Foster Pups again...

Penny (aka Fatty Patty) and Cole exploring in the front yard.

Penny LOVES the couch.

An AWESOME shot of Cole that my mom took. For the first time, he is not dissappearing in the shot.

I hope someone who really LOVES dogs adopts our puppies. Fatty Patty Penny is a handful because she likes to cry when she doesn't get her way, but she is a sweetheart. Cole is just precious. Smap is really trying hard to fatten the kid up by sneaking him a little oatmeal in the mornings (Ippon gets two large spoonfuls on his dog food every morning and Fisher the cat also gets a little). We all love the organic oatmeal.

I think Ippon is over the puppies. Penny wakes up during the night if she hears the smallest noise. Little Cole really doesn't cry...we can hear him whimper, but that is all. They are funny though. They LOVE to play with Fisher. Fisher will tackle them and bite on them and let them bite on him. It is pretty funny to watch. They all three are getting "fixed" on Saturday. Poor little things don't even know what is about to happen.


Here's my mom visiting her foster grandchildern. She LOVES them.

I am keeping busy with cleaning up all their poop and pees. They definitely prefer to go the bathroom outside, but they still aren't getting the concept of peeing on the newspaper. They just go when they need to. They really aren't too bad. Anyone want to adopt some cuties???

2008 12 Hour Hill of Truth RACE!

Smap gave up racing this year to tend to our foster bullie mix pups....Cole and Penny.

Here I come finishing my second lap. Smap is there watching me and the pups (who are under Dave's car).

Jen Smelser and me coming up the road finishing lap #3. Jen did her first two laps on her single speed, then switched to her trusty gears.

Odd/gross looking photo of me taken by my dad. New Belgium donated two tasty kegs to the event. Their cool tent in the back ground.

Smap and me between laps.... (Cole is blending in to Smap's sweatshirt, but he is actually there). Penny is trying to get a kiss too. I think I am heading out to my third lap here...

This year's 12 Hour Hill of Truth race was pretty fun. I raced my single speed as a one woman team. I did okay getting in 6 laps in just over 6 hours, but then gave in to the pain mostly coming from my feet. This year's race course was a close repeat of the original course in 99'. The push up Red Hill and the other steep hills proved just too much for my feet in shoes with barely any cushion. Later on, I thought about the nice commuter shoes I have that would have been perfect for the race...oh well. If I continue to race long races on my single speed, I will just have to invest in a really good pair of insoles.

My friends Emily Parker (the 15 year old phenom) and Jen Smelser got 2nd and 3rd! Emily incredibly got 9 laps and Jen got 8! Very impressive for both of them! My friend Dave Holmes did 13 laps (I want to say) to place 3rd in the solo men. Dave did 6 of his 13 on his single speed. I am not sure if anyone did more than 6 laps on a single speed? Another impressive result was my and Jen's friend Kelly. She is relatively new to the mountain bike scene (she was a UT runner) and VERY new to the single speed scene. Kelly did a VERY impressive 5 laps on her new 29'er single speed. Next year, she will kick my butt probably. I also have to mention my favorite girl team that raced (there were only two female teams racing this year). My friends Missy, Rebecca, Abby and Amanda kicked some butt for first place in their division. Way to go!

As I mentioned under a photo above, New Belgium donated a couple of tasty kegs to the 12 Hour festivities. They also donated a cool New Belgium cruiser to be raffled off with the proceeds going to our local SORBA affliliate club here AMBC. Smap and I put a total of $7.00 in for the running, but obviously we didn't win.

This year at the 12 hour, they had a stage set up for a really groovy band. They played a lot of cover songs from what I heard, but they were really good. I left a little early this year due to my sore feet. I was tired and just needed to be on my couch at home with my pups and my big dog, Ippon, near me. I think I had enough fun last year to cover this year anyways.

I will post some other photos this weekened. I have been extremely busy after school with the puppies and working out, so I have not touched a computer at home in several days. We did finally get a new hard drive, so we are actually going to be able to download all the photos off the camera...FINALLY!!!!!

Lots of things...

First off, I made a mistake in my previous post...the original 12 Hour HOT race was in 99' not 1998 as I previously said (this is still the 10th Anniversary of the race). I think I have raced it (including Saturday's race) 5 out of the 10 years... Smap has done all but one year. He is still on the fence about racing Saturday due to the forecasted rainfall. Riding at Haw Ridge when it is wet is ultra yuck/suck/crappy. I will only do it because I have already paid. It will be an adventure though, so we'll just see. Hopefully it will not rain ALL day.

Smap and I have been ultra busy lately. My dad and stepmom (Joyce) contacted us several weeks ago to help out with some foster pups from a huge drug bust in Chattanooga. Lucky us, we have now have two adorable pit-mixed bullies residing with us for a while. They are just 7 weeks old and are so tiny. Our brown one is Penny. She is the boss pretty much. Fisher the cat LOVES Penny because she will play with him. Ippon really has no love for any of them, so Fisher is happy to finally have someone to play with. Cole, the little black one is the cuddler. He will cuddle all day long if we let him. I will soon have a bunch more photos of our little animal family once Smap gets our new hard drive worked out at home. We had a full hard drive and had to purchase a new one...hence my slacking on getting photos up on the blog. Soon I will be posting a TON from lots of different festivities we have been involved in.

So, these cute little pups and five others will be up for adoption in just a few weeks. It will be very hard for me to see them go because they are so sweet, but we can't do that to Ippon. Ippon will be turning 12 soon and soon unfortunately he will require a lot of us (physically and emotionally). I just hope whom ever adopts these precious pups will love them like we have.

Other things going on.... I have been on Fall Break this week. I wouldn't call it much of a break because I have been helping Smap out here at the label company and tending to the pups. It is a good change of pace from teaching though. Pretty soon before we know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here! This nine weeks of school pretty much flies and I am looking forward to it going by extremely fast.

Riding: I have been logging quite a few miles on my single speed. We did do the Creeper Trail, but I was on gears. I'll probably be putting in long rides on the weekends with my friend Emily Parker (the 15 year old phenom). I took her on a 70+ mile ride a few weeks ago and she did great. I kept apologizing to her for making it so long, but she really enjoyed it. I don't think I could have done 70+ miles at 15 years old. My hat is off to her. She is a bad ass and will only get stronger and stronger. It will be fun to watch her grow as a more serious road rider and athlete over the next two years.

That is about it for now. I know I had more to talk about, but I need to get to work here for Smap.

Peace!

10th Annual Hill of Truth Mountain bike race coming up...

Our favorite race of the year is coming up quickly...the 12 Hour Hill of Truth. Since this year is the race's 10th anniversary, the race director has set the course as the original course used back in 1998. I did not race that year and did not even come onto the scene until 2000, so I have yet to race this course even though I have ridden all the trails many times. One trail that will be on the course this year was named after me in 2001 I think...Rachel's Landing. It is one of the more technical trails out at Haw Ridge I would say. I usually avoid this trail at all costs and never ride it unless someone I am riding with insists on me trying to "make peace" with the trail. The trail is located just past the turn off for the climb up to Silo. I prefer to climb this longer climb ANY DAY over doing Rachel's Landing. Smap is going to hopefully take me out Saturday and work with my fear of this trail... The trial has really changed a lot since the infamous day of me falling into the nasty water with all my friends there to witness me screaming and pushing my bike out. Greg Casteel first made sure I was okay before sitting down to laugh his a$$ off. Same with Robbie Kidd and the rest of the them. Jimi Flynt use to always have disposable cameras at hand just in case great photo occasions needed to be captured. Sure enough she got a great shot of me soaked to the bone pushing my old Klein Attitude out of the water. My grips came completely off my handlebars...I was miserable.

Anyway, the rock that caused my fall has since been taken out, but the bottom of the trail next to the water is still way sketch. I can see myself falling off balance several times during the 12 hour into the water. We'll see...

Smap is on the fence about racing this year. He may take a break this year so he can make sure I don't kill myself. He is undecided.

I have a couple of weeks to get some good long rides in to help me endure the long day of racing. My young friend and mountain bike phenom, Emily Parker, has requested I do some long road rides with her on Sunday's. That should be good training for me as well as fun. It isn't everyday I get to hang with a super cool 15 year old!

That is about it here....see ya!

CBC's Trek/Fisher Demo yesterday

Well, for the 2nd year in a row we had a very successful Trek/Fisher demo. I started to take photos, but as Elizabeth said yesterday, "you take fewer photos if you are having a lot of fun". I think you said that right Elizabeth? The day got a little hazy around 3:30 when I decided it was my turn to partake in the cold refreshing beverages behind the Trek trailer.

We had well over 100 people show at the demo yesterday, which surpassed our numbers from last year. I think the most popular bikes to be test ridden were the two Superfly's...a carbon 29'er hardtail. I even demoed my own personal Fisher Rig out for the day. I think I had four people test the single speed. Other popular bikes riden yesterday were the 69'ers, the Trek Fuel 9.9 Ex, the Fisher Rosco and HiFi pro 29'er, the Trek Madone, and the Trek Remedy. I unfortunately did not get to test ride any bikes due to the fact that I was in charge of checking all the bikes in and out as they were ridden. It is okay though because the only bike I really wanted to ride was the Fisher Superfly and they didn't have it in my size.

Yesterday I was also politely dropped from my 12 hour team that I raced on last year, the Menstral Cycles. The gals have decided they want to go very low profile this year and take the race a lot less seriously than they have in past years. I am fine with this because I would really like to see just how many laps I can do on my single speed. Smap did 9 laps last year and I think he wants to possibly try to better that number...I think I may shoot for 7 or 8. We'll see....

That is about it for today. My knee hurts from standing for 12 hours yesterday. I did get a great ride in on Saturday, which was good. I am looking forward to a lot of good fall rides this year! See ya...

Three year Anniversary!

Today marks three years for Smap and me being married!

I'm looking forward to many more happy years Smap!

Black Bear Rampage 2008

Well, this past weekend, Smap and I successfully finished the 2nd and our 2nd Black Bear Rampage. I didn't take a lot of photos this year like last year. I am hoping they will have some on the website that I can steal later.

I took the day off of school on Friday to help prepare for our two night camp at the Ocoee River. This is one of our favorite places to camp for several reasons. We love the Tanasi Trail System, Smap loves to paddle the Ocoee (I use to, but prefer not to now), and the campground is easy to get to and has a lot of shade on one side for our dog/child Ippon. We always have to take him with us of course!

We got down there and set up camp next to a good friend Shannon. She is another one of my girl friends who left Knoxville for a better city. It is okay though, she is only in Nashville, so I still see her frequently at mountain bike races! Shannon was camping with another friend of ours (Ed), who is from Knoxville, but we camp with him more than see him. It was nice hanging with them off and on all weekend.

The weather could not have been perfect for this year's race. Last year it poured in the beginning, leading to a sloppery wet crappy ride for me. Tons of issues last year. This year's problem for me was cramping. After finishing the race and speaking with most of my friends, I was not the only one who experienced major cramping this year. I have never popped so many Endurolites in my life, but thank goodness I had them because they saved my life for the last 20 of the total 44 miles.

Smap entered the men's single speed division and got 5th place. I think he was twice as old as the guys who beat him and he was only 1:30 behind 3rd. He did awesome. He also improved his time from last year by like 8 min's or something. And, they made the race longer this year by adding a two mile ride up the street to the turn in onto Brushy Creek trail. This was to break up the mass start in each category. I was very proud of him for the lack of training both of us had put into preparing....I married a natural.

My race was good too. I was of course the only single speeding female out there. I got combined into the W's sport category. The ride up the street wasn't too bad on my single speed...I think I went onto Brushy Creek in 4th position out of 14 Sport Women. I finished 5th. I improved my overall time from last year by 14 min's. I was disheartened at the awards ceremony because I was under the impression that my W's sport category was going to be divided into two age groups....up to 34, and then 35 and over. The top three women who won were all over 35, which would have put me on the podium for a 2nd place. WOULD HAVE.....they decided to combine our age groups and just make one group since "there weren't enough of us" to warrant two classes. I CALLED B.S. on that one!!!! There were 2 guys who finished the BURLY BEAR division and they both got to get up on the podium and receive prizes....3 pro women, podium and prizes, 3 juniors under 18...yep, podium and prizes.....but, we only had five in our age group and 9 in the 35+ age group, so we didn't have enough! Ridiculous... I was so disgusted by this I just couldn't stand it. I only wanted to have my photo made on the podium standing near Gary Fisher (one of my icons)... Their prizes sucked, so it sure as hell wasn't about that. UGGG.

Anyway, enough ranting. The race was fun and I got to see a lot of friends, and meet new people. One of my friends that I met this summer at a race is 47 and she kicked major butt to get 2nd in our field....she did all this with MS and a cracked rib.....yes, MS!!

I especially enjoyed the weekend because it was kind of Smap and my 3rd anniversary weekend...three years on October 1st!

We'll see if I can get over my frustrations with the store who put the race on this weekend and possibly compete next year. I did get to meet and talk with Gary Fisher a few times. Gary was roommates with Kent Bostick...a Knoxville pro cyclist who is still a pro in his 50's now. Smap met Gary a few years ago at Trek World and found out that they had Kent as a friend in common, so it was cool when Smap walked up to Gary on Friday night and Gary remembered Smap. Smap did take my photo with Gary, but I don't know if it is an acceptable photo by my standards to publish on my blog (I looked gross). :-)