The Hookes

24 Hours of LeMons

2010-04-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

This is Mac's Race Report from his recent LeMons Race. I'm not the author, just the poster :)

24 Hours of LeMons
American Irony Race Report
Chump Ganassti: Mac Hooke (author), DJ Quint, Richard Colfax, Seth Goslawski
1991 Sentra SE-R

As many of you know, for the last 6 months we have been building a car to compete in the 24 Hours of LeMons endurance racing series. At times the build was difficult, frustrating, and expensive ($500 racecars do NOT cost $500) but last weekend the big race day finally came and I thought I’d share some of it with you. But first, great thanks go to our “crew,” Kristi Hooke and Stephane Roussel; we didn’t realize going into the race how difficult it would have been without you guys there to help us out.

Our car is a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R with 253K miles and counting. Our theme for the race was to turn our Nissan into one of the most common (and therefore disliked) cars in LeMons, a BMW e30, as a spoof. The paint scheme we chose was the M color stripes across the car like a Warsteiner DTM e30 racecar:

Warsteiner e30

LeMons e30

We arrived at the track (Gingerman Raceway, South Haven, MI) Friday morning. The plan for Friday was to participate in the open track practice day and go through the tech- and BS-inspections for the race. We had no idea how slow or fast our car may be, so we were happy when in the morning practice sessions we were able to turn laps that were only 3 or 4 seconds off the pace of the fastest cars on track, using our older back-up tires and street brake pads.

After the morning practice sessions we got in line for tech inspection followed by BS inspection. Our collective experience is that no matter how well prepared your car is, power-tripping tech inspectors consider it a personal goal to find something wrong with your car. Much to our surprise, we sailed through tech with ease – those hours reading the rules over and over, and going through the tech inspection sheet line by line must have paid off. Also, the fact that our car looked like a legitimate race car built by people who know what they’re doing probably didn’t hurt.

Having a legitimate-looking racecar DID hurt us in BS inspection. Despite piles of paperwork proving our accounting, the judges simply don’t like SE-Rs, and showed it by giving us a 100 lap penalty. In LeMons, penalty laps are theoretically given out based on 1 lap for every $10 the judges feel your car is cheating over the $500 budget, but are often handed out for no particular reason other than the judges don’t like your car, or you. We’ll prefer to think it was the car that got us the 100 laps. Anyway, 100 laps was reduced to 88 with a beer-bribe, but then increased to 188 when a particularly smart-mouthed team member asked for our beer back since “there’s not much difference between 88 and 100 laps”. Apparently there’s not much difference between 88 and 188 either.

Friday finished with a couple more hours of practice time on track, with some tweaking to the car (disconnecting the rear ARB was especially helpful), and bedding in our race brakes during the last session of the day.

So, 188 laps behind the most of the field, we started the race at 10:30am Saturday in 50th out of 51 cars. In some ways, the 188 lap penalty was a blessing in disguise. It was apparent from Friday’s practice, and Saturday’s early race laps, that we had one of the fastest cars at the race. Without the penalty laps, we would have been seriously tempted to go into all-out race strategy, with long driver stints and super fast pit stops, only under yellow flags, etc, to try and win or podium. With our -188 laps, we just focused on having fun. We decided our first driver stints would be only 30 minutes, so that everyone would get to drive in case the car did not last the entire race.

Well, the car DID last the entire race, so there’s plenty of racing to report on. DJ took the green flag and showed us all how you’re supposed to navigate heavy traffic. A very fast Honda CRX latched on to DJ’s bumper and just let DJ carve through traffic and tow him around the track. The CRX team was gunning for the overall win from the start (they did win, by 2 laps) and their “crew chief” sought us out in our pit area about an hour later, to scope out what he surely thought was a serious competitor to his team. I think his fears subsided when he found out we were currently 188 laps back from them.

My driving stint was next, and despite (or perhaps because of) my more extensive trackday experience than my teammates, I was NOT comfortable in my first experience with wheel-to-wheel traffic. I was nervous about being passed, and not confident in making and completing passes. Further frustrating was a large number of yellow flags during my stint as people stopped being on their best behavior during the opening laps and started getting more aggressive.

Richard, and then Seth drove the next two stints. Without knowing it, DJ received a black flag for speeding in the pits. Seth gathered us our second black flag, and our first penalty. LeMons has many funny penalties that team must serve when they break a track rule such as passing under yellow, or going 2-wheels off track. Seth passed under yellow and we received the “Painting with Bob Ross” penalty – we were given paint, brushes, and a book of Bob Ross paintings and told to duplicate one of them on our hood.

Seth- AKA Bob Ross

Other “incidents” we had on track and off on Saturday included car-to-car contact during DJ’s stint (which we were lucky to get away with without a black flag), and a two-wheels off penalty by Seth. We got flagged for the two wheels off penalty and had to attach a cone to our roof to warn other drivers of our poor car-control capabilities. Near the end of the day, DJ outbraked himself and ran wide in turn 3, using all the steering lock he had available to keep from running off course and getting a fourth black flag. (Four black flags in one day means the judges tell you to pack up your car on the trailer and go home; your race is over.) Unfortunately the maneuver tweaked our alignment and the car had to be brought into the pits to readjust some suspension bolts. Saturday finished with your humble narrator much more comfortable and faster on track than he was in the morning, but driving conservatively to avoid the dreaded race-ending 4th black flag (I was the only driver to not receive a black flag all weekend), taking the Saturday checker flag around 8pm.

Sunday morning before the race started we unbolted some parts of the suspension and put Loc-tite threadlocker on some bolts - to hopefully avoid a repeat of Saturday when DJ’s emergency maneuver was enough to re-align the car unintentionally. Foolishly, we didn’t check the alignment after our fix, and when Richard started racing, he soon spun the car due to the poor handling. Black flag, and back to the judges box for our next penalty… We were taped together with saran wrap and sent to the concession stand to fetch the judges some hot chocolate.

After the penalty and some time spent in the pits to perform the alignment we should have done in the morning, everyone got one final stint in the car on Sunday. The car was a bit slower on Sunday because our hasty alignment wasn’t quite perfect, but everyone was able to race clean and have fun. The race ended at 5:30pm, and we had worked our way up to 41st out of 51, completing a total of 361 laps.
While the 188 lap penalty was kind of disappointing after the amount of effort we put in to building a proper $500 car, we all had great fun at our first 24 Hours of LeMons race. We’re already looking into where and when we can run our next one.

Updates, updates, updates!!!

2009-09-10T14:41:00.015-04:00

OK, so let me start with an apology for the lack of updates. We started this blog to keep everyone informed about our whereabouts once we started this Toyota adventure and we have yet to blog SINCE the Toyota adventure started. So this update will be jam packed with a lot of events... so readers beware!

Let’s start with THE MOVE…
The move was pretty uneventful. Mac and I each took a car FULL of our stuff. Literally, we each only had room for one small dog in the front passenger seat of each car. Fortunately, we only have 2 small dogs... worked out well for them. We spent a few nights in Carrollton with my parents before we made the long drive, so it ended up being a 14 hour drive to Northern Kentucky.

The first night of the drive, we stayed in Memphis. We were able to meet up with Mac's cousins and enjoyed dinner and some beer with them. We went to this great bar with a fantastic band and had a lot of fun catching up with them.

The last time we saw them was at our wedding...

We arrived at our hotel on July 4th, but it was all nasty and rainy... so no fireworks for us this year. Here are a few pics of our hotel room with all of our stuff strategically placed.

Entrance...

Master Bath

Kitchen (no dishwasher)

Living Room

Bedroom/Nook/Alcove

Dog not included with room, he's just cute...

I know what you’re thinking… so much space! Yes, I think every couple should live in a hotel, for 9 weeks, early in their marriage. Personal boundaries do not exist and “what’s mine is yours” really starts to mean something. Hmmm, I wonder if I could go on Oprah with this storyline, “Young Couples Living in Hotels in Kentucky.” Trust me, they could get some really good footage of the locals. Walmart in Kentucky is something that every human being should experience.

Fortunately, we were really close to Ohio where there is a dramatic difference in the population. Cincinnati is a beautiful city full of nasty food. We tried their so-called “spaghetti and chili.” All I can say is anyone who likes chili should be offended that they call that chili. Mac’s description of it was perfect, “it’s like baby poo on noodles.” Try it if you must, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Mac and I with a great view of Cincy behind us

In August, I got to go to my favorite place in the world… the BEACH! Many of you may remember, from an earlier post, pictures of the renovations to the beach house in South Carolina. Well it was finally finished in July and so we all got to enjoy the new and improved house. Mac was unable to make it because he was back in KY working hard (I know, not fair). We all missed him but still had a good time. The weather was perfect and the beach gorgeous as always.

Mom and Dad enjoying the deck

Mandy and Caleb

Granddad and myself

Our last few weeks in KY, we did as much as we could to explore. We spent a Saturday at Cedar Point Amusement park in Sandusky, OH. Lots of fun, lots of roller coasters. We also attended a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. Mac and I are not big baseball people, but we had fun regardless.

Cedar Point Crew

Go Reds!

That leads me to the present… We moved to Ann Arbor, MI a week ago. This is the location of Toyota’s research and design facility. Mac was super pumped to be here because this is what he wants to do. We will be here till next summer. Our apartment is really nice and so far we like Ann Arbor. This past Saturday was the first football game of the season and all I could think the whole time was that I was definitely in the wrong college town! I miss College Station and Aggie football games. Up here they don’t really care about the Big 12, it’s all Big 10 blah blah blah. The OU game was on TV, but we all know how that turned out. So I think the only way I’ll get to see my Aggies play is if they turn out to be an incredible team this year or if they are playing some incredible team that actually gets to be on TV. We’ll hope for the first option.

I am currently trying to find a job. A few interviews have been set up, so lets just hope that one will turn into a job offer. I’ll post some pics of our apartment here in A2 (that’s what they call it here), just give me a little more time to finish unpacking/cleaning.

Mexico Trip

2009-06-27T23:34:00.007-04:00

Kristi and I just got back from a week in Cozumel. It was a combination honeymoon/last vacation before my job starts. I won't bore you with words...

Captions are above the pictures.

Here's our resort from the ocean side:

The view when we walked in our room:

Kristi tries out the balcony:

We went down to the "office" for a "conference call":

We took a couple sailing/snorkeling trips and saw some sea creatures:
Lobster:

Starfish:

Nurse shark:

Sea Turtle:

Just out of the water:

At night we went downtown and discovered a great little bar called Wet Wendy's. The margaritas were some of the best I've ever tasted, and they were definitely the biggest! We bought a bottle of the owner's homemade tequila, and it's VERY good.

We also went to Chakanaab national park and did a swim-with-the-dolphins program; it was amazing!

Our buddies, Pegaso and Athena:

One last dip in the ocean before we head home:

Kingwood Going-Away Dinner

2009-06-27T23:01:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone for having dinner with us at ol' J Christopher's Pizza and Pasta in Kingwood before Kristi and I move to Kentucky!

Racing Volvo Suspension Mods

2009-06-14T12:33:00.008-04:00

I bought this Volvo a while ago as a beater, and because I have a thing for wagons. Since then I've installed a four bike roof rack, and done general maintenance and clean-up tasks. I've decided to sell the M3, so that leaves the Volvo as my primary car until the urge (and cash) to buy a new car hits me. With that in mind, I'm willing to spend a few grand upgrading the Volvo; it's a lot less than a new car.

When I bought it, the suspension was shot - the rear end was sagging badly and pushing on the fender would leave the car bouncing for several seconds. So I bought IPD sport springs, Bilstein dampers, IPD sway bars, and an adjustable panhard rod.

I installed them in my driveway over the course of about 8 hours total. Total installation time would have been much less if not for a few problems:

1)A frozen nut caused the entire threaded stud to come out of the chassis at the rear spring pad - I had to replace it with a M10 bolt
2)The collar locking the left strut cartridge into the strut tube was also frozen and required soaking in penetrating oil for 6 hours before removal.
3)Left steering tie rod was frozen, 3 hours of penetrating oil did nothing, I had to destroy the boot to get it off.

Here is the before and after shot of the car. Note the rear ride height did not change much because it was worn out and already sagging below stock ride height in the before picture.

Before:
After:The installation of all the parts was straightforward and pretty easy. It was nice that the front springs and struts could be replaced while still on the car - disconnect the steering and swaybar links, and the assembly can be swung out from under the fender and worked on. I must have mis-measured the length of the adjustable panhard rod (or the original misalignment of the axle), because the axle is still about an inch off-center. I will fix that later; I'm tired of rolling around on the ground for now.

The next stage of the upgrade is wheels and tires. Here is what I'm getting:
They are 17" replicas of Volvo Turbo R wheels. Unfortunately, they are back ordered, so I won't have them until early August. I'm really looking forward to the wheels, I think they will complement the suspension mods, and look very good on a Volvo of this vintage.

We are moving to KY (Recap)

2009-06-09T01:21:00.003-04:00

We type little updates about our living arrangements and such over the next couple of years, not realizing there are probably a few people reading this wondering what the hell we're talking about.

I am taking a job with Toyota that starts July 6. I don't have an official job title other than being a part of the new college graduate rotation program. "Engineer in Training" would describe it in other company's vernacular. During the two year rotation program, we will spend our first three months in Erlanger, KY (technically KY, but really a suburb of Cincinnati, OH). We will then be relocated when I am assigned a 9-month project, and then relocated again for a 12 month project that will complete the two year training period. After the two years, we will likely be relocated a final time when I am given my "job" - I will have a job in two years, but neither I nor Toyota know where or what it will be right now.

Though it may surprise you, we are excited about the prospect of moving a few times over the next few years. We are currently child-free, so that makes the prospect of relocating much more enticing - we're looking forward to seeing different parts of the country (and possibly other countries), and the best part is that Toyota pays for all of our living (not just relocation) expenses.

So if you've been wondering why we keep talking about packing, and moving, and traveling, etc. - this is why.

Mac

MS150 Ride Report

2009-06-04T17:48:00.004-04:00

First, THANK YOU to all that supported me and the MS150 cause with donations or support. For those that don’t know, the MS150 is a two-day charity bicycle ride from Houston to Austin, with the proceeds benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

My riding partners this year were Bryan Knight, Jason Knight and Dustin Orrick. Bryan and Jason both attend Texas A&M, and Dustin is a high school friend who lives in Austin.

Friday afternoon we left College Station late and I was worried we may not get a seat on the bus from Austin to Houston, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. At 4:30, Dustin told us Day 1 of the ride had just been cancelled due to torrential rains Friday night and Saturday afternoon, so it was better that we were still in Austin.

Since the MS150 Day 1 was cancelled, we did our own ride in Austin on Saturday. Our 8:00 departure was delayed until an early morning storm cell passed, but the weather was perfect the rest of the day. The route was a 52 mile route on the west side of Austin encompassing a large portion of the “Dam Loop” as it’s known, and two well known Austin climbs, Redbud and Mt. Bonnell.

The first half of the ride was uneventful; the roads began to dry out and we got some great views of Lake Travis. Around mile 30 we hit Mt. Bonnell, and I’m pretty sure Bry and Jason were taken aback by the grade – we don’t have hills like that in College Station! Next was Redbud. Redbud has an “upper” and “lower” section; if you don’t know about the upper section, you get a sinking feeling when you realize you’re only halfway to the top. But everyone made it to the top in decent shape, and after a stop to refill water we were on the home stretch to Dustin’s house. We ate lunch at The Oasis at Lake Travis, which was a huge, beautiful restaurant with great views.

After a 5:30am bus ride, Day 2 of the MS150 started in LaGrange. The ride started out with flat roads and mild winds, with not much “action” to speak of in the first 25 miles.

However, my favorite part of the course was up next: Bastrop State Park. The road through the park is narrow, winding, and constant short, rolling hills. The scenery –tightly surrounded on either side by large, densely packed pine trees – is equally pleasing.

When we finished the park section, we regrouped and had about 20 miles until the lunch stop. We ate lunch, but didn’t dawdle too long, and got a nice 30-40 minute rest. After lunch I wanted to pick up the pace a bit and I pulled at a faster pace for about the next 15 miles, with the rest of the crew in my draft. I worked for about 45 minutes into the headwind, and the guys did fine behind me.
We took it easy the last 10 miles into town. We talked and agreed to cross the finish line four abreast, with Bryan, Jason and I giving Texas A&M salutes and Dustin giving the UT “hook ‘em”.
I had a great weekend. The mileage was 56 and 76 miles Saturday and Sunday, respectively. I really enjoyed the Saturday ride in Austin, though having the MS150 cut down to only one day did take some of the mystique out of it. Also, I had no significant pain associated with the bike wreck and surgery two and a half weeks before. I am already trying to figure out if I will be able to do it again next year…

NOLA and the Move

2009-06-03T17:36:00.005-04:00

Outside the Real World New Orleans Mansion

Mac drinking his "Pimms Cup" at its place of origin, Napoleon House

At the Carosel Bar inside the Hotel Monteleone. You can't tell but we were going around in circles!

Hurricanes at Pat O'Briens

Jackson Square

Mac and I recently returned from a quick trip to New Orleans. It was a surprise trip that I planned to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, Mac is one smart cookie and he already had the location figured out by the time it was revealed. So we spent 3 days, 2 nights celebrating 1 year of nuptual bliss in Southern Louisiana. We had a fantastic time eating, drinking and spending money! It's hard to believe that it's been a year since we tied the knot. We have had a great year and hope for many more to follow.

When we returned home from the trip to NOLA it was back to business. We've been slowly packing up our house and preparing for our upcoming move. I now have only 2 weeks left at work and am counting down the days. This week we have tried to kick it into high gear and really pack up some stuff. Our plan is to be out of our house by July 1st and then we will spend a few days up in Dallas with my parents before we drive up North. We will be driving and moving to Northern Kentucky the weekend of July 4th. Before our move, Mac and I will be taking a 6 day trip to Cozumel, Mexico. We thought it was only appropriate to return to Mexico and this time we are going to snorkel!

We are both looking forward to the move but it is still bittersweet. I'm sad to be leaving the friends that I have made here these last couple of years. It will be way out of our comfort zone to leave Texas and our families behind. This challenge is something that is both exciting and scary at the same time.

Volvo Modifications

2009-05-14T22:35:00.007-04:00

I've been looking for a roof rack for the Volvo wagon for a few months. I had just about given up, and so I ordered some of these:

Yeah, it would be a janky roof rack made of 2x4's, but it's a beater Volvo station wagon, what do want from me? Then ONE DAY after ordering those towers, and some fork mounts from Amazon, someone posts this on craigslist:

Only $32 - I bought it within 30 minutes after I saw the listing. I mounted it to my car, replaced the Marines stickers with an A&M cycling sticker, and installed two of the four fork mounts I had ordered from Amazon so the roof rack now holds four bikes.

That was a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, as I was emptying my small storage unit, I saw some racing seats that I had bought to put in my e30 BMW right before the engine grenaded. So I decided to put them in the Volvo. The entire project took a lot longer than I imagined: four hours yesterday removing and figuring out how to properly disassemble the seat so that I could still use the forwards/backwards slider and the tilt, and six hours today measuring, fabricating, assembling, and installing the brackets to mount the seat. Now that I know how everything works and I have all the measurements, it would probably only take me two, maybe three hours total to do the passenger side.

I want to do shocks, springs, ARBs, and wheels/tires soon, but the little voice inside my head (Kristi) says I need to get rid of the M3 before I spend a little money on the Volvo. Anyone want to buy an M3?

Bike Riding

2009-04-30T09:51:00.000-04:00

Is this all I can post about?

After my accident and subsequent surgery March 31, I decided to ride the MS150 April 18 and 19. It stung a little when sweat got in the wound, but I didn't have any real pain to speak of. However, I did decide to stay off the bike for another two weeks (for a total of almost precisely one month) to make my doctor happy. That meant I missed the conference championships for the collegiate racing season though, which I was not happy with. I will post a more detailed ride report of the MS150 with pictures when I get the chance.

I plan on riding today or tomorrow (or both), depending on weather, and on Saturday May 2 I plan to ride the BCS Mayday Challenge, my first ride with the local cycling club since the accident.

Mac

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Our living accommodations for the next year

2009-04-16T09:36:00.001-04:00

We finally learned a few weeks ago where we would be living when we moved to KY in July. Our living accommodations were one of the biggest unknowns we had when beginning to prepare ourselves for the move. Now that we know, we are getting more excited about the move because we finally know what we're dealing with.

Because we're probably going to move several times over the next couple years, we figured we would be living in something like a corporate apartment owned by Toyota, or simply an extended stay hotel; it turns out it is going to be the latter (but only for the first year).

So we will be living light. 99% of our stuff will be going into storage here in BCS, and we will be moving north with basically nothing more than we can carry. Suitcases full of clothes, our computers, and one (argh! Only one?!) of my bikes. Oh yeah, and the 50" plasma TV we bought only a few months ago. We bought it so we didn't have to lug around my gigantic 55" rear projection monstrosity, so we're going to find some way to get it in that hotel room!

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Bicycle Accident

2009-04-02T15:00:00.004-04:00

Warning: This post involves a discussion of my crotch...

In case you haven't heard, I had a wreck on my bike Tuesday, March 31st, about 4pm. I was on a race-pace training ride Tuesday with the A&M Cycling Team, and I went to attack, and next thing I knew I was on the ground. I think I either threw my chain, or it skipped, I'm not sure. At the scene I was in pain with road rash from shoulder to hip on my right side and a deep gash on my right elbow. One of the guys riding with me called another teammate who came and picked me up. We first went to one minor emergency clinic, whose doctor had left early for the day, and Kristi came and got me at this point. We then went to a second "urgent care" place; we were avoiding the ER because we didn't want to incur the expense for what I assumed would be a few stitches in my elbow and some Bactacin on my back. When I removed my cycling shorts, I realized the situation was a little worse than anticipated - my left testicle was outside of my scrotal sack. We left the minor emergency clinic and headed to the ER where I was diagnosed with a perforated (torn) scrotum and underwent surgery to repair it. At this point there did not appear to be any real damage to the testicle itself, which would have been much more problematic. I was discharged and went home around 1:30am.

I have a follow up with the Doc on Wednesday April 8, where I will hopefully learn just how long I have to stay off the bike. And all that other minor stuff like if this will affect my ability to have kids... From the way the Dr was talking my prognosis looks pretty good though, since as I mentioned, there really wasn't any significant trauma to the testicle itself, just the scrotum.

The bike was banged up as well - I will be needing new shifters, handlebars and bartape, and a font brake. Various other parts were damaged, but are still functional, like the rear derailleur, and the saddle. The bike is in the shop right now where they are checking it over for cracks in the frame or fork.

I'm sitting at home on Dr's orders for bed rest, already bored out of my mind, wishing I was out riding. But that's probably not going to happen for at least a month. I was really looking forward to doing the last couple races of the season for AMCT, and especially excited about the MS150 from Houston to Austin in two weeks.

Race Report: Tunis-Roubaix XI

2009-03-09T00:51:00.009-04:00

Give us time and we'll eventually figure out how to be more concise- you won't always need a cup of hot cocoa and a blanket to read our blog posts. :)

As Kristi posted previously, I did my first road bike races this weekend. Saturday was a road race, and Sunday was a “crit” (short for criterium). A road race is likely what you may have seen on TV (think Lance Armstrong). This particular road race was unique in that about half of the course was unpaved county roads. A crit is a shorter, higher intensity race, raced around a short course (less than 1 mile) for X number of minutes.

I felt the road race went particularly well for me, considering that I had no idea what to expect. I was very nervous - my heart rate was around 110bpm just from nerves while I was standing at the line. After a short neutral roll out, we turned onto the dirt road and it was on. Home field advantage played a part because after several team rides of the course, most of the Aggies were familiar with how to ride a road bike on dirt. With the exception of one or two others, most of the riders in Men's C (including several A&M riders) were clearly uncomfortable at high speed on the dirt and gravel. Within 1.5 miles a break of 8 A&M riders, myself included, had a sizable gap on the pack. We hit the pavement and did our best to stay in Team Time Trial mode to put some time on the pack behind us. One by one, some of us were unable to hold the pace of the fastest 3 or 4 and started to fall off the lead group; I dropped off about 3/5 of the way through the first lap, and watched the remaining 4 pull away. After several miles I was caught by an MSU rider who was definitely stronger than me; I caught his wheel as he passed and sat in his draft, recovering without doing any work - if he wants to catch my team members up the road, I'm not going to help him. Eventually he dropped me on a climb, and I was subsequently caught by an A&M and TU rider working together and joined up with them. The second lap was uneventful, with the three of us working together. The finish was on a climb, where the two of them dropped me and I took 8th place. There were 38 listed finishers in Men's C, with many more that simply didn't finish due to multiple flat tires on the dirt sections. Overall, I was very happy with my results. I don't think I made any tactical mistakes - I made sure to be in the break when it went, and then just rode as fast as my fitness allowed.

This is near the top of the finishing hill, I think on the first lap:
(photo credit: Dave Riggs, www.davidriggs.com)

I was less optimistic about my chances for a good finish in the crit. I've realized that by doing long steady rides at 8 or 9/10ths intensity, I have inadvertently trained myself into a "diesel" - lots of endurance, but no snap, no acceleration, no ability to bury myself and bridge that gap if it's more than 10 or 15 seconds wide. Knowing that, I was apprehensive about the "brake, corner, sprint, repeat" formula that is a crit. I warmed up by riding about 10 laps around the course, with some 30 second intervals, but I don't think it was enough. When the whistle blew, my legs still weren't feeling completely loose and I found myself about 25th out of 41 going into the first corner. I saw the strong guys start to roll off the front, and my legs and my position in the pack just wouldn't let me get up there. I was a little surprised that the pack disintegrated soon after that - I found myself either riding alone or with one or two others for the next 15 minutes. In a crit, the officials will often "pull" riders who are significantly behind the leaders, as the race gets closer to the end. I was pulled with what I thought was still 10 to 15 minutes to race, with no sign of the leaders coming up to lap me. Instead, the race ended 7 minutes (4 laps) later. I was a little upset with myself because I was chasing down two riders in front of me, and if I had known I was in danger of being pulled I would have used the last 2 or 3% that I was saving. Oh well, live and learn.

Going through the chicane during the crit:
(photo credit: Dave Riggs, www.davidriggs.com)

Mac's First Road Race

2009-03-08T13:24:00.000-04:00

OK, let me first start by clarifying. This technically was not Mac's first race. He's done several charity fundraiser rides and one mountain bike race last semester. This, however, was his first collegiate road bike race. The race was hosted by Texas A&M so Mac, being the good Aggie that he is, volunteered to work the race. So yesterday morning Mac and I woke up early and drove out to Navasota. The first half of the day was set up for non-collegiates. So pretty much anyone who is in the road bike racing circuit. Mac and I were stationed at a bridge to help with traffic control and make sure the bikers knew that a bridge was coming up. This course was a little different than most, though, because half of the course was on country dirt roads. According to Mac, this isn't usually too big of a problem except for the fact that the county recently laid down fresh rocks and gravel. Imagine, all of these intense road bikers coming through on their teeny tiny road bike tires. Needless to say, there were plenty of flat tires and angry cyclists. Many did not finish the course in the morning because they ran out of provisions. These cyclists are intense! One man got his third flat tire right in front of Mac and I (at our station.) He was probably all of 45 years old and very mature. His response was to demand a new wheel from us and then he proceeded to drop lovely four letter words including the f-bomb. I'm sure you can guess, I was very impressed by his behavior and I was disappointed that he was not able to finish the race.

So by lunchtime all the angry cyclists had left and the collegiates started pouring in. Mac suited up in his maroon gear and quickly registered. The race started and I set up camp near the finish line. I sat with a very nice girl from UT (crazy, I know!). Turns out she was graduating in May and going to start nursing school in the Fall. We had plenty to talk about while waiting to see the cyclists come through. Each lap was approximately 13 miles and Mac had to complete 2 laps, so there was some down time. Every 30 minutes or so a truck would return to the start with a truckload of people who couldn't continue the race. I was relieved each time to not see Mac's bright, smiling face. When the first rider came through that was in Mac's group, I was please to see Mac not so far behind him! I was really relieved that he obviously had not had any issues with flat tires. With this race, finishing was the main priority because not many finished that morning. Well good news! Mac finished the race without ever getting a flat tire. He ended up 8th out of about 35-40 people in his class. I was so proud of him and he was a little bit happy too :) Anyways, it was quite the experience. Mac plans to continue racing for A&M and then hopefully after we move.

It was a sea of maroon...

And they're off!I think I can, I think I can...

Mac finishing his first lap!

Mac about to cross the finish line!! And please notice

the Texas Tech guys all camped out at the finish line,

they didn't even complete their first lap :)

All done!

2 Dogs and a Beachhouse

2009-02-08T15:38:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I attended a funeral for my great-aunt Connie in South Carolina. One of the upsides to going to the funeral was that we got to check in on the progress on the beachhouse. After seeing the work that's been done, all I can say is... WOW!! You can see from the pictures that our house is more than doubling in size. This beachhouse was built in 1939 by my greatgrandmother. Our beachhouse is one of the only original beachfront houses still standing. Everything else has pretty much been torn down and completely rebuilt. These rennovations are going to be a huge but welcome change. We are all hoping to be able to use the house by June but we'll see...

Meet our dogs Toby and Stewie. Toby is the black Chihuahua and Stewie is the salt-and-pepper Miniature Schnauzer. Toby is 4 1/2 years old and Stewie is 1 1/2. These dogs are spoiled rotten and consume all of our attention. They provide 24/7 entertainment and are constantly making us laugh. Obviously, these are two of the cutest dogs ever!!

Update on Life!

2009-01-23T19:54:00.001-05:00

So one of our goals for the new year was to start and maintain a blog. Since we will be relocating this summer and moving frequently (or so we're told), we thought it would be a good idea to start a blog to keep everyone in the loop. So we are going to do our best to keep this thing up to date, although I have a funny feeling I will be much better at it than Mac.

Anyways, here's the update on the last couple of years in a few long sentences. I moved back to College Station after completing nursing school in Wichita Falls, TX (one of the worst places to live, trust me). I got a job here as a RN in the NICU. I have always loved babies and it's an incredible thing to work with these tiny miracles on a daily basis. The parents can be extremely challenging and that's what I both love and hate about my job. To be the one to get to tell a family, that after 6 weeks in the hospital, their baby can finally go home is one of the most rewarding things. Working a hospital around babies all day also reinforces the fact that Mac and I are NOT ready for parenthood. I get my baby fix at work and then I get to go home and sleep!

Now onto Mac... Mac has been back at A&M for several years now. He finished in May 2008 with his Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and immediately started into his graduate work. This past September Mac got a job offer from Toyota as an "Engineering Specialist." This pretty much means that they are going to train him for 2 years and then put them where they want/need him to be. Mac, of course, was thrilled, this being his dream job and all. So he has accepted the job offer and we are all set to move this July.

The Toyota offer stated that they could move us up to 5 times in the 2 years of training. This pretty much means we are going to be in the dark for a few years as to our ultimate destination. We will start out in Erlanger, KY which is a few miles from Cincinnati, OH. I know, I know... two different states but if you've learned your US Geography (as I recently have), you would know that Cincinnati is right at the border of Ohio and Kentucky with that little old Ohio river running through it. We think, right now that we will probably be here for only 3 months and then Mac will recieve his first project and who knows where that will be. We have used our deductive reasoning and think that ultimately we will end up in Ann Arbor, MI. Brrrrrrh! I know, that's all I can think too. We are really excited to move and see different parts of the country. I am a little nervous about the fact that the rest of the country doesn't love the Aggies or Dallas Cowboys though :(

Recently Mac and I took a trip to San Diego to visit his brother who just moved there this past Fall. It was beautiful and warm. While we were at the zoo I saw Lauren Conrad, exciting, I know. I am ashamed to say, though, being the big huge Hills fan, I didn't even recognize her at first. I was more focused on her boyfriend, who looked like this actor I'd seen on TV. Well, it turns out it was him (Kyle Howard) from My Boys and it was LC with him. Now, I know that the tabloids have been reporting that they have been denying the relationship. Let me assure you, they are definitely a couple! That was probably the most exciting part of the trip (Mac would definitely disagree). Anyways, here are a few of the only pictures we got with both of us in them. Sad, but true, we actually have a guy refuse to take a picture of us because he thought he'd mess it up. Crazy Californians!