Final Race(s) of the season

I wish I had some witty or funny remarks to make fun of some people on the whole interweb thingy, but not this time.  This time its a wrap up from my last race and a half of the season.  Not that coming in an hour after the leaders is much of a race report, but a finish is a finish.

The last race was the point to point race in Wilkesboro, Shriners Run. 

38 miles of fun.  I wont bore you with all the details, but I put forth a personal effort this time not to just be content to finish.  I actually had bouts of "racing" and not just cruising along. Could have I gone faster? Probably, I made the mistake of not checking my bike the night before as I did emergency repairs to tighten lose spokes last minute.  Also, a fast slow leak (yeah, you read that right) required the stopping every 45 minutes to put air in the tire that wouldn't hold air.  And I was to lazy to put the intertube in.  If you need to know one thing about Wilkesboro trails, its your tires need air because the berms require it, otherwise your wheels sounds like a dying beaver when you try to corner.

Like I said, not trying to bore you with details, but I put forth effort, happy with the time considering the circumstances, and learned a few more things. Enough said

And finally, my last half race (I did say race and a half at the beginning in case you werent paying attention) was the annual tricycle race at work.  This is a charity event in which my company over the course of a month raised about 1.2 million dollars between employees and company match.  Whats funnier than one adult size person riding a tricycles.  37 teams of 4.

I'm still working on the video, but we were the "Avengers".  If your going to ride a trike, might as well give the half assed effort for dressing up in a costume.

Photo cred: Sarah

I had to work it up for the crowd.  Thats Captain America behind me (originally from Ghana), but thats part of the fun.

Working on editing the video of the GoPro while on the trike, I can give you a hint of things to come, lot of crotch shots.

Maybe I should keep the wings on the helmet too...might make me faster, just a thought.

Fun on Three Wheels

Since I work for a company that deals with a lot of non-profit universities and hospitals all of the employees are encouraged to give back to the community. This year I have volunteered to mentor a young student at one of the local elementary schools. I figure this will be a good learning experience for me to help some underprivileged child in some way since I always had everything I needed growing up. This will be one of my first times donataing a significate amount of my time instead of my money to help others in need. But don't worry, I also decided to donate my money as well to a national 501c 3 corporation (you know the kind where you get the write off). This years donations is going to IMBA or the International Mountain Bike Association. They build trails, help advocate bikeing as a healthy lifestyle, and also have some pretty sweet perks if you want to take advantage of them. The reason why I keep rambling on and on about volunteering is to lead up to this....the employee giving campaign in which the company will match dollar for dollar up to (I believe its) 1.2 million dollars for charity has an annual tricycle race. This is the 3rd year in which I entered it. The first year I helped win the trophy.

I couldn't find the picture of the trophy, but here is me from the first year. The goggles make me more aerodynamic. Last year the team got knocked out in the quarter finals.

But this year I wanted a little more than a picture, and got a little creative. Take a look at how easy we got out of the first round. The format is a 4 person team, 2 male, 2 female and you ride then switch riders. You will get the idea after watching the video. I am the 2nd rider. YOu see how fast we got past the other teams? Thats skill. And here is where it went wrong in the quarter finals. Although it would have been nice to win the trophy again, it was all for fun (mostly) and all for a good cause.