Picture Perfect Day

Saturday, November 22. Five days before Thanksgiving 2009. Castle Rock, Colorado. A picture perfect day. We woke this morning to one of those cold clear blue skies over Castle Rock. About 35 degrees. But with the sun shining bright it felt at least 10 degrees warmer.

Les took Casey to the dog park and I headed out on my bike. A classic summer Saturday morning. Except that it was late November! These bright, sunny "winter" days in Colorado are probably my favorite except, possibly, for the even brighter, sunny winter days with snow on the ground.

I love riding south from Castle Rock along Hwy 105/Perry Park Road, a two-lane country highway that heads from Sedalia, CO (named after Sedalia, MO) to Palmer Lake. The road is lined with ranches raising and grazing everything from llamas to bison.

This bison herd was right alongside the road today. Typically they hang back. This is as close as I've seen them in two years of riding along Hwy 105. If you look closely (click on the photo to enlarge)you can see a calf hanging out close to its momma (I assume, but don't claim to be a bison expert!).

I also saw a lot of horses and, of course, plenty of cattle. Occasionally I'll come across an unusual scene, such as the "menagerie a trois" (at left) featuring a horse, cow, bull and two goats (I know that's five, but menagerie a cinq isn't as funny). This struck me as rather unusual, but I didn't grow up on a ranch, so couldn't say for sure!

We've been enjoying quite a run of unseasonably warm weather this Fall with only one measurable snow event to date. I'm sure that will change soon and I'll be relegated to riding my new Cannondale on the indoor trainer I purchased last Spring so I could train for Ride the Rockies while recovering from surgery on my collarbone.

Speaking of Ride the Rockies, I'm planning to form my own team this year...Team BEEF, of course! Let me know if you are interested in joining. Registration opens on February 1 when the 2009 route is announced in the Denver Post.

Ride on!

Daren

Summer's Last Hurrah

Welcome back to DDublog! It seems like just a couple of weeks have passed since my last post, but I just looked at the date and realized it's been two months. Where did summer go?! Today is officially the last full day of summer. Tomorrow at 11:44 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time marks the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of Fall.

Although I do lament the passing of summer, Fall is my favorite time of year in Colorado. September days are sunny and warm (great riding weather) and the nights are clear and cool (great sleeping weather). I went for a 35-mile ride yesterday followed by a hike up to Castle Rock with my daughters and our dog Casey. So I took full advantage of the final week of summer to spend as much time outside as possible!

[Above: Posing with cattle at a ranch along Hwy 105; At left: Shelby, Haley and Casey sitting under the Rock, Below: Me and Casey under the Rock]

One year ago yesterday I went for a hike up Castle Rock with my daughter and our puppy Casey. That afternoon I headed out for a short ride. A few minutes and less than two miles later I was lying on my back in the middle of an intersection with a broken collar bone. I didn't think my ride would be THAT short!

[At left: Shelby and Haley under the Rock (it's a BIG rock!)]

Yes, besides marking the end of summer, this weekend marks the one year anniversary of the day I was "right hooked" by a car as I went on a sunny Saturday afternoon ride. I celebrated by going out for a 35-mile ride. I didn't ride past the scene of the accident. Instead, I turned left on Coachline and headed towards Wolfensberger Road and Highway 105 on my normal route. Many times in the days to follow I asked myself why I went straight on Foothills Drive on that Saturday afternoon a year ago. "If only" and What if" were common thoughts.

Coincidentally, I received a check in the mail yesterday from Nationwide Insurance in payment of "property damage claims...arising out of an accident on September 22, 2007." In other words, Nationwide had a "change of heart" (after my lawyer threatened to file a suit) and admitted liability on behalf of their insured and agreed to settle my case without going to court. This all happened a while back but I've been waiting to actually receive a check before claiming victory. This check will help pay for the new bike I purchased back in March (my old bike was totaled in the accident). Of course, there's still the much larger issue of personal injury.

[Above: my new Cannondale Synapse Carbon 3 along Tomah Road (with Coyote Ridge in the background)]

I have an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon this week to check on the progress of healing from the surgery on March 18. The bone morphogenic protein seems to be doing it's job. I have a collar bone as thick as my femur! However, I'm still having issues with the nerve that runs from my right shoulder down my arm. While it's better than before the surgery, I still have constant tingling and occasional pain in my shoulder and along the entire length of my arm.

One year ago today I was sitting on my couch popping pain pills watching football. This morning I went for a 6-mile run before church then drove to Fox and Hound with Shelby to watch the Chiefs' inept attempt at ending their 11-game losing streak (a topic for another blog on another day). I couldn't have done either of those things one year ago. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but today I am thankful for my health, Nationwide's change of heart and the change of seasons.

Ride on!

Daren

Boilermaker Recap

No...I'm not still sitting at O'Hare airport. My last post was two weeks ago on my way home from Utica, NY, where I had just run the Boilermaker 15K Road Race (above: the Team ZIP 15K runners the morning of the big race). It was late Sunday evening and I was sitting in Chicago waiting for my flight to Denver.

I got home around 2:00 a.m. that Monday morning, the first day of the week-long Cattle Industry Summer Conference. It was a long week...I was barely able to walk on Monday and Tuesday then launched into three days of early mornings and late nights. By the time it was over on Saturday at noon I was ready to collapse...but I held off until 9:00 that night and didn't get up until 8:00 Sunday morning!

The Boilermaker was a great event. Last fall's Chicago Half Marathon was the debut run for Team ZIP, but the Boilermaker was our biggest showing to date -- over 100 runners and walkers between the 15K, 5K, 3-mile walk and kid's run (at left: posting a blog on my Blackberry about an hour before race time). It was amazing to see my beef jerseys on so many runners congregating at the starting line, strung out along the course and at the post-race party.

And it wasn't just my colleagues like Bucky (at left: crossing the finish line). There were a bunch of people I had never met before the weekend began. Runners from Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Massachussets, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington, D.C., and...how could I forget...KANSAS!

How could I forget the "swirling vortex of bad judgment" (aka, the Kansas Tornado)? Stephanie, Carrie and Barb (at left: cruising across the finish line after getting lei'd on the course). Barb is a bonafide rancher from Wamego, Kansas who only recently began running and completed her first race earlier this year...the Olathe Marathon.

Who runs a marathon their first race out? That's bad judgment.

Barb, Stephanie and Carrie agreed to go dancing with me and Bucky at Bucky's (at left: Bucky standing in front of Bucky's) the night before the race. Seriously, Bucky's was the closest watering hole to our hotel in Rome (New York). As we entered the bar, Bucky yells "BUCKY'S IN THE HOUSE!" and then shows his ID to the bartender to prove that he is named Bucky.

Who goes dancing until midnight with a guy named Bucky at a bar called Bucky's the night before a 15K? That's bad judgment.

Yes, we actually danced until midnight at Bucky's and got up at 5:00 the next morning to head to downtown Utica for the run. But we all still managed to finish the race with respectable times. My goal was to run 1:25 (around 9:00 min/mile) and I finished in 1:22:13 (8:43/mile). Of the five members of the swirling vortex, I finished second.

The first of us to cross the line was Barb, who passed me around mile seven and never looked back. So the whole week of summer conference she reveled in telling the story of how she left my "carcass" on the course. Who does that? That's bad judgment!

I was a few minutes (four per mile) off the pace of the men's winner (at left: #2 Terefe Maregu of Ethiopia finished #1 in the 2008 Boilermaker 15K) who finished in 44:17, a blistering pace of 4:45/mile!

Oh well, maybe next year. I've already started training so I can beat Barb. I bet her a steak dinner that I'd beat her next year at the Boilermaker 2009. She's so sure she's gonna win that she already placed her order: bone-in ribeye, medium rare. Make mine the same. Win or lose...we both win!

Daren