The 2009 Walt Disney World Marathon

I'm officially signed up for the Walt Disney World Marathon. The race is being held on Jan 11th, 2009 at Walt Disney World, Florida. My training for the 26.2 mile run started few months ago but was unfortunatley cut short due to a minor bike accident. I have been undecided as to my participation since the accident. I've been thinking a lot about it lately and I've decided to give it a shot. It's sure to be the most physically challenging thing I've ever done but it's one of those things I've always wanted to do.

It's not just the lack of training that will be working against me though. I'm planning on participating in a 50 mile endurance mountain bike ride (The WT 50) on Jan 10th, the day before the marathon. Not only will I be short on my training but I'll be starting the race fresh out of an exhausting endurance ride. I've decided that I'll probably end up running only half (13.1 miles) of it and walking the rest. I know I could run a half marathon right now. I'ts the whole marathon that scares me. By reducing the number of running miles I've made my goal seem more attainable.

Wish me luck!!!

Click here to see the course map.

This event has now been added this to my event schedule. Stay tuned for results.

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New World Record!

I've set a new World Record! I know, I can't believe it either. On Sunday, Dec 14th I rode 40 miles at Boyette. "How is this a world record?", you might ask. Well, You're in luck. I'm going to tell you. Never before in the history of the world have I ridden 40 miles, so that makes it a world record. Isn't that great?!? Now if you'll excuse me I have the Guinness Book of world Records on the phone for verification and then I'm due at the studio for a photo shoot.

All kidding aside, I really did ride 40 miles at Boyette on Sunday. I hadn't been able to ride my bike for almost 4 weeks due to a frame failure. After getting the new frame Friday afternoon I headed out for a 10 mile ride with Luis. I hadn't had time to "dial in" the bike yet so Luis had quite a few suggestions for me including the seat fore/aft adjustment and fork adjustments.

Putting all the adjustments off until late Saturday night I headed out to the garage at about 11:00pm. I slid the seat back a bit, set the sag according to FOX's suggestions, adjusted my specialized ergonomic grips, and swapped the cleats on my shoes to get more float.

We hit the trails at 8:00am Sunday morning. Everything was moving along smoothly until I came up to a sharp turn and tried clipping out. Apparently the difficulty required to clip out increases when the cleats are swapped to provide more float. Who knew? Needless to say I didn't get clipped out soon enough. This mistake resulted in my left cheek giving the ground a big ol smooch.

About 10 miles into the ride my spokes picked up a stick. I glanced down for a split second to check it out. The instant I raised my head my left shoulder slammed into the remains of a fallen yet trimmed tree. This instantaneously thew me to the ground. My arms went sliding into a palmetto bush, my upper right leg met a broken branch, and my shin rode up some part of the bike (Not sure what part). This was quite a painful and bloody experience (see slide show for the blood). Luckily nothing too serious happened. I hopped back on the bike, caught up with everyone else and continued the ride.

We rode quite a bit of the quadrants and unfortunately during the longest section I started having blood sugar issues. I was right on Wayne's tire and I didn't want to loose the group. At the same time I knew I wasn't going to make it to the end of the section without eating anything. I decided I was going to attempt to retrieve the Cliff bar that was in the rear pocket of my Jersey. After several attempts and a few close calls I managed to get it. I took a few bites and things started to come back into focus again. Crisis averted!

The rest of the ride went without incident. I even had a pleasant surprise waiting for me up our return to the parking lot...BEER.

A Few Notes:

• I need to figure out how to get food in front of me and readily available. I can't afford blood sugar issues on the trail.
• I had a lot of chafing from my "form fitting" shorts. Get some chamois butter.
• Even with the ergonomic grips my hands were still going numb. Ask around and see what others are doing for this.

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The New Ride

I'm a bit late posting this as I got the new ride on Friday. So, without further delay...Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with my greatest plesure that I present the newly redesigned, 1hp, 2009 Gary Fisher Pargon. 

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One piece at a TIME

My TIME Atac XS Carbons came in last night.

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New Element Found

New Element Found

 Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest

 element  yet known to science.

 The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25

 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant

 deputy neutrons,  giving it an atomic mass of 312.

 These 312 particles are held together by forces called

 morons, which  are surrounded by vast quantities of

 lepton-like particles called peons.

 Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however,

 it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with

 which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium

 can cause a reaction that  would normally take less than a

 second, to take from 4 days to 4 years  to complete.

 Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does

 not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a

 portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons

 exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will

 actually increase over time, since each reorganization will

 cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes..

 This characteristic of morons promotion leads some

 scientists to  believe that Governmentium is formed whenever

 morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical

 quantity is referred to as critical morass.

 When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes

 Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy

 as Governmentium, since it  has half as many peons but twice

 as many morons.

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Almost there

It's now officially been over 3 weeks since I lost my bike due to frame failure. I've posted several times about frustrations and concerns that I've had regarding the new G2 geometry being used with a standard 38mm offset fork as well as the headset oversight. You'll notice that I've removed those posts and I'll explain why later.

I've spoken at great lengths with Paul from Ryder Bikes as well as a few people from Trek Bicycle Corporation about my frustrations and concerns. I made my argument and Trek made their argument, but I believe it was Paul's feedback that ultimately helped us come to an agreement. After all was said and done I was very impressed with how both Ryder Bikes and Trek handled the situation. I may not be very happy about the length of time I've been unable to ride but I'm very happy knowing that my LBS and OEM have my back.

Taking into consideration the manner in which this situation was ultimately handled I decided to remove the posts in which I stated my concerns and frustrations. I am a Fisher fan through and through and they definitely took care of me. Heck, I'm a riding billboard for them. Look at my tattoos. The first one is obviously the Gary Fisher logo. The second is tire tread from a Bontrager Jones XR 29er tire. The third is the "Man's Best Friend" guy that comes on a sticker located under the front derailleur of their bikes.

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Curtlo goes Big Tyme

Big Tyme isn't just a name for this guy. It's a description. No really, he's 6'11. I grew up with him in Spokane and I remember when I was a lot taller than he was. That didn't last long though. He shot past me his softmore year of high school and yes, he plays basketball. Ballin aint the only thing he does though. He enjoys long walks on remote hiking trails, romantic candle lit dinners, and mountaing biking. That's right, mountain biking.Unfortunatley for him there aren't many bikes that fit too well. What is a GIANT to do?, you might ask. I'll tell you what a GIANGANTIC 6'11 dude does for a bike. He does what any other GIANT 6'11 mountain biker would do. He ordered a custom built Curtlo. Now he just had to hurry up and wait. 

Big Tyme just started a new blog. Check it out. There isn't much there yet but once he gets his curtlo I'm sure he'll be filling it up quick.

http://bigtymerider.blogspot.com/

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Thanksgiving Beercation

My 2008 thanksgiving vacation was spent up in snowy Erie, Pa. Theresa, Tam, and I kicked off our beercation with a - that's right - a beer. We hit up the margarita bar at the airport for a 7:00 am Sam Adams. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the trip. The first item of business upon arriving in Erie was to...that's right..crack a beer. After visiting with some friends we headed over to Theresa's family's house and...yup...cracked another beer.

As much as I would love to say that it was all about the beer, it really wasn't. The beer played a big role but the main focus of the trip was family. We spent most of the time hanging with Theresa's family with the occasional escape to friends houses.

The last day of vacation I was talked into cross country skiing. I wasn't sold on the idea at first as I had never before been skiing. After a moment of weakness I agreed and got clipped into the two waxed sticks of death. The trail head was located on a very small yet terrifying hill. I managed to glide right down before taking off on the nicely groomed trails. After stumbling around for a few hours we headed back to the lodge for a break and a...you guessed it...a beer. With a little liquid courage in me I headed back out to get a few good falls and some new bruises in before calling it quits. What a blast. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not mountain biking, but, it was a good substitute considering the circumstances. Below is a slide show of the trip. Enjoy.

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