Friday, August 01, 2008

August Adventure #1: Marin Century

I knew after Vineman things were going to get a little nutty around here. August is going to be rather exciting/crazy, so I won't promise much blogging, but I should have plenty to blog about when I finally DO get to writing!

I went to Rainmaker's blog yesterday and realized I'm 3 4 (I just checked...as of today, it's 4...sigh) posts behind...and his posts are often rather, um, lengthy (but so chock-full of GREAT STUFF!), so then I was like "oh wow I am sooooooo behind" and I instantly kind of felt bad and realized that not only was I behind on his blog, but a few other folks' as well. Maybe I'll catch up on Sunday - before I get any FURTHER behind!

So this weekend's adventure is the Marin Century on Saturday. It's 100 miles and 6,250 feet of climbing, and covers some of the most beautiful area through Marin & Sonoma County along the coast and just inland. The weather should be awesome - some morning fog that should burn off as we climb the Marshall Wall and (hopefully) get some stellar views of the coast.

(This is a poster from last year - but it's the same route every year)

I did this ride two years ago with my friend Megan from Berkeley and Michael M. from Lombardi Tri. What a ride that was! First Michael's bike broke...I think he broke a spoke, but I honestly can't remember what happened. Basically he was out of commission, so Megan and I rode on.

Then, very tragically, we came upon a scene of cyclists gathered on the side of the road trying to administer first aid to another cyclist who had apparently had a seizure and then a heart attack (I think, if I remember correctly). We continued to ride because paramedics had been called and we didn't want to add to any mayhem. But we later found out the young woman (she was about 29) had died. It was so sad!

THEN about 3 miles down the road, another cyclist had hit a pothole and was on the side of the road, thankfully not hurt too badly.

This was all in the first 40 miles or so. UGH! Megan and I were pretty spooked at that point, but we pressed on and ended up enjoying the day. Still, I was pretty shocked and saddened by everything and knew that I wanted to do the ride again and hopefully create some new memories on the course.

Last year I was gone during the Marin Century.

And here we are, 2008! So at 7 a.m. tomorrow, I'm meeting up with Megan and her friend Brian from Berkeley, and Kelly is going to ride with us for like, 35 miles or something until she has to go home. I'll be bringing my camera and hopefully will catch some great shots! I've promised myself that I am NOT going for time, that I will stop at the top of climbs and take pictures, and that I just want to go out and have a great day and enjoy the climbs and the scenery.

Oh yes, I'm pretty sure by mile 80 my legs are going to be killing me, but it will be worth it. :)

Finally, I thought I'd announce 3 new blogs to my blog roll and 3 new songs of the week!!!

As for blogs:

1: You've GOT to check out Tawny's blog, http://lookingforabetterhobby.blogspot.com/. She is a super fab swimmer, SUPER funny woman, and if you met her in person, you couldn't help but smile because she is cute as a button and just radiates so much GREAT energy! So Tawny is not a tri geek - she's an open water swimming person who is doing the Catalina Channel swim (from Catalina to San Pedro - 21 miles). GO TAWNY!

2: Beth's Blog - California Training. I met Beth at Vineman in person finally. I had found her & James' food blog (Vo2 maxxed) awhile back and their recipes are always so good. It turns out Beth's blog is pretty cool, too. Just like Beth! But watch out, she's going to be a force in the field, I'm pretty sure - she can run like WIND (she passed me at mile 7 at Vineman and pulled off an AMAZING time WHILE being SICK!).

3: Tri-Geek's Pursuit of an Ironman. Tri Geek is on Fitness Journal, and we met on the discussion boards there. Yay, he started a blog! Everybody welcome him to tri-blog world!

Songs of the Week
(not 'new' songs by any means, but newly added to my spinning song collection)

1. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - MONTY PYTHON! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! This will be next week's cool down song at the end. Ha. ;) (This is from Life of Brian...god i love monty python)

2. That's All - Genesis (I know, so old school but a good climbing song! I heard it the other day and was like OMG! I HAVEN'T HEARD THIS IN FOREVER!) (btw the video is super dumb.)

3. The Power of Love - Huey Lewis and the News (btw, I put the video with all the clips from Back to the Future because that is one of my most favorite movies of all time and I get all happy watching this video. GO MARTY MCFLY!)

Poll
Okay, so there was a serious dispute about the movie "Dark City". I just need to know who liked it and who didn't. I, personally think it's an AWESOME movie. That's all I have to say about that.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, EVERYBODY!

11 comments:

Jocelyn Wong Neill said...

have fun on your century tmw!! OMG i LOVE Back to the Future!!!! go Marty McFly! :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the add to the blogroll. Continued success this year. I never like to hear stories of athlete tragedies.

Chris Westall said...

I jealous about the Marin Century... I wanted to ride it too but have a race on Sunday up in Sac.

Have fun... get some new memories (very sad about that woman) and take some great pictures.

beth said...

wow- you just made my day! thank you! i was nodding my head up and down about the beginning where you realized you were a few posts behind in your blog reading- ME TOO!!! my computer died this week and so a girl without her blog feeds is like not having your cell phone with all your contacts. NOT fun. that combined with moving,,,well, you know, i feel you..

Marin century sounds AWESOME. i so wish we could get up there and do it. dying to do a century. puhleeeease write a report- even if you are busy!!!

hope all is well in nor cal!!!

rocketpants said...

Enjoy the century! I hope it is much less 'eventful' than the last time.

Rainmaker said...

Let's just hold on here one little second... A quick check of my latest post vs your latest post reveals:

Yours: 939 words
Mine: 1,264 words

BUT!!!! I had to provide captions on the photos, so it's really 1,195 words. So really - I'm only about 20% longer. See, not that bad is it? Ok..perhaps so.

At any rate...

Hope you had an awesome Century today (or are still having it). I'm hoping to get out to that area this fall sometime, sounds like a great ride that they have!

BreeWee said...

Oh man, I should have ridden with you, I have my longest ride this Saturday too!

Hope the ride was awesome!!

jeanne said...

great tunes! and great riding! but so sad to hear about that cyclist.

ha ha rainmaker is funny. :)

Lee the Cyclist said...

Sarah - it was great running into you the other day at Aroma's. Glad to hear the ride went well this year. Next year we'll see if we can get a bigger group.

Unknown said...

Dark City was awesome. What's this century business? I hope you swam before and at least put in a good 10k run after!

Tawny said...

Wow! Thanks for the blog plug, Sarah!!
Incredibly flattered to be included on any list that includes Huey Lewis (okay, we weren't exactly on the same list - but I was in close proximity to his list. Details. Really, who has time?).
Nat and I are huge fans of "I Wanna New Drug"...well actually pretty much everything on "Sport".
We even have it in vinyl, so you know, there's no doubt we're serious about it..