LeMans Karting with the kids

This past Sunday, Kim and I took the kids to LeMans Karting in Fremont and they had a great time. Check out the pictures here. The program is a new experiment for LeMans as I understand it. Previously they had a 30 minute class and then let the kids loose on the course. The new program is two hours long and consists of a 30 minute class with a test followed by ~60 minutes on the track with a walk of the course, individual, and group driving. Lastly a sprint race and a pizza lunch to finish it off. During one of track sessions, the instructors pulled a kid off the course and removed him from the class since he just did not have the skills to command his kart. I was pretty jazzed to see that they wanted to have decent drivers rather than just anyone willing to pay the entrance fee. Kim and I spent some time chatting with Rick, who owns LeMans with his wife, June. I walked away with the feeling that this is both a business and a passion of Rick's which is great to see.

For those of you not familiar with this type of go-karting, this is a very different animal than the regular go-karts you may have ridden previously in your misspent youth. These karts will hit 40MPH on the straights if you can set up for the turns correctly. Some of you have been to the old SpeedRing in Santa Clara (maybe even with me!), and this is close but those karts were ~6hp and the LeMans karts are ~9hp. The class was only for kids so Kim and I did not get to drive, (though Kim really wanted to do it). They were booked up for about the next 7 hours after we finished the class so we passed on doing a "family run" but will be back one weeknight evening to try our luck.

First race of the 2008 season

This past Sunday was my first race of the 2008 season and I chose to compete in the TBF Racing Mountain Bike Kickstart in the Granite Bay area. I entered the "sport" division and I managed to place 5th in my age group which was pretty stellar in my book. The results are here.

The race was just balls out as I spent just over 95% of the race above my anaerobic threshold. You can follow my ride here from my GPS watch which includes heart rate, speed and distance.

The course itself was pretty straightforward with minimal technical challenges. The weather was cold and a bit damp which helped with the traction on the trails. I took the opportunity to try out some semi-slick tires and I will not be doing that again. I use more brute force than finesse around the corners and I was pushing my front end too hard for the tires to grab. Lesson learned - they work great for fire roads but not anything more difficult than that.

I tried out my new video camera by mounting on the handlebars and that did not work out very well. Lots of scrambled video and garbled sound. It presented better/smoother video when I was riding down smooth trails so next time I will try mounting it to my helmet and see if that provides better results.

All in all, a great day.

Hike in Sunol

A buddy and I went for a hike in Sunol-Ohlone Regional Park (link) with the dogs up to Flag Hill. Grabbed some nice pictures here. A much better way to spend my day off than the list of "honey-dos" I have stacking up around the house.

Happy birthday to me!

The life I have today is pretty darn amazing with so much to be grateful for, what else can I say?

Multiple Sclerosis ride pic

I was catching up on my old email and came across this picture of me from the Waves 2 Wine Multiple Sclerosis this past September 29-30. I am looking MUCH too serious for a charity ride eh? I raised $1,050 myself and the the Chevron team I rode with raised $20,650 which is awesome!
People often ask me why I ride as hard and much as I do. The simple answer is because I can - I have no excuse not to ride. When I participate in a ride for multiple sclerosis, cancer, Challenged athletes, etc, it brings home what it would be like to not be able to ride. Sure, there are days when it is cold, wet and I have had two flat tires and still have another 20 miles to get home. Usually I can stop whining to myself long enough to remember that riding is a privilege many others will never or can no longer experience.
Some might call that gratitude...