A Day At The Park

On Monday, Ani and I enjoyed a walk to the neighborhood park and lots of play once we got there! She loves to swing and go down the slide. Thankfully she wasn't too interested in the sand and kept her mittens on, so she didn't get very dirty. All was good!

Green Acres Is The Place To Be

Green Acres CX in Lake Elmo, MN - Sunday, Oct 25

7th in category

7th overall

We did the Green Acres course last season as well. This course is a lot of fun - there are steep hills, good recovery areas, plenty of mud and sand to ride through, and a lot of spectators. We started off up the steep hill in order to string out the riders, so I knew I had to put the hammer down right away to get up front.

Coming off the hill, I was in 2nd place and that quickly changed to 1st place. I knew there was a group of strong riders behind me so I just needed to push myself as hard as possible to stay out in front and hope the other guys couldn't hang. It felt awesome to be out in front with people chasing me, hearing my name over the loud speaker, and people cheering for me who didn't even know me.

I'm not really a road biker like the rest of these guys who are about 140 lbs. dripping wet. My boyish figure caught up to me and I couldn't sustain the pace I had set. The major climb proved to be my undoing. It was a great day of racing and I had a lot of fun. Probably was the best course we'll ride all year.

And they're off!

The initial climb

Making the switchback descent (Monte's in 2nd)

Just about ready to take the lead

Down He Goes

The Bikery's Jackson Meadow CX in Marine on St. Croix, MN - Saturday, Oct 24

The race course was set up on the Marine Trail System surrounding the very architecturally unique Jackson Meadow Community. Course consisted of a mixture of well-marked, wide and relatively smooth grassy hiking paths, plus blacktopped roads.

14th in category

16th overall

Beautiful day for the race. At the beginning, Monte was in the top 10 but he unfortunately took a spill at the end of the 1st lap and lost 5 or 6 spots. He and Hagen enjoyed the course and we all marveled at the interesting white homes in Jackson Meadow.

Race Results

Nice warm weekend for CX races in Wisconsin. We're happy that the autumn weather has finally made an appearance, and not winter.

Baker Orchard CX in Centuria, WI - Saturday, Oct 17

Riders raced through a historic 100-year-old orchard barn.

16th in category

17th overall

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Big Ring Flyers CX in Hudson, WI - Sunday, Oct 18

Race was mostly flat, set up around the Hudson YMCA.

10th in category

10th overall

Ani cheering for Dad

Quick Snippets

Last night, Monte and I went out w/ Jana and Chris. We had a great time! A couple of interesting things:

• We spotted Al Franken and his wife in the corner booth of Ginger Hop. He is a lot shorter in person than he looks on TV.
• Ginger Hop is one of the better restaurants we've eaten at in a long time! Their food was so spicy, I had to order an extra beer to wash down the fire.

Some other fun news:

• Congrats to the Kennedy's on their little boy Finn!
• Congrats to my nephew Jon and his fiancee Sharon on their recent engagement! I've heard they want to do a destination-type wedding like we did. Yes!
• Christmas came early for me - Monte bought me a Canon PowerShot S90. Our other camera, the PowerShot S50, which we bought in 2003 and had not had any problems w/ it until a couple weeks ago, was sent off to the repair shop so I was without a camera for awhile. How in the world did I survive? I have not taken time to delve into all of the cool features of the S90, but it takes amazing photos, has a great ISO, and the shutter speed is faster than our other Canon.
• The S50 just came back from the shop yesterday looking brand new. Two cameras for me! :)

In Ani's world:

• She LOVES her shoes. Obsessed might be a better word. Shoes = Outside to her.
• She actually kind of says "outside", "shoes", for sure "dada", sometimes "mama".
• Some of the signs she does: "more", "please", "drink", "eat", "book", "airplane", "all done", "shoes" (is this a surprise?)
• Still only has 4 teeth - top 2 and bottom 2.
• She turns her palms up when we ask her where something is.
• She blows kisses good-bye and gives high-fives.

CX is Here!

And unfortunately so is the frigid weather.

We survived Monte's 1st two cyclo-cross races of the season this past weekend. Saturday's was in Corcoran. Best thing about that race was all the free stuff given out at the end. "Free" - there is always an entry fee though, so there's no such thing as free, right? Monte finished 13th overall and 12th in his category.

Photos courtesy of Steve Kotvis

Sunday was the Theo Wirth race. Hagen rode as well with his new CX bike that he just finished putting together last week. It was his first cyclo-cross race, and I think he enjoyed it. Now that he's got one under his belt, he has a better idea of what to expect for next weekend. Monte finished 6th overall and in his category. Thanks to Amy for helping me w/ Ani! All she wants to do is run - she doesn't like to sit still, so it's nice to have a couple extra hands to watch her, take photos of the race, do water bottle handoffs, etc.

Photos courtesy of Skinny Ski

Thoughts

"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives within you."

-Frederick Buechner

Urban Assault Ride '09

Last Sunday, September 27, was the Urban Assault Ride in Minneapolis. This year, Monte teamed up with Justin (who also rode RAGBRAI with him in July) and they got 3rd place in the men's division! Just like last year, Ani and I drove around and met them at different check points in the city. This scavenger hunt-type bike race is so fun to watch - I imagine even more fun to participate in.

Since our camera is out of order and at the Canon repair shop (I'm so sad about this), I took a bunch of photos with Justin's camera, but he hasn't had a chance to email them to us yet. But here's a photo we found on the UAR blog of the top three men's teams. Go Team M.O.W.!

On the Cusp of Cyclo-Cross

Although it officially started this past Sunday, cyclo-cross season for our household will start this weekend... or will it? Considering all this rain combined with Monte's ongoing cold and ear infection - there is talk of not going. We'll see. Race is in Hudson on Sat. and Orono on Sun., if I remember correctly.