Running Race

I have never lost a running race in my region, and the streak continued this past weekend....
When I run it hot I morph into the Cheetah, the fastest animal on the planet. At times I am the Cheetah when it really gets going in my local races....

This past weekend I won our local Running Race here in town near my Estate property. My fitness is really coming around and even if I have been focusing more on Cycling then Running, I was happy to produce the winning run in the race!

I have never lost a running event in this region and I do not plan on letting this streak go down easily.

I produced a pace of 5:49 for each mile, with my overall time at 18:04 into a steady head wind. I was gunning for a respectable time near 17:00 for the 5K.

One thing for sure is I can run it hot......... White Hot if I have to........... And when I throw it down on the other locals in these running events I have to run it HOT!

FINALLY!!!

I have been waiting so very long to witness a California Mountain Lion in the wild, and it finally happened!! The California Mountain Lion is the undisputed king of our forests, and my dream to view one up close finally came true.

I was on a road bike ride with my friend Kestrel in the mountains of my rural Mendocino county town. We were on a gentle downhill when suddenly at about 150 feet in front of us the giant cat jumped out into the center of the road. Kestrel kept riding toward it as if there was no reason to alter our course. Maybe he was not thinking this creature in front of us can kill us both!

My keen sense and eye sight knew instantly it was the deadly California Mountain Lion I had been waiting to contact. I was like, "here we go.....here we go!". The Puma looked over, made eye contact, and then pounced up the embankment in a single leap displaying its raw power, A big roost of dirt was shot up in the air from its 3 inch claws ripping at the dirt.

Kestrel looked back at me and said "deer..huh?" I shot back, "what?' I could have slapped him for clearly missing the rare, elusive cat I have been tracking for most of my lifetime.

I feel much more complete as a human, and a true outdoors-man after such a long time wanting to fill my vision with this wonderful cat and having it finally go down for real.

Napa X-Country Racing

Lots of action went down in this popular Californian Epic event! The weather was scorching hot and so was the competition.

I put in a big effort in this race and was running in the top 3 range in the 35+ Expert division, only to come unglued in the last mile. Yes the last mile of the 30 mile course. Two riders passed me in that last mile and I went from 4th to 6th place in the end, one spot off the podium. Those passes hurt, especially when those two riders finished 5 seconds and 20 seconds in front of me on the finish line. However it was very promising to be finding my form with many more races still to come on the 2009 calender. My division had this year's National MTB Champion in the group, as well as many other notable Nor-Cal top guns, and I was running up front for most of the 30 mile test. My best is still to come!!

I set up my GT Dirt Coalition tent next to Chris Horton from Sacramento. We doubled up the tents and gave GT a great impact for the masses of MTB enthusiasts who were on hand for the event. Chris represented the GT Dirt Coalition well with a 1st place in the Sport division. Congratulations to Chris on his fine ride! Also, it was cool to hang out with a team mate after the race and throw down some beer and share stories about the day.

It Is On This Weekend~

My white helmet matches my white legs perfectly. Good thing the GT Dirt Coalition Team kit has some white too, now I am ready to roll....

I will be going into action this weekend at the Howell Mtn Challenge MTB event. This Cross Country race is 30 miles of shredding single & double track trails, and all kinds of climbing and desending. My GT is up to the test and the bike just looks at me as if begging to be put to use. Am I on drugs...?? or is my sweet GT Carbon Zaskar gazing at me and talking to me-- telling me to get off my butt and on top of the saddle for some hard core racing~