My morning commute

My morning commuter trail, Cub Run Stream Valley

Venture Quest adventure race

I did my first multi-sport race today, the 6th annual
Venture Quest held locally in Clifton/Fairfax Station.
I was lucky enough to be invited by two of my Bike Lane
teammates, Anne and Laura, to join their team. Laura has
done all of the VQs, and Anne has done it once before.
Both are experienced multi-sport athletes, who like to have
a lot of fun too.

I'm always so impressed with EX2 Adventures' mountain bike
and running races. Jim Harman and his incredibly dedicated
army of staff and volunteers are always the tops in organization,
planning, and course work. I do a lot of bike races, all over
the region, and these are really some of the best run. I feel
lucky to have so many high-quality events like these so close
to home.

This race was a 31-mile mix of trail running, mtn biking,
orienteering, and canoeing. I know for sure now, that I suck at paddling. Man, that
hurts my arms and shoulders!! And I've never run anywhere
near the distance that we had to run today, which I think was
something around 10-13 miles. But, boy was it fun. A lot of
races I do, I don't really think they were much fun until a day
or two has passed, but, not this one. I guess I know
what that means...

The Bike Lane had quite a showing today:
Dr. Kathy, Pierre, and newcomer Frank Febbraro finished
1st co-ed and 2nd team overall. I love it when my chiropractor
beats me in races!
Lauris, 1st women's solo
Tracy, Mike, and Jeff were 2nd co-ed
Julie, Greg, and Paul were 5th (?),
Blake, Rob Howard, and my old Woodbridge buddy Bryan Sims
were 7th in a large Men's field.
Laura, Anne, and I brought in the last Bike Lane team. No doubt
due to my inexperience and weak paddling arms.

My friends went skiing in Chile

They tried to get me to go along, but leaving Kim and O for 10 days didn't seem like a practical thing to do. Real skiers, I guess, don't worry about such things. Mike, Barry, Tom and Julie got it on. Heli-skiing for $150 to boot!!

For those of you who think I'm nuts about mountain biking and single-speeding, well, that's nothing compared to how I feel about the glisse. Nordic, snowboard, backcountry, x-c, telemark.... I love it all, and feel the jones of missing out on this trip.




Barry Quigley

The Shenandoah Mountain 100

My favorite race every year!
What a perfect day, and a fun race. Everything is always special about this season capping 100-miler, but to have it in weather like we have now is a bonus. It was great to race with so many friends and experience different parts of the race as I yo-yo'd my way up and back through the pack on my singlespeed.

I had a completely uneventful race, my favorite kind, and finished 88th overall and 12th single-speeder. No flats, no crashes, no unusual pain. My smoothest 100 yet?

One of my more articulate friends, who I spent a lot of the race with had this to say about the race.