I usually don't consider the personal effects of service to others , I just look for opportunities to try and help make other peoples lives easier. That's all, tiny acts of service with no strings attached. I feel like a better person. I like to think that random acts of kindness have a ripple effect in society. That helping others will somehow make the world kinder and more tolerant.
Doesn't always work out that way. Good intentioned deed attempt shot down at Home Depot last week. I offered to help a man load some drywall into his truck, I could see he was struggling and might want some help. I asked "can I help you load those?" His response, "I got it". "You sure? I don't mind?" I said. I could see he was getting bothered, so I started to leave when I heard him call me a name under his breath. No big thing, I just figured he was maybe having a grumpy day and left. I didn't tell my sons who were watching because I wanted to keep it positive. Maybe that was a mistake, they need to realize not every attempt will be accepted.
That particular opportunity for service may not have worked out the way I had planned. I had envisioned me helping him load the drywall, we high five, he jumps and clicks his heels as he gets in his truck, he goes home and hugs his family a little tighter that night assured that there is goodness in the world, then for the rest of his life he looks for opportunities to serve his fellow man.
Meri's Grandmother Eloise once said "we help other people, they won't always appreciate it and we don't always see the blessings but we keep helping people anyways".
Good lesson to live by...
Quick note: It's Saturday morning and I just went for a ride at 0700. At about 0930 I was going down Usery (a 3.5 mile climb) when I see this female rider weaving about and she did not look good. I kept riding but felt I should turn around and see if she needed anything, a lot of people underestimate their water needs. Sure enough, when I got to her she was walking and had zero water and this was only half way up the hill and in 100 degrees. I gave her my remaining bottle there were "thank yous" and she assured me she would now be fine so I headed down for one last climb.
I only mention this experience as an example of little things we can do that might make a big difference in someone's life. Maybe without the water she would have made it home okay anyways, or...maybe she might've pulled off the road to find shade and never recovered. Who but God knows?
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
BREATHLESS AGONY and REDROCK 200 reports
Finally got these written up. I hope the RedRock 200 report isn't too boastful sounding, there wasn't a lot of people racing so less stories came out of it.
Had a great time in each. Enjoy hopefully. Jim
Breathless Agony May 2nd 2009
Good race, good times, with good friends. I wish more friends could've been there this year but for various reasons many people had to bail.
Curtis Clifford, Craig Clifford, Barry Thomas, and myself were the final four out of about 9 people I know who had signed up for this thing to actually start. That's okay though, I love this race and would go alone.
Once again Curtis was nice enough to drive and we got into Redlands in the early evening. We checked into the Good Nite Inn and headed over to what is turning out to be a traditional pre-race meal venue; The Macaroni Grill. Craig showed up finally (he lives over there) and we had a great meal and good conversation.
I gotta say Barry is funny. This guy lays down on his bed, folds his arms, crosses his legs and is out, I mean out in a dead sleep. I was envious, I couldn't sleep till about midnight but felt okay the next morning.
Next morning we loaded up and drove to the start which was about 3-4 miles away. We checked in got our race glasses (a drinking glass), put them away and took off.
Pretty typical start, you just roll up, give your name and you're off, fast or slow, doesn't matter. I think we set a pretty moderate pace and eventually made it over the first two climbs and into the first aid station at a nice clip. We tried to stay together but as we left the feed zone Barry started getting sick and/or weak. He was just having one of those days so we worked together and got over the next climb to the forest station break area.
The food at this race is nearly unmatched in it's quantity and quality so we gorged happily when we had the opportunity. Because Barry had slowed, he decided take off ahead of us. Curtis, Craig and I took off later and began riding up what is called "Damnation Alley", a ten mile stretch of not so pretty scenery that slowly climbs up to the last steep climb of the day; the backside of Big Bear.
Funny thing; I was talking to Curtis about skinny-dipping on some of my bike trips when I was overheard by a nice looking woman who was curious about what we were talking about. I am not ashamed of my free-spirit so we talked to this woman about that, among other things. Turns out she had immigrated from Poland and gave me pretty much her life story. We slowly pulled away from her and eventually came upon Barry. At this point Curtis and Craig rode on ahead and I stayed with Barry again.
Since we had slowed a bit the Polish woman came up on us, pulled between us and says to Barry "even though I like skinny-dipping and nudity, I'm pretty much conservative" (or something close to that). Barry was going "what?!" I was laughing hard because she had never spoken to Barry, I think because we all had on Brumby jerseys she thought he was me, and I was Curtis or something. Anyways, it was funny and I had to tell Barry why she had said that. He seemed a little deflated, we don't get come-ons that often.
After that we started the last climb to Onyx Summit. It's a lot of up and surprisingly, a few decent descents. Barry and I rolled into Angelus Oaks, (the last aid station before the top and the turn around) and saw Curtis and Craig there. We all left together but Barry was still suffering so I Barry and I rode together while the Clifford brothers took off up the road. And that's okay, even though Breathless is considered a race, I just have a great time riding it, doesn't matter to me about my time.
Barry is NOT a quitter and we just kept plugging along till we made it to the top. That's a great feeling, but there's still 40 miles to go to get back to the park so we fueled up, took off, and all stayed together to the end.
It was nice to have a female tandem come along at the start of a windy Damnation Alley to pull us nearly the entire way back to the start. I think I thanked them about five times, it was really fun.
So nothing earth-shattering, just a nice get-away with the fellas. I know I will do this race every year because it's so friendly and easy going, I really enjoy it.
Jim Auwen
Red Rock 200--May 16th 2009
I like the 200 mile distance; more challenging than the 100 of course, but not as uncomfortable as a 500 miler.
When I heard about a new double century out of St George, I was hooked. I love southern Utah and this was an inaugural race which is cool. So I signed up and waited for the "see the roster" link to see how many I would be riding with...months later the link on their website never comes. I end up writing the organizers and they tell me I'm the only one so far, yikes, I figure it's gonna be a lonely race. But slowly others entered and with Wayne Smith, Rob Verhaaren and Candon Sevey the list grew to 17. Dave Collins had entered but stayed in Mesa to watch his son compete in the AZ State High School Track Championships and that's too bad, I think Dave would've liked this race.
I was fortunate enough to be able to bring my sons along. Jared 17, and Taylor 15, were kind enough to come along and keep me company. I was worried about them when I'd be racing but they have a lot of common sense and ended up having a nice time while I was riding. They were able to eat out a few times and go see Star Trek at a nearby movie theater. They were there waiting for me at the finish and helped me in my weakened state. I love those guys.
We began lining up in front of the Best Western Abbey Inn at around 0530. The race was to begin at 0600 and there was to be a brief pre-race meeting. Not a lot of hoopla, we just all rolled out at 6 and headed through town towards Gunlock.
I'll try to remember times and distances so excuse me if I'm off a bit, my chemistry is still wacky and I'm having trouble focusing.
Anyways, I do remember a lot of climbing during the first part of the race. By about 10 miles in the front pack consisted of us four from Mesa and the eventual "winner" Mark Larson. We got to the top of the longest climb of the day and turned around for some fun and windy downhill. We put some good distance on the second group compliments of Candon who made the most of his aerobars on the descent. The wind was pretty vicious that morning and I believe we rode into it all the way to Cedar City (about 113 miles in).
I'm not sure what Rob and Wayne decided on for nutrition but it seemed to work for them, they rode strong all day. Candon I hear was without a doubt the strongest rider out there but it didn't show up in the results. I don't want to get into right and wrong thing here, but from what I hear race etiquette was not on everyone's mind. That being said, those guys were amazingly strong. Candon is young and fast, Rob is fast and tough (as per the show he put on at LOTOJA last year), and Wayne has improved more than anyone I know to become a very good and strong rider.
On this day, I on the other hand did all I could just to finish. I first felt sick near the top of that first climb and I never got over it for the rest of the day. I just thought i'd give Perpetuem one more shot, but it just doesn't work with me. A lot of people like it, but it makes me feel hollow and nauseous. Ironically, only Hammer products were the fuel of the day at all the aid stations. I was frustrated to have to keep forcing myself to drink it.
I was able to keep up with the front group until about mile 25 when a short steep climb put me over the edge and they slowly pulled away. I was really okay with that, I hadn't trained for this thing and I was sick so I quickly accepted my fate and didn't want to hold anybody up. I plodded along solo at a decent pace for another ten miles and eventually the second pack of four caught me on a long climb. I jumped on and we rotated well for about ten more miles. I still hadn't eaten anything solid and I felt my heart rate was too high, so at a rest stop I informed them that I would go it alone and try and stay ahead of them. This group had their own sag vehicle and they finally convinced me to eat a little something. So, I choked down a couple of small cookies and went on alone ahead of them.
The group would leap-frog me over and over for the next 160 miles but I couldn't stay on their erratic rotating pace, I was more comfortable riding smooth and steady and suffering alone. There was wind-o-plenty all the way to the turn around and the heat reminded me of home so some negative voices popped into my head and kept trying to talk me into finding a ride back to St George from Cedar City. After a five minute argument the "good fighter Jim" convinced the 'natural man Jim" quitting wasn't an option so I pressed on.
At 112 miles I pulled into Cedar City (turn around) and saw a lone rider (the eventual winner) riding back alone and thought it was strange. Did the Mesa boys cave or did this guy not stop? I later found out he had slipped away while the others were breaking and Rob was even in the catbox. Lame maybe, but whatever.
When I got to the park I once again saw my group, they were laying on the grass and relaxing so I dumped all the Perpetuem, filled my bottles with only water and kept on riding. Problem was, all the nutrition they had to offer was Hammer stuff. So on the way out of town I stopped into Subway for some solid food. There happened to be a bike mechanic out of St George in line so thankfully he let me in line ahead of him. Ate a couple of bites of my sub, pocketed the rest, slammed down a soda, and I was out the door in about 15 minutes. I thought for sure the group had passed me but they were behind me and caught me about ten miles out of town. I was starting to be able to hold them off for longer periods of time because of a strong near tailwind and because I was feeling just a bit stronger from the food. When the group passed me this time they had a female rider in tow who had caught them while they were lounging in Cedar. She was lean and looked like a climber.
When I caught back up to them at the next stop, the race sag had some Clif bars and Hammer Gel, so I grabbed some of those and I was gone fast. This stop was just prior to the last long climb and even though I left ahead of the group, I was told the female rider had left about five minutes before all of us. I doubted I could catch her and I was right, she was a great climber.
I had about a bottle and a half of water left when I came up on the group again that had just passed me, but I decided to roll right by and keep pushing on. I was still weak, but not as sick, and I thought maybe I could hold them off for the last 15 miles.
I was doing just that, I could never see them when I looked back and was getting excited thinking I could finish 5th overall, but then a major set back, whenever I would stop pedaling my rear hub (freewheel) would squeal like pig being skinned alive. My fear was that seven miles from the finish it would seize completely and i'd be walking to the finish. All I could do at this point was to slow down and keep pedaling. If I got going too fast, or stopped pedaling, the hub would squeal regardless of how fast I pedaled.
Frustrations galore! The group passed me in the Snow Canyon downhill and all I could do was brake, keep pedaling, and watch them leave me. I thought I handled it well though, I slowed and just tried to find satisfaction in my effort regardless of my finish time or place.
My goal was to finish before 12 hours. So while riding an estimated 160 miles solo I had fought sickness, wind, heat, a 15 minute Subway visit, and a lame wheel to finish in 12:14, I would've patted myself on the back, but I'm not very limber. This second group of riders were aware of my predicament and were supporting me all day by offers of sag help and encouragement and were nice enough to applaud me when I came into the finish. They ended up catching the climber girl and they all finished together in 12:06.
The race organizer told us because the wind was so strong that day, they had lowered the cut off time for a jersey to 14 hours, pretty cool of them, we all get race jerseys.
Overall I liked this race, good roads, great open scenery and pleasant, easy-going race organizers. I can see it becoming popular in the future and look forward to doing it next year.
Jim Auwen
Had a great time in each. Enjoy hopefully. Jim
Breathless Agony May 2nd 2009
Good race, good times, with good friends. I wish more friends could've been there this year but for various reasons many people had to bail.
Curtis Clifford, Craig Clifford, Barry Thomas, and myself were the final four out of about 9 people I know who had signed up for this thing to actually start. That's okay though, I love this race and would go alone.
Once again Curtis was nice enough to drive and we got into Redlands in the early evening. We checked into the Good Nite Inn and headed over to what is turning out to be a traditional pre-race meal venue; The Macaroni Grill. Craig showed up finally (he lives over there) and we had a great meal and good conversation.
I gotta say Barry is funny. This guy lays down on his bed, folds his arms, crosses his legs and is out, I mean out in a dead sleep. I was envious, I couldn't sleep till about midnight but felt okay the next morning.
Next morning we loaded up and drove to the start which was about 3-4 miles away. We checked in got our race glasses (a drinking glass), put them away and took off.
Pretty typical start, you just roll up, give your name and you're off, fast or slow, doesn't matter. I think we set a pretty moderate pace and eventually made it over the first two climbs and into the first aid station at a nice clip. We tried to stay together but as we left the feed zone Barry started getting sick and/or weak. He was just having one of those days so we worked together and got over the next climb to the forest station break area.
The food at this race is nearly unmatched in it's quantity and quality so we gorged happily when we had the opportunity. Because Barry had slowed, he decided take off ahead of us. Curtis, Craig and I took off later and began riding up what is called "Damnation Alley", a ten mile stretch of not so pretty scenery that slowly climbs up to the last steep climb of the day; the backside of Big Bear.
Funny thing; I was talking to Curtis about skinny-dipping on some of my bike trips when I was overheard by a nice looking woman who was curious about what we were talking about. I am not ashamed of my free-spirit so we talked to this woman about that, among other things. Turns out she had immigrated from Poland and gave me pretty much her life story. We slowly pulled away from her and eventually came upon Barry. At this point Curtis and Craig rode on ahead and I stayed with Barry again.
Since we had slowed a bit the Polish woman came up on us, pulled between us and says to Barry "even though I like skinny-dipping and nudity, I'm pretty much conservative" (or something close to that). Barry was going "what?!" I was laughing hard because she had never spoken to Barry, I think because we all had on Brumby jerseys she thought he was me, and I was Curtis or something. Anyways, it was funny and I had to tell Barry why she had said that. He seemed a little deflated, we don't get come-ons that often.
After that we started the last climb to Onyx Summit. It's a lot of up and surprisingly, a few decent descents. Barry and I rolled into Angelus Oaks, (the last aid station before the top and the turn around) and saw Curtis and Craig there. We all left together but Barry was still suffering so I Barry and I rode together while the Clifford brothers took off up the road. And that's okay, even though Breathless is considered a race, I just have a great time riding it, doesn't matter to me about my time.
Barry is NOT a quitter and we just kept plugging along till we made it to the top. That's a great feeling, but there's still 40 miles to go to get back to the park so we fueled up, took off, and all stayed together to the end.
It was nice to have a female tandem come along at the start of a windy Damnation Alley to pull us nearly the entire way back to the start. I think I thanked them about five times, it was really fun.
So nothing earth-shattering, just a nice get-away with the fellas. I know I will do this race every year because it's so friendly and easy going, I really enjoy it.
Jim Auwen
Red Rock 200--May 16th 2009
I like the 200 mile distance; more challenging than the 100 of course, but not as uncomfortable as a 500 miler.
When I heard about a new double century out of St George, I was hooked. I love southern Utah and this was an inaugural race which is cool. So I signed up and waited for the "see the roster" link to see how many I would be riding with...months later the link on their website never comes. I end up writing the organizers and they tell me I'm the only one so far, yikes, I figure it's gonna be a lonely race. But slowly others entered and with Wayne Smith, Rob Verhaaren and Candon Sevey the list grew to 17. Dave Collins had entered but stayed in Mesa to watch his son compete in the AZ State High School Track Championships and that's too bad, I think Dave would've liked this race.
I was fortunate enough to be able to bring my sons along. Jared 17, and Taylor 15, were kind enough to come along and keep me company. I was worried about them when I'd be racing but they have a lot of common sense and ended up having a nice time while I was riding. They were able to eat out a few times and go see Star Trek at a nearby movie theater. They were there waiting for me at the finish and helped me in my weakened state. I love those guys.
We began lining up in front of the Best Western Abbey Inn at around 0530. The race was to begin at 0600 and there was to be a brief pre-race meeting. Not a lot of hoopla, we just all rolled out at 6 and headed through town towards Gunlock.
I'll try to remember times and distances so excuse me if I'm off a bit, my chemistry is still wacky and I'm having trouble focusing.
Anyways, I do remember a lot of climbing during the first part of the race. By about 10 miles in the front pack consisted of us four from Mesa and the eventual "winner" Mark Larson. We got to the top of the longest climb of the day and turned around for some fun and windy downhill. We put some good distance on the second group compliments of Candon who made the most of his aerobars on the descent. The wind was pretty vicious that morning and I believe we rode into it all the way to Cedar City (about 113 miles in).
I'm not sure what Rob and Wayne decided on for nutrition but it seemed to work for them, they rode strong all day. Candon I hear was without a doubt the strongest rider out there but it didn't show up in the results. I don't want to get into right and wrong thing here, but from what I hear race etiquette was not on everyone's mind. That being said, those guys were amazingly strong. Candon is young and fast, Rob is fast and tough (as per the show he put on at LOTOJA last year), and Wayne has improved more than anyone I know to become a very good and strong rider.
On this day, I on the other hand did all I could just to finish. I first felt sick near the top of that first climb and I never got over it for the rest of the day. I just thought i'd give Perpetuem one more shot, but it just doesn't work with me. A lot of people like it, but it makes me feel hollow and nauseous. Ironically, only Hammer products were the fuel of the day at all the aid stations. I was frustrated to have to keep forcing myself to drink it.
I was able to keep up with the front group until about mile 25 when a short steep climb put me over the edge and they slowly pulled away. I was really okay with that, I hadn't trained for this thing and I was sick so I quickly accepted my fate and didn't want to hold anybody up. I plodded along solo at a decent pace for another ten miles and eventually the second pack of four caught me on a long climb. I jumped on and we rotated well for about ten more miles. I still hadn't eaten anything solid and I felt my heart rate was too high, so at a rest stop I informed them that I would go it alone and try and stay ahead of them. This group had their own sag vehicle and they finally convinced me to eat a little something. So, I choked down a couple of small cookies and went on alone ahead of them.
The group would leap-frog me over and over for the next 160 miles but I couldn't stay on their erratic rotating pace, I was more comfortable riding smooth and steady and suffering alone. There was wind-o-plenty all the way to the turn around and the heat reminded me of home so some negative voices popped into my head and kept trying to talk me into finding a ride back to St George from Cedar City. After a five minute argument the "good fighter Jim" convinced the 'natural man Jim" quitting wasn't an option so I pressed on.
At 112 miles I pulled into Cedar City (turn around) and saw a lone rider (the eventual winner) riding back alone and thought it was strange. Did the Mesa boys cave or did this guy not stop? I later found out he had slipped away while the others were breaking and Rob was even in the catbox. Lame maybe, but whatever.
When I got to the park I once again saw my group, they were laying on the grass and relaxing so I dumped all the Perpetuem, filled my bottles with only water and kept on riding. Problem was, all the nutrition they had to offer was Hammer stuff. So on the way out of town I stopped into Subway for some solid food. There happened to be a bike mechanic out of St George in line so thankfully he let me in line ahead of him. Ate a couple of bites of my sub, pocketed the rest, slammed down a soda, and I was out the door in about 15 minutes. I thought for sure the group had passed me but they were behind me and caught me about ten miles out of town. I was starting to be able to hold them off for longer periods of time because of a strong near tailwind and because I was feeling just a bit stronger from the food. When the group passed me this time they had a female rider in tow who had caught them while they were lounging in Cedar. She was lean and looked like a climber.
When I caught back up to them at the next stop, the race sag had some Clif bars and Hammer Gel, so I grabbed some of those and I was gone fast. This stop was just prior to the last long climb and even though I left ahead of the group, I was told the female rider had left about five minutes before all of us. I doubted I could catch her and I was right, she was a great climber.
I had about a bottle and a half of water left when I came up on the group again that had just passed me, but I decided to roll right by and keep pushing on. I was still weak, but not as sick, and I thought maybe I could hold them off for the last 15 miles.
I was doing just that, I could never see them when I looked back and was getting excited thinking I could finish 5th overall, but then a major set back, whenever I would stop pedaling my rear hub (freewheel) would squeal like pig being skinned alive. My fear was that seven miles from the finish it would seize completely and i'd be walking to the finish. All I could do at this point was to slow down and keep pedaling. If I got going too fast, or stopped pedaling, the hub would squeal regardless of how fast I pedaled.
Frustrations galore! The group passed me in the Snow Canyon downhill and all I could do was brake, keep pedaling, and watch them leave me. I thought I handled it well though, I slowed and just tried to find satisfaction in my effort regardless of my finish time or place.
My goal was to finish before 12 hours. So while riding an estimated 160 miles solo I had fought sickness, wind, heat, a 15 minute Subway visit, and a lame wheel to finish in 12:14, I would've patted myself on the back, but I'm not very limber. This second group of riders were aware of my predicament and were supporting me all day by offers of sag help and encouragement and were nice enough to applaud me when I came into the finish. They ended up catching the climber girl and they all finished together in 12:06.
The race organizer told us because the wind was so strong that day, they had lowered the cut off time for a jersey to 14 hours, pretty cool of them, we all get race jerseys.
Overall I liked this race, good roads, great open scenery and pleasant, easy-going race organizers. I can see it becoming popular in the future and look forward to doing it next year.
Jim Auwen
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Working on race reports (if anyone cares)
Just back from the RedRock 200 in St George, full report coming soon. Also, a report on the Breathless Agony race from a few weeks ago. Life is good...
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