Flag Football

Jonathan played flag football again this fall, this time with his friends/brothers Andrew and Tyler. We were all excited to find out that this season they would be playing as the Broncos.

Things started off really well. They won their first two games of the season, but then dropped the remaining games and barely missed the playoffs. Jonathan did great. He played a little bit of wide receiver, but mostly he played defense at cornerback and safety.  The good news is that most of his team were 6th graders, and this league they were playing against 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. I hope he continues to play with this team and coach in the future.

Gravel Locos

In terms of how this year went overall, this race was a huge success and a pleasant surprise. I had managed to cobble enough riding together, and felt good the few days before, to feel comfortable signing up for the inaugural Gravel Locos race in Pueblo. At least the "shorter" of the competitive options.

I drove down the morning of the race early and parked in the downtown garage. Except that I parked in the number 13 spot. So, I got back into the 4Runner and moved it one space over. No point in tempting fate in a gravel race.

The 150 mile race started earlier, but the 100 mile and the 60 mile races both started together. That put us with a big group that included some professionals that were racing the 100 miles. I was very fortunate to make the second or third large group on the road once the raced kicked off after the 30 minute neutral police escort from downtown.

I rode with a larger group until the course split up. To my surprise, everyone but three of us went left, and I found myself at the front of the 60 mile race with my teammate Vlad and another rider from Texas. Those two guys were big, powerful riders, so I just hung on as long as I could given my current fitness. Rolling back into town I cramped up about 3 - 4 miles from the finish. Vlad won, but I was very happy to finish third overall and second to Vlad in my age group.

I think I would have won in a sprint finish had I been in better racing shape. But man, I really could care less considering how well it went being undertrained and after a very difficult year for me health wise. Afterwards several of us stuck around for the awards ceremony and after party. We had to wait almost five hours after we finished for the professionals to finish the longer distances, but I sure wanted that hardware. And it was fun to get to hang out with some of the teammates I hadn't spent much time with this year.

The Tree

We finally had to have the ash tree in the front yard removed. Most of the neighborhood had already taken care of it, but our "builder grade" tree held on for a bit longer.  Although we had to have someone remove it for us, our neighbor John and I each saved about $500 by doing the rest of the work ourselves.

Stacey was out of town visiting Pat and Melinda this week. Thankfully, Jonathan really wanted to help me plant the new maple tree. From start to finish including the clean up. I didn't realize it at the time, but afterwards I was really happy we did this together. We'll be able to watch it grow and every time we look at it, we'll be reminded of doing this together.  Over the years we may even take pictures of it and us together, just to see the changes in all three of us.

Homecoming Dance

After the Air Force football game Julia went over to a friend's house to get ready for the homecoming dance with several of her friends. Look how pretty she is!

CU versus Air Force

The big game this weekend was held at Falcon Stadium.  Jonathan and I went to the game, while Stacey and Julia worked concessions for the Pine Creek Cheer team fundraiser. 

It was a rare cold and rainy day. Probably the most consistent rain I've seen here for awhile. But we came dressed for it. Air Force won comfortably, which wasn't a surprise!

First Day of School 2022

Wow, Julia is now in high school and Jonathan is now in middle school. That's pretty unbelievable when it feels like I was just in high school myself. It seems like yesterday when these two were just little kids running around the house barefoot.

I went with extra large photos to commemorate how big this first day of school was for all of us. Including Bailey. Undoubtedly this will be a big adjustment for both of them, but I'm confident that we'll be able to tackle this together, and that they will do well in this next chapter of their young life.

Happy 10th Birthday Freckles!

I can't believe that Freckles is ten years old!  She's such a sweet cat, even if she looks a bit grumpy in these photos wearing a birthday hat. To celebrate we gave her some yummy tuna flavored canned food. She wasted no time scarfing it down!

FoCo Fondo

I finally was able to do a race this year!  After a long spring and summer of craziness I finally felt "good enough" to roll up to the start line. In a lot of ways this race was about me proving to myself that I could still compete...

I drove myself up to Fort Collins and shared a hotel room with Steve. We had a good time eating delicious Thai food with the rest of the COS Racing crew Saturday night. We got absolutely dumped on with rain that night, which was either going to be a a really good thing or a disaster for me regarding course conditions. It turned out to be the former.

There were 405 registered for our distance & the event hit the 1000 mark overall. About halfway through the race I found myself off the front of the main group after a technical double track section, so I went for it, which isn’t something I’ve ever done. And probably not the best idea given my lack of training!

Kudos to Curtis Singmaster and Erik Hartel for the awesome team tactics and trying to slow the group down. I was away solo for the last hour and should have stayed away, but both quads started cramping and I had to back off. It’s like I haven’t raced in several months! The group blew past me with a few miles to go.

I am really happy with the day, the results, and team (we had multiple AG podiums). Glad to be back racing again...and at the time of writing this post a few weeks later, glad to be back to feeling like myself again!

Sunset Tour

At some point vacation has to end. I went on an easy ride our last night in town with Winston. It was one of those perfect Spokane summer evenings, and a really fitting end to our trip!

Mount Spokane

This was a fifth year in a row that I was able to ride my bike up to the top of Mount Spokane!  It's always such a great ride up...and of course, down!  This year Alex put me in touch with a couple of people from his cycling club, Matt and Jenna. We had a great time and conversation on the ride!