Sunday 7s: Dec 27

1) Last Sevens of the year. New year starts on Friday. I'm not much of  a New Year's guy. This year, we leave early on Friday morning for a tournament in Charlotte, so New Year's will be low key-- much like it is every year for me.

2) Christmas was grande around here. It involved some driving, but saw lots of the family and especially excited to see the kiddos.

• Weird weather: I've been wearing shorts the last few days. And just a tee shirt. Highs in the 70s the last few days.
• We've also had lots of rain. Got a break today and yesterday, but last week was basically a lot of rain.
• Brother, Ang, made it in from Oregon on a last minute decision. We weren't expecting to have him around, so it was good for him to be able to make it home for us. I know he was happy to be around the family also.
• We rocked Scrabble and laughs late into the night. It was fun. I lost because I had nothing but vowels. 

3) I ran in the 2nd Reindeer Run, hosted by North alum Ryan Jones to benefit the Jones Family Scholarship. Last year, it rained. This year, it rained. But it was a good time. I ran 26:28. I had three wrestlers also run, but they all beat me. Great turnout by North Henderson faculty and alumni.

4) I still have yet to figure out what exactly Boxing Day is. Happy Kwanza and Festivus to everyone else though.

5) We got a group ride in on Tuesday. Thought we were going to get rained out, but the rain held off long enough for nine of us to hit the trails. The route we rode was Spencer Gap, Fletcher Creek, back to Spencer Branch and the bottom of Fletcher Creek again. Brian fell, being his first ride clipless, and dislocated his shoulder. He had to walk out. Shawn dressed up as Santa. That's no lie; photos below to prove it.

6) I miss being around my wrestling team. I am thankful for a time of mental rest and recovery. We are back at it on Tuesday. Congratulations to Brandon Johnson for being the WNCAC Defensive Player of the Year and, announced this week: Times News Defensive Player of the Year and Citizen Times All WNC Team. Jacob Garrett made the Times News team and was honorable mention for All WNC.

7) NFL is close to ending it's regular season. 

• Dolphins will once again be home for the playoffs and played inspired today.
• Why would you not give the ball to Tom Brady in OT, Bill?
• Panthers lost, which I argue is good. Too much pressure being undefeated and they are still in control of their destiny for homefield advantage.
• I think Arizona is really, really dangerous. Don't overlook them.
• I hope the story on Manning and PEDs is not true.

Ride across Iowa

Last week, some friends and I made the dash across Iowa on our bikes as part of RAGBRAI XXXIX. It was challenging, entertaining, enlightening and unforgettable. The riding was easy. Seriously. The heat and sun were challenges and getting to the host towns and trying to find your bag to set up camp were the hardest parts for me.



Iowa is a great setting for an event like this. The people are so accommodating and every community pulled out the stops to host over 10,000 bikers. Including support crew and vendors, some overnight towns welcomed nearly 20,000 people to their homes, schools, parks and other public places. Our overnight towns ranged in size from 6,000 people to 17,000-- so welcoming all these guests was a logistical terror. But I felt like they did their best. And then there were the towns we passed through during the daily routes. Some counted their population in mere hundreds, yet they did so much within their limited resources to host thousands of hungry, thirsty, tired and sometimes cranky riders. For just one day. Then they went back to being Griswold, population 940.



I would definitely do the ride again. The rest of the team (outside Steve and Baron), I'm not so sure. I think they'd do it again with some stipulations: fully supported (preferably an air conditioned RV), more sunscreen, perhaps 2 way radios and something garnishings our helmets. It was definitely a treat to see so many different walks of people with different styles and levels of equipment and ability all participating in this event.


And the kindness. The people I met were for the most part unequivocally kind-- whether it was a fellow rider, a new friend in camp, a vendor or a local and their water/pie/melon stand. Everyone was genuinely kind and grateful. That's the other thing, the people of the communities were grateful for our presence. Sure, they profited off the riders, but I felt a gratefulness that we were visiting them in their towns. They were small towns with little other than a Main Street, water tower, grain elevator, bar/restaurant, post office and sometimes a school and/or bank but the residents were extremely proud of their homes. That, I can respect.

Missouri

I haven't looked it up, but I think "Missouri" is French for "misery". The last few days were easily among the hardest of the trip.

First, the temperatures have been near record. Triple digits for the last three days. And I've entered humidity, so the heat index has been as high as 115. Even riding at 6:00 AM, while better, is the beginning of A LOT of fluid loss. Somehow, I put in 90 miles on a day where my on bike thermometer read 108.7.

Second, the terrain is tough! The hills are steep and abundant. I was told that Missouri was tough, but I didn't realize how hard it was. For the first time during the trip, I pushed my bike. In the Rockies, I stopped and rested, but never pushed. This grade I estimate to be 13-15 percent and I had not legs and too much weight.

Third, I haven't encountered any canines until Missouri (not including the grey wolf crossing the highway in West Yellowstone and the red fox I spotted near Tribune, KS). In one day, I was chased by four dogs. I don't think any were serious about biting, but still not fun. Two pit bulls cornered me because I happened to stop for a break across from their house.

Not to say everything about Missouri is bad:

Missouri is home to the Katy Trail, which I believe is America's longest rails to trail. It runs from over 220 miles from St. Charles (near St. Louis) to Clinton on the west side of the state. I took it from Sedalia to Boonville, about 45 miles. It's scenic, there's no traffic, relatively flat and takes you through small towns that cater to the trail. I'm still waiting for our trail to get built between Hendersonville and Brevard.

I got to visit with Laura Alexander Page, a great friend from high school. She and her husband, Tyler, work for the University of Missouri and came to Boonville and picked me up so I could spend a day with them in Columbia. We had great pizza at Shakespeare's, took naps and went to a cookout.


In Gerald, Missouri, I camped outside the fire station. They called the police chief for permission for me to camp in the city park. The chief said he would come over to talk to me and never showed. So they told me to camp outside the station (which was right next to the park). It was fine, except even with the fly doors open, I could not sleep because it was so hot and muggy.

Farmington is where I got back on the Transamerica Trail. There's a bike hostel there in their old jail. They renovated the upstairs and created one of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in. It's dedicated to Al Dziewa, a local businessman and cycling enthusiast who lost a battle with cancer. It had clean sheets, laundry, air conditioning, internet, clean baths and secure bike storage. No attendant, you just call the police department for an access code and put a donation in the cash box upstairs. And there were other bikers to share stories and enjoy one another's company. Lots of cities could take a nice lesson from Farmington.

Here's a link to an AJC article about Al's Place.

What the derailleur!?

I had my worst bike damage today. And the sad thing is, there's no cool story to go with it. I wasn't jumping a ledge, I did not bunny hop a Sasquatch or anything like that. I was rolling slowly, waiting on some friends, when I hear a crack and my rear tire comes to a quick stop.

Apparently, a small stick (really just a skinny twig) got kicked into my rear derailleur. The stick got caught in the spokes which pulled the derailleur up and into the spokes also. The derailleur got caught in the spokes and was yanked around about 180 degrees from its normal position.

Luckily John had his tool kit. We broke the chain, making my bike a single speed. We did not have a knife to cut the derailleur cable, so used Wendy's watch strap to secure the derailleur to the frame so I could ride out. Wow, in all the years I owned this bike, this was the single worse incident to the bike (there have been several incidents the bike came out better than the rider).

In all, I'll have to replace the derailleur hanger, purchase a new chain and true that back wheel. I think the derailleur might be salvagable. If not, that's a new derailleur. Really, it could have been a lot worse. Now, here's a great photo of John at Grassy Creek Falls studying the map of Dupont.

The Gain of Pain

So yesterday, my friend Matthew and I went for a mountain bike ride in Bent Creek. We ended up deciding to ride the Greenslick trail, especially since they had just done some maintenance on it the previous weekend. We rode Laurel Branch Rd until it connected with Sidehill Trail. Laurel Branch, though double track, is quite a spin to get to the intersection of Sidehill and Greenslick. From there, Sidehill is a long, continuous climb to Ingles Field Gap and Boundary Road and then another 1.2 miles uphill to the top of Greenslick Trail.

The climb was quite a workout and Matthew is a much better endurance athlete than I am. Needless to say, on this hot and humid afternoon, my legs and lungs were burning climbing up the mountain. But I love the downhill. My reward was a fast and fun descent that made all the climbing worth it. Without the effort of the climb, there is no reward.

Another favorite of mine is riding my bike from my house to the top of Jump Off Rock in Laurel Park. It takes me about 30 minutes to get to the top (23 is my record), but only 12 minutes to come back down in a fury of pavement. Again, the reward of speeding down Laurel Park Highway does not happen unless I suffer my way up that steep grade to Echo Mountain Inn and beyond.

I think that one of the mistakes we make a lot as a society is we try to make everything "safe". No one gets hurt, everyone wins. But with that there is no reward and no growth. The more I suffer going up the mountains, the easier the climbs gradually become. It's the growth that comes with the pain in which we truly benefit. When we sanitize everything so no one gets "hurt", we've neutered the very means by which we blossom as individual and a society.

My friend Rachel brought me some little tomato plants to plant at my house. Since I have no green thumb, she was giving me tips. She said that you have to be "brutal" to the plant, clipping its leaves to the stalk and planting the stalk. Though it may seem like to are murdering the plant, where you cut will actually take root stronger and better than if you never cut them before.

Last year, my neighbor Don and I pruned the azaleas in my back yard. They were over four feet high and he pruned them down to stumps. He said "trust me, they'll grow back". Gradually, those stumps became shoots. They endured the drought and the winter. This spring, they had the prettiest blossoms in years.

The struggle up the mountain is good; it will yield a reward if we are persistent. The pruning of the leaves and branches is worthwhile; it will result in growth and bloom if we are patient.