Roughin' it. Tribal Challenge in Wickham Park

The biggest trouble with Xterra off road triathlons is that there just aren't enough of them. Not in Florida, anyway.  

For a long time, TriLady, Popeye, and I have tossed around this question. Where could we stake out an Xterra course in our own neck of the woods?

Where were there enough miles of mountain bike trails and a quarter mile swim in the same location?  Wickham Park?  Nah. The XTerra people would probably laugh if they saw it.

How would you ever get anyone to pay for a race in little ole, sandy, flat, Wickham Park?

By thinking outside the box, that's how.

By swimming contestants across both lakes.

With a run in between.

By staking out an eight mile cyclocross/mountain-bike combo course, without repeating an inch.

And making sure the ride goes over (almost) every available root, log, stump, and lump in the park.

By ending the bike with a Death Spiral.

And the run with a waterslide.

That's how.

The TribeNMotion website has results, videos, and tons of photos of the hundred or so contestants riding the death spiral or sliding to their run finish.

Here's my favorite video - the spiral of death featuring a few riders you may recognize.  http://contour.com/stories/spiral-of-death

Ride in and in and in. 

Turn.  Don't put your foot down! 

Ride out and out and out again.  

That’s Woody the Race Organizer in the mix, providing commentary and encouragement, from aboard his Pugsley.

Just look at all those photos.

And all those smiling faces.

Smiling, because they just splashed down after navigating 2 swims, 8 miles of biking - Wickham style, and a 3 mile sun-run.

Smiling, because the fun wasn't done.  Not yet.   

Just a few seconds beyond the official finish line, each of these happy athletes hands over a popsicle-stick place marker and heads to their third transition of the day. 

The team portions of the sport are up next. 

Eating.  And drinking.  With a hundred or so new best friends. 

Often, by the time I finish a race, the food is all gone.  Or if there is food, it's just junk.  This time, not only was there food left, but it was really good-for-you-refueling food.  What a great surprise to be handed a fresh-made-just-for-me sandwich from Tropical Smoothie.  Chicken salad, mmm. 

And then it's on to the very last, very important, transition of the day.  Over to the Bob's Bike Shop tap for liquid replenishment. 


But just in case no one believes this tribe of elated off-road junkies earned such an elaborate party just by riding little ole Wickham Park, I went back later and took a couple shots of the venue.

Poor old trails of Wickham Park.  Burned down, and ploughed up.  Then ploughed again.  There are some pretty rough sections, but plenty of nice ones too. 

2 ponds.  Swim-run-swim.

Did you practice your dismount?   

Oops.  Roots.

Off the bike to push, or pedaling past the pushers - neither choice was easy – especially when the pack hit the Root Loops.

No matter what kind of bike you had, stopping to lift it over a downed tree, or slogging through sand and heavy grass as fast as you can slog, is a darn good workout.

But thanks to expert trail volunteers, the last few miles of well marked, tight, twisty, shady singletrack was its own reward.

So here’s the deal. Put Tribal Challenge on the calendar for next year. We have.

Because we would have raced this crazy course without awards or food.

We would have raced without door prizes, tribal drums, or a live band.

Heck, this course was so much fun, we would have done it, even without the beer.


Just don’t tell Woody, OK?

A few events we're looking forward to...

Just a quick touch on events coming up fast.


Tomorrow, July 16, Tribal Challenge, in Wickham Park.  The only off road tri in town.  Water slide finish!  The biggest plus - it's Saturday afternoon.  No alarm clock.  Daylight start.  A real party afterward instead of the usual ho hum bagel and nap from getting up too early.     http://tribenmotion.com/


Next weekend.  First Coast XTerra, Hanna Park.  Sprint tri, off road.  Short and sweet.  Nice clean ocean swim, easy twisty mountain bike course, and a shady trail run.  Well marked, well organized, well run.  And right up the road in JAX Beach.    http://xterrafirstcoast.com/Triathlon.html

Jumping ahead, just so you can't say we sprung it on you.  Another favorite bike course.  8 Hours of Labor, San Felasco, Sept 4.  Solo or grab some team members.  Only six weeks out.  Two words: bridge repeats.  (Just sayin'.)     http://www.goneriding.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=158&Itemid=201





  

When the going gets tough, the tough make egg pie.

"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment." ~Robert Benchley


A quick leaf through before take off and a two page article on a genius border collie satisfies my pre-flight check of the in-flight magazine.  But just as I open the seat pocket to tuck the magazine in before it puts me to sleep, my favorite word, adventure, pops up from the page.  

The article doesn't say much, but the truism speaks to me.

"It's not an adventure if everything goes right."
 
The trip to PHL was not an adventure. 

The anniversary party and Popeye's impromptu family reunion was a huge success.  The parents were pleased with their party, and their gift, the Drunkard's Path.  (OK, so we didn't mention it had a name.) 

Time to wrap it up.

We got in a run at Marsh Creek and a trip to Victory Brewing. 

Kind of forgot how big the trees are here in Pa.,

even the dead ones.

Hop Devil, anyone?

Oh, all right, just one.  Or two.

The flight was perfect and right on time. 

Even the bus to the parking lot decided to pull back in, rather than leave us waiting for the next one.  Sure looked as if we skated this trip without a bit of adventure. 

Then again, nothing like an inch of water on the bedroom floor to wake you right up when you pull in late on a Sunday night.

Not a big leak sort of adventure, just a steady little one.  Enough so that we mop it up and sop it up until we feel we can go to bed without being too underwater (literally) by morning. 

Morning is when I find the wet closet wall and the wet closet floor.  Morning is when Popeye has just enough time to knock a hole in the wall, and tear out a few chunks of soggy plaster before he leaves for work.

Empty the closet, do a bit of mopping.  Dishes, a couple loads of vacation laundry, turn off the water at the street, finish the plaster scoop up, a little more mopping.  Ah... what else to do while waiting for the plumber?

I could clean the pool or write up the summer solstice ride.  But as every good procrastinator knows, there's nothing like putting off work when you could be eating instead.

There's nothing much in the fridge because we've been gone for a few days. Can't leave and go to the store.  

And what's a Monday without a bonus challenge thrown in?  

A stuck-in-the-house-waiting-for-the-plumber-with-no-running-water scenario should do nicely.

(Everything but the eggs, milk, and cheese is pretty much optional.  You can even bake this directly in the pie pan without crust.)

Monday Morning Egg Pie

One Pillsbury pie crust.  (Check the expiration date.)
  
3 eggs,  plus  3/4 c. egg whites from carton (still good - yes!)

(or Eggbeaters, or 3 more eggs, or whatever you've got to equal 6 eggs)

1 3/4 c. shredded 2% cheddar

handful of grated parm

Onions, peppers, mushrooms, whatever veggies that aren't stuck to the bottom of the fridge.... chopped

Light olive oil

Frozen peas

3/4 c. skim milk (or canned if you've been gone longer than a weekend)

Salt, pepper, herbs (turmeric, sage, thyme, rosemary, or whatever you have on hand)

Turkey bacon, crisped, and crumbled. 


Cook the bacon in the microwave while you're chopping the onions and pepper.

Unroll the pie crust into a pie plate and flute edges.

Brown onions peppers and mushrooms in some light olive oil.  When almost done add a handful of peas and heat through.

Distribute cheeses over bottom of crust. 

Spread the sauteed veggies and crumbled bacon on top of cheese.

Stir eggs and eggwhites and skim milk in a bowl.

Pour egg mixture into crust.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  (When a sharp knife poked in the center comes out clean, it's done.)

Ok, so you can't do dishes right away.  Use the same plate.  Have a second helping.  The plumber will get here soon enough.

       

Time Travel and the Summer Solstice Ride.

When was the last time you had Lorna Doones? Or wondered who the heck was Lorna Doone, for that matter? 

I might have been convinced of time travel, except for the niggling little fact that on this Southwest flight, the Lorna Doones come in a 100 calorie pack.  

Surely, that's nothing Lorna ever cooked up.

I look at the ingredients and try to set them aside. Still, as the flight progresses, the feeling of time travel is as unavoidable as opening the pack and savoring every tiny bite of shortbread one at a time. 

With ginger ale.

A glance to the watch and I wonder if, back home, Atlantis is right now rising from the pad, or if the anticipated tide of tourists is receding from a scrub.  

Seems to me any nation willing to give up on space, is a nation one step closer to third world.
  
There is no sensation of motion hurling along at 29,000 feet in a bright blue 737.  There is however, a blur of slippery notions, sliding from nostaglic past to possible future and back again.

Although it may seem as if calling off a big chunk of our space program is a sign of sliding backwards, there’s really no going back to a time before mankind knew space flight was possible.  

Instead, it occurs to me that this launch finale may turn out to be a leap forward.  A giant leap toward a future nation of Idiocracy.*  Toward the kind of society where everyone knows how to screw in a light bulb, but no one knows how to make one.

A hundred calories of Lorna Doone shortbread doesn’t last long. The FA asks if we would like more to drink, perpetuating the notion of a different decade.

Time may be relative when it’s inside your head, but in the real world we do our best to measure it.  In sunlight travelling over the earth.  In the angle of the sun.  In planetary tilt.  And in summer, the passing of the solstice. 

Put in Idiocratic terms, the eve of the summer solstice gives you the most drinking time at Beef O Brady’s while waiting for the sun to set, at which time you can commence Semi’s Summer Solstice Ride.

Since we didn’t get it together for a June full moon circumnavigation of Lake Okeechobee, the invitation to join Semi on his Summer Solstice Ride, was particularly welcome.

It’s a Tuesday.  Ride start - 8pm.  I’m a little early.  Popeye pulls in from the Palm Bay ride, switches bikes, and switches shoes.  I hand over his lights and he is ready for his second ride of the evening.  I don’t even recognize Sauce as he pulls in, in his new truck with the big new dent.  Semi, Sauce, me, a total of 3 Matts including Popeye, plus a Dirty, and a Justin.  We are 8.  Not bad for a Tuesday turnout.

If you’ve been on a Melbourne safari in the daytime, I highly advise riding one in the dark.  It’s a whole ‘nother world out there.  Like a 50’s thriller, time travel to the dinosaur hour, or being on another planet.

Off road, in the dark, common Florida natives turn alien.

Five deer freeze in the glare of helmet lights.  Ten eyes stare back at us, glowing green.

Sticks and vines take on a prehistoric twist, with shadows to fool the eye.  In the flash of a camera, what I think is just a gnarly branch lying on a quick stretch of pavement, turns out to be a lounging snake. 

I am happy that the spider webs stretching from tree to tree are mostly bisected by Semi, as the fearless leader.

The Early Bird may get the worms,

but the ride leader gets the spiders.

If you’ve gone out on your bike, seeking dirt to ride in Melbourne, then you’ve probably been on the Melbourne safari often enough to be bored with it.  But if you're looking for the feel of being out of town (or maybe off planet), then give this route a go round at night.  Bum Trails to Airport Trails to Melbourne Village.  End it with a cruise through the spider kingdom alongside Hibiscus Blvd.

There’s bound to be a Map My Ride if you need electronic guidance.

But I recommend the guidance of Semi. 

And the company of mountain bikers.

With a Beef O' Brady ending to wash the spiders away.

Were those 2 for $5 pitchers?  Could that possibly be right?  

Now there’s some awesome time travel.


PS  Thanks, Gadget Guru, for giving us that copy of Idiocracy a few years back.

*Idiocracy: a 2006 American film, satirical science fiction comedy, directed by Mike Judge and starring Luke Wilson. The short story inspiration was "The Marching Morons", a science fiction short story written by Cyril M. Kornbluth, originally published in Galaxy, April, 1951.  (Wikepedia)

Butterbeer according to Semi

Semi has sent a very authentic looking Butterbeer recipe.  He didn't say where he got it.  I hope he gave some poor house elf a pair of old bike shorts or something equally valuable for it.

Just so you know - I have NO INTENTION of making this myself.  But I'd love to hear how it turned out if anyone else tries it.

BUTTERBEER according to Semi:   

Start to finish: 1 hour (10 minutes active)

Servings: 4

1 cup light or dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

6 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

3/4 cup heavy cream, divided

1/2 teaspoon rum extract

Four 12-ounce bottles cream soda


In a small saucepan over medium, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook, stirring often, until the mixture reads 240 F on a candy thermometer.

Stir in the butter, salt, vinegar and 1/4 heavy cream. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the rum extract.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar mixture and the remaining 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Use an electric mixer to beat until just thickened, but not completely whipped, about 2 to 3 minutes.

To serve, divide the brown sugar mixture between 4 tall glasses (about 1/4 cup for each glass). Add 1/4 cup of cream soda to each glass, then stir to combine. Fill each glass nearly to the top with additional cream soda, then spoon the whipped topping over each.


Gee, thanks a lot. 

I mean, thanks Semi!