TriWidow of the Year

I’m nominating my wife Katie for TriWidow of the year. This is my first season doing Tris and I foolishly signed up for a 1/2 iron man. When I signed up I couldn’t swim or run. We discussed what it would mean, and decided that it was okay for me to go ahead and do it. For the past two years Katie’s done support for the TransNH bike ride, a 250 mile 3-day ride I participate in, so she was used to the "I’m going for a bike ride… see you in a few hours" and she’s used to having a tired husband.

I think my training was average for a 1/2 iron and Katie put up with it. She was okay with me getting up at 4am to go swim, and not being home till late due to runs and rides. It took some getting used to, but the new schedule mostly worked. We both made consentions on what we wanted to do. I’m so thankful Katie supported me during all those long days.

My first tri is probably the pinnacle of my wife’s understanding and support. The night before my first tri she had tickets to see Brad Paisley with her aunt in concert in Connecticut  I got up in the morning and drove down the hour to the olympic race. Katie, who’d been out WAY past her bed time and slept over in CT started the hour and a half trek (on less then 3 hours sleep) to Ashland to meet up and cheer me on. At this point I have to point out that it had been raining for about 24 hours and some people had started building arks. As I pulled on my wetsuit at the car to head down to the swim start, Katie showed up with her Aunt and Uncle to cheer me on. They sloshed through the mud (losing shoes) and down to the swim start to cheer me on(and laugh at me when I slipped on the mud). After a horrendous 45 minute swim, I was dead tired. But Katie was there yelling at me to hurry up from under her umbrella. I made it through T1 and on to my bike. The course was a 2 loop course so I would end up seeing Katie again and she was right on the road yelling at me to speed up!! I got back from the bike and switching into my running shoes. I ran out for my 10k to Katie cheering me on with her Aunt and Uncle. As I came into the finish Katie had remembered that she had poster board and markers in her trunk from work. So I came into the finish of my first Tri to a sign saying " Go Joe!!"

So that alone should cinch the 2009 Tri Widow title for my wife, every tri widow puts up with the hours of training, the cranky tapers, and the families ‘where’s your spouse’? inquiries. But the first time Katie went to cheer me on for a Tri was on three hours sleep after a concert, during monsoon season here in New England!

That’s not enough? okay, then… How about the fact that I’m a card carrying member of the "just one more" club? When Katie and I first discussed my decision to Tri, it was a manageable schedule:

• Groton 10k
• Olympic Tri
• Harpoon B2B
• Trans NH Bike Ride
• Half Iron Tri

The schedule quickly grew:

• Groton 10k
• MS 100k Ride
• Olympic Tri
• Olympic Tri
• Harpoon B2B
• Trans NH Bike Ride
• Half Iron Tri
• Cigna 5k
• Mud Sweat N Gears Duathlon
• Manchester 1/2 Marathon
• 10k Turkey Trot

All through this Katie remained supportive, even if she was completely annoyed that I doubled the events we’d planned on.

After all the shirts I’ve earned this year, I think that Katie is a shoe in to win the TriWidow shirt for putting up with a husband who’s not quite right in his head!

Manchester Half Marathon

My day started with a trip over to Bagel Alley for a pre-race bagel with cream cheese. It was drizzling a little bit, but not enough to deter me from running.

Katie and I got up to Manchester about an hour before the race started. The biggest question was what to wear. There were people in ever conceivable clothing combination. I initially showed up in shorts, sweatshirt, and a wool hat. After walking around for a bit, I put on a warm running jacket since it was cold and damp from the mornings rain.

A quick loop around the block to warm up quickly revealed to me that running in anything other then a T shirt would have a negative effect on my run. So I found Katie and ditched my running jacket with her, but kept the light gloves with me to keep my hands toasty.

I knew most of the course from living in Manchester and I was looking forward to running around the old haunts.

I lined up about a quarter of the way back in the pack, and anxiously waited for the gun to go off. The gun went off, and I had to jog until the crowd thinned out. It thinned out pretty quickly, and I was able to get into my rhythm. For the first 4 miles I was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, checking my Garmin every 2 minutes to ensure that I wasn’t over pacing and going to blow up later on in the race. Once I passed the 4 mile mark I started to relax into the comfortable speed. There was a band right around the 3 or 5 mile mark that really picked up my spirits, I wish I could have stayed and just hung out with everyone partying on the sidewalk, but I had a couple more miles to run. The course weaved in and out of some residential neighbor hoods, and we got to see people raking, and cheering. Around mile 5 we ducked into Livingston Park for a short trail run. It was really nice to be on soft ground in the trees for a few minutes before bursting out to the crowd that had gathered at the first relay switch point. It was at this point I realized that I’d inadvertently paused my Garmin while pulling my gloves off. No big deal, Just meant my time/distance wouldn’t be accurate while running. As long as I maintained a 8 minute pace I’d be where I wanted to be.

Coming out of Livingston park we crossed the street, ran up and headed left up a slight hill. I ran with a guy doing the full for a couple miles, He was trying to qualify for Boston. Given his pace/age he was well on his way. We trudged up the steepest hill together, and then lost track of each other at the water station.

The last two mile were definitely the hardest. Climbing up Hanover St was grueling for me. As I crested the hill I could see downtown, and mentally I needed that. It was all downhill from here, just a short mile to the finish line! I wish I’d snapped a picture because it was a great sight. I maintained my pace to the last turn, and as soon as I got into the finishers chute I jet it all go, I could see the clock ahead of me and it said  1:44:50, my personal goal was to finish in 1:45:00. No way was I going to let 500 yards and 10 seconds be my downfall! I kicked hard, and only remember two things from finishing. First is my Garmin beeping at me to slow down! I have it set to beep if I break a 5 minute mile. The only other thing I remember is crossing the mats and getting a thermal blanket thrown around me as I was handed a medal.

I’m very pleased with my performance, I was exactly on pace, my final official time was 1:44:50. The real highlight of the day was Sushi after the race with Katie, Tasha, Aaron and Abby!

A few pics from a fall run

There’s nothing like running in the fall in New England

 

I passed a driveway that has a pair of lions protecting it

 

No Clouds, Nice colors, and some open road

 

This doesn’t really capture how perfect the canopy was over the road

 

8 miles of negative splits and I don’t even look that tired when did I become a runner?

Fall

It’s fall in New England.

Upgraded

I was able to upgrade to Windows 7 today. In rebuilding my machine I figured I would write up the list of applications that I installed with my rebuild.

• Firefox
• Who can live with out Firefox? Firebug is the first plug-in that I install.
• Thunderbird
• While I like having all my mail stored ‘in the cloud’ I also need to have access to it offline.
• Digsby
• Just started using Digsby on the recommendation of a co-worker. I was an Astra user before. Still getting used to it and it’s capabilities.
• Windows Live Writer
• The default offline blog editor of choice.
• Sport Tracks
• Workout tracking software. I really love this package, being able to correct GPS altitude with SRTM elevation data, create summary reports for week/month/year, and being able to modify a GPS path (if the Garmin didn’t lock up right away). All these things are key for me.
• ITunes
• Music management and phone stuff.
• Evernote
• Universal note taking and tagging from the web, phone and desktop! awesome and very useful for notes &reminders.
• Foxit Reader
• Just started using this instead of Adobe’s product. We’ll see how it goes.
• Flickr Uploadr
• Flickr’s photo uploader.
• Open Office
• Better then MS office? probably a little redundant since I have gears installed
• Google Gears
• Offline use of my google docs
• Chrome
• Gears works better with chrome, so I keep a copy on my drive.

Mud Sweat N Gears Duatholn

I completed the Mud Sweat N Gears Duathlon in 57 minutes 42 seconds. I was the fastest in my age group by 5 minutes! Overall I came in 9th, almost 10 minutes behind the first place finisher.

Katie and I got up in the morning, I threw together my stuff, put the Gary Fisher on the car and we headed down to Ashland. For some reason the GPS had us go all the way down to the pike, instead of just shooting us down 495. No big deal, the address was a little off, but we found the state park with no trouble. We parked, I pulled the bike down, and went and checked in. I pulled out the numbers for me and my bike, realized I left my race belt at home. No biggie, safety pinned my number to my shirt and stretched out a bit. I had a little panic when I thought I’d lost my timing chip, but luckily found it stashed safely in my helmet.

The Run
As the race started I seeded myself toward the back, which was a mistake. I quickly worked my way up in the 50 person pack, I glanced down at my Garmin and realized I was at a 6:00 pace… I quickly backed that down to a 7:00 so I wouldn’t blow up. The run loop was a nice trail run in Ashland state park. I didn’t feel like my run wasn’t anything spectacular, I actually thought I was a little slow. There wasn’t that much mud, the tails were all hard pack double track or fire roads. There were a few small pools of standing water, so of course I plowed right through them instead of running around ‘em.

The Bike

The bike course started out the same as the run, a quarter mile on the paved road then ducking into the trails. I hadn’t prepared properly for the bike section of the race, the only time I spent on my mountain bike this year has been in the driveway making sure it would roll, shift and brake. Shifting under load ended up being a slight problem, on my post ride inspection I saw that one of the teeth on the largest crank was chipped, which explained the chain not wanting to shift properly. I also had my tire pressure a little higher then I should, and my rear tire needs to be replaced. Even with all that I still managed to keep a pretty good pace. The other thing that was messing me up was switching over to flat pedals instead of being clipped in. It really showed me how much I pull up on my pedals, normally a good thing but when not clipped in. On my last loop through the course I didn’t know where the turn off was, luckily Katie was watching from there and yelled at me to turn in. I grabbed a fistful of brakes and tried to turn, I ended up laying down the bike on the ground. I recovered and got into the transition area. Hung up my bike on the rack and took off. Had to turn around when one of the race volunteers reminded me to take my helmet off!

Second Run
The last loop of the run course I was a little tired and sore. My mountain bike is small for me, so my back was tight, and my legs weren’t fully extending for the ride. I started off slow on the second leg of the run. I still felt slow, the garmin has me running a 8:01 minute mile, which sounds about right. By the last 1/2 mile I was feeling tired, all out effort for an hour will do that to you. As I was nearing the road I caught sight of a blue jersey a bout a hundred yards ahead of me. “No way am I catching them” was my first thought, but a couple seconds later I was moving closer up. At this point I realized that they weren’t bouncing up and down like a runner. As I neared them, it turned out to be a rider. I got up to her and paced behind her for a bit, I would I didn’t feel ‘right’ passing. I trailed her to the road, and came in for the finish. Turns out the women I passed was in the 60-64 year old category! She kicked ass, I love seeing people stay active that long, and do the same events that ‘us kids’ do. While waiting for the awards ceremony Katie and I wondered over to the finish to cheer her in as she finished in 1:26:55.

Wrap up
After putting the bike on the car and changing out of my race clothes, we went back to grab some food an drinks. They were just putting the results up, and I went over to look. I had to do a double take because my name was in the top 10. Then I went “There’s no one before me in my age group!” I had what I thought was a slow runs and bad bike, but there was my name with my time! I was very excited, I think it was a perfect way to end my inaugural multi-sport season!

I can see trying to work this into next years schedule, and getting Katie to do it. There’s only 2 hills that are hard, and you run the bike up both of them. FIRM does a great job with the race, I wish the course was a little better marked, but other then that it’s a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

Starting at One.

Utah Phillips described time as “a journalistic convenience” on “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere”, that quote has always stuck with me. I’ve been milling over ideas to keep my blog more active. I’ve come down to a rough schedule of ideas that should keep at least a post every other week coming out, until I get distracted by some shiny object.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of doing the Flickr 365 Day project, just looking for a convenient place to draw my starting line. Today seems like a decent enough ‘journalistic convenience’ it’s the first of October, and since we usually start counting at one I’ll start trying to post a minimum of 1 photo to the my new 365 project set. The photo isn’t an amazing photo, it’s just a snap shot of my desk at work. I always thought that if I was going to commit to doing a 365 day project that the first shot would be something amazing. I realized in thinking about this today that the first step isn’t the best or most amazing, but the most important.
So stay tuned for the next updates, and what else I have to say.

Half Iron

Eight months ago I couldn’t swim a lap in the pool, or sustain a run past a mile. I just completed my first Half Iron Man, which is 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of riding, and 13.1 miles of running. Thanks to the love and support of my wife, family and friends I have accomplished a goal that seemed unattainable at the beginning of the year. My overall time for the event was six hours and four minutes.

I got to Branbury state park at 6:45, 15 mnutes after the transition area opened. It wasn’t to crowded and I was able to set up in a good spot, first one in my row. I laid out my towel, bike shoes, running shoes, running hat and race belt. Double checked my bike, and then went back to the car to relax until the 7:45 pre-race meeting. I pulled my wetsuit on at 7:30, went down to the lake and swim about 75 yards to warm up, and shake the pre-race jitters. During the pre-race announcements my cheering section showed up. Katie found the lens case for my sunglasses, and I switched over from my clear lenses to a set of amber ones for the day. The race would start with 3 swim waves based on age/sex. The Bike route was out to route 7, and two loops then back to the state park. Running was an out and back course around the lake.

The Swim

After the pre-race announcements we all walked down to the water and lined up in 2 lines to cross the timing mats. The start was a wading start, and you weren’t allowed past your knees until the start of the race. I seeded myself toward the back and to the right of my wave. The race started and we were off. I felt pretty good heading out to the first buoy, even swam into a couple people on my way there. I rounded the first buoy and started heading toward the second buoy. The water was really clear, and not that deep so I could see the bottom for parts of the swim. This was really a nice thing since I wasn’t just staring into a black murky scene. I popped my head up to sight and make sure that I was on track, I wasn’t. The course paralleled the shore line, and I was swimming into the shore, and on the wrong side of the buoy. I corrected myself and headed down to the next buoy… same thing happened and I was to the inside of the buoy. As I neared the turn around buoy, I was still swimming inside the buoy, and almost ran into a couple swimmers who had already made the turn. I made the turn and headed back to the first buoy, only to continue to pull left and end up in on coming swimmers again. I spent a lot more energy then I needed to because of my poor sighting skills and probably added 500 yards to my swim due to bad lines. I made the second lap and then just had to head in, Still swimming a Z pattern instead of straight. I go to the last turn, and swam into shore. As I neared shore I was feeling pretty good. I spotted Cindy on the shore and asked her what my time was… 40 minutes. This was my best swim time yet, I had been 6 to 8 minutes slower on swims 550 yards shorter. I started pulling my wet suit off, and made my way to my bike.

The Bike

After getting out of my wet suit with out incident, I popped my bike helmet on, sun glasses, and race belt. I slipped one shoe on with out any trouble, then took a knee to get my second shoe on. I headed out to the start of the bike course, crossed the timing mats and got on my bike. I had forgotten to set my bike in an easier gear and was in my large chain ring. This caused a little wobble as I powered the pedals around. I quickly got my gears sorted out, and put my gloves on as I rode out to Route 7. Heading out to Route 7 I was strong. I passed a few riders, and got to the first right hand turn on to 7. It was a long slow climb up to the first turn around. I passed another couple riders, and made the first turn to head south on 7. The I noticed that there was a bit of a head wind. I’d guess in the 5-7 mph range and steady. The first trip down Route 7 with the head wind wasn’t to bad. I could fel it, but was still feeling pretty strong. I made the turn around, and flew back up. At the third turnaround I could feel the strength leaving my legs. I wanted to push harder, but couldn’t. I also was getting a pain in my sit bone. I’ve never had any issues with my saddle, but for some reason it decided to act up today. I pushed through the pain, made it back to the turn around, and into the transition area with a slower then expected pace.

There were a things of note on the ride. Firstly, a guy was doing the bike portion on a recumbent! He looked a bit silly, in my opinion, riding in a tri on a ‘bent, and to top matters off he had an aero helmet! I’m not sure what advantage he had with the helmet, and the inability to climb efficiently on a ‘bent. But I have to respect the guy for doing it, and he never passed me. Secondly, on the last leg of the ride I got passed. Not that surprising since I was pretty well toasted, and trying to save some energy for the run. The guy who passed me was on a 1980’s steel Cannondale, with flat pedals and sneakers! It was a little disheartening, but as he passed I noticed his shaved legs, and full on kit from a team. Okay, I can live with being passed by him

The Run

I got into T2 from my ride, successfully pulled my feet from the shoes while on the bike and rode in with my feet on top of my shoes. I wasn’t to happy with my performance on the bike, but still felt relatively fresh for the run. My transition wasn’t to bad, I did sit down to put socks on, I wasn’t about to run a half marathon without ‘em. No problems with T2, just in and out. I headed out for my run, and kept my pace at about a 9 minute mile, I could always keep some in reserve for a final push. The first 5 miles weren’t bad, just trucked along. Then I started to get a side cramp. I ran through the cramp for a bit but it wouldn’t go away. At about mile 7 a women ahead of me dashed into the woods for a ‘natural break’. Seeing her stop made me make the connection between the pain I had in my gut and the fact I’d been working out for about 5 hours and drinking lots of water. I stopped to take care of business and felt 80% better. By the time I made it to the turn around, I was pretty well cooked. I drank a couple glasses of water, popped a GU and trudged along. At this point I didn’t know just how hilly the course actually was, I just knew it was hilly. At looking at my GPS data, there was 300ft more of climbing on the run the the bike, and the run was only 13 miles, not 56. I hooked up with a nice guy around mile 10, where we talked a bit, and held a 11:15 pace. Had I been smart I would have just stayed along with him and finished 5 minutes sooner. After a mile of the 11:15 pace I was feeling good, so I pushed back up to a 9 minute mile, and quickly developed a side stitch. I got passed by the guy I was just running with, and I lost sight of him.

The best part of the run was that the aide stations were manned by high school kids. They dressed up as Pirates at a few, and one had a Mardi-Gras theme with beads and craziness. It was a great lift to the spirits to see them out there asking “Water? Heed? Gel?”

The Finish

I came into the finish to my family cheering and hollering, they even had cow bells! While my time isn’t amazing, it’s no small accomplishment given that in 8 months I’ve learned to swim and run. Coming into the finish, at the time I planned on, was an awesome feeling! I can’t wait to the next one, but I think I’ll do a couple things different. First off, I’m going to follow a plan, instead of just swiming, running, and biking a lot. I should be able to decrease my time significantly with that simple addition to my training. I’m also thinking that a tri-club would help me out, and point out things that I need work on… swim and run form, nutrition, run volume, etc. And the camaraderie will be nice to know people at the events.

Mill City Tri

Completed the second tri of my life today. I knocked 15 minutes off my time. I’m happy with my steady improvement,but still have a ways to go until I’m happy with my times and performances.

I woke up before my alarm, had some oatmeal and grabbed my transition pack. The Mountain smith bag is working out perfectly, I’ll continue to use it. As I was packing the bike onto the car Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” came on, perfect for the first song on a race day. The drive down to Lowell was unremarkable, I parked and checked in. Set up my transition area as before, and waited. I got in to early so I ended up with a fair amount of pre-race down time. I walked the transition area a few times, studied the water, and stretched. I used body glide on the neck line of my wetsuit this time, seemed to keep all the chaffing away.

My swim sucked, not as bad as last time. Katie let me know that there were 25 people in the water this time, instead of the 6 in Ashland. The river current was brutal, I ended up having to hang onto a life gaurds bouy to catch my breath 1/4 of the way through the course. The return trip was much better, with the current. I didn’t stop at all on the way back down. I am happy that I didn’t spend nearly the same amount of time on my back this time around. I got out of the water in about :43 miutes, a better time then last tri. I was pretty out of it going into T1. I actually felt light headed. When I bent down to pick up my socks I nearly fell over! I opted out of my socks for the bike, mainly becuase I didn’t believe I could stay vertical long enough to get them on, and my shoes. As I was leaving T1, I was taking the left onto the street, I thought I’d felt my cleat engage, but I was wrong. I went down as I tried getting my first stoke out. Not a banner start to my second tri. I was bloody, tired, and still had 26 miles of bike, and 6.2 of run left.

I regained my composure quickly on the bike, and was happily cruising at about 20 mph. After about 3 miles, I stopped quickly to see if a rider needed help, he was looking confused by his tire. Lucky for me he was running 650cc wheels and there was nothing I could do for him. I started back up and quickly got back on pace. About 8.5 miles in, I heard a rythmic thump. I thought it was the road at first, but half a mile later I heard the hiss of my tube blowing. Of course it was my rear wheel and not the front. Pulled over, swapped over the tube, and got back on my way. It felt like an enternity to fix my wheel,the reality is that it only took me 5 minutes. I got back up to pace, and finished out the bike with out any other problems. My favorite part of the race happened about 20 miles in. I was trucking along a nice flat road, and I spotted a rider in front of me. I looked and went “i’m passing him”. A quick changing of gears and I’m up to 25 mph. I was feeling strong. As I closed in, I notice he’s on a nice Cervelo. As I passed him I gave a cheerful “how ya doin’?” his reply as I passed him? “Not so good now…”

I got into T2, and was feeling pretty good. And this was where I made another mistake. instead of taking the minute to put on my nicely rolled socks, I opted out of them. I’m a fool, and a gluton for punishment. I’ve never run sockless, and probably won’t do that again. I made pretty good time, held an 8:20 pace for the 10k. I am paying the price for it tho, Two blisters on my arches, and one on my right foot!

Overall the course was awesome, I’ll try and work it into next years schedule. It’s a small tri, not a huge throng of people, so it’s manageable… and it’s close!

Trans NH Wrap UP

2009 Team DeRoche

It’s been a few days since the Trans New Hampshire bike ride, and I’m writing to thank all of you. With your help and support the ride raised $137,600! Katie and I personally raised $1895! This year we only had 101 riders, which means the average amount raised by rider was about $1300, in this economy it’s an amazing thing I can’t thank you all enough.

The ride started out on Friday morning. We trucked up to the Canadian border, and got prepped for the first 100 miles. I ended up at the front of the group to start, and averaged 23MPH to the first rest stop. This was a little faster then I’d been planning, so I stopped and waited for the rest of Team DeRoche to show up. We re-grouped and went off from the second stop with out incident. A few hours later, we had our first mechanical problem of the day. One of our team’s bike was making a bad noise. We flagged down the race mechanic and on the side of the road his bike was taken apart and fixed. Only 3 of us stayed while the rest of our group, 12 in total, rode up to the next rest stop. The next rest stop was being run by Katie. As I pulled into the rest stop Katie yelled out from her sandwich station “Riding a little slow today aren’t ya hun?”. A little later on we were riding out of Whitefield and had a small crash. The rider in front of me slowed, and I crossed wheels with him, the sent me across the road into the rider behind me. I stayed up, but the rider behind me wasn’t so lucky. Minor damage to the bike, and a couple small scrapes on the rider. His front tire popped, so we fixed his flat and continued uneventfully on. My average moving speed for day 1 was 19.2 mph.

I think Teagan's favorite toy is his wheelchair!

That evening was a spaghetti dinner at the Littleton Fire Department. Pasta, salad and cake. Teagan had come up to see the riders, and spoke at the dinner. As his mother was telling the story of Teagan being diagnosed with MD, she was understandably getting choked up. Teagan looked up at her and said “Don’t be sad mommy”. The courage that Teagan has is amazing. The next morning we were all getting up and Teagan was flying around the parking lot in his wheel chair. I think he had a permanent smile on his face the entire time he was up there.

We woke up the next morning and assembled out in the parking lot. The Littleton Fire Department gave us an escort to the town line and we were off. We hung back from the front to avoid the diesel fumes. At the third stop we remembered a nice sweeping S curve in Monroe. So I took a quick stop and hammered on down to the curve with one other rider, to position ourselves to snap some pictures of the rest of the group. I have some great pictures from Day 2, unfortunately I left my camera at the Fireside Inn in Lebanon, so I’m waiting for UPS to deliver it to me. Day 2 was nice, it stayed mostly dry. Right before the last big climb in Hanover, the sky opened up and we had a nice lightening show. Climbing in the rain wasn’t bad since it generates a lot of heat. Descending was cold thanks to the 20+mph we bombed down the slick roads at. My average on day 2 was 19.1 mph so another decent day on the bike.

Once we got into Lebanon I changed into my running gear and spent 35 minutes on the treadmill. You wouldn’t believe some of the looks I got after riding 75 miles and jumping directly on the treadmill. It felt good to run after riding for two days. We hung out at the hotel and some played ping pong, and we all drank a couple beers before dinner. Dinner was an amazing chicken and rice dinner. After the dinner we had the presentation of jerseys. Every member of Team DeRoche received a new jersey for raising over $1200. After the jersey presentation we retired back to the picnic tables for some more beer and laughter.

The profile from Day 3

On Day 3 Katie was the first rest stop, before “George’s Hill”. Day 3 is probably the hardest and most fun day of the three. There’s a lot of climbing on tired legs, the first 25 miles we climb 1200 feet. Then it’s just a high speed burn to Concord since from mile 25 to 55 we decent the 1200 feet we climbed. There’s two sections of day 3 that we just let it all hang out and ‘play’. By play, I mean we hammer hard, 40% of the ride I was above 23 mph chasing and being chased by some rather strong riders and good friends.

riding in with the other 102 riders

After we regroup at a Concord Fire station, we parade over to the Rundlett Middle School for a BBQ and to meet up with family and friends who have come up for the finish.

I know there’s a lot that I’m leaving out. There is no way to truly capture the spirit and community of the ride. The only way to understand why this is a staple in my summer, and why friends fly in from California, Illinois and Texas to come ride 250 miles through rain, cold and heat that is only available in New Hampshire, you’ll have to come out and do the ride one year!

Thanks again for all you support!

Joe