Summit2Surf, STXC, Tahoe, oh my

Lots of things have been going on since my last post. In particular, I've done a few notable cycling events - Summit 2 Surf (a fund raiser for the American Diabetes Association), The last Short Track race of the season and a trip to Tahoe for my big sisters wedding (Congrats Barry & Michele!).

I'll followup with a separate post on the last short track race, but will mention a couple of the other events here. First and foremost, the the Summit 2 Surf (S2S). Megan and I rode on the WebMD 'team' which consisted of a coed group of hardy souls that opted to spend a beautiful Saturday going up and over Mt Hood from Welches to Hood River (a couple of us also extended the ride by going to Timberline Lodge (where the outside scenes of the first 'The Shining' was filmed. The one with Jack's famous line: 'Heeeeeeres Johnnnnnny').




Let me back up a bit though.

A week before S2S I did a ride with a visiting coworker from out Boston office. I took him on an early morning road ride in the hills above Portland. It rained HEAVILY. Anyway, my Paul cantilevers on my cross bike are usually bombproof, but on this particular ride they were just not working very well so I stopped periodically to adjust them. In the process, I managed to strip the cable holding bolt on my rear brake which forced me to remove it and bring the brake into Cyclepath. There, Bill did a helio coil fix (rethreading the threads) and I was back in business. 3 days before S2S, I had my bike up on the rack and I was putting the brake back on. I got it on and decided to oil my chain. Unfortunately, I had hung my bike on the rack via the top tube and when I adjusted the frame position I did the following...

uh oh

Total rookie maneuver... Note to self - in the future only clamp bike stand to seat post...

Any, return to story. I had just catastrophically damaged my bike in a single maneuver... I freaked out, went online and found out that others have had the same issue (I love the Internets). I went ahead and JB welded the piece back on, let it set for 24 hours, added more JB Weld, let that cure and then went on a test ride the day before S2S! SUCCESS!

I was very close to riding the 68 miles with 6200 feet of gain and 7K of decline on my fixed gear (I really need to get a 'real' road bike... anyone out there have any connections????). Although that would have been a great story, I think I would be needing knee surgery...

Anyway, back to the story. On Saturday July 28th a group of WebMD employees, spouses and friends earned some cash for the ADA. Good times, extremely well organized and well worth it.

Andrew & I starting off.

The more beautiful half of team Porter

On another note, as mentioned above, the family converged on Lake Tahoe for a combo 'Granny Camp'/ Wedding celebration. I managed to sneak in a few rides as well. One on Mr Toads Wild Ride (my favorite trail of all time), and one on the X-mas Valley Trail with Megan and "Grandpa' Dave. Another epic ride in the area of my folks cabin. Speaking of which, if anyone out there ever wants to vacation in South Lake Tahoe, my folks have a great rental property, and my step dad Dave is a great mtn bike tour guide.

Fear and panic on the way to work

The other day I had one of the worst possible situations happen to a parent and a cyclist. The morning started usually. I was in charge of getting Kendall to camp and Megan is in charge of Simon. I asked both the kids in the morning "How do you want to get to camp today?". Kendall was tired and wanted to drive (some days we take the trail-a-bike) so I loaded up my bike into the car (I leave the car at her camp and ride the remaining part into work. Simon wanted to ride so I set up his trail-a-bike to Megan's bike and after breakfast, making lunch, getting the kids dressed we were out in front of the house ready to go.

Kendall saw Mom & Simon jump on her bike and decided that she too wanted to ride in. I was already running late, so I quickly grabbed the bike and connected her trail a bike to it. I locked up the house, closed the garage, got the two of us situated and we were off.

We made it about 3 blocks from the house when the worst possible scenario happened. I felt my bike suddenly lighten, I heard a scraping sound and looked behind me to see my poor sweet daughter skidding along he pavement tangled in her bike. I pulled to the side of the road, ran back to get her and pull her to the safety of my arms. I checked her out for broken bones and calmed her down. I cleaned her up and bandaided her scrapes as much as I could. She was a trooper and let me load her back on the bike to get her home where I did some more extensive first aid.

I eventually got her to camp (we drove) and she was ultimately ok (and I think she likes the attention she has gotten from all of her various bandaids). However I shudder to think how bad this could have been.

BTW: the trail a bike detached due to my error. In my haste, I didn't push the connector in far enough to get the pin to engage... I just hope I can get her to get back on the bike again..

Tahoe

Just got back from a week in Tahoe. We timed it right and got there in the middle of a snowstorm. Excellent week, and one of the first vacations I've had in awhile where I actually felt like I vacationed.... I made a conscious effort to not check email, voicemail etc.

Anyway: The highlights: Lots of fun in the snow. A couple days of phat snowboarding (it snowed 3 feet while we were there) and we got Kendall up on ski's for the first time. Pictures coming soon!

At the Pumpkin Patch

So, this post isn't about bike racing, or bikes, or anything bike related other than the fact that the corn maze at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvies Island would be an epic place for a cross race...

We went to the Pumpkin Patch with the Malkin's on Saturday. Here are some pictures of the cousins enjoying themselves...

Oh, Amazingly enough, there are a few non family members reading this site - The Malkins are my sisters family. They were down for the weekend from Seattle. The two little(r) kids are mine and the two older boys are my sisters. Thus this sequence is really of the cousins having a good time together down.

Back row: Jennifer (sis), Harold (brother-in law), Megan (wife) Next row: Kendall (daughter), Leo (nephew), Max (nephew), Little Simon (son)

Future Racers

July 10, 2006
Kid's Short Track Racing
Portland International Raceway


Monday evening the organizers of the PDX short track series put on a Kiddie race. Kendall & Simon both decided to try it out and had their first race (and (non)competitive event for that matter). I guess they had seen Daddy race enough times to get the bug. Granted, training wheels & dirt tracks don't work so well, so Daddy & Mommy did some assisting. Both were great sports and had a great time each 'winning' a bag of fruit snacks for their effort.

Lining up at the start

My family, the poster children of bike fun...

A friend of ours sent us this link:

http://www.providence.org/oregon/events/bridge_pedal/events.htm

We had no idea that this picture was even taken at last year's Bridge Pedal. I wonder if I should ask for free entry into this year's event. Only bummer is that you can't see Simon as he is on the seat behind Megan. You can kind of make out his red helmet behind my arm though...