In The Beginning

Well, Where to start. I have recently got back into mountain bike racing, and want to allow my family and Friends to keep up with what is going on with my life. So, since I have been so busy with work, family, training and racing I have not done a very good job keeping in tough with everybody and this has become my solution.

During the course of this past summer I have done a few races to get the old feet wet again, and have had a lot of fun doing it. It has been very interesting though. Originally, I has just going to do the traditional mountain bike races. The kind that you just show up, and an hour and a half to two hours later you are done. Well, for some reason it has not worked out that was.

The first race of the season was a traditional race, and I went OK. I rode very well, but due to technical problems with my back wheel I was only able to finish 5th. Since that race I have not done a traditional race. All of the ones that I had planed to attend were cancelled due to rain and bad course conditions. It has been a very wet year.

The funny thing though. For some reason I was talked into doing a race that I never thought that I would ever consider, The Dirty Kanza 200. A 200 mile mountain bike race. I considered it to be the challenge of all challenges. So I entered.

To prepare for such an event, I was in need of a lot of saddle time, and this is where the adventure began. Since this point I have put in many LONG rides on the mountain bike and several awesome races.

2 months before the Dirty Kanza I did a 6 hour race that was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, where I finished 6th. Then the mother of all mountain bike races, the "Dirty Kanza 200". This event was a real eye opener. It was an extremely challenging, but fun race. I was amazed that I was not only able to finish it, but do pretty well in it. Even though I got off course, and rode an extra 15 miles I was still able to finish 11th.

By this point I was discovering that I was not bad at the LONG endurance races, and, they were kind of fun to do!

Since the Dirty Kanza I have been able to to another 6 hour race, but as a team with a fellow rider and Friend Garret Seacat, which we finished 8th, and a 12 hour team race with Friends and fellow riders Lelan Daines and Dustin Burghardt, which we finished 2nd.



It is odd how things evolve on their own, and seem to become so natural. Not ever planing to become an endurance racer, but evolving into one and liking it is so strange for me to think about, but that's life. At this point I am already looking forward to next years season, and busy planning events that I would like to do.

Well, it is time to sign off. I will try to update this thing at least once a week, it possible. Who knows where this crazy thing will end up?