Adventures in Onionism

Now I'm back. A tick came with me, burrowed in my chest. Lyme disease, here I come! God, I hope not. Seems like it's not very widespread in FL yet. First Magnitude. The better of the two breweries. Newnan's Lake find. No, I do not get this joke. Please explain it to me in great detail. Florida Trail through Rice Creek Conservation Area. The lesser of the two. Lando Calrissian

Yesterday I won the 4MPH Challenge in Whiskeytown, CA. I'm pretty sure that's the first race I've ever won. Ultrasignup says on average I'm 69% as fast as the winners of the 49 ultras I've run. But the format for the 4MPH Challenge suited me well. 1-(Re)start the clock. 2-Run 6 miles in under 90 minutes. 3-Stop and wait until 90 minutes has elapsed. 4-Repeat the process until (A) you fail, or (B) until everyone else has failed. I decided to go with option B. I left Berkeley around 2:30PM on Friday and drove up to Whiskeytown, picking up supplies along the way. The race is mostly self-supported, except for simple hot stuff during the night, so I bought my standards: yellow Gatorade, ginger ale, saltines, and potato chips. The race started at the Oak Bottom campground, which has a giant parking lot for the marina and boat launch, so I just slept in my truck there. I woke up at 7:00, set up half my gear at the starting place, and sent half to the turnaround....

I decided I want a Cal running singlet. Apparently, nobody sells college singlets , which seems kind of silly. But this Spring, the same company that makes all the licensed university biking jerseys is getting into running gear. The webpage even exists already. So there's that. I took it relatively easy this week, only running 42 miles, in recovery from Cool and taper for the 4mph Challenge next weekend. I think I'll watch Hands on a Hardbody to psych myself up.

Bar end shifter and new tape. Welcome back, all 27 gears! Removing the crank arms to get to the bottom bracket. Really, this feels so good to fix this yourself. You have no idea. (Not really by myself--with significant help from Danny at the bike kitchen, but you get the point.) Nice. Oooh, sexy. I was originally overwhelmed by how many parts there were. Here's some street art. More street art.

I'm over race tote bags. Unless your race shirt is either cotton and normal-looking, or an extremely well-cut technical shirt (like the Mountain Hardware one from Western States!) I don't want it. I have plenty . I'm also good on coasters, and I decline race medals, because seriously. I would gladly accept more socks, a pint glass, or a pair of shorts, however. I've been in need of a larger running pack for a while. My Nathan HPL 020 is starting to fall apart after 3.5 years of consistent use, in that the mesh of the shoulder straps is shredding.You can't fit a ton of gear in there, either. It's fine for most 100-mile races, but I usually went with my even older Mountainsmith Tailwater (worst name ever) pack for longer self-supported runs or anything overnight. It pre-dates newer vest designs, and it bounces a lot. Peter Bakwin Adventure Vest 2.0 So I bought Peter Bakwin's pack for longer or unsupported things, like Plain in September. Mou...

Strava has auto-created several segments for hilly runs that I've done in Kenya and Colorado. Of course I'm the record holder on all of the ones shown above, since I'm the only one who's ever run them wearing a GPS watch. I spent a few minutes looking around Kenya to see where other mzungu have gone running. Obviously there are a bunch of segments around Iten, and actually a pretty fast time up one of the routes on Mt. Kenya.

Jan 11: Tilden Orienteering ( BAOC )--done Jan 31:  Ordnance 100K --done Feb 21: Montara Mountain 50K --done March 7: Way Too Cool 50K March 21: 4MPH Challenge April 10-11: Zion 100M April 18: Mokelumne 50M May 2: MeOw! Marathons June 6: Bone Tempest (off the radar) June 20: SF Solstice 24 Hour July 31/Aug 1: Tushar 100M Aug 29: Tamalpa Headlands 50K   Sep 5: Rogaining in Henry Coe Sep 12: Plain 100 Sep 19: IMTUF 100 Oct 10-11: Euchre Bar Massacre So far so good. Three races down, another this weekend, and I haven't run fewer than 40 miles in a week so far this year. Did 7 yesterday evening to get to 60 for last week. My schedule moderated itself a tiny bit due to my hesitation and lotteries. The Bear 100 sold out, and I'm 63rd on the waitlist, so I'm pretty sure that means I'm not running. I am now registered for all of the events above with the exception of Mokelumne 50M and Tamalpa Headlands 50K.  I didn't get picked in the Waldo 100K lottery...