Double Dipsea

RQ and I ran the Double Dipsea on Saturday. This famous trail race begins in Stinson Beach climbs over and down to Mill Valley and back. 14.7 miles of hills, roots, streams, bridges, trail, fun, and stairs. Did I mention stairs? I seemed to have forgotten the stairs after last year's race. My quads sure remember now! It's a handicap race, meaning that older men and women, and young kids start the race first. The (generally) speedy 20-30 year old men and women begin toward the back, and try to make up the time difference. Whoever crosses the finish line first, wins. There were some fast runners (including RQ, who won her age group!); I wish I could run as fast on the roads as they do on the trails!

At the finish--tired but happy!

'Gin & Juice' takes on Best of Bay

This past Saturday, my riding buddies, RQ, CS, MB, and I road the Best of Bay (Bob) century. Put on by the Cherry City Cyclists, parts of this route were included in Stage 2 of the 2006 Tour of California.There was 102 miles and 8000' of elevation gain, beautiful scenery through the Oakland Hills, Fremont, Orinda. The ride began in the East Bay, and we were able to take BART (train) to/from the start.

Gin & Juice (w/o Mike Mix-a Lot) touring the Oakland Hills

The day was absolutely beautiful; sunny and in the 70's. We were some of the youngest riders, or that we saw anyway. We were some of the last riders of the entire group (we started later!), so we helped "close" all the rest stops on our way through. Every 25 miles or so, there was a rest stop with water, food, restrooms. Lunch was served in Sunol at mile 75-ish.The course had a few tough climbs, but for the most part, it seemed we had a lot of down-hill, which was fun!

To entertain ourselves, we decided we needed rapper-names (like 90's hip hop singers)--maybe out of boredom of sitting on a bike for 7 hours or lack of electrolytes! Either way, 'Gin and Juice' was born. Q-Funk, Mike Mix-a-Lot, DJ Cooleo, and me, The Professor--yeah, we're pretty hard-core. We made it a rule that anyone else riding with us also had to come up with his/her own rapper-name. We didn't try to rap though...that may have been embarrassing, but very entertaining!

It was a fun day. The company was great. Rides like this help break up the monotony of long training rides.

What Facebook would look like in real life

This video is so funny...kind of makes me wonder about how absurd Facebook and Twitter are...and how much time I spend on them!

Yogi tea says:

My Yogi tea bag today says:

"Your greatness is measured by your gifts, not by what you have."

Yogi tea bag

One of my favorites from my Yogi tea bag:


Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.