27 January 2010 - Congratulations to the Adventure Racers!

Lenny writes ...

Four of your very own participated in this past weekend's "Two Below Duo" adventure race in Warren, PA with Grass Roots Racing.  The usual format is two-person teams that must remain within 50 yards of each other at all times, but this race offered a four-person team relay option.  Rob and Greg joined CMU Jon and I on our usual "Big Lead Pipes" racing persona under the guise "Big Muddy Bloody Old Chub Lead Pipes" (BiMBOCLaP), denoting our love for our MTB squad, and beer.  Greg thankfully took Marc's spot on the team since he is still recovering from a foot surgery.

The weekends' stages included Saturday morning's biathlon (running and shotgun shooting), then a nocturnal orienteering stage, and finally a run-MTB-run stage on Sunday morning.  Jon and I split the running duties on stage 1 and Rob and Greg shared the shooting duties.  They both hit a few clay pigeons, preventing us from running more "penalty" laps apart from each shooting/running loop that included a 1.5 mile tricky snowy climb and slick descent in the woods and through a stream.  We took first in the relay division (of only two teams!) after this stage, and had the second best time of the race.

We retired to our hotel room to relax and sit in the pool before heading to the Chapman State Park orienteering course to do the nocturnal navigation stage.  After completing the first short loop, my knee proved too painful to continue, so I defected to the bonfire provided by the race organizers, and was promptly given beer and the cookies that made me gain 20 pounds over this winter.  The rest of the relay team, only needing two members to finish, posted one of the better times, and put more time between us and the other relay team.  We stuck around for a drink with the race organizers around the bonfire.

Sunday's run-bike-run was quite interesting.  Despite knee pain the previous night, I was up to the task of starting off the morning stage with the 1-mile uphill run on snowmobile tracks.  I came in behind the first-place team, and took off onto the bike section with the rest of BiMBOCLaP where the snowmobile tracks immediately turned to ice.  I had a really tough time and held our progress bike.  At one point, my downhill direction of travel was perpendicular to my bike!  Between pedal ice accumulation and falling competitors, it was rough going on the uphill first half of the 10-mile MTB ride.  The second half went better.  I managed to wipe out, crash into a snowbank, have my back tire dislodge, and cramped up all at once.  In the last 500 yards on the road back to the transition area, Greg took a spill hard into a ditch and was contorted like how people fall to a heap on the ground on Family Guy.  After some groaning, he genuflected his way back onto the bike and finished the leg.  Jon and Rob completed the last 3-mile trail run, and hit the finish line for BiMBOCLaP.

We hit the showers and returned just as they announced our first-place relay finish, and were awarded some hardware.  We packed the bikes and gear into Rob's van and headed back to Pittsburgh and torrential rain.

Check the MBB facebook group for some race pics, and here for my bundle of pictures.

Though we aren't the types to foster super competitiveness in MBB, it was fun to test our skills against other athletes.  I think we hooked Greg and Rob onto adventure racing.  Maybe you'll be the next to try?

Lenny

13 January 2010 - Follow Us on Facebook

I added links on all of our web site pages to our Facebook Group. The Forums are still open in case anyone want to post anything there, but it seems like a lot more photos are showing up on Facebook these days.

25 December 2009 - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Yesterday I found myself with a little free time and took off to ride the snowy trails of South Park. As I was unloading my bike, Rob pulled in to do a little trail running. We made plans to rendezvous back at the cars in about 45 minutes. The trails were mixed conditions, but passable. The ones on the golf course side were in better condition overall. I wound up drafting Rob on the Girl Scout double-track back to the cars. At the road we met Dave and Mike who were also riding. Dave had just finished a "gravity experiment" with one of the large stone blocks at the edge of the bridge. At that time Ann came by in her truck. We all agreed that a beer at Barley's and Hop's was in order. Kate took our picture just before Ann arrived. At that point it was a "normal" MBB gathering. We told stories, compared trail notes, and laughed. We also ran into some old friends and encouraged them to start riding with us in the Spring. Peace on Earth... Good Will towards man! :-)

Past Headlines - From earlier in 2009