No blogging, but LOTS goin' on!

Been awhile for lots of reasons the main one being that my family sold our house and bought a new one that we are just now getting ready to move into, so sitting at the computer to do this hasn't been in the front of my brain for sure. But riding has. House stuff happened and then we went to the beach- Gulf coast style and luckily didn't have to swim in oil. House we got was over the top and we had a blast, but the best part was the singletrack. Yes, real-deal twisty fun trails within riding distance of the beach house. I had heard there might be trails and took my chances taking the 1x9 29er mountain bike instead of a road bike and was totally delighted. Rode 4 days and most of those were of the 3 hour variety- largely in the woods. I have some great pics but because of moving all of my crap is everywhere and I can't find the charger for the camera- soon come.

Of course Ed is riding and we even made it to yet another race earlier in July, the Iron Mountain 100k put on by our good friend Chris Scott of Shenandoah fame. Race started in Damascus, VA with a few fast miles on the VA creeper, then into the woods for some fantastic and technical singletrackin!! Because they didn't want people racing all the way back into town the actual mileage was closer to 55 miles but it was still great to go race since for me it had been since the end of May. Doesn't hurt that I won the single speed class and was 12th overall!!!!!! Also, even though he has gotten better, Ed got lost on the course but with his ride back into town on the highway still did the same mileage. There was a questionable spot for finding your way because another friend of ours from Kentucky messed up a potential top 3 spot with the "road crossing" at check 3 ( he still got 5th! ). Great day in the woods and great company seeing as how some of the TVB boyz were in attendance as well- Burgess, Talley, Ross, and "Don" all showed and had a great time.

After that was super fired up for ORAMM and a shot at kicking "dicky's" butt, but was totally shocked that with 2 weeks still to go the event had sold out-no exceptions. E-mailed the race director and even though I've given him my money for the Swank a couple of times and given him ORAMM money and didn't show- he wouldn't let me come. Bummed, but procrastination has come to haunt me over the years and this time got me for sure. Good thing is that I learned something and signed up for Shenandoah yesterday instead of my normal week before, because if I couldn't get in that race I might be depressed for a whole entire year (except I bet Chris would let me in cause he is a MUCH cooler guy). Anyway, Ed fired up a 6 hour race last weekend for something to do (since we couldn't get into ORAMM!!) up near Blacksburg, VA. Should have known it might be interesting when we pulled the course info from someones Garmin data and it said the loop was 4.5 miles with 800 something feet of elevation gain per lap!! Needless to say it was steep in spots, but VERY technical and not the most fun course Ed had ever done, but you never know- that's racin' sometimes the courses are good, sometimes only so-so but it always fun to be in the woods, plus he said it was put on by a bunch of college kids from VA tech. so it was laid-back and fun atmosphere- not like some of the bigger races where there are increasingly bigger crowds (I presume like ORAMM but we didn't get a chance to go).

Looks like there is another 6 hour race up in Ohio next weekend and its on a SUNDAY which is great for me, so we will probably go check it out. Wilderness 101 was so close to happening for me, but we are moving into the new house this weekend so that seems like a good reason to stay home!