Season in full-swing

I've been pretty lazy with the blog the last month or so, but that's only because we've been busy racing, training, and enjoying the Summer with Casey.

But here's a recap for you readers out there (mom!):

Lumberjack 100 -

Karen, Mitch, Dwayne, and myself signed up months ago for the Lumberjack 100. So we all piled in the monster SUV and made the trip together. This race is part of a national 100-mile race series (NUE). We were hoping to do more of the races within the series, but schedule and travel time doesn't allow it.

This race was 'awesome'. It was a pro event all the way and the trail was fantastic! The trail was supposed to be 'flat', and to some that may be the case - if you're from Colorado! But Mitch's garmin had 6000+ feet of climbing. There were no long steep climbs at all but there were many short 40-50 yard grunt climbs and long false flats that really wore on you.

There were about 8 folks from Missouri that made the 9-hour drive up to MI for this race. The great news is that all of us finished.

There are several things I'd do differently next year for this race.

1. We left Thu night so we could chill on Fri, pre-ride a little and relax. I liked this, but next time we won't drive until 2am Fri. This just caused us to sleep in on Fri and still put us there at 4:30pm. If we'd have left Fri @ 7am we'd have arrived at the same time!

2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! I got so caught up in the race I didn't drink much the first few hours. This caused me to get dehydrated and really slowed me down for a few hours. Once I realized my issue and began slamming fluids I rallied to finish strong.

3. Don't try to drive straight home after the race. We finally got home about 5:30am Sunday, so Karen and I slept most of the day.

Dwayne and Mitch posted killer times - 8:15 and 8:20 respectively. I finished in 9:40 and Karen finished in 11:40. Awesome for our first 100-miler. Full results

This race was a real mental challenge as well as physical. The format was 3 31-mile loops. So after the first lap I told myself I was a one-third of the way done! Then after the second lap I told myself "1 more lap"! Sure, it was another 31 miles, but the fact that it was my "last" lap helped mentally.

Here's Mitch's race report

Brommelsiek Challenge -

The Ghisallo team did their part in giving back to the racing community by putting on this race. Mitch and Greg of course get all the credit, they were the organizers and put on an awesome event. Brommelsiek park is a truly amazing park. St. Charles Count Parks have done a great job on this park: pavillions with electric, many restrooms w/running water, nice parking, playgrounds, etc.

I helped by doing the marathon scoring and Karen helped with the Cat 2 scoring.

The weather was HOT and the racers were suffering so it felt good to rest the legs after the Lumberjack the previous weekend and sit under the pavillion while the rest of the racing community battled the elements!

Casey raced the kids 10-13 category and took home 2nd place. JD Peiffer took home 3rd nipping at Casey's heels

Thanks again to Mitch, Greg, St. Louis County Parks, and all the other sponsors for putting on a great race!