Catching up and adding some new!

Our friend from the East, Darcy Sanford, got a little twinge of motivation last week when I requested reminders of missed hundies... so she joined Norbert Koenigsfeld, Sandy Kessler and Lisa DeShano for a dirty old ride. (come to find out Norbert is an old friend from my days at UNI!... GO CATS!) She logged 111 miles on the 22nd of June - well on their way to some Mississippi Mud! Nerbert added the full century to his count as well -

Steve Fuller is a card carrying member of the One-a-month club - with 2; 2; 2; hundies in May! (you remember that Certs commercial, don't you???) He ventured to Kansas for the Dirty Kanza - a 200 mile epic through the Flint Hills - middle of nowhere - Kansas... 19 hours, 6 minutes and 48 seconds of riding brought him in 36th out of the 75 starters - I can't even imagine... well maybe, but not really.. Great Job Steve! With those 2 centuries, it brings Steve to 5 hundies and 2 metric hundies - he's only one away from a Cup O' Mississippi Mud - I think he's on for a full cup, though...

I also got a note from another old friend - back in 1995 Pete Ylvisaker and some crazy buddies hosted a January 1 race in Cedar Rapids - I remember it well as it as a cold 7 mile slog through rural Linn County on gravel roads (see a theme?) and some river bottoms trail - all covered in fresh snow (geez - it is all coming together for me now - the gravel, the snow covered trail run, the craziness...). The race was the Hellinback 7, named, not for the fact that we were running to hell and back - but for a long forgoten homesteader near Cedar Rapids - George (?) Hellinback - who was lost in the snow or something... anyway, the winner got a wooden paddle for a year and got to put their name on it - My name graces that paddle to this day, as the winner of the inaugural Hellinback 7 - a proud moment in my storied athletic career!! ;)

Anyway - Pete is joining us on the chase - guess the paddle is getting lonely - and he needs a cup to sip some hot-cocoa from after his 7 mile run on New Years Day this year... He logged 4.6 hours of outdoor fun on his 46th birthday with 100k of gravel roads on a P.O.S. single speed followed up with a 4k run. Welcome to the chase, Pete!

Well, Dee and I nailed our first metric of the year - on dirt anyway. We've each got a century... but on CE-ment - so we got the tandem out with Fishy and Benson for a fast gravel grinder to Perry and back for some Leadville prep - felt good and we're hoping for another buckle this year... tune in August 9th!

And finally - I'm gunna post his email - cuz I liked it - so from Tom Anderson:

You can increase my tally by 2 to 6 total. I'm still in the hunt for 1 a
month status (the only thing I'm chasing this year).

I just finished a ride today, a new personal best of 7:14 for 100; 7:44 with
stops. Amazing to look back at the January Hilly Hundy with Squirrel,
Fuller, Grelk and Sumpter and how that one was 11hours or something like
that (and I was dead tired for days).

I've been doing most of my riding west of Des Moines, some north and some
south. Anyone that is looking for rides can go to www.motionbased.com and
do a search for Urbandale. My rides are uploaded via GPS and they will give
others a good starting point.

June Hundy: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6046777
May Hundy: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5765987

Thanks again for posting this challenge. I've lost close to 25lbs and am
probably in the best shape of my life.

Tom>

Happy Trails - Dave