The Pure Austin Road Race at Pace Bend

On Sunday the kids entered their first-ever road race: the Pure Austin Road Race, the first and largest road race of the year in Texas. Racing in the 12&U women’s division, but combined on the course with the 12&U men, she got a first-hand lesson in road racing tactics.

She spent almost the whole race pulling five boys around the course until two of them broke away. She was able to catch their breakaway but, with legs worn from two days of racing and no one to pull for her, the tiny Texan couldn’t match their sprint for the finish line and finished third overall and, of course, first in the women’s.

Check out the kid on the right... that's the universal sign for "I've cracked!"

My son told me after the race that he stayed with his sister's group as long as he could, but when he couldn't hold their pace anymore he worked with this kid knowing that if he could hold on over the final climb he could outsprint him to the finish. Sitting at the finish line it was so cool to see them crest the big climb and then about 300 meters from the finish he darted out from behind the other kid and put the hammer down!

Phil Liggett calls this "dancing on the pedals". I call it "hammering it home!"

In his first-ever road race he placed third in the 12&U's... as a 9-year old... not bad, young Tom Boonen!

This shot I took of the lead car has apparently been circulated around some car forums... cool! 

On the right are Will and Avery... two friends of ours who are the best triathletes there are in their age groups... actually I shouldn't even qualify it with "age groups", because they're just plain fast and win some tris overall.

And they're really nice people as well!

The "Dirty Duathlon" off-road duathlon

On Saturday, she raced in the “Dirty Duathlon” off-road duathlon (trail run/ mountain bike/ trail run), made famous by that other Texan, Lance Armstrong, who raced (and won) it in 2002 and 2003. 

Hey... I think my legs look like Lance's!

Don'tcha think?!

Yeah... I didn't really think so either :-(

And only in Texas are bulls (not steers) and cow poop obstacles on the course!

Although she had never done a duathlon, let alone an off-road duathlon… as a two-time IronKids Triathlon National Champion (like Lance), and two-time USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Champion, an off-road duathlon was not too much of a stretch for her.

With temperatures at the start in the low-fifties and strong winds and rain making the rocky trails slick and dangerous, many of the competitors opted out of the race, but she was undaunted and donned her thermal gear and soldiered on to become the youngest-ever woman to finish the event.

And not only did she finish… she won the women’s overall!

Cool bikes for cool people.

I think I need this bike... no... I really need this bike. I mean it's black and orange and looks WAY cool! Someone told me it's from a show on German MTV called "Pimp My Bike". I think these are some of the bikes. And my kids want these and these bikes. Can you have too many bikes?! 

The Subaru Urban Assault Race: The Amazingly Fun Bike Race

The Subaru Urban Assault Race: The Amazingly Fun Bike Race 2006 schedule is now up and online, with races in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Ft. Collins, Austin, Denver and Boulder.

That's me and my daughter on the right side of the picture in the blue and yellow... if you click on the video you'll also see us running at the start on the right side of the screen, and then you'll see a white and silver car stopping at an intersection and you'll see us sprinting across the intersection from the right side of the screen, and finally you'll see a close-up of us riding down 6th street as I give my daughter a boost (it was near the end of a 3 hour race) . It's absolutely the most fun you'll have in a race, and if you live anywhere near one of the cities I recommend doing it... I've already signed us up!

From the website:

"The Urban Assault Race™ is a combination of an Adventure Race, Scavenger Hunt and Bike Race. For the past 2 years, the event has been the biggest adventure race in the country! Sweet!

Teams of 2 race through the city to reach checkpoints where they perform fun physical and mental challenges. Racers can be ages 7 – 100 (anybody can do it!).

Checkpoints are listed on the website before the race and racers pick their own course to the checkpoints, which can be reached in any order. The first team to complete all the checkpoint challenges and return to Start/Finish wins the race! Then the party begins!

The standard race distance is approximately 20 miles and includes up to 10 checkpoints plus the final challenge at the finish. The Family Division is for kids (ages 7-12) and their parents/guardians. The family division will hit 5 checkpoints and ride around 10 miles."

They didn't have the "family" distance last year when we did it so we did 20 miles and with the checkpoints it took us 3 hours or so... and we would have been faster had we not been delayed 45 minutes at one check point! Regardless, it was a hoot!

Turn up the radio, blast your stereo!!!

We got second-row tickets today for the Black Eyed Peas concert... woo hoo!

No national championships for me this year.

I looked at my calendar this weekend and realized that between now and June the kids and I have mountain bike races, road bike races, duathlons, soccer, baseball, softball or basketball... and I have all of two weekends free... so no sailing national championships for me this year.

Spring Soccer Begins!

Driving around an opponent.

Captains meet at the center of the field.

XX Torino Winter Olympic Games

The Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy opened today so the kids and I watched the opening ceremonies on TV tonight. Why do all the Olympic opening ceremonies now-a-days look like a Cirque du Soliel show?

What's up with the weather?!

Just a year ago the winter was cold, sometimes nasty and we even had snow (me and my Texas-sized snowball) ...















this winter it's been crystal-clear skies and has dipped below the 70's only once!

Not that I'm complaining or anything ;-)

The first mountain bike race of the year!

This is called the "game face"... and no one is even close to her...

and brother with "game face V2" and a great start as well! 

A beautiful day for a race!

And dang if the little girl in the lower-left part of the picture hadn't sold out of all of her Thin Mints!!!

The girls... 

and the boys... 

Numero uno! 

What's under the jersey... apropos. 

A great start, but a series of unfortunate events (and an extra loop?) kept him out of the top-three today... next time!