The Race!

I guess, it all sort of began with my Dad and me running together we Pablo along the beach every now and then (well, I wasn't running literally, I was way too small then - I was fortunate to be pushed around in my Baby Jogger), and then it sort of continued with the Cursa Bombers, the Behobia, something around Moritz (or a beer of that name), the Mitja de Barcelona and some other plans --- and it now finally all came down to this:



Someone talked to someone, someone else said something about having a cold beer in the fridge for them, someone else had some frequent flyer miles, and someone knew where to meet in Washington, DC. So, that took care of the first part. After that, it was up to Google and friends, to provide a race in the vicinity. It only took three clicks to end up on the EX2 adventure webpage, and to find out about the VENTURE QUEST.



VENTURE QUEST - maybe the ultimate in adventure racing - at least for the novices that we were. Having completed this adventure race one no longer feels like novices though. We could sit here and write about the mandatory equipment (compas, headlight, map case, space blanket, nutrition gear, "food"), and we could also talk about the map and its nine checkpoints + the five colored unmanned checkpoints, but maybe we should start at the beginning?







Meeting at the white house was actually a pretty cool idea. One for the prestige of the location, and also for the ease of finding each other thanks to cell phones and lots of open space: "I'm over here in the middle of the lawn - do you see me waving my arms?"


No time was wasted to get to the compulsory (look it up! it means mandatory) pre-race meeting at 5:00 pm at the respective race location. Once we were thoroughly confused what else would we decide on but to get on our bikes and check out the mountain bike trail. Once we were deep into it we faintly realize that we are still wearing street shoes and had left the helmets at the car. Only the feet slipping of the peddles now and then slowed us down though...what a beautiful place it was then. Up and down single trail. Roots and rocks and lake and water and creek and literally endless up and down - pretty damn good.

Now that we had worked up an appetite, where to find a T-Bone Steak? Leave it up to the GPS (>>Find Restaurants near current location) to point us to three different locations which did lead us to success eventually: The Polo Grill Restaurant and Tap Room in Lorton, VA. Good food and good service at a fair price topped us of nicely for the day....back to the Hotel to get some sleep before the 6:00 am wake-up call.






Once we get there in the morning the air is already filled with the wonderful pre-race ambiance. People hustling around getting gear and body ready for the race. Maps are handed out and one starts wondering if North is North and whether we are going to P2 or P3 as part of the Prologue??? At 8:00 am sharp the clock starts running and we are off to a nice little jog along the road and into the woods. Peep! The electronic key is entered into the first of many checkpoints and we are off to get back to where we left the gear and the bicycles. No time is wasted to get on the bikes and start blasting down the mountain bike trial. My dad notices to his surprise that the brakes are working even less than the day before - but what the hell. It's a race - no braking allowed during a race anyway....We complete the first 8 miles on the bike quite nicely, having passed a boat load of people. Very few bikes had returned as we were leaving to start trail chasing up to the marina. Three colored checkpoints had to be found, along with two regular checkpoints, and one challenge area.







At this point it still made sense to be running, so we didn't waste too much time thinking about it. Everything went pretty well. We found all three colored checkpoints without much delay. The challenge consisted of pulling yourself on a tube along a line across a narrow section of the river - not bad. Pablo made a big splash as he threw himself onto the tube. Once we got to the end we picked up our canoe and started heading downstream. We couldn't have asked for better weather. 80 degrees Fahrenheit and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect! Constant paddling, the only challenge being how many strokes my dad could get in before he needed to steer again - I think he said he made it up to 21 strokes one time before having to redirect the boat. Pretty awesome paddling for the first time Duo.

Then the bitch! After getting out of the boat we kept looking for the rocks or whatever that someone surely must have put into the boat...none were to be found...but it was quite treacherous to get that damn thing back to where we had to drop it off. And now, back on the bikes and on the trail again. Still in pretty good spirits - the donut my dad wanted to eat at the bike pick-up had been completely forgotten in all the excitement still going on.

We get to the point where we leave the bikes one last time to go and find two more colored checkpoints. The first one is found quite easily and then it is bolting down the hill to get to the last one. Well, where is it?



?



?



?



To make mattes worse, some five other people show up, that are even more clueless. One solo guy still wearing his helmet gets Pablo completely of the page when he starts talking about Pizza. Next thing my dad knows he has the map in his hands and Pablo is basically saying: "I think you better figure this one out"!!! ... Someone get me out of here!... By now, quite a few other racers have come and gone, but still no Red Checkpoint to be found. Leave it up to three guys who came up with "A theory". In their words the map is quickly dissected into coves, water, trails and twists and bends. A few last words of how loud we are going to scream or whistle if we should ever get to this last and lost Checkpoint and the "Theory Folk" prefer to trail along the shore line, while Dad and Pablo decide to finally take a more direct approach to the problem. As more and more landmarks from the map start jumping out in reality - one last and final beep is heard before one drags himself back to the bike again. One hour and six minutes to find this last checkpoint - the previously promising placement amongst the other racers has vanished and left them a bit disillusioned.


To make matters worse my dad has finally gotten to the end of his resources. Downhills are still taken at neck-breaking speeds, but uphills are taken slowly, and breaks are needed to catch one's breath and give the legs a rest. Even a: "Where did we loose the Raoul I know" didn't dig deep enough to find another one and last treasure of hidden resource. The power had been drained. But still enough mental power left to grin and smile and halt one last minute before blasting up to the finish line crowd. The clock now marks 7 hours 55 minutes!


It's over. Finished. Done. Kaputt! The first (and hopefully not last) Adventure Race was complete.


Once we had refreshed ourselves a little bit and endured the awards ceremony, the words that we had spoken so often during the race came out loud and rang true again: "No ha sido una Mariconada, tio". No, it definitely had not been a lame joke at all! This adventure had been the real thing. What a find Google had provided once again. And how great had it been that my dad had to pick up Pablo in Washington to begin with! Things could not have turned out better. And what the hell, if we would have found that Red checkpoint right away - the story would have only been half as good!







All the details can be found here (Team Number 140):

http://www.ex2adventures.com/vq-results.php



Check you later, buddy!

Duke Liver Half Ironman

Why get up at 5:00 am on a Sunday? Why sign up for a Half Ironman? These were not the questions my mom and dad and their friends were asking themselves last Sunday. It appeared to me that the motto of doing half of something wasn't really what they were about, the only thing that was "half" was that none of them had enough desire and energy to do a full Half Ironman. Half of a full - did I loose any of you mathematicians yet? Well, to complete the confusion add seven kids, six adults, two teams, four cars, different schedules, 95 degrees Fahrenheit....What can I say - we made half a day of it - everyone gave all they had - and none of the back-up plans had to be activated.

It all started with THE SWIM:

For some of the Team members this was the most complicated part of the day. I am not sure whether it was for the part of the Team that was still tugged into bed, getting their rest before battling two baby dinosaurs to make it out to the race field, two other members getting their bikes ready, one member circled-in by five kids, or actually the two members doing the swimming? For sure it was a very beautiful way to break into the day and get the race fever flowing in everyone's veins!

Once the swimmers got out of the water, and the bikers were well on their way, the preparations of setting up base camp for the day for the kids were quite challenging since we included the kids in the decision making process. Anyone having tried to reason with a 4 or 7 year old, might be able to imagine what it is like to reason with five kids ranging from the ages of 4 to 8. To say the least we were quite proud of our results when by democracy we decided to stay close to the race course, and actually preferred this over going to a beach on a nearby area of the Lake.

As the temperature started to rise and the sun started to beat down on the riders out on the course, the final preparations started for the runners. And than it was time! The first rider came in, and the final leg of the course could finally start.

All that training and running finally to be put to the test! Fortunately there was a slight breeze running through our hair as we started battling the two loop running course through the woods. It was so hot! It was so hot. It was just hot, hot and hot. So many competitors frustrated and left walking on a course that had been meant for running. For those of us running in a relay, what kept on running through my head was: That's you! That's you during the second lap! That's you walking because you burned all your energy - but fortunately that never happened and all of us were able to finish smiling!

The only thing left to do was to fall back into the lake and watch the kids running up the ramp, running down the dock, jumping into the water, running up the ramp, running down the dock, jumping into the water, running up the ramp, running down the dock, jumping into the water, running up the ramp, running down the dock, jumping into the water....running, running, running...several participants were still running as we were leaving...our minds revolving around what to do next time? What was for sure was the dinner date the following night to raise a few beers (or water) to our lips and smile and talk about all the sensations we had felt during the course of this quite amazing day.

Get out there when you can!

The Beach at Lake Jordan

We went to the Beach! The Beach! You know? Sand! Water! Canoe? Canoe! Yup, already a week has passed since this last adventure, but I have been so busy keeping up with my dad who is building new stairs going out of the back of the house into the backyard that I haven't had time to report on the ongoings.

Our Dutch friends were camping at Lake Jordan and we had planned on meeting up with them Sunday morning for breakfast at their campsite! Miranda made some very special French Toast for me, and everyone else actually was also allowed to eat a piece or two.

After a very relaxing breakfast we strolled down to the beach (daddy carrying the canoe on his back all the way there), and we set out to play in the water, build sand castles, and canoe out into the lake. Someone kept calling dad about a production order that they weren't supposed to run, but I guess they figured out what had happened in the end (?). Anyway, I had a lot of fun jumping in and out of the water, playing with the boys, and just digging through the sand. It was such a gorgeous day that it was hard to believe that only a handful of people were out there, I mean, afterall there are more than a handful of people living in the Research Triangle Area (1,549,822 people in the year 2000 to be exact (http://www.researchtriangle.org/pages.php?page1=52&page2=71&page3=73&page_id=73) -> that means there only are more today.

Daddy, Bob, the boys and sis paddled out to the nearby Marina to drool over the nice ski boats sitting in the floating docks. Daddy would like soooooo much to have one of those, but we never seem to figure out when we would find the time to seriously take advantage of it - so he keeps promising himself to get one when I am a teenager. I can see that working very nicely actually, he just needs to figure out a way to stay near a Lake until then?!?.

Take care amigos!

Run Bike Run - The Carrboro Classic 2008

It's official, my Daddy is a tri-athlete! Or, well, a du-athlete. These crazy Americans decided to let it rain so much that running would be pretty much just like swimming - and so decided to make everyone run for 8 Km, go for a 53 Km bike ride, and then run another 8 Km - so, yup. It's not reaaaallly a triathlon, but, well, a duathlon!

Those of you that are returning readers (won't you leave a comment, will you?!?) might hear bells ringing right now? Water? Wasn't there something about water, or the shortage thereof, in North Carolina? Well, it's done, over, kaput - it rained so much over the last month that all the Lakes are full again. Even Falls Lake filled up again! Thank you heaven!

But, quite importantly, I would like to report that my Daddy finished his first Duathlon in 3:27:09.26. Any more accuracy needed? Ok, here you go:

Run 1 time was 43:47.71, Overall place 107, Run 1 Pace 8:49 min/mile.

Bike time was 1:48:31.40, Overall Place 78, Speed 18.2 mph.

Run 2 time was 47:05.75, Overall place 101, Run 2 Pace 9:28 min/mile.

18.2 mph! Wow!!! That's 29.12 Kmh.

The running could be improved a little bit, though. I mean, even Mommy was able to run it in 41:41.70!!! But hey! He finished, and even without getting "Hunger-Ast" - which I would translate into "bottoming out". I don't know exactly how many of those gel packs he ate, but I do know that he ate one banana! So, in other words, there was plenty of juice to keep the machine running. And he was still smiling in the end! That's what it's all about! Considering he was hoping to finish in under 4 hours, I must say it was a huge success!!! Nothing wrong with setting some realistic goals!

He told me that the bike riding was really the most fun part of the whole race. He said that as soon as he had gotten on the bike he knew he finally had gotten to "HIS" part. He passed about ten people right in the beginning, then later in the race a couple of chicks got pretty upset about him passing them, and had to pass him again, only to be passed again by him one final time ! (then they passed him again on the final 8 Km run - oh well).

But overall, I think the triathlon bug might have gotten started. Is the XTERRA next? (http://middleringcycles.com/uwharrie_xterra.cfm)

Till next time, fellas!

What's my Daddy doing?

I'm not sure what's going on - but Daddy is awafully busy lately. Mom, sis, grand-moh and myself went to the beach this weekend and I called Daddy before going to bed just to let him know that next time we go he can come, too, if he doesn't have to work again. Poor lad, always working - or thinking about work.

Me myself have been thinking a lot about soccer lately. I am beginning to really like it. It's a good thing we little boys wear the chin pads, because boy o boy, some of those kids are not kicking the ball very well. The crazy thing in the beginning was that you are not allowed to touch it with your hands? Geeez, but it's so helpful when you do it. But, well, I think we got it down now - no touching the ball with your hands, dude! I got practice twice a week, and a game every Saturday. The games are challenging, there is always some kid that is bigger than you - how does it always work out that way? My favorite buddy Charlie, who signed on to the same team as myself, has lost some of his initial enthusiam. I hope he sticks it out though, I am really beginning to have a good time.

At my last pre-school parent review meeting I was awarded the compliment of being the puzzle king of the group. Boy, they got me right. I love puzzles. I don't know what it is, maybe because Daddy and me have always been doing puzzles together, I just find it fascinating to stick those pieces together and make them match, and finish the piece and put it away.

I think Mommy and Daddy went out a couple of nights ago. They went out and had coffee! Can you imagine that! For sure they must be getting old. Coffee??? But I guess they did have some good conversation because they seemed pretty happy and in tune when they got back.

Crazy Daddy has been hitting the trainer at night trying desperately to get ready for his Duathlon. I know he is not doing that tonight though, crazy man is surfing the internet tonight!

The latest news is that more family is coming in town!!! I got one of my grandmohs in town already, but coming weekend I got the other ones coming in, too. And my Daddy's brother is coming also! Wow, we are going to have to buy some chairs or something!

Lastly I am very proud of my dad, because he installed the prettiest kitchen sink I have ever seen while we were at the beach. As soon as I get a chance I am going to take a bath in it.

Miss you all, lots, guys! Won't you leave a comment if you have gotten this far?

Take care!

Luc

SugarMountain

...not sure where to begin describing my mood, but after just spending the last hour and half singing and talking myself to sleep, it feels really good to finally have fallen asleep. So now I have been reading a little bit (...how Tupac got shot on Wikipedia...and how Heath Ledger apparently mixed the wrong drugs on New York Times)...a good time to look for instant gratification and clean up my mess from playing earlier and add a few favorites to my Ipod playlist...a green bottle nearby...but then again, I'm way too young to drink...so before I get lost in more ramblings let me get to the point of the matter: SugarMountain! We spend last weekend with 10 adults and 4 kids in the most fabulous place my Dad has rented yet. I mean this place was unbelievable. It slept 13, had four bedrooms, two game rooms, one of those with a ping pong table...I had never known how good of a ping pong player my daddy was, and how long he can keep at it, especially the first night.

We woke up to pancakes and eggs made to order - I just love it when my dad gets that smile on his face when he's making eggs one by one for everyone who wants some. Besides Mom everybody else also never seems to get the point of it, but I think it just feels right to him. I can't wait for the moment when I will be making two eggs sunny side up for him. Soon thereafter we all raced to the slopes and Mommy signed up for a snowboard class and everybody just had a grand old time. We went back to play at the fabulous house while Mommy changed group lessons to private lessons and got a hang of it very quickly. The personal trainer kept on saying: You are so athletic!!! but then I guess she actually had paid him for that. We all met back up at the slopes after my little sis had taken her nap, and Mommy and Daddy traded Jackets so that Daddy could at least get a couple of runs in. Boy, he later said that those rides felt like being on top of the world. We then hurried back to the fabulous house, and the clubhouse actually sported a heated pool and overheated whirlpool, that most of us couldn't bypass. A big spaghetti dinner and a few cold ones among friends rounded up a wonderful day.

The next morning Daddy was in a frantic "looking for the lost key" mode, and he never quite grasped how it could be that the key didn't like usually get lost in his oh so big bag. Mommy eventually found it to at least their relief on a lower part of the frame of the bed they had slept in. That part of our brain freed up again we made it back out to the slopes to go TUBING. Man, what a kick in the Ass that was. Quite a different experience from the regular slope scene. Little sis was overdue by the time we were done and we jumped into the car for a fast ride home most of which we never noticed because we were sleeping.

Can't wait to do it again. Yep

Trailer Bike, trailer me...

...anyhow - the vacation days have been very good to us. Daddy had to go to work all but one day of the vacation, and that was for the night shift to run some crazy green trial out of PCR...

...we just about did it all. We built countless castles out of Duplos (Legos that is), countless train routes out of Thomas & Friends combined with my Daddy's ancient train parts which make it all the better (we also get a kick out of watching Thomas & Friends on YouTube), we went canoeing AND bike riding on my new (borrowed) Trailer Bike. I tell you, this is where it's at! I mean, I can't stop screaming: DON'T GO SO FAST. I'M SCARED OF HILLS, DON'T GO THAT WAY, GO THROUGH THE LEAVES, GO FASTER, GET OFF THE SIDEWALK I WANNA RIDE ON THE STREET - it's really been good.

I have not been the best communicator at my one-on-one lunches with Dad, but I think he has been so focused on eating healthy while I was eating sweets that he didn't really notice. I always get a huge kick out of saying just when Daddy is about to sit down and enjoy the first bite of his lunch: I gotta go Peeeeee! ....... and then he swiftly and quickly picks me up and starts running through the store to the Restroom, me laughing and giggling the whole way.

One of the highlights definitely has been when we went canoeing on the little lake right here in the hood. We were doing laps and laps and fishing out Tennis balls. I think we got something silly like 9 Tennis balls, one baseball, and one Wiffle ball out of the water - yup - we went paddling the day after a huge rain storm. It was fun though, especially when the wind started blowing and a lake as big as the back of my hand turned into a life-threatening adventure, good thing Daddy had paddled once or twice in his life before.

Crazy Daddy did go running last night! I check out his phone for new photos first thing this morning. It's not really a good photo, but I guess it was the moment and it all made sense at the time? ? ? He wants to train for some event or something, I dunno.

Today we got snow! In North Carolina!!! (of all places) I think last time they got snow in Atlanta (which is in Georgia) was in '94. Anyhow, we need the water, so we don't complain!

Got U close to the screen this time, sucker!

I'm out of here boys - take care of yourself!