Post Race Recap

Ok, so I didn't get to bed early the other night. I think it was about 1:30 AM or so before we finally made it to bed, but it was worth it. I whipped up a batch of spaghetti with mushrooms and sausage so we could get our carbo-load on. Then, I had to change my inner-tube on my front tire and time just kind of slipped by on us.
(Not to confuse, the pic is from the Sprint Triathlon)

No worries though, Jacob and I made it down to La Harpe in plenty of time to get a warm up lap in and push our way to the front of the extremely large crowd. It seemed like it took forever for the race to start, but it finally did and off we went (sort of). The start was on a slight hill and we were packed in like cattle so it took a few minutes before we were moving well enough to clip our shoes into the pedals. Before I knew it we were over the bridge. There was a little mix up after we got to the North Shore and we were sent right when we were supposed to take a left, but we figured it out before long. Next thing I knew, in no time at all we were passing through Mayflower. I felt amazing for the first 50 miles. My muscles were fresh and were operating in autopilot cruising at around 18-22 mph. I kept having trouble keeping a group together though. We kept splitting apart. People would break off and do their own thing. It was hard to keep more than about 4 or 5 people in a nice tight group to help break the wind.

We made it 50 miles before I had to stop and refill my gatorade and water bottles. I wasn't originally trying to go the whole way without stopping, but after the great start I was. We only stopped because the others that we were with stopped. Later, I was thankful I stopped when my liquids lasted me until 8 miles from the finish line. This is when the picture was taken. I apologize for the strange face, but I am stuffing down oranges and drinking pickle juice. Oh, and I just rode 50 miles.

The next 10 miles in my opinion are the hardest 10 miles of the race. They are just east of Conway heading towards 107 and back to 89. I honestly almost had to get off and walk on the hill after crossing 107. That hill is straight up and long. Then after that, you have the longest stretch, Highway 89. It seems like it stretches forever, but once I hit Mayflower again my second wind caught on. At this point, my buddy Jacob had been riding stronger than me all day, but right at the county line he faded. I thought that he had just moved back the end of the line, but the next time that I looked back I couldn't even see him. I thought about holding back and waiting for him, but I was too close to the finish line. I could taste it and I wanted to beat my last time as bad as I could so I pushed forward. I found 2 other guys that had some gas in the tank and we roared past everyone else, each taking turn pulling the other two. We picked up about 4 people and formed a good little group. My muscles were gone, but somehow I was able to convince them to keep peddling. When we hit downtown North Little Rock, our group dispersed. It was every man for himself. I attacked early and often. I quickly passed everyone in our group. There were only 2 people between me and the finish line. As I turned the last corner I used the last of my energy to pass them just before crossing the line. It was amazing. There's no way anybody has ever finished as fast as my time. . . well except for all of the people who finished an hour or so ahead of me. . . but we're not talking about them and they're not telling the story are they? I am and in my story I didn't SEE anybody finish ahead of me, therefore I did finish 1st! haha, Take that!

Anyway, long story short my cycling time was 5 hours 15 minutes plus approximately 5-10 minutes for that 1 stop. The quickest times were somewhere around 4 hours, and my time 2 years ago was 7 hours plus 1 hour of aid station breaks so I crushed my old time by 2 hours and 45 minutes. Hey, at least I'm improving.

Guess what, I did it. I signed up for the Little Rock Marathon. This will be my first marathon ever. Maybe I'll get a few other people to do it with me. I encourage everyone to give it a try with me. Sign up now before November or else it goes up by $10. It's like 6 months away so we have plenty of time to train. Even if you are totally 100% out of shape, you have plenty of time to change that.

Bow season starts tomorrow. I'll see you out in the woods!

Big Dam Weekend

Reporting live from the RiverMarket...

So tonight I must get to bed early. There's a lot to do tomorrow, but I decided to venture out to the river to see what festivities might be taking place tonight. Under the rivermarket pavilions, they are having some kind of Power 92 Jams Skate Party. Everybody is out there with their old school skates showing off some skills. Very unexpected.

Yesterday, I officially turned my apartment into a microbrewery. I've had a Belgian Ale fermented and bottled for a few weeks now. It should be ready any day now, and I plan on cracking one open tomorrow after the race. A few weeks ago, I picked up some muscadine from my friend's dad. He has a small vineyard bigger than 4 or 5 people's gardens. Well, I finally got around to crushing them up. I had to hurry up and do it or else my roommate was going to eat all 30 pounds of them (They taste like candy). My roommate and I actually ended up crushing them by hand. We found that just getting down in there was easier than using a potato smasher or any other method we could think of. Then, for the next step. I had no idea what to do next. I added too much water, forgot about the sugar, had to take some water and a few muscadine out, then put the sugar in. The end result looks like something that would turn into wine, but we can only hope.

I decided that while I was at it, I might as well put another batch of beer in the fermenter, so I went through that whole process. I started all of this at 7 PM and it was 1 AM before I had everything cleaned up. So now I have 5 gallons of beer and wine fermenting and 4 gallons of beer bottled and ready to go When I woke up this morning, our entire apartment complex smelled like a brewery. It was delicious.

Well, I better go. My friend just arrived back at my apartment. We've got to get up early tomorrow for the Big Dam Bridge 100 miler. I'm mostly prepared for it. If you live anywhere around Little Rock, North Little Rock, Maumelle, Mayflower, Conway, or Hwy 89 lookout tomorrow because a lot of cyclist are coming your way.

Alright, I've gotta go fix a flat. I just found it as I was heading out the door to the River. I hit a bad pothole Wednesday on the River Trail. I'm pretty sure it's the one on the North Little Rock trail down close to Dickey Stevens Ballpark. When I hit it, I figured it was going to cause a flat. At least I found it tonight and not tomorrow on my ride.

Where Did May Go?

Wow! May flew by. Things got a little busy around here. Way too many tornadoes for my liking. A couple of weekends ago I heard tornado sirens going off for 24 hours straight. I heard them all night in Little Rock and then all the next day in Memphis while helping my cousin move there from Kentucky.

2 weekends ago, I went to the Buffalo River. The Buffalo River is one of those places that is mandatory for any good Arkansan to experience in their lifetime. It seems like every summer there is always a good excuse to head up that way at least a couple of times. This time, it was with my Boy Scout Troop. We took the boys up to Buffalo Point, which is down river a few miles from Gilbert. We put in at I believe the Highway 14 bridge and floated down to Rush. The water was a little slow and shallow, but perfect for the new scouts to learn on. . . and perfect for me to test out my new kayak. I learned that I'm going to have to start doing some yoga or something because my legs were falling asleep the entire time.

As promised (to make up for driving so much lately), I did Mother Earth a favor last week and I plan on doing it more often. Last week was Bike to Work Week so I rode my bike part of the way in to work 3 days last week. I can't really ride the whole way as I live 40 miles away, but I was able to cut off 10 miles both ways by parking at the Big Dam Bridge. Now this took a lot of thought whether or not I was going to do this or not. It wasn't because I didn't want to inconvenience myself, it is because of the location of my work. My work happens to be located at the corner of Roosevelt and Asher in Little Rock. It's in part of town where your parents tell you not to even stop at stop lights, just keep rolling. I've been working there for 6 or 7 months now and I have found that it really isn't that bad. I mean, every month it seems somebody gets shot, but for the most part the people seem to be well... people. Really, the problem wasn't even that. I had already decided that it was worth risking life and limb to save the environment. It was my coworkers and superiors that had a problem with it. I had ridden in to work a couple weeks before and they strongly suggested that I never did it again. My boss was really uneasy about the thought of me riding in. Then, 2 days later, I had some bad chicken and called in sick kind of late one morning. Apparently, they had freaked out because they thought I was laying in the ditch somewhere. I didn't want them freaking out on me every time I showed up a little late (We are kind of on flex time. Most people show up at 8 and leave at 4:30, but it's no problem to come in at 9 or 10 even and just stay late). I didn't really want to have to put up with them being so worried, but after all this BP stuff, I decided that this was more important than anything I was dealing with so I did it. I don't know how bad this spill is going to end up. I don't know what impact it will have on the environment or the economy of the Gulf, but I do know that I, along with all of you, share the blood that will be payed for it. Every animal and plant killed. Every dollar in revenue and wages lost from the people that live in the Gulf, we are all held accountable for it all. Sure BP slipped up, but they are just reacting to the market, and the market can only be changed by one person, you. It all starts with yourself. That is why I knew that I had to get out there and bike no matter, and I plan to bike to work more and more days this summer, and I challenge you to do the same. Don't do it because you will be healthier and have more energy. Do it for our future.