2009 Blasters Cove 8K

Fort Story, VA 8/22/2009 Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, Lisa and I embarked on a great adventure known as the Blasters Cove 8K. A course like this will humble you, and make you respect any distance.

I started this race at around my 5K pace, but quickly throttled back to my half marathon pace. The first couple of miles were flat, but travel down two fire roads that were made of super soft sand. It didn't take me long to figure out while people do workout in the sand. I was really draining my batteries, so I had to slow down.

The excitement of finding solid ground quickly gave way to despair as the rest of the race climbed up steep hills with gradual declines leading to another steep hill. I was never so glad to see a finish line in my life. This course really made me respect the terrain I run over.

2009 East Beach 5K

Norfolk, VA 07/24/2009. This was actually an aquathon, with a 5K as a side event. Lisa competed in the aquathon, but since I'm a slow swimmer I just did the 5K.

The day was very hot, and very muggy. It kind of felt like you had to cut through the air to run. I didn't end up with my best time ever, but I did finish second in my age group with a time of 12:13. Lisa was the big winner with first in her age group in the aquathon.

For those that would like to know, an aquathon is a combined running and swimming event. A duathlon is a combined running and cycling event.

2009 X-Bar Shootout

Eldorado, TX 05/17/2009 Good old X-Bar. This year the very technical course added some rain on Saturday to add a little mud into the mix. Actually, because of the wet conditions they cut out a few miles of the course, and we ended up racing an approximate six mile short course.

I had a little problems in the beginning of the race with mud making some of the baby heads a little slick. I had a little crash on one of the downhills which put me behind a little. I eventually caught up to the rest of the pack, but couldn't hold on since I burnt to much energy try to catch back up. Though, other than the crash I had a relatively clean ride.

I ended up in eighth place and Ryan got second.

2009 Single Track Stampede

Dripping Springs, TX 04/05/2009 This was a very fun race that was just a short drive from San Antonio. What made this race so much fun was that my teammate, Ryan Campos, was out in front of most of the time. It gave me someone I knew to chase, and caused us to come up with the nickname of "Shake and Bake" for our duo.

Right after the start of the race was a big pile up because of all the over anxious noobs. After I cleared the crash, I caught back up with rest of the traffic, which included Shake. Shortly thereafter was a long climb. On the climb, Shake and Bake were derailed in a bad spot by a dude walking his bike up the hill, which directly led to us getting passed by a lot of people.

Once past the climb, the Cat 3 course was super fast and flat. Basically, it was kind of a boring course from here on out. I passed Shake about a quarter of a mile before the finish, and I ended up finishing 17th. Shake was 18th.