Eki, Pramann, Mieser, Shockey Inspired...the rest of us SURVIVED!!!!
The T.I. now becomes part of folklore!!!!!
Monday, May 4, 2009
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Interesting and timely links
- 24 Hours @ Seven Oaks. This is my big SUMMER DANCE for 2009...At $75 entry fee with full compliments. This event represents a nice alternative to the $350+ 24@9Mile
- AAA: Check this OUT--THE HECK OF THE NORTH--The early fall formal....This is a Work in Progress, but it is a done deal and YOU are invited...100 Miles of gravel road racing around beautiful Duluth, MN
- Aaron Swanson's Website...a great guy from Ashland, Wisconsin!!!!
- Almanzo 100...Epic 100 miler on mostly gravel roads around the old stomping grounds of my youth. 2008 event was a blast!!!!
- Ari's site-- Flandria Velosport... A great site!!!!
- Arrowhead 135...Sweet Winter Epic...A classic metaphor for man's forlong struggle with the forces of nature
- Ben Shockey...Very talented rider from Decorah, Iowa, and more importantly a top notch fellow and an inspiration to me...
- Dave S from Duluth...Tons of potential...plus a top notch fellow
- Dave Simons...Super nice young man from Nord Daakooda
- Dirty Kanza 200: 200 miles of gravel...I'd like to do this one sometime!!!!
- Doug Swanson: Top notch young man; plus in my world, he is the best all-around bike racer in the Midwest...He does it all from winning crits. and time trails to techy singletrack to the Chequamegon...an exceptional talent!!!
- Duluth Cycling Message Board...Duluth has a vibrant cycling community filled with eccentrics and ner-do-wells
- Eric Oftedahl...Super Nice and very fast young racer...brother of Sam...samanderic
- From Duluth to Two Harbors? Tone's new concept race....looks very cool, but still in the "concept stage."
- Gravel Road Series...Interesting...Novel thinking...Yes Yes Yes
- Hansi...great skier and humanitarian...and fun site
- Hollywood...the essence of cycling!!!!!
- Jacked up Old man...a classic....
- Jason Buffington....A true Renaissance Man...Potentially a replacement for Chris Eatough here in a few years?
- Jeremy Kershaw...of Duluth. Potentially a major force in underground cycling...
- Joe Meiser: The epitome of "enduro-rider."
- Kyia's Site...Great Site by a wonderful and talented young woman
- Lance Andre's Site...Go there for info regarding the 60 mile race on January 10, 2009...Last year's event was the stuff of which legends are made. I am going to do it this year as there is enough of a break between Lance's Race and the Arrowhead (three weeks)...
- Mountain Bike Review: Great comprehensive site for mountain bikers including forums, etc...
- Ragnarok 105: An early April 2009 gravel road epic....
- Red Ass 300...One of the best EPIC Races I have ever ponyied up to...I hope to return in 2009
- Salsa sponsored 24 Hours @ Afton...looks cool...Check it out...
- Sara Kylander -: speedy and super nice...
- Scott Cole: Veteran racer and all around gentleman...
- Skinny Ski--Great Site for both ski and bike racing coverage. A labor of love!
- The Bike Cave: Former student of mine helped orangize this very cool little grassroots movement to promote cycling!!! BRAVO!!!!
- The Great Divide Race...2800+ miles...Joe Meiser is in this year and I am going to do it next year or the year after...FOR SURE!!!
- The Great One: The Alaskan Mega-Classic
- The Most Comprehensive Cycling website on the planet...Cycling News.Com
- The Top-Notch Guyz @ Ski Hut...Team Ski Hut #1--My Team and the best LBS in America
- The Trans Iowa: 300+ mile race around Iowa on gravel
- Timely updates and results for major mountain bike races...set up by some guyz from Iowa...
- Tri, thatz Charly Tri, Tri rhymes with Mississippi... funny and fast with a great perspective, a force in all events that involve pain!!!!
- Vapor Trail 125...Looks soooo Cool.. A must do race for me before I die...
- WEMS: The Hard Core 12 Hours Race Series over in Wisconsin...These are challeging, thrilling courses, (unless there is the threat of rain, then they act like the Wicked Witch of the West, "Cancel, Cancel, I'm melting!!!"). The Thunderdown at the Underground is one of the best courses I have ever raced on....
- Winter race in Wisconsin starts in Rice Lake in December...looks cool!!!
- XXC Magazine--Cool site dedicated to enduro-racing and/or epic bike trips...
Great Books that I am working through (with a few exceptions, as well):
- 'Round Ireland with a Fridge: Very funny little travel narrative about Tony Hawk's effort at hitch-hiking about Ireland in 1997. 4 out of 5 stars
- A Continent for the Taking by Howard French...Up close and personal account of the author's experiences living in Africa. Itz worth the effort, but lacks inspiration...
- A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki. A good perspective on American History from a Japanese-American professor from Berkley...It was OKAY, but seemed recycled adding little to my elementary knowledge of US History
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Equally interesting and funny effort at trying to explain super complex notions like the atom and the universe and E=MC2 and a bunch of other like super wild, out there concepts. I find that the reading becomes a bit easier after one has taken down a few beers!!!
- Amercian Alpine Club's annual Journal: Amazing first-hand accounts of the most impressive alpine efforts of the last year. Amazing stories of endurance and skill...I have been a proud supportive member of the ACC since 1978. I read these journals cover-to-cover every year...Alpinism, in my mind, is the purist and most hard-core of anything that I have ever done...and my efforts are a walk in the park compared to what the top notch guyz are doing...
- Babylon by Bus: Great travel story about two guys from Boston and their efforts in Iraq. Itz a crazy read...sorta reminded me of Fear and Loathing, but better...
- Canoeing the Cree by Eric Saverie...Top Notch...highly recommended
- Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Itz soooo out-there!!! And yet itz so right on!!!! Read it then read it again...as is the case with all things Vonnegut...
- Catch-22 by Joe Heller...Itz status as the best novel ever written on the insanity of the military hierarchy is not without merit. Read it before you sign up for the draft!
- CRAZY WHITEMAN is a great narrative on a six year hiatus into the Canadian wilderness in the 1930s by a New Yorker. It is filled with great stories of the eccentrics that lived up in the "bush."
- Dangerous Rivers by R.M. Patterson. A superb narrative about two guyz heading up the Nahanni river in the early 1920s...So cool!!! Five stars and highly recommended
- Distant Fires by Scott Anderson...A wonderful narrative about two guyz from Duluth canoeing up to Hudson's Bay...Five stars
- Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes...An on going project of mine...You will not be disappointed. Feeling Old??? Read this and regain your youthful drive...
- Fiasco: by Thomas Ricks...just started it and it aint pretty! Not the writing as itz top-notch, itz our misadventure in Iraq thatz scary...
- From Lance to Landis: An in-depth analysis of the drug culture that apparently dominates professional cycling...Very biased against Lance & da boyz while presenting Lemond as somekind of Christ-like figure...In my world, essentially much to do about nothing. Thatz not to say that itz a topic unworthy of serious discourse, but given the state of the world; it seems a bit over the top...Recommended only to the most ardent cycling fan...
- Gang of One by Fan Shen. A bizarre highly suspect account of a man's struggle to free himself from the tyrannical grip of Moaist China. My dear mom gave it to me cuz the guy that wrote it now lives in Rochester, MN (our home town). Very weird and kinda silly amid biblical suffering. Not recommended.
- Getting Even by Woody Allen...A great collection of super funny essays by Allen...Highly reccommended
- Great Heart by JW Davidson & J. Rugee. The amazingly ironic and compelling story of a race to find the source of a wild wild river in Labrador (up in northeastern Canada) during the turn of the 20th century. Fact is indeed stranger than fiction...
- High Crimes by N. Koda...Accounts of rich posers behaving badly on Everest. Itz fun to read, but don't buy, get it from the library.
- Iraq Study Group: An assessment of the quagmire in the Middle East. Authored by a bipartison group of committed wise old people that are not worried about getting re-elected...
- Last One In: After hearing the novelist [Nicholas Kullish; a working journalist] on NPR, I ran out and bought the book. The simple plot involves the experiences of a young journalist as he is embedded with a group of even younger marines just as the US invades Iraq. Itz a simple funny absurd little work on the folly of war…Think Catch-22 or Slaughterhouse Five...five stars out of five stars
- Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA...Want to know why the rest of the world loathes us? Read this great book...
- Mao: The Untold Story. I do not recall the authors names. Itz a husband and wife team. The man is a notable historian and the woman lived it. It is an amazingly huge effort in that they write the complete and devastating life and times of Mao. It is a must read. It changed my whole view on China and the even forced me to re-examine my understanding of the Cold War and certainly the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Top Notch and five stars...BRAVO...Well worth the effort as itz nearly a thousand pages long!
- March of Folly: By Barbara Tuchman....Amazing read on the "folly" of war. If you want to understand how we got ourselves into this mess in Iraq, read her chapters on Vietnam...so it goes...
- Mother Night and Player Piano both by Kurt Vonnegut...Classic Vonnegut!!! Mother Night is amazing
- Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene. Total superficial patriotic junk...Greene tries to cash in on "the greatest generation" myth by accounting narratives from old guyz that stopped in a small town in the midwest while on their way to Europe and Asia during WWII. It is not worth the paper it is printed on...
- Points Unknown: edited by David Roberts. 41 amazing references to great survival stories...Itz better and more honorable to seek out each and every one of these narratives, but this book can act as a great sampler to get one started. Reading it brought back a latent love affair that I had with classic polar travel stories some ten years ago...top notch, highly recommended.
- Sleeping Island by PG Downes...Amazing ethnographic sketch of 1930s Northern Canada. Highly highly reccommended. One of the best canoe books I have ever read.
- Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. A novel about the history of philosphy. One of the most original books I have ever read. It was fantastic. Read this book!!!
- Speaking of Faith, by Kista Tippets...A voice of moderation and spirituality. A great read. A book that I borrowed from the local library, but I now know that I need to purchase a copy as itz the kind of book that one needs to mark-up, write in,highlite, worry about, and quote from...
- Suttree by Cormac McCarthy--A classic work by the master...The way he deals with the romantic relationship between the main character and his youthful lover is...well itz all McCarthy-esque. If you ever want to devolve read one of this guy's novels
- The Frozen Hell: A historical account of the Finnish and Russian Winter War of 1939/1940. Wild stuff...hard to imagine...I recommend it, but I wish it was fiction, but itz the truth...Man's capacity to kill is sickening
- The Stranger by Albert Camus. Totally engrossing read by the original existentialist...captivating and yet grim...
- The Sunset Limited: A novel in dramatic form by the master himself, Cormac McCarthy. Published just last year, its a crazy dialogue between "Black" and "White." Like all of his books, this read will cause you to stay up at night...and thatz not a good thing!
- The Trouble With Islam Today by Irshad Manji...An enlighting read by a Muslim women that lives in Canada. Openly questions the many seemingly contradictory practices of the oil rich Arab countries in a way that is only possible by a practicing Muslim.
- True North by Elliott Merrick. Great writing about winter travel in Canada in the mid 1930s. Great read...Merrick is Thoreau on full-on steriods...
- Where the Right Went Wrong by Patrick Buchanan--an excellent read on the history of America's rise and then its dangerous adoption of Imperialism...The chapters on Vietnam and the outsourcing of America should be required reading. Plus, itz fun to read a hard-core conservative that is soooooo down on the Bush Administration.
2009/2010: Training Notes for nothing 'cept me...and the Glory of the Free World
Meet My Generous & Committed Sponsors! I would not be able to achieve such great success w/o them!
A Work in Progress--The 2009 Season: Important dates
DBD Workouts: 15 "DBD" Efforts before Trans-Iowa and the mtb season...
- DBD #11: April 5...10 hours...over 130 miles in tough conditions...Eki and I are good to go :)
- DBD #10: Almost 9 hours on the road and 130 Miles...The weather was so great, we felt guilty...Crazed "Sled-Necks" tried to kill us, but we didn't take it personally!!!
- DBD #9: 9.5 hours on 3/01/09...Extremely cold with a devastating head wing...
- DBD #8: 7.5 hours on 2/22/09....Mostly on snow, and pushing the pace for extended periods and I was not that wasted after it was all said and done....6 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #7: 22 hours during the Arrowhead 135 with 28 hours total for the first week of Feb '09...8 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #6: 23 hours during the first week of January 09...6 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #5: 8 hours in very cold temps (12/07). 5 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #4: 22 hours on the bike w/ 18 hours on single-track (the week of Thanksgiving); 4 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #3: 7.5 hours; 3 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #2: 5.5 hours; 1 on the DBD Scale
- DBD #1: 6.5 hours; 5 on the DBD scale
2008 Upcoming races that I'd like to partake in...Or brief commentary on completed races so far...
Evolving Short List of eccentrics, charismatics, etc. being considered for THE '08 LIST....
- A. It is every riders dream to make THE LIST...In an effort to give hope to some, the author of THE LIST has decided to keep a running working draft of those that are being considered for the 2008 List. Of course, there are absolutely no guarantees:
- B. Consideration of several 2008 Arrowhead racers including Dave Pramann (another record breaking performance); Greg Patterson, Don Gabielson, Dave Gray
- C. Although the Trans-Iowa Race was significantly shortened due to impassable roads, the performance of Joe Gorilla certainly rasied a few eye brows!!!
- D. Joe Meiser tough rider with a propensity to blow out rear wheels...strong efforts in both Trans-Iowa and Almanzo 100 puts him on the short list...
The Pinnacle of Success...The Standard by which all others are measured:
Don't mean nothing-boring training stats...mostly for me in the event that I should need an alibi..
- A. For the training period November 2006 to December 2007; 692 hours or approximately 13.3 hours of training per week!!! Thatz really good for me!!!!
- B. Week #1 for 2007 training period: 14 hours
- C. WeeK #2: 8 hours; Week #3: 15.5 hours; Week #4: 21 hours!!!!; Week #5: 23 hours!!!!!!
2007 Races and 2008- a work in progress:
- Oxbow Classic: Saturday April 14th--Got er Done!!! In the Books!!! A Beautiful Day of Racing on a great course. Finished way back, but thatz OKAY:)
- Cable Classic, Saturday May 19th: Felt great and was riding well until the writer hit a barrier going wide-open...took my first ambulance ride in several years and had my first Cat-Scan [they did not find any cats, but I had one hell of a head-ache]...Actually I lucked out...Brian Narum hit the same barrier and it put him out for the season
- Mazzeppa, MNSCS #2, Sunday June 3rd, I skipped this great race in favor of a new "Marathon" event @ Wausua's 9 mile with WORS...It was a super fun event!!! Full conditions...can't beat that!!!!
- Red Ass 300 Miler, June 9th &10th...Great Event!!!! It was a memorablel 22 hours of racing my trusty Kelly!!!!
- Phillips WORS #4, Sunday, June 17th: Itz a great course, but I was just to wasted from the 300 miles....maybe I am getting too old? Nah!!!!
- Mont du Lac MNSCS #4, Sunday June 24: A Man's man's mtb course that kicks my butt every year...and this time it was no different...If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya want to drink more beer...
- Eau Claire WORS #5, Sunday July 1: A Great Day in which I had my second helmet destroyed, my rear wheel destoyed, and yet I had a wonderful experience...go figure!
- Suamico WORS Marathon Series #2, July 15: I had to miss it as my wife had to work the weekend shift and while this venue carries a reputation for fast tight single track with few hills, I just could not justify what would have required a 3:00 a.m. start from Duluth to make 6+ hour drive. Especially with gas at $3.30 and $3.45 in Wisconsin. Mike Haag and Mike Bushey both did well and Sarah won!!!
- 12/24 Hours @ 9 Mile, July 28th & 29th...Great test of one's meddle!!!! I loved it!!!! Tons of folks, free beer, cool bikes, crazy enduro-riders, I was in hog heaven!!!
- Red Wing MNSCS #6, July 29th: Skipped it in favor of the 24@9Mile
- Welch MNSCS#7, August 12: Up the ski hill, down the ski hill, across the ski hill...again I missed it, but I have done this race so many times that I probably would not have raced it even if I would have had the time...
- Spirit Mountain MNSCS #8, August 19
- Pre-Fat festival, Seeley WI, August 25
- Maplelag MNSCS #9, September 2nd
- Fat Tire Festival, Hayward, September 14 & 15
- Comming up: The Grand Winter Classic: The Arrowhead 135, 1st Monday in February 2008
Recent films that I have found compelling & that may be interest to you
- "Touching the Void." A great film depicting the mega-epic of Joe Simpson and Sean Yates back in the mid-90s...A great film!!!! Not to be missed. My students loved it....
- "Grizzly Man" is an interesting, even somewhat compelling documentary made by a famous film-maker [Note:the famous film-maker has an accent and narratives the film]. The famous filmmaker, whose name escapes me, but he made "Touching the Void" was intrigued by the techincal and artistic abilities of a very strange guy that goes and gets himself and his girlfriend eaten by a camera-wary grizzle. Itz a pretty good film about a really weird guy. I'd give it 2 stars out of 4 stars...If ya got time cuz you fell off your bike and broke something that will keep ya off your bike for awhile, then itz sorta worth viewing...the whole thing can be summed up as follows: "Super weird guy that has baked his brain on various illegal and legal drugs goes to Alaska, sees bears, likes bears, eventually he wants to become a bear, but alas bears are indifferent to him, except one...that bear eats the weird guy and his weird girlfriend, weird guy leaves over 1000 hours of scenic Alaskan footage, some of which is artistic and worthy of reviewal...so it goes in a state of nature."
- "American Dream" An Academy Award winning documentary on the Hormel Meat Processing Plant in Austin, Minnesota. The setting is in the late 1970s & early 1980s, the topic is how Hormel crushed the local union and forced the paternal nation union to "cave in" or even "sell-out" to big business. I remember this strike well as I grew up in Rochester, just 40 miles down the road. I even had a few high school buddies that went to Austin to work as "scabs." The ultimate 'busting' of this local union gave big business the green light [with Reagan's blessings] the begin the savage [and highly effective] war on the unions ...Itz a great film and an important film for people to watch. It gives one a reference point from which to understand how we got from a nation committed to the establishment and maintance of a middle-class to old hard-working people being forced to work as "greeders" @ Wal Mart. A powerful thought-provoking film.
- "An Inconvenient Truth" Gore does a great job articulating what the science community has not been able to do regarding the devastating aspects of Global Warming...Global Cooking...Global Hades...
- "The Fog of War" Academy Award Winning documentary on the life and times of Robert McNamara. Itz abolutely great!!! 6 stars out of a possible 5 stars... I am serious, rent this film.
- "Turtles can Fly" A highly charged film about orphans in a refugee camp located in Northern Iraq. The setting is 2003 just as the US is poised to invade Iraq. Itz very very sad, but itz also top notch. Five stars in my world...A world that hates war.
About Me
- Charlie Farrow
- Opinionated, yet often confused, happy, hyper, motivated, risk-taker, self-reliant, father of a wonderful kid, relunctant taxpayer...
The Lists for which many live (and die) to obtain recognition...
My Trusty Gunnar 29er
9 comments:
anyone but you would put you on that list of inspirational. you are an incredible rider and your enthusiasm is contagious. i'm glad i've gotten to meet you and thrilled i had the opportunity to ride with you for a bit.
Great job Charlie. I wish I could have talked with you more. I love your style!
Paul Jacobson
It is nuts to think about what you did to get to the finish. Studly work for sure. I just wish my day had not ended as it did and I could have survived with you.
Charlie, congratulations on what must have been a grueling 31 hours of cycling/pain/suffering/elation. wow!
Get ahold of me at g.ted.productions@gmail.com There is the issue of prizing to be resolved between me and thee.
It was a blast to meet you and I hope our paths cross again. What a great race, what an incredible course and what a great group of people. I am still enjoying it.
Ari
You amaze me.
Charlie, congratulations on finishing TIv!!!! I am looking to a more detailed race recap...:) Anca
I can't believe you were able to finish after seeing you doubled over your bike outside of Traer. You are one tough dude. Congrats!
You the man Charlie!!! Can't wait to hear what your therapist has to say :)
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