4-18-08
C100 Pre-Race

Race day is finally here! I want to thank all who have given me names of people you know who are serving in the armed forces and as missionaries. There are a few names of people that I've included who neither but they are special to me -- family, friends, my pastor, music minister, etc. As promised, here are pictures of the jersey that I will be wearing not only tomorrow, but for the 12 hours of Ft Yargo by Dirty Spokes Productions in two weeks and the 24 hours of Conyers by Granny Gear in 4 weeks.

There's plenty of room on the back yet so please, if there is someone who is serving overseas that I can honor with you, please let me know.

I want to add a very special thank you to Sarah for the idea of dedicating the miles and to my best friend Andrew for writing the names on the jersey last night and this morning while I packed. You are both very much appreciated!

4-13-08
Dateline: Ellijay (again)

Took off after church today for another Cohutta training op with Jono. Yesterday's Bull Mtn plan got rained out so I took the option for a 10k run instead, well two 5k runs at different paces. Today the plan turned out to be a Bear Creek / Mountaintown route, which we've one before and knew the route so we weren't worried about nav errors!

How was it? Well, GREAT! We had no mechanicals, no nav errors, and no injuries. We DID have a few snow flurries at Potato Patch (much more welcome than the biting gnats last week). We DID experience a drop in temperature. Most important, we had a great time! Total distance today was about 24.5 and the avg speed a bit low at 8.7 but if you don't know Mtn Town, there's about 23 wheel washing opportunities (creek / river crossings) and at times we felt like we were doing some cyclocross training with all the downed trees. Some of the water crossings are rideable, many are not and today were thigh deep in places. That's some COLD water boys and girls!

It was a good recon day for the condition of FS64 which helped us make final tire selection for the race. I'm sticking with my worn Kenda Klaws as they have enough tred to dig on the fast descents but not so much that they cause too much resistance on the climbs. The road is in great shape and I'm praying the Forest Service does not do anything to it this week, like adding a bunch of gravel --- that would not be fun on Saturday.

This week, I plan to rest, swim and do some weights. I'll also probably run some, but I need to get the bike cleaned up and prepped for raceday so I doubt it'll see any use this week. The cross training has been suiting me well this spring and I plan to stick to it.

Oh, there's been a change in the jersey I'll be wearing for the C100. I decided not to get a US Army jersey, but to wear a solid color instead with the names of those who are serving in our military and as contractors overseas. I got to thinking today that I might wear it for every race I do this year and folks can add names as we go through the year. It'll simply say "For those who serve" and have their names all over it. Nope, it won't be fancy, but we need them to know we appreciate what they're doing and we support them. Please, if you know someone that is serving and have not already given me their name, let me know who it is. I'm still a few short of a hundred right now.

Well, it's 12:44am and I'm going to try and get some sleep for the second time. Maybe this time it'll work!