Back to the Blog.

It has been a while since i have updated this thing. Since the last post, i have been to XTERRA USA Nationals and XTERRA World Championships.

Im not sure what to think about XTERRA Nationals, I got 3rd place in the age group after getting 2nd the year before, but my time was 20 minutes faster. I just didn't race a smart race. Once I got to ride my bike, I got all excited and went way too hard. I had made my way into about 30th place or so overall by the end of the bike. Then I started running, and things went from pretty good, to miserable. I lost 8 minutes just in the run to the 2nd place guy in my age group. The run dropped me all the way down to 47th place. A little dissapointing, but a good learning experience.

At XTERRA Worlds I decided I would use my new knowlege of pacing myself, well it was too hot for the little Alaska boy and pacing didn't matter. I had a few little panic attacks, that I was too hot, too thirsty, too dizzy and I couldn't breath. Later on the clouds came out and I was able to regain myself. I ended the bike towards the front of my age group and I felt great. I had a fast first mile of running and then we had to run uphill, and that turned to walking uphill. I would run till I got dizzy, then walk till I could walk strait, then run till I got dizzy again. Arount mile 4 I got to an aid station where they had ice water, I poored the ice cubes down the front and back of my skin suit. That helped me enough to run the final 3 miles, although any abnormal movement would cause every muscle in my body to cramp. I finished in 11th in my 15-19 age group. Congrats to Julian Langer and Joshua Olmstead, who finished 1st and 2nd in the age group, and beat a handful of pros.

And one little extra note, I got my first sponsor. Serfas. They make great sunglasses and lots of nice bike parts, im very excited to try their tires.

finally have internet

Ok, finally have internet! So the whole airport situation got figured out. Because my plane left 2 hours late from anchorage, i lost my flight to phoenix. the next flight was the next day. so alaska airlines gave me a hotel room. then i showed up the next day to see if i could get on a flight stand-by. well they choose who gets on the plane alphebetically, so of course, of the two flights i tried for i was always the person not to get on. o well, i only woke up at 4 in the morning for nothing. sat in the airport for a long time, until noon, kinda sucked but i finally got to phoenix. then i drove all night all the way to moab and slept in my car in the apache in hotel parking lot. woke up and drove to ogden.
OGDEN!
the race in ogden didnt start too well, i happened to hop on the race shuttle with the bus driver that had no clue where she needed to go, so i show up at the race with 10 minutes to go. i had a very slow swim, didnt feel that good, and was about 2 minutes slower than i would normally be. then in the bike, i felt super good. the course was mostly uphill, and was the best possible course for me. the goodness followed me onto the run and i was able to finish much stronger than i usually do. that was the best race of my life, i finished 27th overall, 9th amature and the race got me a #1 ranking in the nation for XTERRA Triathlons. It also qualified me for worlds in Maui. YAY! Vacation! well i got to catch the bus, so ill update later about the collegiate mountain biking.

Airport! TAKE 2

So 3 nights ago a volcano erupted in the Elution Islands sending ash straight into the flight pattern that Alaska Airlines uses for all its flights. So 3 nights of flight passengers were being forced into the airport at the same time, making everything much longer than expected. I got to the airport with an hour and a half till my flight, spend 45 minutes in line only to have the lady at the counter tell me that I'm too late for the flight. So she schedules me for a flight at 2 in the afternoon today, 14 hours after my scheduled flight. So on this rescheduled flight, the plane hit some ash and was damaged. The plane mechanics have been working on the plane for 2 hours now and im still stuck in the airport. I am sitting here with a guy who i am almost positive is in drugs. as a very happy little kid ran by, he said he wanted to make a serum that would make fully mature adults think they are little kids because of the innocence and playfulness. 10 minutes later a crying little girl walked by with her mom yelling at her, he said that that mood needed to be extracted from the serum. very odd. well ill update in seattle in however many hours it takes to get there.

Rain Rain Go Away

So in the last week and a half, there has been one sunny day, every other day it has rained all day and just been miserable. When it rains in Alaska it is not a warm rain, it is a 50 degree rain. Anyway I decided to buy myself some mud tires out of Chain Reaction Cycles sale bin. I chose the Michelin Wildgripper in the tubeless version. This tire is the best tire I have ever used in wet conditions, it rolls really fast, it rolls smooth, corners even in even greasiest sharp bends, but best of all, it didn't clog up when I climbed the steepest and wettest climb on the ride(that climb is hard to ride when dry, not to mention when its wet and slippery). The Wildgrippers are 670 grams and 1.95 inches wide. The only downside is that Michelin doesn't make the Wildgrippers anymore. So here are some pics of them.

Hammerman pictures.

Hammerman, almost.

So yesterday was the one triathlon in Alaska that I really look forward to. It is called the Hammerman Triathlon. I came into it with a lot of pressure having won last year, and it didn't help that Matt Novakovich was telling me that people are betting on whether myself or my teammate Adam Miller would win. I couldn't play his mind games so I biked off before the start to get into my own zone, and that helped, being in a forest all alone calmed me down for sure.
45 minutes later I hop in the water to warm up for the swim, and the nervousness went away. Then we start, im swimming within my limit, which is normally not super fast, but at halfway, I realize that im only 25 meters behind the leaders and with Shannon Donnelly, Alaska's most dominant female triathlete. I get out of the water with Shannon but got very dizzy in transition and had to sit down to even get my bike shoes on. So at the point of leaving transition, the big competitors are Jens Beck who was 2 minutes ahead, Andy Duenow and Adam Miller 35 seconds ahead, Luke Kiskaddon and Jason Lameroux 1 minute back and Matt Navokovich 8 minutes back.
Within minutes on the mountian bike leg, I pass Adam and Andy. Andy keeps up with me for quite a while till the most technical singletrack of the course. The uphill of death is what blew the gap, it turns out I was the only one in the race to ride the hill. Once up that hill I finally see Jens up in the distance, and I chase after him for the majority of the bike course until another singletrack section where I pass and get 25 seconds on him. I come into transition in first with a huge crowd cheering only to hear the crowd start cheering again much sooner than I had hoped. Jens was on the way and he is quite a runner. He catches me which was to be expected but I hung with him which was not to be expected. Eventually he pulls away.
In the end, Jens was the winner with me 55 seconds back, Andy 6 minutes back, Jason and Luke 7 minutes back, Matt 9 minutes back and Adam 10 back. A great race for me and a much better run than normal. Even though I won last year, I think I raced better this year.

So tonight I did the only short track race held in Alaska. It was a pretty fun race, the course was perfect for me and there was a light pole at the bottom of a super steep fast hill to dodge. It was 25 minutes +2 laps. Within 2 laps local road race champ, Matt Navokavich, and I broke away from the 20 person field. On lap 4 I try to get a gap on one of the two steep uphills. That did me no good. I tried again every other lap, but kept failing. Finally at 20 minutes in I notice that Matt is breathing way harder than I am. So I attack on the closest hill and got a gap, then I let him catch me at the bottom of the next uphill only to attack him again. This one sticks. I was able to hold it the next 5 laps to the finish. My first win since heading back to AK for the summer. Ill try to get some pics in the next few days. But I'm stoked.

Toulouse is the dare-devil kitty, and Soliel (pronounced So-Lay) is the very nice looking one. Except Soliel is super annoying, and she likes to climb up bare legs.

I'm still way sore from Mt. Marathon and that was 3 days ago. So I have some pictures of my families new kittens and a bike I just ordered.

MT. MARATHON

So every 4th of July fr the last 7 years my family and I have traveled to Seward, Alaska to do a race called Mt. Marathon. It is a brutal race from downtown Seward to the top of Mt. Marathon and back down. The whole race started 81 years ago from two drunk people in a bar betting that nobody could make it up the mountain and back down in less than an hour. Soon the whole town of Seward was in on it. Eventually they had the race and the drunk guy was just over an hour. Since then, the race has been held every year, the record up and down it stands at 43 minutes and 23 seconds. The race is so popular that the race directors separate it into 3 classes and limit the amount or racers. There are 200 participants in the junior race, 300 in the womens and 300 in the mens. Then every year they auction off 10 last minute race spots. They usually go for over $1000. Its crazy.
Anyway I did the thing in 55 minutes and 4 seconds. I was 32nd place in the mens division. The race was nuts though, cause at the top there was a huge snow field, so everybody is sliding on their butts at 20 plus miles per hour doing all possible to stay in control. Above are some pictures of me running through town at towards the finish. And then one picture of Jack and I after the finish. Jack also works at Chain Reaction Cycles.

Race Pics

Sick downhill singletrack.
First lap and still fresh.
Going through the feed 2 laps in.

13.5 Hour Race

The morning of the 24 hour race, I'm looking around at the competition. I think to myself, "I have this won!" Then to find out 10 seconds later that Pete Basinger had flown into Anchorage early that morning and was setting up for the race. For those who don't know, Pete was second in the Singlespeed category at 24 Hour World Championships.
The race starts, and within 2 laps, all four of the top solo riders were riding in a group together. A guy Chuck(I'm not sure of his last name), 24 Hour King Pete Basinger, my friend and Kaladi/Subway Teammate Adam Miller, and myself. This group was quite fun to ride in. Then 4 laps in everything separated. At 6 hours of riding and 7 laps in, I am really having a hard time keeping myself mentally aware of whats going on around me. At 9 I eat half a pizza that my mom made for me, rest and stretch for another 20 minutes, then decide I better start riding again because Adam had passed through the feed zone. I decided I needed to catch him and ride with him. Then the pizza starts to come back up. I struggle my way through that lap to see Adam already leaving for his 12th lap. I needed a break, so I lied down in my sleeping bag for an hour till he got back. At this point Pete is already 2 laps ahead and nobody really knew the status of Chuck. Adam gets back and we decide to ride that next lap together starting at midnight, his 13th and my 12th lap. I realize right away that Adam wasn't riding at or anywhere near his normal pace, so I set off without him. That lap was faster than any other lap I had done to that point, and I was shocked. So I give myself a 15 minute break to put some new EuroStyle Chamois Butter in, stretch, and drink some Accelorade. I head off for lap number 13 at 1 A.M. It may not get completely dark in Alaska, but it was dark enough that I didn't want to be alone. I see an old buddy Ethan. A few years back Ethan and I worked at REI together. Now just ahead of me, I make a small surge to catch him. We ride the first third of the lap together, then get separated on a fairly tough uphill singletrack.
I ride on without Ethan, then 20 minutes later as I head into one of my all time favorite singletrack sections, I see a bike mangled up in a bush just off the trail. 20 Feet farther down the trail, I see another bike lying on the ground with the light still on, it was Pete Basingers bike. Another 20 feet farther I see a helmet. Then maybe 50 feet later I see Pete holding a very bloody person. Pete was talking to paramedics on a cell phone, and stopped to tell me to get to a trail head parking lot about half mile away and across a river. He told me I needed to guide in the race director, EMT's and Paramedics to the site. He told me I needed to be as loud as I could because there was a very angry Grizzly bear in the area. And it had attacked a 16 year old girl. A girl I knew quite well. I head off toward the parking lot as fast as I could and yelling at the top of my lungs at a 1000 pound Grizzly Bear that could run onto the trail at any moment. I cross the river and head up to the parking lot, the race director and the EMT were just parking. They unloaded their bikes as I told them where to go, and without any hesitation they were gone down the trail. I wave in the paramedics and policemen. I guide in the first group of paramedics down to the river and Ethan came up from the scene to guide them the rest of the way. I raced back to the parking lot to guide in another group. We finally get to the scene, put the girl on a stretcher and head out. I grab her helmet which resembled nothing of a helmet and give it to a paramedic. I take her bike back to the parking lot, while another group stayed to gather up all racers still on the trail.
Pete was a great leader throughout the entire situation. If I hadn't stopped before that lap it could have been me attacked by the bear. It could have been anybody.
I did not give any information about the girl because the media has not yet released it. In one of the articles published by the Anchorage Daily News, Rick Sinnott, a state biologist, said "I question the wisdom of bicyclists". This is not the time to start blaming people, it is time to help make it safer, and that is your job Mr. Sinnott.

24 hour race preview

so today i decided to check out the course for our local 24 hour race. it is a new course this year and it has way more singletrack than other years. that is exactly what anchorage racing needs. one problem. Horses. as i was riding the course, quite a bit of the singletrack was destroyed by a pack of horses. the trails went from being hard packed dirt from years and years of riding, to 8 inch deep holes all over the trail. i think im going to go and take a picture tomorrow because im so pissed off about it. besides making me angry, the course is great. i just hope my legs stay great for 24 hours.