With the birthday celebrations in the past I was hoping to be able to settle in this week and get some riding done before I started traveling for the week.  That didn't happen except for on Tuesday where I was able to get in a quick 40 after work along side the TnT crew.  I had the time and the weather to do it on Wednesday once I got back into town but my lower back has been plaguing me for about a week now so the ride didn't happen. 

Thursday brought a day trip to beach where I was reminded that like NOVA drivers, the peeps at the beach should also all have their licenses revoked as they cannot get through a single rush hour period without hitting someone else.  It took me more than 54 minutes to go 4/10 of a mile and then wa-la I was cruising the highway at faster than posted speed limits.  Not to the other drivers, the speed limit was raised on 64 to 70mph quite sometime ago, its OK to go faster than 60. 

The time in the car brought on more back inflammation which meant Thursday night and all day Friday was spent going in and out of consciousness while trying to keep my back as still as possible.  Thanks to the world of the Interwebs, yesterday wasn't a total failure however.  I was able to conjure enough strength to place an order for another RAAM documentary called, You Need No Victory, To Be A Winner. 



I had seen the preview a few months back but unfortunately, there wasn't an American coded DVD available and my PS3 won't play the EU coded bike pron.  Last week, I read a review of the movie over on UltraRaceNews. It is now being sold by a brand spanking new company who no customer reviews over on Amazon.  I took the chance and ordered one yesterday, who knows maybe they will throw in a special something something for being their first customer...

What I do know is I am not making my dream of racing RAAM any easier.  Later this year, I still have to get my qualification while playing in the Adirondacks and then the true test of endurance begins, convincing Jenn that the race is a good idea.  Her reply when I told her I ordered the film, "You don't really want to do RAAM do you?"  Hmphh...Good thing I don't always listen to the words that come out of her mouth...

The Distance

Every once in awhile I get the urge to read a good book.  Now I cannot read about vampires, wizards or elves but what I read about usually consists of recounts of everyday heroism and leadership which may come as a surprise.  The other night I awoke around 2 in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep.  Instead of consistently flipping over and annoying Jenn, I went out to the living room in hopes a little tv would help me fall asleep.  Nope that didn't work either. 

Reading almost always puts me to sleep so I grabbed the laptop and started surfing the interwebs.  It started off doing research on races for 2011.  Which ones I want to do which ones I don't.  I came across the Ring of Fire Time Trial which takes place in Oregon.  It happens to take place one week prior the Adirondack 540 which is a RAAM qualifier I have been eyeballing for about a year now.  Both races have a lot of appeal to them for me which I will get into on a later post but needless to say I spent some time on both sites going through every page race descriptions.  Which is where I found out who the race promoter of Ring of Fire is.

I started reading the story of George Thomas over on the Ultracycing page where John Hughes did a review of a book called Going the Distance.  The story intrigued me so much I went searching for a copy of it.  In the Google search, I came across a preview of the book in Google Books.  I started reading it.  After reading the Foreword, I was worried I wouldn't be able to stay awake long enough to read the entire preview which covered the first two chapters of the book.  I couldn't put it down and was saddened by the fact I had to stop as I reached the end of the preview. 

The book is an amazing story of a man who is denying all the research which has ever been done on epilepsy in the medical world.  The story follows George through the 1995 edition of the Race Across America.  A race I one day am qualified to take part in.  I could go on and trying to tell the small part of the story which I know but in no way do I think I could do it justice.  Best get it straight from the horse's mouth.