Thunder Rolls 24 hr 2011

Let me ask you a question, if you drove into a small town in Northern Illinois and saw a little roadside park with a scenic river view, would you:

A. Think oh how beautiful
B. Think oh I want to canoe on that river
C. Read the sign and decide, this is going to be a great race

If you are ROCK Racing, which would be Chuck and I, you would pick C, then you would think, I know I’m going to die. I hope my PFD will float my body back to shore.

So that is how our latest adventure race started. The Thunder Rolls AR was held in Oregon, Illinois starting and finishing at the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Camp. The camp was great, it had lots of room for camping, a nice big dinning hall, and lots of showers with hot water. We rolled into camp on Friday afternoon, checked in and pitched our tents, even though we knew that we would not be sleeping for at least another 30 hours. We wanted the tents to be ready so that when we finished the race, we could just crash, more on that later. In our race packets we were given, mustard that Chuck loves and couldn’t wait to get, Zanfel, that I love because I knew that I would have poison ivy by the end of the race and a really nice North Face Fleece pullover that was a kind of bright green. We love good schwag in our race packets.

We ate dinner with all the other racers in the dining hall. We shared a table with the team Three Blind Mice, and listened to some great race stories while we ate spaghetti, green beans, salad, bread, berries and yogurt. I’m not much on healthy eating, but the food was all good. After dinner the fun started.




At 7 pm there was pre-race meeting, we were given maps, a clue book and some instructions, we also found out that there was going to be 55 check points, this was the most check points we have ever had in a race.



We found out that we would have nine maps, six of them (1-24,000 USGS) were given to us at the race meeting the other three (1-15,000 O-maps) would be given to us 15 minutes before the race start. The last maps we received were made by Lidar. They were really great maps, you could see things on them that you can’t see on regular USGS maps.

Chuck: The LIDAR maps were incredible. They were the best maps we’ve ever gotten for an adventure race. Awesome detail and all the land features were dead-on. Here is an example of a LIDAR map, you can see all the detail.


After receiving our maps we had to drive to the bike drop, we needed to check my tire because I was running tubeless, but having problems with the seal on the tire and air was leaking. So we ran out and put some air in my tire and hoped it would hold until we made it to the bike transition. As long as I was riding the seal was fine, but when the bike would sit for any amount of time it would leak. We put our race numbers on our Trek Superflys and checked our lights, then left a gallon of water to refill our packs when we got to the bike drop sometime in the next 24 hours.




We then drove back to the camp and went to the dining hall to plot points. We were really having a hard time for some reason and we couldn’t find the right maps, we asked team Three Blind Mice and they pointed out that there were some smaller numbers on the map. It was funny, Chuck and I couldn’t see the numbers, we both need to start bringing glasses with us. Once we saw the numbers everything went well, we had the points plotted in just over an hour.



We hurried back to camp and checked our gear and loaded it into the van, so that we could drive to the race start. We figured after the race was over we probably would be so tired that we wouldn’t want to walk back to camp, plus we had to drop off all of our paddling gear at the start.



We jumped in our tents for a 30 minute nap before the race started, but neither one of us could sleep, it was really nice getting off my feet for a while though. At 11:30 pm we were at the race start getting our last map, we quickly reviewed it then walked over to the starting line for last minute instructions. At Midnight the gun went off and all of the 24 hours teams went out on the run. There was no moon and it was pitch black out, about all we could see were headlamps flashing in the woods. We went directly to CP1 with no problems finding it. Of course since this race was setup as an Old School Expedition style, you had to get every CP in order, if you missed a CP you were finished, so the first few CPs were basically follow the herd of racers and you will get there, but as time moved on the teams got split up and went different directions, so there was no more following, you had to know what you were doing. That is unless you are me, then you just follow Chuck and say which way, when he says we need to head north, I say, which way is north. There is a problem with racing like we do, if something happens to Chuck out in the woods, we are definitely going to die because I would never get us out before we starved to death.



We trudged through thick thorn bushes, they were everywhere, all the shadows of the night made things look really scary, it was like being in a horror movie, sometimes I just wanted to hide in a bush until daylight, but I didn’t, I just kept following Chuck. After a few hours we were scratched up and bleeding from all the thorn bushes and I think I was completely wrapped in spider webs. We just stopped short of one web when we saw it shinning in our lights, the spider in the web even caught a bug and wrapped it up in his web so fast it was unbelievable.




We headed along a corn field, the corn was really high and the night was so dark, as we walked along the edge of the field, I couldn’t help but think of that movie “The Children of the Corn”, I was just waiting for something to grab me, but the only thing that was grabbing me was the thorn bushes, so many times I almost tumbled to the ground because my legs were tied up in the thorn vines. Our legs were really cut up and we had long pants on, we saw a couple guys in shorts and their legs looked like hamburger. I bet they learned a lesson or two about dressing for an AR.



We continued to find CPs without a problem, one right after the next, CP8 we found on a dead tree at the top of a small knoll. It was in an area where there were at least 8 teams looking for it, we found it and moved on, that CP gave us a big lead. We finished the first 20 checkpoint O-section and headed to the paddle. We were now 4.5 hours into the race.

We hit the canoe transition, put our glow sticks on the canoe and took off up the Rock River, we thought it was pretty cool for ROCK racing to be on the Rock River.



It was spooky paddling down the river in the pitch black. We had to turn off our head lamps because the bugs were so bad that we were getting gin our eyes and sucking them in our mouths and nose because the light was drawing them to us. So we paddled in the dark, watching the shadows from the trees on the water. We hit something in the water, and the canoe kind of tipped, but then we were off of it. I thought it was a log, Chuck thought it was a sand bar, but we really don’t know what it was, it was just way too dark to see it. After picking up the first CP on the river we were paddling through some low spots, which also had some low hanging branches overhead. I don’t know how I did this, but I got my paddle stuck between an overhead branch and in a sand bar at the same time, it almost clothes-lined me. I thought for sure I was going into the water, but lucky for me it just jammed my forearm into my elbow and I stayed in the canoe. Now I had something to complain about for the rest of the paddle, I kept whining about my arm hurting and had to change the way I paddled so it would hurt less.

Chuck: I got to watch all that from the back canoe seat, it was really pretty funny. I mean how can you get both blades of a paddle stuck at the same time? We were moving downstream at a pretty fast pace, she almost got swept right out of the boat. The best part was when the same thing happened again about 500 meters later on another low hanging branch.



At CP22 we had to pull our canoe out of the water up a steep slick bank and then run to the rappel. As we headed to the ropes we could see shadows on the ground, I thought there was some people behind us, that shadow looked too skinny to be mine, but it was mine, I’m going to start taking all my pictures in shadows if they make me look that tall and skinny.



At the rappel we had to hook on with carabiners and slings and do a fixed line traverse over a narrow rocky ridge to the rappel. On the way out to the rope, Chuck slipped and fell a few feet, I guess that is the reason we were clipped on. I was hanging on for dear life, I hate heights. When we got to the rappel, Chuck went first and on the way down his pack got caught up in a tree, but he got out and made it safely to the ground.



I was scared and the lady working the ropes talked me though it, once I got to the bottom it was fun, I think if we had time I would have liked to try it a second time. And as you can see, we were wearing our Hardnutz Rock Hard helmets, you know Hardnutz aren’t just for biking anymore.



After the rappel we ran back to the canoes and headed down stream to the next “O” section. We were pretty quick getting there, I love down stream paddling. We pulled our canoe on the sand near the island, ate a honey stinger waffle, punched the CP and headed to into the brush.



This time the vegetation was different from the last “O” section, there was less thorn bushes and more stinging nettle. We had a big discussion on what was worse the nettle or the thorns. I thought the thorns were worse, while Chuck thought it was the nettle. The nettle was so high we had to hold our arms up as we walked through, but even doing that our arms were still burning and my legs were even burning thought my pants.



Once again we went directly to every point, seeing very few other teams. We weren’t sure if we were ahead or behind at that point. CP26 was on a rock ledge overhanging the river, we had to scramble out on the edge to get it, but the view was awesome.



We came across a bunch of giant mushrooms, I turned around and saw chuck with one on his head, I guess that is what happens when you reach that point of sleep deprivation, you do stupid things.



Chuck: just seemed like a good idea at the time.

We finished the “O” section and headed back to the canoe and we started seeing tons of teams, the 12 hour race had started and we were seeing those racers along with the 24 hour racers. We stopped for a couple minutes to eat, Chuck had a PBJ and I had a fruit cup. It was the first time I tried bringing a fruit cup and it was really good, I will do that again. I had to eat it fast though because I thought Chuck was going to grab it out of my hand, it was almost like a vampire seeing blood. We then saw Forum Dental, we had been passing them back and fourth all day, which is good because they are usually faster than us, so we figured we were really having a good race. They got in the canoe before we did, but the way things were going, we would see them again soon.

Coming out of the “O” section we had one last paddle to finish. On the way I pulled out the camera and was taking a few pictures.




That is until Chuck told me to quit with the picture and help paddle, what nerve he has. I should have said not until you quit splashing me. Every time he would take a stroke he would splash water on my back, by the time the paddle was over I was soaking wet, good thing it had started warming up by the time we made it to the bike drop.

Chuck: That was getting pretty funny. Every time I would lift my paddle, water would sling over Robin in the front of the canoe, maybe these canoes were shorter than normal.

This is the bike drop at night, I didn’t have a shot of it in the daytime.




When we got to our bikes, my tire was low again, so we started to pump it with a little frame pump, but then the volunteer had a floor pump and let us use it, that was a life saver. While in transition Chuck drank a Monster energy drink, boy did it wake him up, when we took off on the bikes it was all I could do to stay with him. I should have drank one too. Monster was a sponsor so all the transitions had cold Monster waiting for us.

Chuck: I never tried Monster before. I know you should never try anything new in a race, but it was in coolers jammed with ice, and looked so cold and good, I had to get one. They taste kind of weird, but the energy boost thing is for real!

The bike legs had more hills than I had anticipated, I mean we are in Illinois, there are no hills in Illinois, unless you go to Oregon, and then there are plenty of hills. We made it through pretty quickly, the roads were pretty nice with some sections of rock, but it was not too bad to ride on. It did however enforce my thought that I don’t want to race the Dirty Kanza, gravel is not my friend.




After the bike we rolled into the Grasslands for the last “O” section. Chuck had been worrying all night about this section, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to navigate in there, but it turns out that most of the navigation was no different than any other we have done. It was however all open to the sun and very hot and sandy. Sand was poring into our shoes and we were starting to feel blisters popping up. As we trekked down a hot dusty road, we could see up ahead a couple little girls in front of a house that was out in the middle of nowhere. They had a cooler of cold water and some cups, and had made signs cheering the racers on. They asked all kinds of questions and gave us candy too. It was almost like a mirage, we wondered if they were really there or we were just seeing things. Then out of nowhere Forum Dental appears, so it wasn’t a mirage the little girls and water were really there.



Chuck: When we first seen them from a distance, the first thing I thought, was maybe it’s a lemonade stand. I was ready to dig money out of my pack and buy one cup of lemonade after another. Those little girls could have made a killing off me. But how great is it that they were out there doing it for free!

We drank water out of cups that had probably been used by a bunch of racers, but we didn’t care, it was so good to have ice cold water. Then it was back to work, we picked up 3 CPs back in this section and CP40 was in what was called a tree house. I think of it more as a death trap. I told Chuck, I didn’t care if my job was to get the punch, I wasn’t climbing up in that tree house, so he did it and it even scared him. The entire rotten wooden structure shook with every move he made, plus he had to get through some really thick thorn bushes to get to it. He did it though, now that’s a good teammate, taking one for the team when his partner won’t do it.

Chuck: As soon as I saw that tree house I knew I’d be the one going up. The first time we did Thunder Rolls in 2009 we had to climb a forest service fire lookout tower. That was when I first learned that Robin’s fear of heights was for real, she did the climb, but it was white knuckled and wobbly knee’d the whole way.





After coming out of the woods we headed to a CP way far out, on the way my feet were starting to hurt so bad, I stopped and took my shoes off to see if maybe there was something in my shoe, but it was just that my feet were covered in blisters, so I put my shoes back on and kept moving. We made it to CP 44 which was a rock face, we punched it and moved on to CP 45, after walking for what seemed to be hours through grass and stickers we finally found a creek, but we walked up and down the creek for 30 minutes and could never find the CP. Now it was starting to get late and we knew we had to get to the finish line before the midnight cutoff. We knew that it would take an hour to get back to our bikes and then were not sure how long it would take to ride in. So we made the decision to go back. Team Scorched Earth that we helped earlier came by and said we could look for CP 45 with them and maybe we could find it, but we chose not too, that was the biggest mistake of the race.

So we went back to the bike transition, took off our shoes and socks and rinsed all the sand out, but it was too late, the blisters were so bad there wasn’t much we could do. We put our bike shoes on and then realized my tires were low again, so we pumped them up and headed in. We figured out a route that would be a little shorter and on less traveled roads so we headed that way, stopping at intersections to make sure we were on the right track.




A car of teenagers came by and yelled at us, we weren’t sure what they said, but we know it was probably words of encouragement. Gerry the race director also drove by and asked if we were doing ok and we said, all was good and we would see him at the finish. About 13 miles later we rolled into the finish line, happy to be finished and ready to get the shoes off our feet. Chuck had some really ugly feet, even without blisters those are some ugly feet. I wasn’t showing anyone my feet.



We had another racer take our picture at the finish line, unfortunately it didn’t turn out very well, but maybe the picture turned out just the way we felt. We sat down and chatted with Gerry the race director for a while and told him what a great event he puts on, because it really is a fantastic race, it’s challenging, but still fun, with some really fun stuff thrown in, like the traverse and rappel, it was a lot of fun even for me, “Misses afraid of heights”. Of course we had pizza, how can a little frozen pizza cooked in a pizza over out in the middle of nowhere taste so good. It’s like the best thing I have ever eaten in my life. I guess if I would eat it the next day, it might not be as good, but at that point in time, you couldn’t give me anything better. Even if there was a mouse running around under the table with the pizza ovens on it, we didn’t care the mouse wasn’t going to eat much.



After pizza we went back to camp and took showers then laid down in our tents with a plan to get up in an hour at midnight to go look at the results, but we both fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I yelled over to Chuck’s tent and asked if he went to the awards, he said he fell asleep. So we got up, packed up and went up the finish line to see the results. We were 4th in 2 person co-ed and 1st in 2 person co-ed masters, but what really frustrated us was that if we had stayed and gotten CP 45, we would have been 2nd in the 2 person co-ed division. I guess live and learn, we kicked ourselves all the way home for bagging it and going in without CP 45.

Oh and as we walked to the finish line we saw a baby deer.



One last thought, Chuck did the best navigating he has ever done, all the racers were talking about how hard the course was and how they had such a hard time finding certain CPs, but we went directly to every CP without problem, except of course CP 45. I think if our feet had not been hurting so bad, we would have gotten all the CPs. Look out, next year we are coming back with a vengeance.

Urban Assault 2011

What a beautiful day it was today and I have no idea what I could have done to make it an even better day, EXCEPT compete in the St Louis Urban Assault Race. The Urban Assault is in my opinion the most fun anyone can have on a bike.

Rock Racing, which would be me and Chuck, have been waiting for this race all year, and we must have been really excited about it, because we were race number 7. We think that means that we were the 7th team to sign up for the race, even if it’s not the actual reason we got lucky number 7, we are sticking to that story.


We had picked up our race packets on Saturday, so on Sunday we arrived at the race start, ready to go. The bikes were piling up fast, we picked what we thought was going to be a great place to stage our bikes, but soon started to rethink our plan. After seeing the number of bikes being staged, I think there was twice the number from last year’s race, and the way that the bikes were arranged, we decided that our original plan would take us into the mass of bikers during the start and it could get ugly. The new plan meant moving our bikes to the opposite side of the starting line, but it gave us a better route to follow, that we didn’t think would be as crowded.


As we waited for the start of the race, we scoped out the competition, everyone was racing, the biker chicks, the country girl, a couple girls with really good karma and of course Lori and her teammate Michele. This year’s race appeared to be the biggest and fastest race ever in St Louis.










We lined up on the starting line for a lemond start, which means we have to run to our bikes. I wish I had a really good starting line picture, but this year our personal photographer, Lori, who is Chuck’s wife, decided to compete. After a couple years of watching us have all the fun, she decided it was her year to join us, which is really great for her, but really bad for Chuck and I, now we have to take all our own pictures. It is really hard to stop and take pictures when you are trying to finish in the fastest time possible.


We were up front in the first row at the starting line, in the first wave. We had to take a quiz of 32 questions a couple days before the race and we got an 84% on it, which put us in the first wave. There were 3 waves total each wave started two and half minutes apart. The first wave is the only place to be and since that’s the way Rock Racing rolls we were right there. Our first stop was at the Planetarium, where we picked up the mystery clue. It was a picture of a sculpture of an old fashioned bike, and we had NO idea where to find it.


I called a couple friends hoping for some internet search help, but luck was not with us, no one was answering. We decided to just follow the route we had mapped out while we tried to figure out the mystery point.

We hit the café Ventana first, for a quick round of big wheel racing.


Next we hit Bike Works, where we had to build a tower on an oval sled out of foam brick puzzle pieces that spelled out the Cliff Bar logo, then lift it over our head. We put the puzzle together, but when lifting it, it fell apart, so we had to start over. I guess the second time was the charm, we grabbed our bead and moved on.

We still didn’t know the mystery point, so we stopped and called another friend, as he was doing an internet search for us, Chuck got the answer from another racer. The problem was, we had already passed the point and it was not a good move to back track at this point, so we made the decision to follow the loop as planned and then go back for the mystery point.

The next stop was the Bug Store, where we had to tie our legs together with an old inner tube and run through an obstacle course. It was fun watching Chuck climb through a hulu hoop, I made it right through without problem, see there are a few things I do better than Chuck.

We took off heading for the Brentwood swim club, and let me tell you, there is no way to get there without being sucked into a vortex of hills. After working through those hills, we hit a bike path that brought us into the back of the swim club. Oh and I have to tell you this, while we were rolling through the hills, Chuck told me that I had gotten much better at hills this year, now that was the best compliment he could have given me and even though I was gasping for air and so tired I was about to fall off my bike, I think I actually smiled. We jumped off our bikes and were told to jump in the pool with our helmets still on and swim to the bottom to collect 3 cans of beer and it had to be 3 different kinds of beer. Chuck jumped in shoes and all, I kicked my shoes off and jumped in, by the time I headed for the first can Chuck came out of the water with all three cans. So out of the pool we climbed and of course I had to put my shoes back on.


The next stop was Mesa Cycles, we made it there quickly and found out that one teammate had to ride the other teammate on the handlebars of a little trick bicycle and the teammate getting the ride had to grab two flag football flags off volunteers, and the volunteers were moving around, plus the area was on a hill. It was way tougher than it sounds.

Now we were off to the mystery point, which ended up being at a bar called the Handlebar lounge. We found it pretty quickly, but it added an extra 10 or 15 minutes to our time. There was no use getting upset, I mean we were having fun and just the fact that we aren’t from St Louis was a disadvantage to us, unless we frequented bars in the city we would have no way of knowing where this point was. I’m sure there were many other teams that had the same disadvantage as we did, so I’m am by no means complaining, this is why it is called a competition.
We made it to the finish, showed them our beads and headed to the sprinkler for some cooling off. This race director really knows how to treat its competitors, there is always a sprinkler available to cool off under after the race.




As Chuck and I stood under the cool water a guy came by and asked if I was the girl with the race blog, I said yep, you found me, he said that he read it all the time. That is so cool, that someone recognized me from my blog. Chuck took a picture of the guy while he was walking away, so here’s to you, number 164, otherwise known as the caped man, I thank you for reading my blog.


We ran over to our vans to get our ID’s so we could get a couple free beer tickets and on the way back I came across Leo, a very interesting spectator. I asked if he would mind getting a picture with me, at first he seemed a little afraid, I really don’t think I’m scary, of course maybe he is related to me because all my brothers are afraid of me.


We hung around and checked out the different tents, ate some chips from whole foods and Chuck had a beer, while I sucked down a couple bottles of water. We chatted with some fellow adventure races and found out that we didn’t make the top 3, we figured that would be the case after the mystery point fiasco, but it’s all good, I wouldn’t miss this race for anything.

Before we knew it, we turned around to see Lori and Michele finish the race, they had a really great time and I’m sure we have now lost our personal photographer forever.


We can’t wait for next year, maybe we should start frequenting the city in hope of finding the mystery point faster next year.

Wood River Triathlon 2011

It is August once again and you know what that means, it’s time for the Wood River Triathlon. There were a few surprises this year, very nice surprises. First the weather gods were watching over us, after weeks of temps in the 90’s and the heat index over 100, we had a nice cool day or at least it started out that way. The temperature was 70 at race time with a high of 89 degrees expected. For me that was perfect, since I was number 7 in the water, I expected to be finished with the race before 8:30.

So this is how I spent a beautiful Saturday morning. I showed up at the race venue at 6 am, racked my bike, laid out gear, and checked in. I had an hour before my start time, so I milled around and chatted with the other competitors, and most of them I already knew. You see, the Wood River Tri is one of the largest local triathlons in the area and 30 to 40 Metro Tri Club Zilla’s show up for the race. I have competed in this tri 10 times now. It is a great spectator course, it is 6 bike laps of a two mile loop, followed by 2 run laps of the same loop. So every lap of the course there are people cheering you on, plus there are tons of racers on the course so you always have someone to chase, chasing people always makes me faster. Oh, and they feed you to, not just fruit and Gatorade, but chicken, veggies, sandwiches, pizza and so much more, not only you, but your family too. After the race the competitors and their families get to swim and use the waterslide all afternoon. This is such a family friendly event and when you mill around before the race, it’s more like a family reunion than a race.







While I was wondering around I ran into my nemesis Terry, we did some trash talking and I said I needed a before picture with him, you know, the before I smoke your butt, picture.


I headed over to the pool to check it out before the race, it looked really daunting just sitting there waiting for the race to start.


I had to run over to the round house for a quick team picture before the race started, after the picture, I had about 15 minutes to the race start.


I did a quick warm up swim in the dive tank, I really don’t know why, it doesn’t matter what I do, my swim is always slow. I jumped out of the dive tank with about 2 minutes to the start of the race. My race number was 7, so I went in the water at 7:01:30. My swim went pretty well, I think it may have been my fastest ever, but don’t get all excited just yet, fast for me, is really pretty slow, but I was still happy with it.


My transition was a little slow, but not too bad.


I hopped on my bike and took off, as soon as I hit the road, my friend Renae came past me, giving me encouragement as she passed. I spent the next 12 miles trading the lead with her. After the first lap Mike jumped on the course with us and it ended up being a battle between the three of us for the entire bike leg. It made for a fast bike, I finished the bike leg with a 20.7 mph average and I was very happy with that. I have to attribute my fast bike to two things, first chasing my teammates around the course and second the quality of the roads I was riding on. The street department had repaved almost the entire course, the streets were smooth and there was very little gravel on the corners. I have to give a shout out to the Wood River street department, they did a great job.


I had a good transition from bike to run it was under a minute before I was back on the road on foot, hoofing it around the course.

I have not been running well lately so I was a little worried about the run. I was really surprised because I felt pretty good, the first 2 mile lap went well and the second I slowed a little about halfway through, but as soon as I slowed down a young fit girl passed me and she was flying. I focused on her and picked up my pace, I actually felt good and held the new pace through the end of the race. My run time was not as good as it has been in past years, but it wasn’t bad. I crossed the line, looked at my time and saw that I had taken two minutes off my total time from my last Wood River Tri. It was not my fastest time ever at this race, but it was still good.

The temperature had started to rise, and at the finish line there was a shower setup to cool off under. I have to admit it, I showered with Mike.


After a long shower and a massage, I watched the rest of the race. My good friend Jenny was on the curb cheering on her husband Tim. He finished the race and came over to discuss the woes of his race. As soon as he got on his bike, his chain fell off and he couldn’t get it back on, after about 3 or maybe 20 minutes he finally got it on and took off, but since, as you could see, he is no mechanic, he was afraid to switch gears during the bike for fear of the chain dropping again, so he rode the entire race in one gear. The gear was a little too small and he had to pedal like a mad man the entire race. I say look on the bright side he got a double workout for the price of one entry, I’m not really sure he feels the same way though. Even after finishing the entire race, he still had grease on his hands and had even rubbed in on his face.


This year’s race was the fastest I have ever seen, but even with the speed of the competitors, many of the Zilla’s took home hardware. I saw the volunteers carrying out the trophy’s and they were so cool looking, I really wanted one. Most of the time when I get a trophy, I just put it in a box in my closet, but these trophies were so cool that I really wanted one. My nemesis Terry took home 1st place while I took home 2nd. Now I’m going to have to live with him for another year before I can take that title away from him. Our rivalry is a friendly one, and I have no idea who stole the wheels off Terry’s bike.


After losing to Terry, I had to drown my sorrows in the pool. So off to the pool I went with my girls by my side. They brought their boyfriends too, but there are rules when the boys come. The number one rule is no making fun of the fat mom in the bikini.











We had a little high diving fun while we were there, and even Jade finally jumped after three or four trips up and back down the diving board. It was pretty funny when the 5 year olds where telling her how to jump off the high dive.


It was a great race and lots of fun, I can’t wait to beat Terry next year. Thanks to the City of Wood River for holding such a great event.