Zanesfield in the Books

Ride will go down in the books as really hot and windy. Everybody stayed well hydrated and finished with "smiles" that it was finally over. As we headed home the showers hit. I think the rain probably would have felt good if they had been caught in them at the end.

I70 was a parking lot heading West - luckily it appeared that nobody would be seriously injured. I was amazed at the people backing back on the interstate or turning around and driving the wrong direction. Wonder what they thought when the State Patrol and tow trucks headed towards them. Vittles with Egg after Big Tim and TKO dropped him off.

Can't wait to read Egg's blog about the ride - cast of characters today.

More later.

West Milton Triathlon

Just a short note - Jeff and Rick came in Second Place. He is thrilled with the times and placement. Not back for an old guy :) Busy day - Triathlon in the morning, Joe Weinel's surprise 40th Birthday Party and then off to Jeff's 40th class reunion - yep Joe was born when Jeff graduated High School.

Have pictures and stats on the race that I will work on Monday - now off to ride - then to a vintage baseball game with Rebecca and family.

Monday

After missing 2 days of riding, I was happy to get out. Wanted to ride this morning before the rains set 9n (again). I headed out, not sure what route, but knew it would be the normal start. Winds of the direction that I love - which means a tail wind (or at least no head wind) heading home.

While on Peters Road I saw two bike ahead of me, so you know you have to try to catch up with them. I finally got behind them (which was cool cause the wind was coming from the SSW) and they were a "little" larger men. I sat behind them as long as I could, but needed to keep my mph up so I passed them. After turning on Jackson, I always stop at Jackson and Frederick Pike. I can't see around the trees and just feel safer stopping (and yes unclipping). My thought was I needed to get back on and keep riding, I certainly didn't want those guys to catch me.

Heading down Frederick, traffic wasn't too bad. Had something behind me that was passing, just sorta next to me. After Sunday, I was a little leery of looking over, but I saw it was a white truck and thought no way - it can't be Egg - yup it was. He stayed behind me, I think he had a cow prod out because all of a sudden, I felt good on the bike. We stopped at the 4 way and chatted for a minute. He asked if I was doing Antioch School - yes - but I decided to shake thing up and add in a few more miles.

With the new loop I added in I was just shy of 30 miles. I was thrilled - thanks Egg for the extra energy/motivation I got from you.

Today was a fun day on the bike.

Sunday's Legbreaker

You never know who is showing up for a long ride, but normally you know Egg, Big Tim and Goose will be there, depending on family obligations - can usually count on Mthd if it includes hills. Anybody else is always a good surprise and bonus.

We met Egg at Cracker Barrel Sunday morning for some excellent vittles. We talked about who might show up, like I said the 3 were definite. He also knew that Mthd was most likely in, T-Bolt had mentioned he wanted to ride but his daughter was in a ballet and needed to be there about 2 pm. The rides was designed such that at any given point you probably was no further than 10 miles from Twin Towers. Anybody could pull out at any time and head back to their car.

We pulled into Twin Towers to look up and see Smoothy pulling in. That was a nice surprise! Next was Mthd. I visited the "facilities" and came out to see another car that looked like Diesel! Wow - group is growing and the mph was just amped up with Diesel in for the ride. Egg got at call from T-Bolt he was on his way. The Big Tim Green Team Van was next (with an explanation he almost overslept). T-Bolt arrived fully dressed - cycling gloves and all!

Had to take the typical start of the race picture. I know some dislike this, but this might be the last time I catch everyone with smiles on their face at the same time. Egg can name every road by memory that they rode (so check out his blog for the blow-by-blow on that). But, you will see a theme for today's pictures - Goose gritting his way through the ride. I have learned not to take pictures as they get close to me - everyone puts on a smile just this isn't hard - it is all fun. So I opt to get photos when you are further away. Hmm, am I switching from my spandex fetish to see them with pain on their faces? Naw, but I think this shows the difficulty of the rides that Egg can create.

Like I said, I don't know the name of the roads, but I know everyone was riding as hard as their body would let them (well OK a couple of them could have ridden harder, but they took their extra energy to keep everyone together)

Everyone shared the love and took their turn out front. But like I said, it somebody fell off, there were a couple that would turn around and bring them back to the group.

The first climb of Devil's Backbone I was behind the guys. At the top we stopped for refueling of watch, potty breaks and cookies. Egg had made a comment to me that Jeff had climbed it in his big ring. What went through my mind, I hope he doesn't blow up!

Here is the Geritol group -all over the age of 50 - Yes T-Bolt, I said publicly you are over 50. At least I didn't say you were 58 (Oh wait that is what Goose will be July 1)

Once again, at the top of a climb - which Goose did really well (climbing) on Sunday.

I think this is Devil's Backbone and no he didn't make it the second time in his big ring.

Done and I think he was happy to be done. After the ride, quick chit chat - everyone had to head out - T-Bolt made it in time to see his daughter's solo, Big Tim was heading to the lake for some more fun.

Egg, Goose and I head to Skyline. Excellent food, fun company and we always solve the problems of the world.

Fun day - I did learn one lesson today - don't talk to strangers!

Thanks guys for another day to add to our memory books.

Catching up

I feel like I am always trying to catch this blog up! So - last week after Goose's triathlon he took it fairly "easy" on his legs. He spent a lot of time in the water trying to rehab them. Wed he got out of work late and had convinced himself he would just ride alone - hope Egg wasn't having any of that. Jeff ended up meeting everyone on Peters for the Wed Night Ride. I'm glad he did - he needed to ride hard and ride away his frustrations. He can home was in a much better mood :)

Me? I ended up riding 3 days. With the rain and having AJ the first two days, I was really happy with that. I had planned on riding Saturday, but my own dumbness got in the way and I ended listening to the birds sing for about 1 1/2 hours sitting on the porch. Bet I never do what I did again! I have had a good chuckle over it.

Little Miami Spring Triathlon

After Jeff finally found a partner (lol) - Wes Stephens - they had a 7:30 a.m. start time (yuck!). With all the rain we have had, Morgan's was updating the site all day Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday morning. It was going to depend on the overall weather and the river. It was decided on Saturday that it would be held Sunday (no 2 week delay - too many out of town participants). So they would cancel the canoe portion if needed. Jeff definitely didn't want that - he loves to paddle and found out Wes does also.



Sunday morning the site said all systems go. So we headed out about 5:30 for Ft Ancient. After our annual stop of McD's for some toilet bonding we got to Morgan's with a drizzle of rain. River looked good and fast. Unloaded the canoe and headed to the top to drop off the bike and claim our space. Met up with Wes and his wife and headed down the killer hill. Jeff casually asked what time it was and Wes said "Oh about 7:30" - hmmm that is launch time. They took off running only to be stopped by a gentleman telling them not to hurry, the race is delayed an hour. Didn't really know why at that time, but a couple of minutes later the thunder and lightning was making themselves know. I couldn't believe the people sitting under the trees, some even leaning up against them. Gary Morgan announced a couple of times to please move away from the trees - people just looked at him. Oh well - nothing happened.



Time to get in the boat and get ready. They headed out into the water, between the wind and the current people were having trouble holding their place before the start. We saw one canoe run into the bank sideways and another tip over Not a good start for them. Jeff and Wes had found a place that they were alone. Both looked relaxed and ready to paddle.

As luck would have it, right before the fun, other canoes came from nowhere, crowding them. This canoe moved in and Wes said he didn't have anywhere to put his paddle. Wes' twin brother, his Dad and I were watching them struggle at the start. Will and I knew when they got in their stroke groove, they would be fine (and Jeff said they were the first out of the water).

It had started to drizzle again so I put my camera away. I didn't get any pictures of him coming up Killer Hill, but he was smiling. If anyone has been down there, they know what Killer Hill is. It is a HARD climb up a hill, mostly trail and couple of places with steps. It had rained so much, it was a muddy mess. When we were walking up it from the canoe start, a couple of places we would slip backwards. I worried about them making that climb. Wes looked great, and like I said - Jeff was smiling. It was predetermined that Wes wouldn't wait on Jeff. Wes is younger and a faster runner - but Jeff was only 4 minutes behind him. So hindsight is always better, would it be more beneficial for him to wait and ride together? Who knows. I know they both had to struggle through the crosswinds alone. You can only draft off your partner.

Wes was first across the line with a time of 2:06:15. He had wanted to break the 2 hour mark, but said he hadn't run fast enough. We thought Jeff was coming in second, but a guy had passed him and Jeff said their was nothing he could do about it. So he finished 3rd with a time of 2:12:38 - giving them a combined team time good enough to take 1st place overall in the Open Class.

I think this picture shows how happy Jeff is with his time. He said it was fun - canoe was a blast, run was ok and the bike sucked alone with the wind. But he was thrilled.

Not sure what kind of story Wes is telling here, but he looked funny with his helmet backwards. Anybody that knows him understands how nice and funny he is to listen to.

Afterwards, both of them were very happy with how things went today - delay and all. If was fun meeting his parents - his brother, wife and her parents were also there to add extra support.

Fun race - out of almost 1200 finishers, Jeff finished 7th place overall. Not bad for an old guy :) Egg called to congratulate him after seeing the results - thanks Egg!