Monday, September 29, 2008

'you wouldn't happen to have any extra water, would ya?'

As I arrived in Gunnison at Mr and Mrs Smith's house, I had this weird feeling that the 100 mile race course would NOT be marked . . . I was right.

Poor Brian and Jenny had to give me a crash course on the trails around Crested Butte, at 11PM the night before the race.

'You'll see a fence on your right, keep your eyes open for a 180 left turn . . .' and so on. Brian wrote out some directions, we printed off a mileage chart, AND I randomly brought my GPS. This is what I had to go on for an 8 hour ride.





Well, I still got lost. I was leading and I kept getting lost, flying past turns, and backtracking. I was so focused on not getting lost that I didn't eat like I was supposed to. So, I finished the first lap and Brian took over for our team and I kept going for the solo category. Brian was the man and helped me out as long as he could. I started to bonk real big and at a certain point, he just had to go on without me. I got off my bike and ate whatever I had in my jersey pockets. I then stopped a pair of couples from TX and begged them for a couple bottles of water. I got myself together and made it back to town. I chose not to go out for the third and final stretch. The first 70mi and 8,000 ft of climbing did me in...

We won the team event with Brian and Jenny, (the super couple) smashing it on the brand spankin' new Trek Top Fuels. Jenny did the final lap and got into a little rain. Lucky for her, she finished 20 or 30 minutes before anyone else!

Brian pacing me, pre-bonk...



Jenny coming in first, a little muddy.

Friday, September 26, 2008

one more for good measure

I've decided, under the 'pressure' from teammates Brian and Jenny, to race one more time this year. And I think this one will hurt...



Tomorrow morning I will start the Crested Butte 100 in hopes of putting in a fast time for our three person team. However, last night, Brian called me and informed me that the promoter was keen on having me do the solo as well. So, I'm going to try it. I'll just keep going after I finish lap one. Not really sure where my fitness is these days, but will give 'er a go. (truly, this event is low-key and about having some pizza and a good time with friends - sans the suffering after mile 20...)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

choke, california - the trailer

Rod and James Minchin created a film for the band, Jack's Mannequin. I did enough work on the audio side that they gave me sound engineer credit. The reason I'm excited is that this marks the first time I made it onto a real movie poster...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

September

The seldom seen, but important people.






Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Handsome Rob . . .

. . . welcomed a brand spankin' new, gigglin' little baby boy into the world last night.



Congratulations Rob, Heather and Bergen!

Monday, September 1, 2008

been a looong, but great week

Since Brian Head Utah, I've been working all day and all night trying to catch up with work. In addition, I've been on shoots this week which is always fun. First it was the DNC concert and march. (Rage Against the Machine and Flobots), then we shot a series of acoustic performances for the band. Here's where it gets tricky...

I wanted to do a 50 mile race in South Dakota on Sunday, but we were shooting from 10A to 10p (or midnight) both Friday and Saturday and I would ned to leave by midnight to make the start of the race. Well, I left around 1 AM and flew through WY to barely show up for the start of the race. With all the fitness and miles from Brian Head, my body adapted and I had an incredible race. I ended up winning and setting a new course record by 17 minutes! The second place rider, (and last year's winner) David Olsen, had a great race and finished 8 minutes faster than last year. All in all, this was one of the best races I've ever done. The organization and overall great people involved make this event amazing. I was able to meet a bunch of great people, see some good friends from the ND cycling scene, and even take home a good amount of cash and Garmin GPS computer for my bike. It was well worth the 40 straight hours of no sleep.

Check out the write-up... http://www.bhpioneer.com/articles/2008/09/02/sports/northern_hills_sports/doc48bd5c35a77b6211550178.txt



One thing I have to plug-

During our shoot on Saturday, Rod, Aaron Johnson and myself jumped into the studio while the band took a break.

What came next was magic. We, Rod Richardson + His Po Boys, recorded a version of Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' in record time - one take. Take a listen...

Rod 'Moonshine' Blackhurst on Vox and piano
Aaron 'Slow Hand' Johnson on the skins
Kelly 'Boxcar' Magelky on the six string