Heartbreaker Mountain Bike Race at Creve Coeur

Wooo doggy, it was a hot one Sunday at Creve Coeur. Eli and I (along with 200 other people!) raced the last event in the United Federation of Dirt's series for 2023. Here you can see the old man getting out a little quicker on the "GO!". 

These things start fast and never slow down. I was battling it out with a fast young dude from Spain...lucky for me he wasn't taking the heat well.  That good battle kept me on the gas for the first 3 of 5 laps. I was feeling a little sassy with the heat so I unzipped my jersey quite a bit and the crowds went wild. 

Eli was behind me but he wasn't slowing down. He could see me ahead of him on the last two laps.

He caught me right after this photo. He didn't taunt me or call me names. He did tell me to get going, which I couldn't. He blazed past me on the last climb before the finish and put about 40 seconds on me. 

I was suffering at the end, but it was a solid race anyway. I felt like I was racing instead of just pedaling around a mountain bike course. Two hours total in the blazing heat was plenty for me, anyway.  I don't know why I always make such goofy faces while I'm racing. 

Eli really gave it all he had. Lucky for him, he had his number one girl to keep him from falling over at the finish line. I'm glad I could push him that hard!

He gave me a big hug to make sure I wouldn't cry after our race. He's such a good kid, even if he does really like to beat me in races. I still paid for Subway on the way home, so obviously I harbored no ill will.

A big thanks to the Beautiful Mrs. K for setting up the South Side Cyclery tents and getting drinks and snacks for everyone on the team and in the SSC club. We had such a nice crowd there and they all appreciate the hard work Mrs. K does. And she cheers and taunts us, too, so there is no slacking while she's around.

These great photos and many more come from our biggest fan and great supporter, Flannery Allison. 

 

Biking can be a Family Affair

There are a lot of things families can do together. Watch Sponge Bob. Buy matching "I'm with Stupid" T-shirts. Go (gasp!) camping. Not us. We ride bikes. Tyson recently joined Eli and I in getting a new Cyclocross bike. His is substantially taller than ours. That's the best way I can think of to make sure no one borrows his bike. Photo courtesy of Eli's BeReal.

The Beautiful Mrs. K got into the off-road action this past weekend at Indian Camp Creek. Thumbs up! Ride ambassador, mentor, coach, cheerleader, friend. Do not believe her when she says she only wants a sip of your soda. Trust me. Photo courtesy of Dan Singer Photography.

Eli raced ICC, too. We are very proud of his steady rise in the off-road ranks. We are more proud of his growth as an awesome person. Dan Singer Photography took this photo.

I raced ICC. And after 44 years of this stuff, you'd think I'd know how to smile for the camera. Instead I did my best interpretation of an old man experiencing a cardiac arrest while riding a very cool bike. Thanks again to Dan Singer Photography.

This is the only one of us that was missing this weekend. I know, I know, this is not a photo of Hanna riding bikes. But I wanted to sneak in this little powerhouse to show that she's not slacker just 'cause she's not riding with us right now. She could probably bench press me and my bike. Photo courtesy of me.

 

Rainbows and Hound Dogs

After a hard race today, we wanted to go to Ted Drewes to get some not-ice cream. The sun just peeped out enough on our way over there to make a cool rainbow. You can actually see the ghost of a second rainbow there, too.

The Hound Dog doesn't give a hoot about rainbows. Or bike races. Or green beans. He wanted Ted Drewes. He laid down at my feet and pouted for a bit when he didn't get any. 

 

"Big" Mileage Week

Something worked out well this week. My riding schedule! 140 miles for the week. Not much by many standards but quite a few by my own. Nothing in the way of mountain biking, though, as the rain just kept coming. This morning Eli set out early to get in a big mileage day, adding intervals in there somewhere. I waited a bit longer and surprise! I parked right next to him in the parking lot at Chesterfield. It was dreary and rainy, but pleasant temps. 

By the time I had ridden the CX bike out the Katy, through Lost Valley and Busch Wildlife, the sun had come out. The first half, though, was soggy and soft. Not like a muddy mountain bike day, but the black mark on my left shoe is the actual color of the shoe...gravel splatter makes everything a drab grey. 30 miles of that was plenty for me.

But I wasn't finished. The beautiful Mrs. K wanted to go on a bike ride, too. Honestly, I was tired. We rode about 30 miles on the road and I was glad that was all we did. Upon finishing, we showered and went to eat burgers at Syberg's. Now I think we'll get ice cream. Probably multiple scoops.

 

What a Bad Blogger you've chosen to follow

 

First off, I've been pretty busy. But really, I've been a bit sour. Ok, more sour than usual. I still haven't gained back any weight that I lost during my crappy bout with pancreatitis in May. Still down 10 pounds and feeling like my energy is somewhere in that 10 pounds. It was probably blubber anyway, but it was MY blubber.

However, there have been some great things happening anyway. Father's Day was a big hit around here. My clever children along with Mrs. K made a fine day for me. So I have that going for me.

We were able to make a nice mini-vacation from the 4th of July timing. Mrs. K, Eli, and I made the trip to Bentonville and stayed in an awesome tiny AirBnB. Lots of riding and hanging out with friends. That was needed so, so much. 

I got in a couple more mountain bike races, too. Rhett's Run in Columbia was pretty good, although that pesky teenager of mine beat me by about 20 seconds. St. Joe State Park wasn't so great. Pretty bad, actually. No excuses, but I felt a LOT like I did at Greensfelder in May before this mess all started.

We had a Tour de France Femmes bash at the shop for one of the GNO rides. Lots of fun, along with teenagers in berets and French wine and cheese.  I mean, we're like, so French, right??

And Remi, although very disappointed to have missed the World Naked Bike ride, is still the best Hound Dog ever. That is despite his love for my spot on the bed.

A Tumultuous Month of May

 

Things seemingly started off well, with great weather for the Greensfelder Challenge mtb race. Eli and I started fast (you know this, man!) but neither of us finished as well as we wanted. We both had a bad day. My day got worse when I got home, as I developed a really awful stomach ache and I felt quite bad.

But we couldn't let such things bother us, as we had a Mother's Day ride to go on with Deanna and her bestie the next day. Strangely, I was left as backmarker for most of the ride. But Mrs K enjoyed the day out, and that was the important thing.

I came home from work about noon on Monday and had to lay in bed for the next couple days. By Wednesday, really unable to eat or drink for 3 days and down 6 pounds from my pre-race weight, I had to do something. 

After a bit of back and forth with the blood testing folks, I got in late on Wednesday for a blood test. 

Thursday, after determining that it was, in fact, another bout of pancreatitis, I went for a blood transfusion. Ok, not really. Some IV fluids generally always do the trick to bring me back out of the pain cave. Only, it didn't really do it's thing like it has in the past. I was still very weak and tired to the point of disorientation, which is not normally a symptom that I have when I get an attack. 

I don't think I would have been so stressed about it if I wasn't fearing missing out on one of our favorite events of the year: Wolf Creek. I didn't want to let my teammates down, and I didn't want to let Mrs K and Eli down, either. I made the event and mustered up enough energy for 5 laps. My team didn't win, despite the Herculean efforts by JR and Party Guy. But both Deanna's team and Eli's team won their classes! I'm so proud of them!

This week, eating better and feeling better, I got back on the bikes and things improved. Until a suspension part for my bike clearly didn't hold up to it's 15nm torque setting. Shoulda stopped at 12.

Despite the efforts of my pancreas and my bike to stop me, I made it to Forest City on Sunday for a couple laps. Ironically, I snapped this photo around 11am when I had finished...

...and getting into the car I had a text that Eli had crashed and hurt himself. He WAS wearing his helmet.

But he won't be wearing this one again. He suffered a pretty stiff concussion, as well as some deep cuts around his face and rashing on his shoulders. I won't show those to you, but needless to say we were very worried and are happy that he'll be alright. 

June will be better, I just know it.

Sometimes you gotta get outta town

I've been lucky enough to get some real off-road time lately. Between riding and racing with Eli and the Wheels UP XC team, I've hit the dirt quite a bit. But there is always the alure to riding someplace different, someplace out of the ordinary. When Matt from Loki Events put it out there that he wanted to have a pre-ride at Wolf Creek trails in Poplar Bluff, that tickled just the right amount of fancy. Deanna and I were more than happy to take the trip and put in a couple laps before the endurance race is held there on the 20th. 

A cool group showed up and we did one lap as a smooth recon.  All left turns except that one right.  Got it! After that, everyone did another lap at their own pace. Myself, I wanted to hammer a fast lap. Like clockwork, the Missouri skies got angry and poured rain on me for just a couple minutes about 3 miles in. Enough to put a sheen on the rocks and splatter my clean South Side kit. But it was fine. The course holds water really well and I turned in a respectable race-ready lap time. 

Great course, can't wait for the 20th! And great Mexican food afterward. 

 

Getting Beat has NEVER felt this Good

After some incredibly bad luck last weekend in Fayetteville, Eli was really needing another race. Hitting another race really quickly after a bad one has a way of washing away the pain. We found that Landahl Park in Blue Springs was having a dual enduro/XC race today... and that none other than Matt Johnson was part of it. Landahl was the scene of XC races for me 20+ years ago.  It was always a rough, brutal course and I liked it that way.  So we got up early and drove to Landahl this morning, and Eli got himself a selfie with the king of selfies.

Not to be outdone, I had to get a selfie with Matt as well. 

Annnnnnnd.... the after-selfie. What transpired over a two hour period was worthy of an epic novel, so I'll spare you every detail and tell you the important stuff. The course was so much more brutal than it was in 2002. Even with our modern full-suspension bikes and 29 inch wheels and tubeless tires, it was bone-rattling goodness. 21 miles of rocks, boulders, roots, switchbacks, and mayhem. I started well, and within 2 miles Eli passed me. Yep, we raced together in the "Expert" or "Cat 1" class. I fought very hard and had a few glimpses of my youngest boy kicking my ass. But I never caught him. He finished 8th out of 23, and I finished about 20 SECONDS behind him in 9th. How is that for a fairytale passing of the torch?  And Matt was not only the celebrity selfie guy, he was the announcer.  He made it painfully clear to the audience that he was enjoying the father/son battle.

Eli and I enjoyed it, too. He's really good and wants to get better. Best of all, he loves it and doesn't have the angst and emotional baggage surrounding racing like I do. And lest anyone think that I let him win, I present my heartrate data from Strava. Bad picture, but knowing that my max heartrate at 56 years old is only 173...yeah. I was going as hard as this old body could go. 

What a great way to lose. 

 

Happy Birthday Eli - Keep up the good work!

Although he isn't following in my footsteps, our youngest man is becoming a fine cyclist in his own right. He turns 17 today, something I never could imagine 17 years ago. It's always been hard to wrap my head around the future and what it holds. A couple weeks ago, Eli entered his first Cat 1 local race and did a bang-up job. It was a hard nasty race and he did fantastic. Still 16 in this photo, happy as he can be holding his expensive mountain bike that has been thrashed for two hours in the mud. Sigh.

Never would I have thought he'd be doing what he's doing today. He was just a little dude with a bright future, whatever that might be. Not really thinking about bike racing then. Not really thinking about high school or college. Not really thinking about much except how to keep him in clean diapers and how to get him to fall asleep before 2am.

Just last weekend, he and I took a guy's trip to Arkansas for one of their State Series mountain bike races. Arkadelphia, to be exact. This was the dam just below Iron Mountain, and it was glorious. Eli was signed up to race, but I wasn't. There was a few moments on Sunday morning where registration was still open and I was feeling good, but something told me not to. I went on this trip with the idea that I was going to be the pit crew, so I just stuck with that plan.

Since this was a USA Cycling race, he had to race his category. We tried to sign him up to race Category 1 but he was technically only a Cat 3. We petitioned USAC and they upgraded him to Cat 2. The course was fantastic and Eli was quickly out front. He and another Cat 2 rider were flat out flying, passing through the older Cat 1's and looking every bit like they could have raced the higher category.

This was exactly why I didn't race. Why I shouldn't have raced. This moment right here. I was able to witness his first real mountain bike win. I was beyond proud. I'm sure everyone at the race knew that I was the proud father from my shouting. 

Worth every ounce of effort. I constantly forget that he's so young because he carries himself like a much older person. I've worked very hard not to push my kids into things that I like to do, to not live vicariously through them. When I say that it has been 100% his decision to take up cycling, it's the truth. He even does it for different reasons, and gets something completely different from it than I do. He is truly someone a lot of people can look up to and gain inspiration from. To say that I'm proud of the person he has become is such an understatement. 

Happy birthday, Eli! 

Last Birthday Post - Electronic Edition

After food and soft goods, the last thing I'll say about my birthday is how electronics were the finishing touch. Hanna, who we all know is practically the most fit person on planet Earth, uses Whoop. When she first told me about it some time ago, I figured it was just another fitness app. But she sends me her metrics now and then and it's pretty fascinating. I'm not sure if she's trying to tell me to firm up the old dad-bod or she wants me to share in her fitness glory, but she sent me one for my birthday. Thank you either way, fabulous daughter of mine!

The other part of the electronics equation: just how many awesome, wonderful, thoughtful, and heart-felt birthday wishes that I received. I'm humbled by how many people take the time to say "Happy Birthday" to a guy that has birthday cakes that would be considered a fire hazard with all the candles. And, although not electronic, I did get actual cards from beloved family members that were just perfect.

Until next year, when the fire department (or coroner) will surely be called, thank you to everyone!

 

More Birthday Stuff - Soft Goods

Eli and the Beautiful Mrs K went the soft goods route for this incredibly important birthday. Adidas are sort of my go-to brand these days and they came through. Cushy kicks for work!

Eli has been hinting around that I borrow his sweatpants an awful lot. I usually don't remind him that he borrows my bikes, my clothes, my shoes, my razors, my...well, you get the picture. Thus, it was not a real surprise that he gifted me with my very own sweatpants. Yes!! 

 

I'm 56 - What I got for my Birthday (food edition!)

 I've gotten a lot of great gifts for my birthday this year, and this posting is going to focus on something near and dear to me: Food. The Custis family knows this. A bit early for my birthday but welcome at ANY time of the year (hint, hint) is the famous guacamole. Oh. My. God. 

Um, yeah. The incredibly thoughtful and youngest member of their clan brought brownies. Not just any brownies, but homemade brownies. As you can see, I really only ate a couple bites as the other people at the store helped them to disappear. 

And thanks to Wes, who knows what washes down a big mouthful of brownies!