Whole lotta stuff going on!

Hey, whoa, hey there now! This week is dangerously close to getting away from me, here!

First off, we had a redonkulously good time doing the Pando relay race last Saturday, and we've got a couple of notables to report. First off, and Lindsey S. and mine-own-Kirsten both did their first ever mountain bike races (and Lindsey was doing her first ever mountain bike ride on a bike she'd never seen before!). Kirsten and JD Stone teamed up to do the 6 hour race, but K ended up doing the bulk of the lapping herself after JD's chain did a fair impression of a genade after only a lap and a half, and actually finished with her most miles ever on a mountain bike and the bruises to prove it!

Lindsey was joined by Tom Miller, Roy Logan, and John Jasker for the JDRF 12 hour team, and pulled off 23 hard-fought laps for 3rd place in their division. And, finally, Patti "bikeface" Bills, Jan Toscano (of the cookies at VeloCity), Coach MC, and li'l ol' me staged a come-from-behind victory in our "Open Veterans" division, somehow pulling off 30 laps in only 9 minutes less time than the second place team. More importantly, organizer Brett Walk was giving JDRF all kinds of love over the PA system, and I think we even got a few donations!

We really, really need to do that again next year, big time - we need multiple 12 hour teams. It's just batty fun; my throat was kinda raw the next day from all the screaming, and maybe a little from the gasping for breath after riding up the tubing hill. And maybe from barking at the deer that appeared on the trail ahead of me in the twilight. Big thanks to those who came out to watch - Tom and Ian, the whole Grandville Clark clan, and the long-suffering Didlet - and especially to the Nearly Healed HellKaat, who stayed until the bitter end!

THEN, Sunday, Paul Brown opened up his really, really cool house to me, Kirsten, MC & Lin, Heather A, Michelle C, Katie & Steve C (along with Ellie & Anna riding 15 miles!), Chris & Becky M, Paul and Nick C, Tom, Mary, & Ian S, JD Stone, and the irrepressible Linda TP; we rode some new-to-us roads east of Saranac and through the Ionia state recreation area.

Fast-forward through the blah blah blah of the work week - we had the LaCrosse ride on Saturday; MC will no doubt have a report in the works, but with over 400 riders and over a million dollars raised, it was a smashing success. At precisely the same time, the One Day Ride Across Michigan sported some 275 people rolling from Montague to Bay City; we don't have numbers yet, but with more than double the people we had last year, and people buying jerseys, and people raising hundreds of dollars to earn a jersey, and nothing but positive comments rolling in, it's safe to say it was a smashing success! Rolling across the state were our own Roy L, Kaat, Lindsey, Jasker, Michelle C, Heather A, and mine own Kirsten.

Now, we're in the home stretch for the Tahoe riders; our last pre-Tahoe team ride is this coming Sunday. we'll have a separate blog post and Facebook event and email for the details, but please, if you're going to Tahoe, try to make that ride. We're going to have a lot of information coming for you, so make sure you read everything carefully.

It's gonna be great!