On the trail again...
"I'm sorry father for I have sinned. It has been way too long since my last ride!" But I am back now and here's the full scoop. I am running the Long Beach Marathon October 14th at 8: am. If you’re wondering why I would hurt myself so much then you are not alone. This is one of those goals I wrote on my "top ten activities to do while still on momma earth” list. So next Sunday I hope to be crossing the finish line on two feet and thinking about my next two activities: bungee jumping and skydiving! The other 7 possible activities include climbing Mt. Whitney with Steph, Mt. Kilimanjaro with my brother Jim, climbing Mt. Rainier with my brother Bill, raising $10,000+ for a charity, riding the continental divide trail, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and returning to Vanuatu where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer.
While waiting to do all that I have been out running a lot, buying a Yeti 575 all-mountain bike, and getting to some events with friends. The most notable events were the Red Bull Air Race over San Diego Big Bay and the 50 mile Rosarito-Ensenada Fun Bike Ride. Steph and I also shuttled Noble Canyon and rode at Idyllwild recently. It was great to get out on some classic singletrack and truly brutal climbs. I am looking forward to the Urban Dual DH on the 20th in Ensenada, Moab the following weekend, and a fat tire ride-fest in Sedona for Thanksgiving.
Despite wanting to go put a new 2008 ECD on my gold card and rejoin my beloved race scene, I am taking the loss of all my bikes as an opportunity to get my body in top health. I have been going to physical therapy for my right shoulder and getting my bones realigned weekly at the chiropractor. Seems my hips are out of square…not to hard to imagine when you consider so many years of throwing myself around and onto natural obstacles.
I have also just become a member of socaltrailriders.org so I can start hooking up with riders whenever I want to go hit all the trails I’ve been missing. So here’s a F-you to those bums who stole my bikes because you can’t keep me down and a big new handshake to all those who have been making sure the trails don’t grow cobwebs while I was gone.
Special thanks to Nancy and Roger for keeping us in the loop, Steve Zvorsky for keeping me up on race news, Jackie at Jaybay for keeping me covered for all my activities, Kerry at Beyondbikes.com for working closely with Steph and I to get the right bike, the right parts and the right price on two beautiful new bikes, my boss for the paychecks, my mom…my car…J