I must have done cannonballs about 20 times. I ws trying to get everyone wet. Making every one laugh there as well. When you finish the race they give you a glass. They kept offering me one every time I went through. Eventually the guy said you can not have any more. I was like, dammit man I am trying to get the whole set. The lady at the gatorade booth was wondering how many time I had come through. I was like at least 20. Tim was waiting for me so I passed him and as a child might say to their parent.... Just two more times as I ran past.

I have comments for the race director to make the race more fun and safer. Their were some potentially hazardous event that happened as safety pins were catching the tarp and staying there. So if you slide down it could have really cut you up. And I almost broke my ankle as I was running I stepped all the way through a gopher hole. Anyways Great fun though.

Running List of Challenges to Complete

Trans Rockies Mountain Bike Adventure
http://www.transrockies.com/trc/about/index.htm

Tough Guy Challenge - Oh hell YEAH!!!
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/tough_guy_challenge_2009.html

Urban Challenage
http://www.menshealthurbanathlon.com

Tour De Phoenix - 74 Miles of beautiful scenary. Have to do again. :)
http://www.pbaa.com/

P.F. Chang Half Marathon January - Not be sick this time
http://www.rnraz.com/home.html

Disneyland Half Marathon Labor Day - Sounds cool running through Disney
http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/westcoast/listing?name=WestCoastEventListingPage

Phoenix Summit Challenge November - I can do a better time
http://phoenix.gov/PARKS/psc07.html

The Whiskey Off Road in Prescott - Sounds fun. Love mountain biking
http://www.epicrides.com/events.htm

Kona 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo - Sounds crazy but doable
http://www.epicrides.com/events.htm

Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in San Fran - Running and biking Hills oh man!
http://www.escapefromalcatraztriathlon.com/site3.aspx

Triathlon on Catalina Island - Sounds fun
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?EVENT_ID=1446125&RESET=0&CHECKSSO=1

Empire State Building in New York - Butt load of stairs to run. Crazy!
http://www.towerrunning.com/english/races/newyork.htm

Rockefeller Center Run the Rock - Smaller Stair Race
http://nyminutes.blogspot.com/2007/09/run-to-rock-and-other-adventures.html

Different race information
http://results.active.com/pages/?sportID=1

Some sort of Polar Bear Plunge - Just so I can say I did it. Burrrrrrr!!
If you have any other crazy races and challenges you know of please let me know. I would love to find out about them and do them some day.

P.F. Chang Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon 2008

I had a dilemma. See if you would do the same thing in my situation. Let say you had signed up to do the P.F. Chang Half Marathon in January. And lets say you had been training for it and were looking forward to it. Now say that you got sick with a cold and shortly after got sick again and you thought to yourself, this must be the flu. In reality, when you went to urgent care you discovered you had pneumonia. Add this up with not being able to workout at all for a month and a half due to holidays, my son and sickness. Would you still do the race?

Well that was me right there. Far from the shape I should have been in to do the race. I figured since the doctor gave me antibiotics for 5 days I would be good after that and still be able to do the race. Well it was not as simple as that. On the Friday before the race,which was a week after getting pneumonia, my follow up appointment pointed out I still had it and would need to go on antibiotic for ten days. All signs I should stay home and rest.

Unfortunately I had one thing going against me. I have done various races and challenges inmy life. This would be the first one I signed up for I did not complete. That did not sit well with me being such a competitive individual. Not a nice way to start the New Year. I figured even if I went and walked it I would have my slowest time EVER but I would have completed it and that meant more to me than the time. So guess what.... I went.

Walking... I think not. I heard the gun go off and I had to run with everyone else. It was tough I have to tell you that. I ran a pretty good 5K. And I made it to the 10K mark and it was not to shabby a time. For the next 4 miles I did a combination of running and walking. Surprisingly not that my lungs and breathing was the issue. It was my knees. I was not ready for this distance.

The last 3 miles were brutal. When I started to notice the people passing me at a pace that would not have been able to catch me I am like, "That sucks". Then when I started getting passed by kids I am like, "Nice, rub it in". It was not until an old gentleman in white with long hair and a beard passed me with a shirt that said still running at 83 did I want to throw my hat on the ground and kick it saying. "Oh come on....!!!!!!". I had to let all of them go. My legs were not going to do any more than they had been doing.

The hardest thing for me was not to finish in the slow time I did. Although 2 hours and 20 minutes is not a shabby time for my condition I have to say. It was 40 minutes slower than I should have been able to run it. No, the hardest thing was not to be able to sprint to the finish. The thing I do every time I race. Finish hard is what I say. I was only able to muster up enough juice to do a little bit of a jog the few feet before. I was done. Done in so many ways. At least I completed the race. I can be proud of that.

I guarantee you I will be back to run this thing next year and I will be kicking ass and taking names.

Phoenix Summit Challenge '07

Event Details : Phoenix Summit Challenge 2007
Single Day: Seven summits, one day, Map
6,000' elevation gain, 22.5 miles
250 participants, Sunday, November 11th
Event time: 6 a.m. - 5 p.m. (check-in 5 a.m.)

I did it!! Omg this thing was crazy. Now I have been working out since I got into college so what does that make it... some 20 years. Wow times flies. So I love doing different challenges that come up as a check to my fitness level and to be honest when I end up beating guys younger than me it is a huge ego boost. I have done bike races, running races, triathlons, mud runs, navel seal race, fitness athlete challenge all of which have challenged me physically. The Summit Challenge tested me mentally much more than I had thought it would. In fact the mental part about not giving up and pushing through some pain as my muscles were locking up was what kept me from quitting. I was right there let me tell you. But I had come that far I was not going to give in and stop.

My day start out at 4:30 am on Sunday. Way too early to be up. But I do have a routine I like to go through at the beginning of each the race I do. I get there and sign in early and then have time to hydrate, warm up, stretch and take care of business with out having to stress out about the time of the start. Lesson learned one time where I signed in right when the gun went off. No time for stretching and warming up and I had to start running from the registration table and pin on my number at the same time. I was distracted running and later I paid the price with major soreness the next day.

Anyway I got there when registration opened at 5 am and everything was good. This was Summit 1 - Papago Park which was 200 ft high and 3 miles. They had a bit of a course review to let us know about before we got started. When they started the race they started the group of 250 (Not all of which were at this location doing the 7 peaks. Others started at another location with only 4 peaks) in three groups. I thought I was going to start first since I was in the "A" group. Of course they started with "C" and each group was paced out 5 minutes apart. I felt cheated some how since I got there early to have to start last. Now there was going to be all this traffic in front of me and those people could have had as much as 10 minute head start. When it was our turn I immediately started running it out. With in a few minutes I had passed all of our group and was catching the previous group. Now granted this is not a race but a challenge but I am so competitive against myself I want to do the best and fastest I could. I end up running with a guy I met who had my pace named Tim. This peak did not take much time at all but running in the dark was very interesting.

Next I headed to Summit 2 - Camelback Mountain for the next peak. A descent mountain and one I have done before at 1300 ft high and 2.2 miles. They had it set up so we had to take a shuttle from a parking area to Camelback. Tim and I were on the first shuttle. We filled up and were on our way. I took out Camelback like I have done in the past. Not too bad. Beautiful and cool day but very chilly and windy at the top. That is ok since I was not there to sight see that day. I got down to the bottom in no time and I was right behind Tim. It was just the two of us and the shuttle took us back to our cars. We seemed to be the top two, at least of those that were driving themselves.

Continuing on to Summit 3 - Piestewa Peak. 1,190 ft high and 2.4 miles. Now I thought Camelback was tough. I have a new hard mountain. Piestewa Peak or as I now call it "Stairway to Heaven". Wow this one put a hurt on me for sure. Then I made the mistake of looking up and seeing the people stretched out along a never ending set of switchbacks ending out of site where the flag laid. Bad idea. I believe I said ..... "You have to be f&king kidding me". That seemed to be the theme for the day. I would look up to see what I could see and in the far distance flapped that small flag that marked the end of my upward travel for that hill and another peak conquered. Again I would say my line. At the end of this peak is where I lost Tim. He was a machine but that was cool. On the way up I met Dane which was at my new pace. Slightly slower. We talked and I ended up following him who was being driven by his wife to the next location. Having someone to talk with that was at my pace was HUGE in keeping me going.

Still hanging in there and moving on to Summit 4 - South Mountain which was 1310 ft high and 7 miles long. This one was a long one for sure. This was another one that you got to a certain level and you could see the continued climb wrapping around to the other side of a canyon with that flag. That damn flag. At this point I thought it was tonting me. Laughing at me saying, "You can't make it". No one says I can't! That just charges me up to make it. Towards the top I could feel the quads starting to burn. I checked in up top and had my passport stamped so all could see I had completed this peak. I started my gentle run down the hill like I had done on the others if it was not steep and treacherous. Improve my peak time if I picked up the pace. Running down hill is the most pounding your legs will ever see. Not good for you at all. I was happy to get down. Dane was right there with me and we were going on yet again.

Now it was time for Summit 5 - Lookout Mountain. Short at 475 ft height and 1 mile but it proved to be just one more beat down on the body. Made it to the top and reached my nemesis the waving flag. Headed down over some loose and uneven terrain. Checked in with my new buddy Dane and were heading off. Here is where the first issue with my body occurred. I got in to drive off to the next location I drive a stick so I extended my calf to depress the clutch and BAM my left calf locks up and begins to ball up with just about the most EXTREME pain I have EVER felt and it was getting worst. I managed to knock the car out of gear, open the door and fall outside the car where I tried to straighten that leg. Still locking up I begin to beat on my calf in hopes that it would release. It finally did and I had fears I had ripped something and was out of the challenge. I did not want that since I had come this far. I managed to walk around a bit and thought I could continue.

Summit 6 - Shaw Butte proved to be interesting. At 670 ft and 5 miles it does not seem bad. Some of it flat and the rest up. But when you had just completed 5 summits in one day previous to this as well as not having the proper food, rest and stretching it proved to be a test. I was having issues now with other muscles in my legs starting to quiver which is the sign to me that the muscle will lock up very soon. I felt it in my quads and the hamstrings. I did manage to reach the top so that was a good sign. Again I attempted to run down the hill. My hurt calf was beginning to show his ugly head again. Two or three times I had to slow the run to a quick down hill walk in the hopes of not letting the calf spasm out like it did in the car. As I reached the end of this peak I could see my car and you would not believe how happy I was to see it. It seemed to be my happy place. A place where I was not moving. A place where I could get something to eat. A place that held my precious cold liquids. She would take the burden off my body and get me to my next location. One to go.

The last peak was Summit 7 standing at a mere 614 ft and a short 1.6 miles. I headed off still rolling with Dane. We were not pushing very hard on the up hill of this one for sure. I was running low on juices. I got up half way to where it switched to a steep paved road. My body was quitting on me. My mind and heart wanted to continue since I was so close. It was my mind that I needed to keep with me. The mind could visualize the end and hopefully convince the body it could do it. My mind became my coach and I began to tell myself I could do it out loud. I finally reached the top and as I stopped to get my passport stamped for the last time I could feel every single muscle in my legs begin to twitch and I know they were deciding which one was going to lock up first. Not all at one time... no not yet. But very close. At this point I could not run down the hill. With every step came pain and fear of a full lock up. I had to kick up my mental game to 200% and keep pushing myself to continue. Back down to the end of the paved road I had just the steep trek down the off road section. The first few feet were very high steps and as I took that first step I realized I was in big trouble. I gave the man grunt and yell you hear when guys are working out at the gym lifting heavy weights to help me power through even though I had nothing left and the pain was intense. I need to use my arms to brace the leg that was stabilizing as I lowered the other leg down. I continued to grunt and yell the talk to myself to keep fighting. I was constantly looking at my goal that was not very far away.

I got to the end completely exhausted and could not bend in any way or that muscle would spam and lock out to extreme pain. The only thing I could do was stand, which I did not want to do. My only other option was to lean up against the table bending my upper torso at the hips to lie on the table top and have my legs straight out at an angle. I laid there for about an hour and a half before I tried to move again. There was no way I could have gotten into my car and driven. The spasms might have made me get into an accident. I was amazed and delighted to have succeeded in my goal. To finish this challenge. It only took me a short 7 hours and 16 minutes. This is by far the longest time I have been doing any physical activity. Four hours and 22 minutes was what it took me for the Tour De Phoenix bicycle ride. That was the longest I had gone before this. As well as this was the only challenge I tried and completed where when I was done I thought to myself, "I will NEVER EVER work out again. Well here I am on Monday, the next day, still suffering but managed to workout upper body. I will continue to workout just not legs for a week or two. Will I do this again? I will have to see next year if I have recovered.

Thanks to Tim and Dane for the company and encouragement

http://phoenix.gov/PARKS/psc07.html

Tour De Phoenix March 2007

One day a friend of mine mentioned a cool little bike race called Tour De Phoenix that I should look into. I read more about it and it sounded like a beautiful ride around the Red Mountain. I had never been to the Red Mountain so I figured having a nice ride through some incredible scenery would be a nice way to spend the day.

I had mentioned to my then wife that I was excited to try this thing out. So I filled her in on what it was. That the ride could either be 26 Miles or 74 Miles. I am the hardcore guy and I thought I would do the 74 Mile ride but I would have to do some training. Now I love riding but I had not ridden that far before. I had no idea how long it would take me to do. She said that would be just fine.

The bummer part came to when I was going to actually go out and ride. I had mentioned to my then wife that at the end of the week I wanted to go ride on Sunday. She agreed she could watch the baby. When that day came she needed to work from home and could not do that while watching the baby. She knew I was going to go early on before it got too warm. So I was bummed but would do anything for my boy. It was not till late afternoon when she wondered why I was not myself. I told her I was looking forward to riding today. She had forgot I wanted to do that. So she is like you should have told me you wanted to go. Well I did a week ago. And this morning I had on my cycling clothes when you asked me to watch Julian. Then I said tell me when you are done so I can go. Well she did not. Now it was too hot to go. This was the theme a couple of times when I had mentioned the day in advance and last minute her stuff was more import. Now that I think about it this was the theme on anything I wanted to do.

So I decided I would do it without her help and support. I only had an hour during the day for my lunch break to do what I thought would help me be ready since I need to go home right after work to help with the baby. And of course no weekend workouts. It was not until a week before the race that I was able to actually ride outside on a street to figure out how to use and be comfortable with the road bike a coworker lent me. And of course I rode in the morning after the wife had left and I had dropped off the baby at the sitters. I rode twice that week.

On race day I made my way out to do my race. It was a dark and chilly morning but was supposed to be into the 80's later on. I was nervous since I felt I was not ready but also I was excited at what I would see that day. I was not sure I was at the right place but shortly after the parking lot was a buzz with riders of all shapes and sizes. I got what gear and provisions I needed and made my way to the start.

The start was the most energetic and enthusiastic I had been in for a bike race. The gun went off and people seemed to be racing. All letting out cheers and yells in their own special way to the delight of the spectators. I found myself hauling butt myself but thought to myself to take it easy I have a long way to go. Luckily I had my ipod rocking some tunes.

The first hour was interesting. Many people were pulling over where ever to use the bathroom. There was not enough facilities at the start location and no one wanted to be stuck in a bathroom line when the gun went off. A lot of drinking of water and a chilly morning was not a good combination. I found myself looking for a spot myself. We did manage to pass alot of parks and I continued to the next one until I saw a lone bathroom with no one waiting. Score. I was soon on my way and discovered the line that had formed while I was inside. I was luck there.

About two hours in I met what must have been a new recruit directing traffic. He was giving some confusing singles and I thought the hand extended out was for us the bike riders. So I proceeded to stop. With in seconds of having stopped I get struck by another cyclist that was drafting me. Man that guy was pissed. I told him the guy said stop and you could see his hand still up so he went off on the traffic dude. The funny thing was that I managed to take a hit from a cyclist riding full speed by just standing there. I guess working out helped out a bit. But I figured the bike I had had sustained damage that would put me out of the race. I would have been pissed if that had happened. Luckily everything seemed ok, and I continued on.

The scenery was breath taking once we got out in the hill area. I did not realize a desert could be so beautiful. I was taking it all in. I came up on a lady rider so i said hi. She had done this race before so I asked he what to expect. she said we were coming up on one of the long steep hills. To pace myself. When the hill came I felt good and kept pushing. Not one person passed me at that point. So I managed to leave my new friend behind.

There were a few stops along the way where you could stop and get snacks and stuff to drink. I felt good so I continued on. It was not until I hit around mile 60 that I was slowing down. I stopped to have a huge feast. I must have sucked down a whole bag of oranges one wedge at a time. I know I had at least 4 bananas. I refilled all my water bottles plus had some there. Finally they had some cookies so I thought something sweet would help. Before I knew it a whole sleeve of sugar cookies was gone. Now before you judge me I was out in the desert and I had to do what I had to to survive. :)

I was refreshed an on my way again. I noticed up ahead that it looked like someone I knew. It was my friend I had met before. She was a bit confused as to how I was behind her again after dusting her on the hill. I told her I stopped to get a super sized meal at McDonald's. She was laughing and not quite sure if I was joking or not. I asked her what was coming up next. She told me a very long section of rolling hills. Pace yourself again she said. On the rolling hills I got into a groove. I pedals down the sections that most people were coasting. Then I attacked the hill each time it went back up. I was flying past people as I said hi and how was it going. No one person passed me on that hill. I believe it was all the time I was doing indoor cycling that helped me there.

At about mile 69 the stars seemed to line up. It was a long steady down hill, a cool breeze hit my face, an awesome song came on the ipod and the sugar cookies kicked in. I was racing down this hill by pedaling as fast as I could. I was screaming past people as I was singing Van Halen. I had a smile on my face and was loving it. I think people thought I was crazy. I felt great and was in the home stretch.

I had a few miles left to go. I was tiring again. Now I am a indoor cycling instructor and do my best to motivate the class to have a great workout. I always finish the class going hard so there is nothing left. I had to become my own coach to motivate me to finish strong. I was saying stuff like "Come on you can do it", "You know you always finish strong", "You can smell the finish". All of which was working. I continued to ride hard and catch up to people I saw ahead of me. My goal was to pass one person ahead of me at a time.

I could see the finish line and cranked it all the way through. 74 Miles completed and I felt great. I did think to myself as I got off the bike that I do not ever want to ride a bike again. But of course that is not the truth. I love to ride. Four hours and 22 minutes is the longest I have ever ridden. I loved the experience. I had managed to complete what I signed up for even though I thought I was not ready. The body only takes you so far before it want to quit. It is the mind that takes the body to the limits it knows it has. My mind game is what kept me going. I would do this race again for sure. Absolutely beautiful. See you next year.

http://www.pbaa.com/Posters/ETP07.htm