Our day started early Saturday morning. I woke up with a mild migraine, took some meds and a hot shower and that seemed to help (a little). A quick stop for food at Tim Horton’s and we were at the middle school at 6:50 AM, ready to get on the bus at 7.

However, the bus company was unable to get ahold of the driver and the bus was not there. A few phone calls to the charter company and they were going to send another bus driver out. Henry and I sat and played crazy eights until the bus showed up a couple hours later.

On the ride down, the group voted to watch Into the Spider Verse. The bus was noisy and they didn’t have closed captions on, so I opted to read my book, Three Body Problem. It was the beginning of what looked like a beautiful day in Michigan, but the skies were getting darker the closer we got to the park.

Just before we arrived, a heavy rain storm hit the park and most of the rides were not running. We got our tickets, figured out how the meal plan worked and set off to get some lunch. We ate at a chicken and pizza place, Henry got a mega slice of pepperoni he said was very greasy (probably not a great choice) and I had some pretty good chicken tenders.

Then the big decision came, what do we ride first? I was hoping to get Henry on a mild ride to ease into roller coasters, but they were all down due to weather. Magnum was open on the app and the wait time was reasonable. We got in line and they announced the ride would be closing for weather and a safety check. We decided to wait it out, it wasn’t that long, and Henry seemed very excited to go on his first “real” rollercoaster.

Everything was fine until we were on the train and buckled in. He took one look at the lift hill and his face turned white. As the coaster started moving he sunk down into his seat and wanted to be anywhere else. We got off the ride and he was very angry and had an upset stomach.

I did bring a bag with us into the park and read about the “moving lockers”, but of course I was a “user” and we had to find help to get our locker opened. When using the phone to pay for a locker, it asks for a 7-digit and a 4-digit number. Apparently, the 4-digit number was the on needed to unlock the locker. Once we figured this out, the lockers are pretty awesome. They have various areas throughout the park and you need to move your stuff every 3 hours.

After we got our stuff, we headed over to Iron Dragon. Henry was a bit nervous, but once we got on the ride, he seemed to be having some fun. The band director was posting challenges throughout the day, one of which was getting Dippin’ Dots. We got our ice cream of the future and headed off to our next ride.

Henry didn’t want to go on anything that went upside down or anything that went very fast, so I figured Skyhawk would be a good next ride. On the way there, we got to send the glassblower. I can’t remember how many times we went to Cedar Point in the past and the glassblower was not in, but we did get to see him finish up a vase.

Just as we reached Skyhawk, the ride had re-opened and the wait was very short. Henry took one look at how high the ride went and was like “nope”. I got a little frustrated and said fine, we are going on Maverick.

We headed over that way, went in the wrong entrance (handicap one, whoops) and got in line. As we are waiting, Henry notices the ride does in fact go upside not once, but twice. I said well it’s only for two seconds. We get on the ride and strapped in and Henry looks grumpy, but he’s not freaking out. As were get to the upside parts, he turns to me and says it’s 2.5 seconds… lol After we get off the ride, I asked him how he counted 2.5 seconds… .5, 1.5, 2, 2.5… of course, what was I thinking? He was less angry about this ride (I think he might have actually liked it, it was a lot more fun than I remember).

After Maverick, we passed by the hanging swings that go in a circle, there was no wait for that one and we got right on. There was a huge water puddle under some of the swings and we both hoped we didn’t finish the ride directly above it. It was close, we were just on the outside of the puddle.

Another one of the challenges were to ride the scrambler, so we went to that side of the park next. On the way we got a selfie with snoopy (challenge completed). Henry really liked the scrambler, I liked that it stopped when it did, I was starting to get a little nauseous.

We got dinner at Panda Express and went on Iron Dragon for the second time. Afterwards we headed over to Blue Streak, because it’s a classic. Well, even though it’s a classic, it could use some updating. I barely fit in the seat, still not sure how I was able to get my seat belt buckled and the ride was not very smooth at all. Henry was not a fan either.

Henry wanted to ride the carousel, so we got on the faster one at the park. The ride has 64 horses (fun fact we learned while waiting in line for Magnum), with 4 rows of horses. I wanted to ride “lightning”, but Henry got on that horse before I had a chance to. The one I picked was the winner between us and we both had a good laugh on that ride.

Next up we went on the antique cars and Henry got to drive. He was having a hard time going straight and kept bumping the rail (I’m very scared what he’s going to be like driving for real in a few years).
Gemini was finally opened, but it was getting close to the end of our day. We made it over there and decided picked the red train. We lost the race, but man that is a fun ride. Henry didn’t really like that one either.

We looked like we had enough time to ride Iron Dragon one more time before we had to meet every at the front of the park. Unfortunately when we got on the platform there was a delay getting riders onto the ride, we also had an extended wait to get off the ride, but it was Henry’s favorite ride and I’m glad we were able to do it one more time.

We grabbed the bag from the locker and booked it to the front of the park. We were a few minutes late, but were not the last ones to show up. After a quick bathroom break and group photo, we were on the bus and heading home. The movie for the ride home was The Lorax and Henry kept falling asleep, but he thought he just “blinked” and missed most of the movie. We got home around 1:00 AM. It was a long day, but we had a lot of fun, maybe next time Henry will be more willing to go on some of the bigger rides.

I “raced” in Thompsonville, MI for the 17th annual Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race for the first time this year. I wasn’t sure what to expect, it was set for the third Saturday in October, but I had a lot of fun. I signed up for the sport race which is two laps up and down Crystal Mountain.

Friday before the race, I packed the truck up and headed my way up north. The weather was looking iffy, so I ended up going by myself. I hit a few showers on the way and made a slight detour onto some dirt roads for a quick bathroom break. My bike ended up covered in dirt/mud, but by the time I got to the campground, the rain had washed all that away. I stayed at the Betsie River campground in a small cabin. I didn’t realize it had power, but was glad there was an electric space heater.

Saturday morning was very chilly, but I was up and out of bed before the sun came up. I noticed an all-day breakfast place that was nearby the race start on my through and decided that would be a great place to stop. I was not the only racer to stop in at Rosie’s Country Café and I was right, the food was pretty amazing.

Filled up with eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy I made my way over to the packet pick-up. Even though I was in the third wave, I still had plenty of time before the race started. I took my number plate (and pint glass) back to the truck to keep warm and think about what I was going to wear for the race.

I had brought my shoe covers, but decided against them, that was a mistake. I did a quick little warm-up and my fingers were freezing (even though I wore my long-fingered gloves) and my feet seemed to be okay. After my warm-up (and wishing I had grabbed a different set of gloves… I was worried about braking/shifting, especially on the downhills) I headed to the start line and we were off a few minutes later.

I wasn’t there to compete, but just enjoy the day… the sun was out, there was blue skies and the fall colors were fantastic. Everyone sprinted out of the gate, I wasn’t really interested in pushing super hard, but found a couple folks to ride with. One of those riders was on a Surly Karate Monkey and was a single-speed. Also riding a steel frame, he gave me props when I passed by.

My hands eventually warmed up, but my feet were very cold… I think the temperature hovered just under 40 degrees for the race. Going up the mountain was hard work, but the downhill made it worth it. I was hoping for a negative split, but my second lap was a few minutes slower than the first.
The ending chute was exciting, by the time I got there on my second lap the ground had been torn up and was very soft, I almost ate it on the final turn, but was happy not have an unplanned dismount (especially in front of the crowd).

In my mind, comparing this to the Soft Rock for Ore 2 Shore, they are about the same distance, but the singletrack in Peak 2 Peak make this race a lot more fun. I have a feeling if the weather cooperates, I’ll be doing this one again in the future!

Okay, I haven’t been updating this blog, but plan to do so in the near future (lol, heard that before)!

I took advantage of the warm weather this past week. The weekend was a little windy, but I managed to cut the (overgrown) grass, in shorts, in November, in Michigan! I also managed to get a night ride in on my mountain bike. I really need to do more night riding in the woods, it’s a lot of fun!

I’m still figuring out my new bike computer I picked up last month, a Garmin Edge 520+. I’m not sure if it was by default, but I was getting all my phone notifications to my screen… I didn’t really need to see the live score update of the Patriots/Jets game from NFL mobile (I’ve got it only showing messages and phone calls now).

In other news, the kids are still doing face-to-face in this COVID crazy-time. Some of the schools north of us are going/have gone to virtual learning and I really hope that is not the case for us. It’s tough trying to get work done with little ones running around not following the lesson plan or goofing off on their computers. If it comes down to that, I might have to switch my work schedule up again (not fun) or maybe reduce my working hours so I can focus on the kids getting their stuff done.

…living in a COVID-19 world. It’s been an interesting year, all my races have been cancelled and I’ve been having a hard time finding motivation to workout.

Recently, I picked up a suspension fork for my mountain bike and am having a lot of fun riding Holdridge to get the fork dialed in.

Most everyone is working in the office now, it was nice to work completely remote, although I did miss chatting with a few of my co-workers.

With all the changes to Strava recently, I deleted my account. I was a little nervous about doing so as it had eight years worth of data on it, but the switch over to Garmin Connect has been pretty good so far.

The big four-oh is coming up and I’ve been toying with the idea of doing an Ironman in 2023 for my birthday. This gives me just under three years to get ready and my plan is to keep this site updated on my progress (from zero -> Ironman), so stay tuned!

I think it might have been the first really nice weekend in summer this year. It wasn’t too hot or humid and the rain was limited to a few scattered showers. The kids also got to learn some responsibility as it was their weekend to watch the hermit crabs from daycare.

We got the kids up at the butt crack of dawn to catch the hot air balloons in Midland. We arrived just as the first balloons were heading over the Tridge. I don’t think the kids liked the target shooting event as much as the taking off, but after getting some pop-tarts at the gas station, they were both in a much better mood.

Ollie has been talking about making another rainbow Jell-o mold and we decided to do this after we got back from Midland. He was pretty excited and I think it turned out better than last. Once I got the last layer done, I headed outside to get the yard mowed. We haven’t had a lot of rain in the past couple weeks, so it actually wasn’t overgrown too bad.

I bought the kids life jackets last week; they were sad to miss out on kayaking with nana and papa. The plan was to find some where local to rent and spend a little bit of time on the water. Susan wasn’t feeling up to it, so I decided to take the kids to the beach instead.

Although the beach area was limited, Lake Huron is very high this year, we had a great time. The kids got to play in the waves, build sand castles and dig until “they hit water” – something that really fascinated them. After spending a couple hours in the sun, we got hungry and decided to head to Casseville to find something to eat.

Usually when I take the kids to the beach, we end up at McDonald’s for lunch. This time I was able to convince them to try something new and we ate outside at the Thumb Brewery. It must have been good, the kids scarfed down their food and soon we were on our way home.

On the way, I noticed a big storm system heading our way. We were almost able to get around it, but managed to get caught just before we got on I-75. The rain was down-pouring, Ollie managed to sleep through all of it… Henry could hardly believe it.

I wasn’t able to find a spare moment to get one of my bikes out, but it was a really fun weekend!

Since getting into cycling, I have always wanted a lugged steel classic road bike from the 80s. After getting Susan’s approval, I was able to find one that fit me in Grand Rapids a couple weeks ago. Once I got it home, I tore it done, cleaned, re-packed, greased, and added new tires, tape, and tubes. Last night I got to do my first shake down ride, only to get a flat tire 1.5 miles away from home. Having just got it back together, I didn’t have a repair kit with me… mental note, need to put one together. It was still a fun ride and I can’t wait to get it back out on the road again!

The rain finally let up this year and the week of the fourth was a hot and humid one. That didn’t stop us from having an excellent extended weekend.

The kids were well behaved enough to earn a trip to the movies. We went to see Toy Story 4 the morning of the fourth. In preparation for this, we watched all three previous movies last weekend. Everyone seemed to enjoy the movie (although a little sad this will probably be the last one in the series).

Once we got back to the house, it was a quick lunch and anyone that wanted to see fireworks had to take a nap. It wasn’t easy, but I think the kids managed to fall asleep for a little while (close enough to a nap I guess).

I had bought some pop-its and after dinner we went out and “did fireworks”. Afterwards, we tried to convince the kids that was the fireworks we had been talking about, but they were smarter than that. There was no way we were getting out of taking them to the Clio fireworks that night.

Susan wasn’t feeling well, so I packed the wagon, a couple chairs, and a blanket to sit on in the truck and headed down to Clio City Park. Parking was atrocious, so I had the bright idea to park at the end of the rail trail and walk in. I’ve ridden my bike on these trails and didn’t realize how far that actually was to walk (close to a mile).

It was muggy and buggy and the kids didn’t want to walk anymore, so I had to carry the chairs and pull the kids in the wagon… I was pretty sweaty by the time we picked a spot. We had about an hour to kill before the fireworks went off and I decided to get some light up swords for the kids to play with. The swords and the home fireworks going off all around us kept the kids busy until the real show began.

Last time we went to these fireworks, they were pretty decent. This year they were pretty lame… they didn’t shoot very high (our view was blocked by some trees) and there was a 5-10 second delay between fireworks. Ollie was ready to go home after a few minutes, but we weren’t leaving until they were done.

I also didn’t realize how dark the rail trail would be at 11 o’clock at night, good thing we had light up swords to lead the way. Once back to the truck, I was drenched in sweat (really glad I didn’t have to carry the kids in the house, they would not have appreciated that).

I thought parking was bad, but the traffic leaving downtown Clio was ridiculous, luckily, we avoided most of that and it only took a few minutes to get home. The kids sleepily got their pajamas on and crawled into bed.

My office was open on Friday and I had to go to work. Daycare was closed, so Susan had to deal with the boys for most of the day, they were not in the best of moods. There was only a hand full of people that showed up, but we were treated to bagels for breakfast and pizza for lunch. Work was slow and I decided to sneak out a little early. It was sunny in Davison, but there were a few pop-up showers on the way home and a nice downpour once I got there.

Saturday morning, I decided to take the kids fishing. We have not had much luck in the few places we tried to go before, so I decided it was time to try somewhere new. Our first stop was to the fishing area alongside Irish Road in Davison. We got out and were swarmed by mosquitos, even though the kids had bug spray on, it didn’t seem to help much. I got the lines baited and cast into the river. It was flowing fast and the bobbers were downstream very quickly. I decided this wasn’t going to work and that we should try a different spot.

We drove down to the Genesee County Fairgrounds where I had noticed a few decent sized ponds. We found a spot to throw our lines in and in a few minutes, Henry had caught a small bluegill. He was pretty excited to catch his first fish. About 30 minutes later, Ollie caught an even smaller bluegill. Neither of these fish were keepers, but the kids enjoyed watching them swim around in our bucket.

We were getting a lot of small bites and I figured maybe we should try a different spot down the bank. I casted Ollie’s line in and went back to untangle Henry’s pole. Shortly after, I heard “Dad, dad, DAD!” and thought either Ollie fell in or lost his pole.

I got over there and asked him where his bobber was and he said he had a fish and it had gone under. I helped him reel and thought maybe it got caught in some weeds (there was quite a few of them between us and open water), until I felt the pull of a fish. I told him he had a fish on the line, but did not know it was going to be a legal sized walleye. Ollie was so excited he caught a big fish.

We fished the rest of the worms, released the bluegill, and took the walleye home to show Susan. The kids wanted to see how to clean a fish, not sure how traumatizing that was, but I managed to get a few small fillets. The kids also wanted to “make fish sticks”. I told them this was better than fish sticks and they gobbled it up for dinner that night.

In the afternoon, the kids were “bored” so we decided to go to the Flushing Nature Park. We hadn’t been here before, but it’s a pretty neat place. There’s a playground and quite a bit of area to explore. We walked around for a bit, trying to tire the kids out – must have worked, Ollie needed frequent breaks and “couldn’t walk that far”.

Sunday, we went to a Loons game in the afternoon. It was warm in the sun, so Henry and I moved back to be in the shade. He sat patiently and watched the game until his brother moved back to be with us. I think baseball is too slow for Ollie, although he said he had a good time. The Loons didn’t win, but the kids got to run the bases after the game. They were pretty excited about that.

We took the scenic route home to avoid the holiday traffic. Ollie couldn’t keep his eyes open and Henry was getting “hangry”. After a quick dinner, it was bath time and then off to bed. I hope the kids enjoyed this weekend as much as I did!

I’ve been sitting on this blog entry for awhile now, but I got to experience what it was like to be a single parent for a week or so. Susan took a trip to Thailand and I wrote down how my time with the kids went.

Friday Night

I can’t recall anything in particular, must have been a decent night. Henry didn’t really eat much for dinner.

Saturday Morning

Kids were slow getting up and it took a long time to eat their breakfast. Ollie was mad when I made him get dressed without finishing his cereal (and Gatorade). Henry said his stomach hurt and didn’t want to go to swim class. We were 5 minutes late to class, luckily the other student was late as well and the teacher wasn’t in the pool yet. The kids had an awesome class – Ollie went full under on his own and Henry looked like he was having fun despite not feeling well. We “had” to get a treat after swim class – VG’s was having a sale on lobsters and I tried selling the kids on that as a treat, neither kid was buying. I found a rainbow Jell-o recipe and the kids were pretty excited about that (so much for lobster). We stopped into Wal-mart to get much needed coke and supplies for the rainbow Jell-o.

Saturday Afternoon

Had lunch, attempted to get Ollie to take a nap, that wasn’t happening. Henry also didn’t want to stay in his room for quiet time. Figured it was a good time to start making the rainbow Jell-o. It takes about three hours plus needs to sit overnight. Ollie was a big help and was excited until we got to the yellow/orange layers.

Saturday Night

On the way home from swimming, we decided on going to a pizza place for dinner. Henry’s tummy was not happy and I tried to get him ready, but he ended up puking in the hallway. Ollie was upset we couldn’t go out and Henry was upset he threw up. After cleaning up the mess, I took Ollie downstairs to “help” order the pizza for delivery. Henry went to bed early with a bucket by his bed. Ollie went to bed without problems. I must have caught what Henry had… my stomach was not happy, took a dose of Pepto-Bismal.

Sunday Morning

Kids were up early and did not want to get dressed. Henry ate some cereal and said he was feeling a little bit better. I pulled the Jell-o out around 9 am and it came out awesome, both kids ate a slice.

Sunday Afternoon

We had left over pizza for lunch, everyone ate good. My stomach was still feeling queasy, took some tums. Ollie “took a nap” for about 15 minutes and decided he was done. The kids played nicely in Henry’s room for the first half of the Lions game. Watching the second half was a struggle, but we made it through. We went to the Halloween store to find window decals because the ones from last year were broken/weren’t sticking. They had some robotronics set up, Henry liked the dancing pumpkin guy and Ollie jumped when the spider moved. After pressing the button in the candy bowl the scarecrow was holding, Henry jumped. Then they both jumped when Ollie activated the spider again, it was pretty funny. Afterwards we went to the grocery store. I haven’t had both of the kids with me in a long time… probably for good reason, it was majorly stressing.

Sunday Night

We had dinner and Ollie had more Jell-o. After dinner I reviewed Henry’s work sheets and then it was bath time. It was a bit of a struggle, but the kids got cleaned and ready for bed.

Monday Morning

Kids were up in the family room in the dark… not sure what they were doing. Henry wanted to eat breakfast at home and wouldn’t get dressed. Got the garbage out and Ollie was ready to go and Henry was still in PJs. I got Ollie loaded up in the truck and Henry was STILL getting dressed. I heard the bus pull up as Henry was getting into the truck. We had to run through the grass to catch the bus, Henry cried because his feet got wet…

Monday Night

Kids went to bed decently well.

Tuesday Morning

Took the day off, dropped Ollie off at Kimmy’s, got a donut from the bakery (…not the donut place). Took a look at Henry’s worksheets and did some homework before school. We didn’t have any problems getting on the bus today even though it was a little early. I finally got to mow the grass, it was still wet and looked pretty bad, but at least it was mowed.

Tuesday Afternoon

Got Ollie from daycare and picked Henry up at the door to get haircuts. Ollie was bummed they didn’t have green, but was okay about getting orange color in his hair.

Tuesday Night

Lots of crying about Macaroni and Cheese with hamburger (a favorite of mine), but both kids ate and liked it (eventually). Bed time wasn’t too bad, Henry finished another sheet on his homework. I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach pains and nauseous… did not have any Pepto-Bismal to help.

Wednesday Morning

Kids got dressed in a reasonable time, we made it out to the bus with a minute to spare.

Wednesday Afternoon

Stomach started to feel better.

Wednesday Night

Kids were actually excited about leftovers. Henry finished up his homework and the kids took a bath without too much troubles. Ollie jumped back in after I took him out because he wanted Henry to get out first, then decided to plop on the ground.

Thursday Morning

Kids were up and dressed with plenty of time for the bus. Had time to gel and spike Henry’s hair for school pictures.

Thursday Afternoon

Stomach issues were gone.

Thursday Night

Took a nap while the kids watched Smurf’s Lost Village (again), bed time wasn’t too bad.

Friday Morning

Had to get both kids out of bed, Henry looked cold, but didn’t want to add a second blanket… he didn’t want to get sweaty. There was a substitute bus driver today and asked if Henry was on her route…. um, yes?

Friday Night

Went to McDonald’s in Frankenmuth, kids burnt some energy in the play area and didn’t want to go when I said it was time.

Saturday Morning

Kids were up and ate breakfast, made it to swim class 5 minutes early. They were the only ones in class and got their completion certificates today… Ollie is all about going under water.

Saturday Afternoon

Ollie took a good nap, somehow bumped his lip on Henry’s bed while playing. It was bleeding a little bit on the inside and he *needed* popsicles.

Saturday Night

Kids were good, let me take a nap while they watched tv.

Sunday Morning

Kids were up early and excited to go to the corn maze. After finishing breakfast, they got dressed and put their shoes on… told them they weren’t open until after nap/quiet time.

Sunday Afternoon

Went to the corn maze and they were not joking when they said it was muddy. First mud hole we hit, Henry’s shoe came off and he falls over… a few seconds later Ollie topples over. I asked if they wanted to turn around, but they said no. I ended up carrying both of them through all the muddy parts. Most of it wasn’t too bad, but there was one bad spot I slipped while carrying them. We ended up on the ground in the corn, but everyone was okay. We somehow managed to finish the maze in time to watch the last pig races and duck race of the day. Ollie was talking about seeing the races all day, glad we made it. 🙂

Sunday Night

Got home late, put dinner in the oven, bathed the kids. Ate dinner and a quick story before bed. Once in bed, I cleaned up everyone’s shoes and clothes.

Monday Morning

Kids shoes were a little damp, I hit them up with the heat gun to finish drying them… mine were still soaked.

Monday Afternoon

Decided to put my shoes in front of the heating duct to finish drying out.

Monday Night

Ollie was a grouch, not sure if it was from being up late the night before, but man was he not in a good mood. At least they went to bed pretty good.

Tuesday Morning

My shoes finally dried out, Ollie was in a much better mood.

Tuesday Afternoon

It was a quiet day at the office, officemate was out!

Tuesday Night

Emergency run to Wal-mart just before bed to get milk for Henry’s lunch. Decided it was getting cold enough to pull out some hats and mittens for the kids.

Wednesday Morning

Ollie wouldn’t wear any of the winter gear I pulled out, cried his red hat wouldn’t fit him. Another emergency run to Wal-mart on the way to daycare to get a new hat and new mittens.

Wednesday Afternoon

Wasted an hour of my day watching a webinar that didn’t apply to our company.

Wednesday Night

Kids were excited to pick mom up from the train station (although they kept asking about going to the airport). On the way, Henry was like wow it’s dark outside, is it almost midnight? Uh nope, 8:30. Ollie was excited to see his mom, ran over and gave her a big hug. Henry was cold and tired and wanted to go to bed… he passed out in the truck on the way home.

Back in March, I signed up for a campsite in Young State Park just outside Boyne City for this last weekend. The Michigan Mountain Mayhem gravel race was on Saturday and we were hoping to take the boys on their first real camping trip. The weather turned out not so nice, so I ended up camping solo.

Originally, I had reserved a two night stay and was planning to take the big tent, but with sub 40 degree temps and chance of rain, Susan didn’t want to drive the boys up to stay Saturday night. I ended up taking the backpacking tent and tried to pack enough cycling gear to give me options for the race.

I left just before the kids’ bedtime and got into the campground around 10:00 pm. The drive was rain free until I turned off I-75 just north of Gaylord. When I pulled up to the ranger station near the park entrance, there were no park rangers around to get me checked in. There was a yellow phone I had to use to confirm my stay and site number.

The rain had let up a little, but it was still coming down at a steady rate as I was driving around trying to find site number 108. There were no posts with numbers at the front of each site, instead the numbers were painted on the ground. I had to make two loops and pull the map up on my phone before I was able to figure out which site was mine.

After watching the triple doppler radar, I waited for the rain to let up a little before setting up camp. I somehow managed to get the footprint, tent, and rainfly all orientated the correct way and the tent went up quickly without getting much water inside. As I was unloading the truck and putting stuff in the tent, somehow the pillow I brought had gotten wet. It was in the back next to the hatch and I think when I opened the hatch, a pool of water trickled in and got it wet.

I changed into my long underwear, used my sweatshirt as a pillow, cinched the sleeping bag around my face and managed to get a decent nights rest. Around 6:00 am, I really had to pee, but the desire to stay in the nice, warm, comfy sleeping bag outweighed that need. Eventually, I got out of bed 30 minutes later and was running to the bathroom.

I slipped back into my sleeping bag and fell asleep for another hour. It was another fight to start getting ready, but I put on the bike gear I thought I would need – socks, tights, bibs, jersey, wind-shell jacket, skull cap, buff, and my full finger gloves. I really should have brought my shoe covers and would have appreciated my winter gloves… my feet were numb for quite awhile after the race.

I drove to packet pick-up, got my number and headed back to the campsite. It was only a few miles away and there was a nice bike path for part of the trip I could use. I filled my water bottles (2) up with Tailwind Nutrition, ate the rest of my granola bars and headed back to the start line.

As soon as I started going, my hands were a little cold and I knew my feet were going to be miserable. I got to the start with plenty of time and had a nice little warm-up. Soon my wave was called up and we were off… I think I was the only one riding a road-type bike with road caliper brakes. I didn’t have any problems with the narrow tires (Hutchinson Sector 32s) except the sketchy/sloppy grass at the start/finish line.

The first few miles were pavement and I was pushing a good pace. Jumping behind and drafting where possible and trying to catch the next few riders. At one point, I passed another rider wearing a bright pink Flintstones jersey. He eventually caught up to me during one of the climbs, we chatted and saw each other a few times before the finish line. I was pretty happy to finish a few minutes ahead of him! 🙂

I’m not sure which race has more overall elevation gain, this one or Barry Roubaix, but there were some pretty long climbs during this race. The first big climb was almost a mile up a gravel road, then we hit Diablo’s mountain. I didn’t realize this was a paved climb, but it was still close to a 2 mile climb at a decent incline. After some fun descents down the “mountain”, we looped around and climbed the backside of the first climb (it was a lot more fun going down than up).

Overall the race went pretty smoothly, I was able to clear all the climbs, my nutrition held up, and I finished within 5 minutes of my goal time of 3 hours.

We were given a meal ticket for lunch, but there was a line, I was cold and figured I could find somewhere else to eat. I biked back to the campsite, grabbed my shower gear and took the best hot shower ever. I found a brewery I wanted to try, outside smelt amazing, but there was a Harvest Festival going on downtown and the place was packed. I took a quick cruise through the vendors to see if there were any food truck type places, nothing jumped out at met. I did see a stand selling hot chocolate and figured I would grab a cup after lunch.

I settled on subway, got a big sub, and watched the ongoings of the festival while I ate. Kids probably would have had fun, there were quite a few activities going on. After lunch, I went to get a hot chocolate, but they had run out… 🙁

Back at the campsite, I was undecided if I was going to stay the night. After a nice long nap (rudely awoken by a guy and his metal detector), I decided to head home and sleep in a nice warm bed. I had a great time and would love to do this race again (not sure I would tent camp it though 😉 ).