La Bala Blanca

In the last post I said I'd post some photos of Granogue. Instead, I'll post some links.
Here's some video of the race on Bill's mountainbikeracer.com (I'm the last rider in the video and yes, a lot of the people started behind me.)
As I was looking through some of mlkimages I noticed this one with J.Brown just behind me and it got me thinking...

Since my new mtb an Orbea is made in Spain I thought of one of my college roommates, Juan Portilla. He was/is from Madrid. I have not heard from him since he sent me an email after 9-11 telling me how all of Spain was sympathetic and he told me of the moment of silence the entire country had a few days after. Can you imagine an entire busy city just stopping and having a moment of silence? I digress, Juan had this car, a brown Volkswagen Rabbit, and he called it "The Brown Bullet". It was far from a bullet... One time he got the car stuck on our chainlink fence, frickin' hilarious. He needed me to get it off of the fence. Very funny! Until a couple of days later I got my car stuck on the same part of the fence, DOH! Digressing again... After Juan went back to Spain he sold the car to... yep J.Brown. I'm taking the photo as a sign to name my new Spanish mtb "La Bala Blanca" Now, I just need to get some decent labels for my label maker...

Granogue Race

I got to race my bike this weekend! Thanks to my folks for watching the kids.

A few interesting tid-bits from a guy that has maybe ridden his bike (anyone of the three) 6 times since January. Lined up for the start and went through the "corral" and wouldn't you know it I'm second row. I have absolutely no business being in the second row. I guess old habits are hard to break? So, I lined up on the left side which happened to be right next to Tom with the megaphone (Heckletron 3000). So, everyone is standing there waiting to start and I'm sporting the new pink Henry's kit. Yes, pink. They said pink is the new black. Besides it benefits breast cancer awareness. So, as we are waiting Tom says over the Heckletron 3000, "Hey, everybody be nice to the gay guy in the pink!" Gee thanks Tom.

I met my friend Andrew, "one of those old school mountain bikers," at registration. He too had not been riding much at all but came out to support the event anyway. I suggested that I wait for him and we could ride together. He said in typical limey fashion, "Bah, we're at a race." End of the first lap he caught me, he started a minute or so behind me. We rode together for a while, until I got my second wind.

After looking at the results, and after the staggered start is taken into consideration, he beat me by 1 second! Maybe I shouldn't have stopped to take off my arm warmers, or stop to tighten my shoe, or stop to catch my breath, or stop to let people by... next time no stopping!

Thanks to fatmarc and the cycling community in Delaware. They really have a great thing going down there. I'm honored to still be a part of it, all be it a small part.

I'll add some pictures later...

Yankee or Dixie

My cousin April (62% Dixie)sent me a link to this Yankee or Dixie quiz. Usually I don't check out the "fwd:fwd:fwd:" things, but this one peeked my interest. Being of a mid-western mother and a yankee father and having relatives in Dixie as well as living in dixie for a spell. I found this quiz quite interesting, add to the blood relations, my time spent in Delaware, where does Delaware fit anyway, Yankee or Dixie? I think the canal might have some being on the answer. I was curious to see my results (53% Yankee). Thanks April.

GIS Geek stuff to follow:
I could create a map with overlays based on the terminology and region, it would be a fun project but, I don't have time for it...

Looks like I might "race" this weekend at Granogue. Boy is it going to hurt, I am really, really, really out of shape... unless "round" is a shape?

Finished...

...with school for the summer! Handed my take home final in last Tuesday. What a relief! Now I'll have more time to actually ride! YEAH!

I went for a ride at High Rocks, Tuesday afternoon. Boy did it feel good to be out on the new mountain bike!

So, Tuesday night I thought I might go celebrate with a classmate that lives around here. Maybe we'd go out for some beer and wings. Instead, Kris, Jeb, Sophie, and I went to... PIZZA HUT!!! and you'll never guess who was there, (besides all the screaming kiddies)... SPIDERMAN was there! Yeah, he was kind of fat and out of shape, and he was wearing some cheesy USA jacket. I think to hide his belly, but the kids got a kick out of it, and that's what matters. We went there early enough that I could possibly go out after. I got home put the kids to bed... me too, asleep by 10:00... LAME-O!

Saturday was the T-town swap meet. I loaded up a bunch of the bike crap I have laying around. I ended up doing pretty well, I still have that set of ten-speed wheels... anyone? Derek, I sold that kyak paddle for $20! Since I had a pocket full of cash my "wheels" started spinning... what kind of bike should I get, a commuter for lunchtime in Sparta? A pit bike? Trick wheels for my cross bike? Trick wheels for my mountain bike? Oh the possibilities!

After some discussion with Kris... looks like a new helmet for Jeb, a hitch rack for her jeep, and a trailer to take the kids on rides. Yep, married with children.

In other news, I finished a pretty cool project at work. I installed aerial photos of Sparta on a wall in the new town hall. I think the overall dimensions were 98"x110". I even got mentioned in the county newspaper. I'll try and post a photo of it soon.

Got out on the road bike this afternoon after cleaning out the garage. I did the loop I used to do in the mornings before work. I quickly discovered that I am really, really, really out of shape! I am sore from an hour ride! I didn't even push it. Except when I hammered it by the kid on his schwinn varsity. I could not let him get my wheel!