Hanover RR

Whelp, I won a Cat 3 road race...

Honestly, this race was pretty sketchy and there were a couple of crashes. That's mainly because at the start line they decided to combine several groups into one, resulting in 65 racers on the start list. A little too many to have a good and safe race. That being said, that many guys racing together and the flat nature of the course definitely worked to my advantage even more than I could have hoped. I was hoping for a sprint finish and that's exactly what happened.

After 2022 I wasn't sure if racing bikes at any level was still in my future. It took a lot of work and persistence to keep moving forward, and this race early in the season was a great confidence boost that I could still compete. I missed all of the road race season in 2022 and felt like this race validated that I was back and could still race...especially since I hadn't really trained as much as I would have liked.

I wanted to make a post so that I can remember this at some point in the future! Not only was this my first road race win, it was my first Cat 3 road race period. Yes, racing bikes is probably trivial in the grand scheme of life. But it take a ton of energy, effort, and time to be any good and it's nice to be rewarded with good results every now and then.

Putt Putt and Baby Alligators

Only in Florida... :-)

Segway Tour

This was probably one of the highlights of the trip, at least in terms of activities. It was Stacey's idea, and although expensive, was a really fun thing that we all did together.

We cruised around Clearwater Beach (tourist area) at dusk, but also went through a really old and nicely treed neighborhood across the bridge that was packed with fancy multi-million dollar houses. Not one of us had ever ridden a Segway before, but it was pretty intuitive. It's basically like the kid's hoverboards except for the handlebars and steering.

We got some great pictures, including some funny ones of embarrassing the kids. Lots of people, including us, made comments and moves like Paul Blart... 

Sunset Cruise

One of the fun things we like to do when we travel to water is to rent a boat or book a tour on a boat. This trip we decided to do a sunset cruise around Tampa Bay and out into the Gulf of Mexico. When we left from the bay we had to follow specifically designated boat lanes, since unknown to us, most of Tampa Bay is really shallow. As in, only several feet deep. They have to dredge the area to keep it deep enough for boats to pass through.

We had a nice sunset and time on the water. Took a couple of pictures, saw some dolphins, and narrowly avoided being attacked by a party pirate ship!

Beach Cruiser

Our rental house came with a couple of beach cruisers. Naturally, I had to take the 45 pound beast out for a spin. There were a couple of bike routes and trails nearby, and then a completely separate bike bridge called the Courtney Campbell Trail that connected Clearwater and Tampa over Tampa Bay.

I got up early and ended up riding 50 miles and 4 hours. I put a sack lunch and my water bottles in the front bike basket, old school style. The day started off cool and cloudy, but by the time the sun burned off the fog, it started getting pretty warm and humid. I was pretty sweaty at the end and ran out of water. No biggie.

Really glad I had access to the bike and took it for a spin. Riding (and recovering) at sea level is amazing!

Spring Break 2023

This year we decided to head down to the Florida Gulf Coast for Spring Break. We flew into Tampa and stayed just down the road in Clearwater. I had never been to this part of Florida, we had the airline miles to go there, and it was one of the few places that was warm at the end of March. Jumping to the end of the book - we had a great time and would definitely go back again for Spring Break next year. It was a really nice place to get away and get some sun.

The pictures below are from a few different days. The first few pictures are of Honeymoon Island State Park. You have to pay to enter, but the crowds are smaller. The water and beaches were amazing. There were fine white sands that looked at felt almost like sugar. Prior to sitting on the beach we took a short nature walk and saw some Osprey and a big old tortoise slowly crawling across the road.

We liked Honeymoon island so much that we decided to go back there again in the late afternoon to watch the sunset. Being on the west side of Florida, this area has some pretty great sunset views. As the sun was setting a few dolphins decided they wanted to come close enough to the shore for us to see them. It was a nice way to end the day, standing in the water and watching dolphins swimming.

We hit up Madeira Beach the first day we were there. We also drove into downtown one day and went to the Florida Aquarium courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. We watched alligator being fed, but Jonathan really like watching the river otters swim and play right in front of us. They would swim to one side of their tank, then launch themselves off of a rock, doing a back flip just like swimmers do in the pool.

Our VRBO was just around the corner from Crest Lake Park. It was a really nice park to be near since the general area was mostly city and people. I went for a run there once, and we took a few walks and/or ate some ice cream there one night. The lake, water feature, and fountain were a nice touch. On a low-key rest day we also went up to the local driving range and hit a few buckets of balls.