Close friend, long-time housemate, fellow explorer/troublemaker Morgan, excuse me, Dr. Beeby, took the extraordinary step of photographing himself every morning of the four months he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail this summer.
Bonus points if you can find the photo with devil horns or Mt. Whitney.
Please file this post under: How to waste time and ignore all of your A, B, and C priorities.
After 3 months earlier this year of caffeine abstinence, I slowly worked my way back to full-time coffee drinker. Luckily not to the levels of Budge and I last year. We were polishing off a 32-oz French Press of strong coffee every morning.
In denial of my coffee drinking habits I am yet to unearth my mug (read: I am throwing out a paper one every time I drink it). A quick internet search (which reminds me: Did you hear that Google is coming out with a cell phone? wtf?) I came across Kent’s bike blog. He then pointed me to, I am not kidding this is a real link, bicyclecoffeesystems.com. A serious site. Do I have the intellectual ability to sort through this and pick the best one? Maybe after a strong cup of coffee.
New Era Cap has redesigned the on-field official baseball cap for the first time in forever (basically)and it is not wool! It is high-tech wicking fabric, 100% cotton and even made in the US! That I have any knowledge of sports is usually a surprise to people who know me and those who know baseball are ever more surprised that I am Yankee fan. I was born into an Italian family from Brooklyn, there really is no choice in the matter. Giving up Catholicism was less of a big deal than switching baseball teams would be.
And having some knowledge of sports helps in those social situations where no one cares to hear about bikes, veganism or my feelings on hierarchy/privilege/race/etc.
Race Across America is introducing a 1000-mile race in 2008. Basically it is the first 1000 miles of the RAAM course, ending in Taos, NM. According to their press release, ‘The 1000-mile event fills the void between the traditional 500 mile races and the full challenge of RAAM.’ I can sleep better knowing that void is finally filled.
Looking for motivation to race a 1000 miles? Check out Danny Chew’s website. According to Steevo, who does PR work for Danny on the side, he rode his 1,000,000 kilometer this week.
Jack DNF’d on Townes Pass, about 200 miles into the race. Brian finished in 36 hours and was elated just to have finished! This is a photo with Jack holding a secret message for the Swarm! racers from Morgan. He just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail last week(!!), but when it crossed the 508 course back in July he had left a message under a rock in a strategic location. Amazing!
The Furnace Creek 508 started this morning at 7am! After PBP I realized I was not going to be ready for this race. From PBP till 508 I only had one free weekend; not enough time to train properly to finish this ‘comfortably’ (I put that in quotes cause I probably could of finished, just not well or in relative comfort). And I am still homeless and training with no where to live is harder than it sounds. See this post for some more thoughts on that. Luckily even with me wussing out Swarm! still has two team riders out there, both entered as solo: Jack Jaxartosaurus and Brian Emperor Moth. They are strong riders and we hope to see sub-34 hour performances by both. Jack is eating a vegan diet and Brian is eating strictly raw, as he has been for 4 months.
I stole all of these photos from the AdventureCORPS webcast which is updated throughout the race with pictures and reports. You can go straight to the time station and result times here.
I was in New York City last weekend and went to the Time’s Up! 20-year anniversary party. I’ve always loved this group and am envious because we do not have a similar organization here in Los Angeles. In NYC there is such a huge overlap of environmental organizations, bike advocates/riders/etc, punks, and activists that organizations like this spring up (and exist for two decades!). Is it me, or here in LA are those all distinct, separate categories? Is the geographical layout of the cities that literally causes the overlap? I am constantly trying to sort out how and why I love NYC and LA equally. After riding around Manhattan and Brooklyn for two days in beautiful weather I sure do miss being out there. Is it possible to take the good from NYC and apply it to LA? Surely I am not the only one thinking about this.
There are some things you do not see every day and I am thankful when I have my camera with me. In these shots I was able to get two obscure sitings simultaneously: an Earth Crisis t-shirt and a guy with a cat on his head.
I can’t help but post this. The name of my blog infers ‘no car’, but the pun is based on the dairy-based substance of the same name. It’s nice to see the Humane Society step up and address veganism.
All photos from hoodoo500.com. Hope to have my own photos up soon.
Sometime around midnight I was descending off of a mountain in Utah and looked down at my computer and saw 48 MPH. The support van was behind me, the air was crisp, but not cold, the roads were smooth and we were finally descending after a long climb up and over a mountain. My first thought was that this was a great way to spend a Saturday night: With friends in a beautiful area, on my bike speeding down a hill, chasing after the first place team in this inaugural 500-mile ultra-cycling race. My second thought was that I probably shouldn’t be looking at my computer while going that fast at night.
When we first heard about this race in the Spring we knew we had to get a team together. Brian, Jack and I were down and we asked newest Swarm! member (and successful triathlete) Nicholas to be on our team. Unlike the Furnace Creek 508, this race offers unlimited rider exchanges. At least one racer needs to be on the course at all times, but all four can ride together and can switch out at any time. Also different from the 508 is that at night the support vehicle does not have to follow at all times as long as s/he has two front and rear lights. This way the vehicle can drive ahead and the next racer can be set up for an exchange without losing any time.
We drove up to St. George on Thursday night and met up with Nicolas and his wife McCall, who would be our other support crew member with Megan (who was on Morgan’s support team for 508 in 2005 and the Bonobo fixed gear team last year). Like Nicolas, she had no ultra-distance experience, but was a quick learner. We could not of asked for a better support team then the two of them. At the pre-race meeting Deb from Planet Ultra, who knows us pretty well by now and referred to us as the tattooed vegan team, asked me what I thought our fastest time could be. I told her 24 hours. Jack and Brian are both training for solo 508 and are all-around strong riders and Nicolas is a fast road rider. I have experience with ultra-distance, but after a tough summer and a lot of traveling, I was the weak link of the team. How frustrating that is! Deb informed us that Team BHB was thinking around 25 hours and considered us their fiercest competition. Deb went back and told them our prediction and the race was on.
Brian in Panguitch
Race time for four-person teams was 11am Saturday, which gave us time to sleep in and be prepared. From the gun Brian set a brutal pace. Jack rotated in with him so they could paceline awhile, then Nicolas and I did the same. At one point we had about five miles on them. Then our inexperience with the terrain and the format cost us some time. We kept Brian out for too long. We had multiple riders out at some points where one rider would have been just as fast. We were passed and tried to hold on. Team BHB were the locals; Deb told us they had ridden the course four times together in preparation. Most of the course was above 6,000 feet and the highest point was almost 12,000; obviously to their advantage. Previous to Friday night we had no ambition of winning, so we easily reverted to riding our own race. We enjoyed the beautiful course and rode the best we could. We had only one support vehicle, an extended cabin pick-up truck, where five people could sit comfortably, but sleeping was not so easy. Except for a few minutes of shut eye, I think our entire team was awake for the 28 hours it took us to complete the 519 miles. Amazingly we all got along and worked well together sorting out who had what responsibilities.
Some notes:
– Brian ate raw the entire time.
– The lowest temperature was 36 degrees.
– No flats or mechanicals!
– Nicolas had some nausea late Saturday night, but bounced back into the rotation after a few hours
– I was happy to ride a lot of miles through the night on the B-team while the A-team (Jack and Brian) could get some rest.
– Utah is beautiful. I was reminded of the descriptions in Monkey Wrench Gang and of the Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
– A car chase passed us at about 2am; a mini-van going about 120 MPH followed by a succession of cop cars. Apparently two kids from a foster house stole the van and tried to make a get-a-way.
After the Altitude Sickness at 12,000 feet and the headwinds on the last 60 miles, we rolled back into St. George in 28 hours and 29 minutes. Team BHB beat us by about 100 minutes (or 20 minutes per 100 miles), but we had second place locked by almost 3 hours. The first solo rider came in around 35 hours. It was a tough course under tough conditions. At Monday’s banquet we each won some prizes from the raffle and were able to hang out with the other racers. Jack and Brian got some great experience for the 508 (October 5th), Nicolas had said he would never do this again on Sunday, but after a full night of sleep was already talking about how we could beat them next year, and I was just happy to be a part of such a great team. We may do a road race at the end of October, but for the most part this is the end of my season.
