Vietnam

Not the country, but it still was pretty neat!

I sure wear that shirt a lot...

Bike odometer milestone - 999.9!

The view at mile 999.9.

XC Bike Trip Training (Ride #1)

 

The race logo! 

Scenery on the ride there.

Exploring Bennington College

Sunday morning @ our little tent site with the cheery little camper inside!! :-)

Map of the day's ride, including the ride down to Dunkin Donuts for food and coffee before we started the marathon course.  The numbers along the route denote the mileage at that point in our ride, in 5 mile increments.  The total distance that this shows obviously doesn't take into account the detours we took, both on purpose and by accident.

Graph of the elevation for the whole ride... on either side of mile ~30, it should be a mirror image.

Highlights, in chronological order:
-Waking up next to a nice little pond in our cozy sleeping bags and tent ;-)
-Cameron's shorts
-Watching the start and then getting breakfast even though we didn't have time for the Diner
-Leaving ~1hr after start  and enjoying good weather and scenery for the 1st half of the ride
-Cheering on Cameron @ about mile 20!
-Cheering on Julie (& Casey) @ about mile 21!
-Cheering on Charity @ about mile 24!
-Following Charity through the finish (~3hrs, 27 mins)
-Seeing a random lady collapse near the finish :-/
-Cameron finishing under 4hrs
-Julie (&Casey) finishing... hopefully Julie will qualify for Boston next time around
-Snacks at the finish line
-Rachel betting me a gatorade that she could run over a orange traffic cone without crashing.  I was happy to lose this bet and cough up the change @ Stewarts :-)
-Riding in light rain
-Getting a little wet and dirty
-Getting soaked and covered in dirt from the road
-Rachel getting hangry and acting like a person from the Snicker's commercials "You're not you when you're hungry" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixNh9L7G5M
-Riding up the big hills back to the start line
-Changing into dry clothes in the field where the car was parked
-Eating our leftovers from Chili's the night before on our ride home


The full loop!

Google maps said only 15miles, which was pretty close to what my bike computer said when I finished, and then I did 2 laps on the loop in the park to get up to ~17.5.  It's a nice ride :-) If you come back at all before I'm done here, I'll take you!

Fat Tires

Highlights:

1. Rachel didn't cry
2. popcorn, California flatbread, and a sampler appetizer along with some golf at the Whistle Stop Bar and Grill
3. dirtbikes didn't run us over
4. Chris had new fat tires
5. Rachel got to wear a shirt that was the same color as Chris'

Last night's ride

I circled the brewery in red to give you an idea where I was riding.  The little loop I did the other night is right to the left of point "A" on this map, also.  Right inside Bob Rodale Cycling & Fitness Park.

Found my keys!

Last night when I brought my bike into the hotel, I tucked my car keys in the waist band of my gym shorts and underwear.  Apparently I forgot to take them out of there once I got into my room, because I woke up this morning with a little soreness in that area.  I wasn't sure what it was, so I reached down and sure enough, my keys were right there under me as I slept all night.  They left a nice imprint.