HH100 2nd edition & A Sag Wagon Tale

For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to post more pics, so I had to start another post for the rest of them...oh well...the learning curve is kind of long.


Sandra, Dainon and our great volunteers

Jesse tubbing it while flirting with anything female that walked by.

Chillin like Villans at the motel lobby

Race Report for the Hotter'n Hell 100K women's road race:

When I woke up at 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning, I was pouting. I was soooo tired from working and standing all day on my feet the day before. We didn't even get back to the motel until midnight! I taped my eyelids open so that they wouldn't shut on me and showed up at the start line around 6:45 am. (15 min. before my race.) At that time, it was already 85 F. My friend Michelle, showed up just after I did and as we were talking, her rear tire went flat. Bummer. There weren't neutral wheels, so she had to turbo back to her car to put on her rear training wheel with 10 minutes before the start of the race. I told Michelle that I would just hang out in the back until she caught back on. Well, the 17 racers of the Women's Cat1-3 field started just before the sun came up. (17 is the normal number for a road race in this part of the country.) I was in fact happy to hang out in the back because all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. After about an hour, I hear Michelle next to me saying that she was warmed up. Wow, she did a whole hour time trial. By that time, I'd finally woken up and decided to go to the front and do some pulling. The second sprint line was coming up around mile 39. By this time, I was getting bored, and I knew Michelle was o.k. and had been able to rest for a few miles, so I figured to start some trouble. After the sprint point, everyone sat up to catch their breath and for the group to get back together. At this exact moment is when I attacked from the left. I felt fine, until I turned South and the wind just smacked me. (I was having nasty flash backs of Nature Valley.) When the group caught me, this rider came too close to my rear wheel and her front skewer lever went into my rear wheel. I felt a tug and my bike jerked a little and I heard a "ping". Oh man! When pulling her bike off of mine, not only did she break a spoke, but bent the rim a little. That ended my race, but not the adventures! I rode slowly for about a mile when I came upon Ron, a triathlete that was doing the men's 4 race. He had gotten a flat tire in his Zipps. After lamenting that our races being cut short sucked, the Junior's wheel truck passed us and I waved them down. Both Ron and I threw ourselves and our bikes in the back of the pick-up. Well, there's a first for everything, and this was my first to take the sag wagon. At least I had great company along the way. I would suggest to any sag wagon to have a cooler with martinis and margaritas in the back of it, especially if it's over 95F.

Hotter 'n Hell 100

At 5:25 a.m. Alver and I showed up at Sean's house to pick both he and Dainon up before heading over to Wichita Falls where we were to meet all the others from Plano Cycling & Fitness for the Hotter'n Hell Hundred. We all met at 8:30 a.m. infront of the Wichita Falls Convention Center to set up the dog and pony show for the weekend long expo.
This year the HHH lived up to its name. The day of the ride, Saturday, had a scorching high of 108. It was so hot and there were so many ambulances being called out that the County of Wichita Falls called the ride short. So, if you didn't get to Hell's Gate by 10:30 (or somewhere around that time), you were rerouted straight back to Wichita Falls, making the ride around 75 miles. I ended up doing the Women's Cat1-3 RR instead of the ride. (Race Report to follow.)
I also want to say a huge "Thanks" to all of the great volunteers that came out to help PC&F at our booth this year.


Drinking it up at On The Border after a long day! Man, we needed it!


Ladies sifting through the great deals

Sean and Alver discussing something oh so important


13,000 participants signed up for the HHH



The calm before the storm

Jannelle's Wedding

Nancy, Aprill, Me, Jannelle at the reception. We're all shiny from the sweltering heat.

Jannelle and her Dad (below)

My long time forever friend of 20 years got married last weekend in Lake Jackson, TX, which is down South of Houston. It was just so surreal seeing her get married. It means we're really grown up. I was much more nervous before the wedding than Jannelle was. While we were all getting ready for the ceremony, I asked her if she had any tequila with her we could take shots with. I also told her it wasn't too late to run away. Jannelle just sat there so calm about it all. When we were lining up to walk in, I began sweating like crazy and my nerves were going crazy! Not to mention I was sweating because it was Houston in August!

O.K. So this is the first time that I've posted pics and I haven't quite figured out the editing part yet.

Yesterday I finally bought a digital camera, so pics will be on the way as soon as I figure out how to use the camera.

On the road again...

"Country road, take home, to the place where I beloooong..." O.K., I-10 might not be considered a country road, but it does go through some desolate parts of the Country. Last Sunday evening my brother, Sean, flew into San Jose to drive back to Texas with me. It didn't take much persuasion on my part. (Personally, I think he did it because he forgot my birthday back in March, and so felt like he had to make it up to me. Who really wants to spend 28 hours in a truck?) We drove away from Aptos, CA this past Monday at o'dark-thirty. (3:54 a.m. to be exact) I wanted to get over the grape vine on the 5 before the heat of the day because with 160,000 miles on my truck, I was nervous about it overheating. Luck was on our side, and my truck ran great with the a/c working. 16 hours after we started, we drove into Demming, N.M. If you've never been to Demming, don't go. You're not missing anything. Earlier that day, El Paso had a deluge of 8.5 inches and I-10 flooded. State Troopers were turning people back in Las Cruces. If the water didn't go down, we would've had to drive 1 full day out of our way to get over to Texas. Ugh! We finally found a vacancy at the Stage Coach Motel. It was the kind of motel you wouldn't want to stay in by yourself. As Sean and I were watching the news in the musty dank room, he asked me if I'd seen the goth looking guy that came out behind a curtain in the lobby. I told him that I had seen the guy and he was more psycho killer-ish than goth. We made sure the door was triple locked. Luckily, the water receded back into the Rio Grande and the next morning I-10 was opened. The drive was thankfully uneventful. It feels good to be back home in Texas!

San Francisco Marathon- an athlete's lesson

Last Sunday, I was so inspired, it blew me off my feet. It made me realize that there's more to an athletic event other than being competitive and having that serious game face and mentality.

Last February, my good friend Azeen told me that she had signed up to raise money for AIDS research and education, but the catch was that she was going to run a marathon at the end of July. I only half believed her. When we were house mates, I would be leaving for a run, and she'd be sitting outside smoking her 3rd cigarette of the day. I took her once to the "Y" to swim laps with me, but I think she made it across the pool and back 5 times within 30 minutes. Needless to say, I didn't know whether or not to take this marathon business seriously. Well, a couple of months later, she was still sticking to the running routine and had stopped smoking. I told her the beginning of June that I would come watch her do her first marathon and even run the last 5 miles with her.

On July 30th I was up at 3:30 a.m. to drive 4 runners down to the start line. Our other friend, Monica, had driven into SF as well to cheer on Azeen. We went to the 12th mile marker to cheer for all of the runners and as we were standing there, an official mentioned that the 1st place person had just finished. Azeen had given us an estimated time of when she would be at all the mile markers, and she was close to schedule for the 12th mile. She came by and Monica and I whooped and hollered with huge grins on our faces. Azeen came by us with a big smile on her face. Shortly there after, the Sag wagon came by. The Sag wagon was driving along at a 6 hour marathon pace. Once the Sag wagon went by, all the baracades came up and the volunteers left the course. The streets were opened back up to traffic. I have to admit that I had never hung around any sort of running race to see what it is like in the back. It really opened my eyes. So many participants were thanking Monica and I for being out there early in the morning to watch them. Even though many of them looked like they were hurting, they were still thanking us. When I'm having a bad race and am hurting, the last thing I would think of to do is thank the spectators. What I really want to tell them is to stop yelling for me, I feel awful, probably have spit and snot all over my face, it's such a horrible race, just go away! It made me realize that even though these people in the very back weren't feeling great, they were still having a good time.

Then, Monica and I drove over to the 21 mile marker after finally getting some coffee around 11:30 am. We sat at the 21 mile marker looking at our watches every 5 minutes. The time for Azeen to pass had come and gone. The Sag wagon had also come and gone. The street was opened up to traffic and we were still sitting on the sidewalk cheering on marathoners. Some we even had to show which way to go because all of the cones were picked. Monica and I began to get worried, 40 minutes had passed from the designated time Azeen said she would be there. Next thing we knew, we saw someone that looked like Azeen turn the corner. We started yelling her name at the top of our lungs and jumping up and down. Here she came, with a grin. The first two things she said to me was, "I'm finishing this." and "Jane, I'm walking up the hills and don't say anything about it!" I fully understood her. I had been there before, completely bonked with nothing left in me. We all ran/walked the last 5 miles together. I was awed by Azeen's dedication and heart to finish the marathon. We were walking along side walks and having to wait for the walk signals to get across the streets. When she went through the finish line, Monica and I were so proud of her! Azeen taught me to keep going. Even when I know I'm out of the race, stop pouting, keep grinning and keep going all the way to the finish. I'm not sure what her marathon time was, and frankly I don't think it matters. Afterwards, Azeen started talking about doing a half in October in San Jose. I just grinned and gave her a big hug.