Monday, October 29, 2007

Criss Cross Crash

4/5th of the official crew of SPH made the trip west to the sunny practice fields of regal St. Olaf College. Or the College of St. Olaf. Or St. Olaf University. Whatever it is, there was one nasty ole hill, and one dizzying spiral o' doom.

Scraggs did pretty well for himself in the C race, and finished the B race. So he get's the gold star for being such a trooper. The Red Devil and ole Blackbeard both struggled a bit in the C race (1st and 2nd cross races ever respectively) but represented the old Orange and Green with aplomb.

A huge YARRRR for Kate and Katie for their blessed cheering. Maybe next time Creek will be out their racing too.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Cold, rain, and goose droppings




Tossing Eric overboard, (no women allowed upon ye ship, happy 5th anniversary Eric) the rest of the ship mates sailed north for a little cross action. With K-money and The Asian Express hoooping and hollering... Blackbeard and Scraggs take off in the C race, with a pile up at the start Scraggs was slowed and ended up playing catch up all race... Ole Black finishing like a pro in his first cross race... the B race not fairing so well for Scraggs.... with not much in his legs finishing the race was all that could be asked.




Thanks to AE and K-money for the support and keeping my jacket handy and bottles filled!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Eric the Red Run a Ground

Sunday morning found the poor viking a bit weak from scurvy and rum. His sea legs fell right out from him in an attempt to plunder the University's Race. Many a racer passed as he felt like passing out! All alone without the kinship of his SPH crew, he finished a disgraceful race in wich even the cabin boy had a heartier set o' lungs.

Monday, October 8, 2007

CX'in it!




Setting sail, wind 15 knots to the west was a bit slow... trying to make the start of ole Blackbeard's marathon, I showed up about 2 min late. After reading my maps wrong I decided it was time to move on to my own race. The race being Lake Rebecca's CX race.... placed in the valley town of Rockford, MN. Hopping on my bike I immediately knew it was going to be a bad race day... but with the leaves in full color and legs filled with lead I attempted two races. First one with a unrecoverable bonk half-way through and the second race was a joy ride. After being lapped I turned on my Sunday cruise mode and finished the race. The heat didn't help anything, and a final congrats to Blackbeard for completing a landlubbers marathon.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

The ship sets sail from Minneapolis to St. Paul

Avast all ye stout hearted souls. Before ye read on, just know that this isn't a cycling related event. Blackbeard decided to spread the good word to other venues and tried out the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. The weather was more like off the shoals of St. Kitts than Minnesota in October, but we still weighed anchor at roughly 8:10 am. The pace was too fast for my peg legs and after about 8-9 miles I almost was headed for Davey Jones' Locker, but we pulled down the spinnaker (that's a nautical sounding way of saying that we slowed down) and I could keep going. I think I was running until roughly mile 12-13 and then the dreaded run/walk cycle began. About that time me first mate Speve came down with a case of heat stroke or dehydration or hyponytremia and had to pull out. Remy and I continued on and victoriously raised the Jolly Roger in a snail like 5 hours and 10 minutes. Below you'll see a picture of about mile 6 or so. We were still actually having fun.

Monday, October 1, 2007




Wind and rain was the name.... I thought I'd give cyclecross racing a try.... it's a good idea. Not to shabby for the first time round. I thought I held my own for running 42x16 (which is a horrible idea for me), but 30min into the race my load was a little heavy for the bead of my tire. After hitting my rear tire on a log I heard my rear bead give way with a sound that would represent a cannon. That was the end of the day for me.... now on to the next one! Maybe I (Scraggs) can get ole Blackbeard to join in the escapades!