Birth of "The 'Blog"

I find the whole Myspace and Facebook epidemic to be nauseating. The fact that your popularity is determined by the number of people who request to be added to your page makes me shake my head in disbelief. The sum of a person's existence is NOT the number of hits your account has.

That being said, I find myself reading a few 'blogs that do inspire and or motivate me and I feel my own need to chronicle my experiences. This 'blog will be a personal journal and will include my training and racing experiences, school dealings and whatever else falls out of my ever-running brain.

A little about me: I'm an undergraduate at UCSD, though I'm 32 years old. Why I took so long to go to school is a long story, which I may or may not get to in the course of this journal; it'd take forever to tell my life story anyway. You'd get bored...

Mostly, this 'blog will cover my Xterra (http://www.xterraplanet.com/) and Mountain Bike racing. If you're into the Triathlon and MTB scene, my race reports may interest you. Then again, they may not. Who knows?

Speaking of race reports, I got home last night from a Collegiate MTB race in the lovely city of Parkfield. Calling it a city a gross exaggeration since the population is a whopping 18. I'm not kidding; that was the actual number of persons listed on the sign as you drive into town.

I left Friday after my P-chem class, met up with the rest of the UCSD MTB team (http://www.ucsdcycling.org/), loaded up a bunch of stuff into my '98 Cherokee and started driving. Parkfield is at the junction of highways 41 and 46. Made famous because of the untimely death of James Dean at that exact junction. It's even marked by a sign "James Dean Memorial Interchange". Random.

Traffic from SD and through LA sucked. It took us 6 hours to drive the 300 miles into Parkfield. The event would take place over both Saturday and Sunday and, since it was being held on a cattle ranch, we would be camping. The venue would have a flush toilet (yes, one) multiple port-a-potties and we would be camping. I like camping, but the idea of spending the weekend surrounded by 400 drunken college students was less than appealing.

As we get close to the ranch, it starts sprinkling. We get to the gate, open it, and the drive into the "campgrounds" is a muddy, rutted road. Thankfully, my Jeep has 4wd :). My first time using it since I bought it last week. Cool.

I set up camp in the rain (sucky) and manage to keep one of my two tents dry on the inside. Fortunately, the rain let around 10:30 and we were able to get some sleep. Four of the guys on the team slept on a tarp under the stars ,while one slept in his truck. I was cozy in my tent. Amateurs.

Up Saturday morning (0630) for an 0800 race start and it's still pretty wet. I only brought hardpack tires. Great. I register and find out that Short Track and XC have been switched. I'd be racing short track Saturday and XC Sunday instead of the other way around. I was just there for fun so what did I care?

Short Track:
Very much like a criterium on dirt. The Men's "A" field had about 30 guys in it and I lined up to avoid the big mud puddle directly off the start line. The official starts the race and the pace is expectedly frenetic. The 0.7 mile course has a big bottle neck as it goes from road to single track and the field slows down as we go to single file when some MORON tries to pass on the left 4 people up and stacks into another guy, stopping everyone from 13th place on down. I get caught up in it and manage to get in front of the second pack. I pin it to catch the front pack, but only manage to pull 8 people with me and trash myself in the process. Stupid. Older racers are much more careful than college kids. Not only that, but they'll race you for 20th position. I was in the back of the field, went to make a pass on someone and he threw in a surge! Really? Are you serious? Then he starts blocking. Unbelievable. Ass. Soon after, he dropped his chain and I got around him, stifling a laugh. Karma's a bitch, dude. I reeled in some guys starting to fade and managed to finish without puking. The race organizers had some issues getting the placings right "Um... we only have results for the top 10 riders. We're hoping the NORBA official has more complete results. You guys came in too fast." College kids really piss me off sometimes. Apparently the NORBA official had complete results: I got 25th out of 29 starters with 2 DNF's.

I watched my team mates run Mountain Cross, took some photos and tried to make sure I'd be recovered for XC the next day. Saturday night included the typical behavior you'd expect from unsupervised college students: drinking. Complete with keg stands and a jumping contest on bikes with 16" wheels. The winner would clear a 22 foot gap. Insane.

Sunday Morning:
Cold. Very very cold. I shivered during my race prep and started the race in arm warmers and tights. The race started on the short track course from the day before and you'd imagine guys would remember the bottle neck from the previous race and take it easy so the same thing wouldn't happen again. Nope. Jerks still trying to pass in the first mile of a 21 mile race and stacking up the field. Not to mention missing shifts the first steep climb and making the entire field hike. NORBA guys race so much cleaner...

The XC race was brutal. Two nasty hike-a-bike sections and some of the steepest XC racing I've ever seen. Not technical, very little single track and way out in the middle of nowhere. I ran out of water at the 1:40 mark and limped it home, cramping the last 40 minutes. I was way off the back and I think I finished in 24th or so. Results are still pending.

Watched my team mates race DH, packed up my stuff and drove home. Been out of cell contact all weekend and I get a message that my grampa is in the hospital followed by a message that the 5 FWY is shut down near Santa Clarita due to a major crash and fire. Crap. I had to take an alternate route and made it home in 7 glorious hours. Class today and, thankfully, some recovery time.

Next race is UC Santa Cruz on 11/3 followed by Conference Championships two weeks later. I'll be looking to improve my results.

Later...