How was the MPEC show?  
Did RANS have a booth at MPEC?
 
Terry

Hello All,
 
Its Sunday and I finally feel like a "normal" person again. I just really enjoyed this years HHH. The stay at Lamar BC was great. These folks continue to try to do more for us bike junkies every year. Susan stays at the gym for about 48 hours straight, sets up and cleans, up all with a cheerful attitude. Thanks to the Lamar Avenue Baptist Church for all they have done. All you bent friends make this a crazy fun camp out as someone said. I did not see one bad attitude there.
 
I really did not know what I could do this year. I just tried to go as as fast as I could for as long as I could. Last year, my first year, I finished in 8 hours and 11 minutes. My on bike average was almost 12 mph.  This year the start was great. (Side note to the many who would not go and interrupt the national anthem and s a n g. Hot dawg, sqeeked a tear out of me. This country ain't done yet, patriots are still thriving!!.) We cranked off without a hitch and were zooming at 20+ in a heart beat. I said to myself, "wonder how long this will last". I kept this up for 10 miles or so, it was easy with all the pelotons just sucking you along, no wind resistance at all! Still feeling good, I did something that I have never done before. I caught up with Bud, right at the place he was following the tandem. I hung behind him for several miles. We turned a corner and I heard frantic screaming s t o p p i n g !!!! I smell tire smoke and see a guy fly through the air and land in a roadside ditch. This was one of three wrecks I came upon. While I was concerned for the poor fellow, my adrenaline was pumped up and I hammered on. I was able to hang with Bud and the tandem until we hit those first good hills then it was by by. I still managed some 14-16 climbs, which is a first for me. It felt great. From there to mile 30 I managed a 20 mph average, which for me is a kick in the ***! I really felt good eating peanut butter crackers, GU, and drinking carbomax every ten miles. Mile 70 and I was burning up fast, muscles and heat. I took a good 15 minutes to recharge and struggled to 80 for a quick stop and finally mindless cranking to 90. Another 15-20 minutes rest and I somehow recovered to do the las 10 miles in fine shape.  
 
The nice fellow who woke us all up at 4:00 am and a club group in purple jerseys wound up overtaking me in the last ten miles. Of course, I just had to see what I could do to that farting alarm clock. I cranked it up to about 20 in the wind and all those over the shoulders were for naught. I slowly caught him and passed him. Pump as he would he just could not catch me in the wind. Next the club was in view, but they look serious and can draft. Same strategy, this time we were at that long gradual downhill in the last 10. I just hit hi hi and pushed as hard as I could. 32 mph is all I am worth. They looked they jumped, they pumped and dissappeared in my mirror. I held 32 for almost a mile. Back down to 16  and breathing hard. I settled in for the last few miles. The club caught up to me at the final overpass and sneered as they passed. I  labored up the overpass at 5 mph and the other fellow was going to eke his revenge also, but I had already crested and had a bit more gas in the tank for the last mile. I hit it again for all I was worth and left him coasting the last mile.
 
  Really good first 50, crapy next 40, great final 10. I cruised in at 6 hours and 11 minutes. This is a full hour and 16 minutes faster than last year. My on bike average was 15.5 mph. Last year just under 12 mph. The fire hydrant spray at the finish was super!!
 
Two and a half years ago I was getting fat and seeing the doc for high blood pressure. Thank God for RBENT and recumbents in general!
 
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/drahcirrepooc/HHH2008?authkey=YZNdyKLX1vk
 
 
See you down the road,
 
RichardC

Quote from Brad Bedell on Aug 24^th, 2008, 7:39pm:

 
WOW...   I remember her passing me at some point, shouting out a "Hi, Paul!" as she tagged along with a fast bunch, but I had no idea she was capable of something like that...

Quote from Richard on Aug 24^th, 2008, 7:45pm:

 
That was pretty scary, watching that guy fly into the ditch. That tandem braked so hard, I had to hit mine pretty hard, too. I was hoping you had good brakes, too. I never did figure out what caused the slowdown. I figured the guy who ended up in the ditch did it to avoid hitting someone who had slowed down in front of him.
 
That tandem's speed was so steady, I thought at first it was going to be great to follow, but the captain tended to move left or right without looking, he had music blasting in his ears and couldn't hear it when faster riders called out, "On your left", and when it slowed so much on that first hill, that was strike three for me, and I moved on.
 
Adrenaline makes it too easy to hammer those first miles. I learned my lesson on that last year, and watched my heart rate early this time, and eased off when it got too high. Of course, I still blew up this year, but it was right at the very end. You had a great improvement over last year, though. As long as we can do that, we're getting younger and not older, right?
 
 

At about the 80 mile mark this young lady said "My butt sure is jealous of your butt"
A few cute answers passed thrugh my mind but I just said "Well it should be"
She wasn't the only one riding standing up.

No matter how much my bike tried to sabatoge it Christine finished her first century at the Hotter 'N Hell. her longest ride on her Hurricane SL up till then was 31 miles. We had tried previously at the Cross Timbers Classic but the signage was against us that day and we ended up only with 83 when we got to the speedway and didn't want to do the loop around the outside of the track 3+ times. I probably wouldn't have made it that day since the eggbeater/kneesaver combo was tearing up my ankles and causing some big time swelling I had to stop a few times for. Still working on trying to sign her up for a nice 200k. Should be cake for her in cooler weather.
 
We got to sleep late on friday and woke up at 2am so we could drive up. Next year we plan on heading up the day before. It was nice to see everyone briefly at the start way up front in the pack before everyone took off. I lost the bet with the wife when we saw the Fujin. I didn't think even the HHH was big enough for two Challenges to show up.  
 
After the start we made our way to the ~40 mile rest stop before taking a short break. Average was just over 17mph with no intentional drafting. Refilled the water on both bikes and grabbed a snack out of the aerotrunk and we were off. Still making pretty good time but apparantly both my tires were losing air. A few miles short of hells gate my rear tube let go and got all fish tail on me. Pulled off to the side to find I only had one tube and I couldn't find what caused the problem on the one I pulled out. There was about 3"s of dozens and dozens of pinholes in a little strip.  Reset the rim strip, changed the tube in the rear and pumped up the very low front tire and headed out. The rear tire was also seperating a bit from the bead but it wasn't bad yet.
 
We got through hells gate ok but it was kind of underwhelming. It was nice to be on the other side of that underpass with time no longer being an issue. I was keeping my eyes open for some kind of shop to pick up a tube but didn't see anything. My tire was still good but I probably slowed us down a bit because I didn't want to go too fast or corner too tight. Stopped again at the rest stop around mile 70. Average had fallen to 16 or so. It was getting a bit hot out but neither of us were having any issues at all. Just some water and more snacks and we went on our way to the mile ~90 rest stop.
 
Both of us took a little refuge in the shade to cool down a bit and drink. Those huge portacoolers were a nice break from the heat. When we were walking back to our bikes we saw at least 100+ riders spread through a few sag trailers all headed to the finish of all different ages and types of bikes. After we started back up again I didn't get more then a mile before I lost air pressure again. I commute thousands of miles this year without a problem plus that furnace of a brevet in italy and I get stopped twice at HHH oy! Same problem again 3" of little pin holes and then another inch of pinholes a little further on. Used some pretty orange electrical tape to cover over the rim tape a few times and all the patches I had left and crossed my fingers while putting some air in. It seemed to hold ok so put on my spare tire instead of risking the seperating one and put topped off the front slow leak. Rode very slowly for the last 10 miles taking really wide slow corners instead of leaning the bike. Even with all the slowing down we made it in under 7 hours ride time and then I held the bikes while Christine went for a refreshing walk in the firehose.
 
The ride went really well and the rest stops and traffic direction was great. I could have done without the 200+ times we heard variations of nice lazyboy where's the TV, oh that must be comfy, riding like that is cheating, the only way that would look funnier is with a bigger front wheel. Oh even the pin guy got into it pondering whether we should even get a pin since we rode on lawnchairs or somesuch. Actually I think the old guy was just flirting with the pretty young lady on a shiny green bike more often then not since hardly anyone took a notice or made any comments my way.
 
 
3"+ pinholeathon tube. Happened twice. There was a slight fold over in my rim tape where it was but no exposure to anything sharp. Rim tape must have worn through it due to those wonderful chipseal roads.

 
Bead seperation on Vredestein Perfect Moiree. Second tire of this brand to do it. I cut up the third one I have so can't make the mistake of using them again.  

 
Patching of strange pinpick holes in the tube. Held out 10 miles then the tube and rim strip were trashed. Got all new rim strips and tubes yesterday.

Robert ,I'm not a HUGE fan of riding with 11,000+ cyclists ,but I keep coming back & enjoy the ride more & more each year. We will be there next August. Plan on riding H'NH next year & see what happens. The more 'bents ,the better.

My friends up in WF said that there were flood waters over the course in several areas last week, did they make any route changes?