2009 Soldier Field – July 1

July 2, 2009 at 7:11 pm | In Race Photos, cycling | Leave a Comment

I’m pretty impressed with the Soldier Field event.  I am not, however, impressed with my photos from the 4/5 race.  Oh well, here they are anyway.  Feel free to right click and save.  I just ask that you give me photo credit when posting to blogs and the like.

Glencoe Grand Prix – Special Project

June 25, 2009 at 10:38 pm | In Race Photos, cycling | Leave a Comment

Jon Knouse, the promoter for the Glencoe Grand Prix, asked me to join a team he has put together to develop a coffee-table book featuring the Glencoe Grand Prix.  I’m pretty excited about this venture because it will include interviews and other interesting information, alongside photos of the event.  The group working on this project include John Mullin (Tribune, SI.com) as the lead writer, several freelance writers, Jay Mirasol, Anna Inabinet, me and one other photographer who I haven’t yet met.

In our brainstorming session we came up with the following as ideas for features: amen corner, random locals watching the race from their driveways, winners from last year who are returning to defend the win, pro racers who travel to races and make very little money, the local racer with an interesting story (is that you?), Chicago Cuttin Crew (and their bus!)… What interesting ideas do you have?  Why should we feature you?  What interesting title idea do you have?

This project will be a labor of love and we hope you’ll enjoy the finished product.  Super exciting!

2009 Fox River Grove

June 22, 2009 at 9:04 pm | In Race Photos, cycling | Leave a Comment
Tags: ,

What a course!  That hill looked like a killer: 1/3 mile up hill, 2/3 mile downhill.  On any regular day, that hill would be tough for a lot of people, but add in the heat and humidity from Sunday and wowzer!

Photos are posted here.

2009 Cobb Park

June 21, 2009 at 7:45 pm | In MS, Race Photos, cycling | Leave a Comment

I’ve managed to get the Cobb Park photos uploaded.  I’ll try and get to the Fox River Grove photos tomorrow evening.

2009 MS 150 – Tour de Farms

June 14, 2009 at 5:29 pm | In MS, cycling | 1 Comment
Tags: , ,

This weekend, we participated in the MS 150 ride, the Tour de Farms in Dekalb, IL.  We woke up mighty early on Saturday morning, drove to the NIU Convocation Center to meet the team, and were greeted by hundreds of cyclists milling around in the building, trying to avoid the rain.  The weather was so bad that they ended up delaying the start several times, and we ultimately gave up and left at 11am.  It turns out, the course opened later and Sam, Eric, and Chris rode the 35 mile route.

We returned on Sunday and the weather today was absolutely beautiful.  The roads in DeKalb are amazing: lightly rolling hills, very little traffic, and pavement as smooth as a baby’s bottom!  I may not be a country girl, but I certainly wouldn’t mind riding country roads every day.

The MS Society of Greater Illinois did a great job with this event: the rest stops were well-stocked; the volunteers were extremely helpful and friendly; and the roads were monitored for safety.  Maybe the planners of these MS ride folks should be planning Superweek races!

I rode with the little point and shoot, rather than the big camera, so the pictures aren’t great.  But, take a look anyways and think about doing this ride next year.  You won’t regret it!

Weekend: FAIL

June 7, 2009 at 5:58 pm | In Life, MS, cycling | 4 Comments

Martin teasingly reminded me that I said I’d post pictures from this weekend’s criterium.  Unfortunately, it didn’t happen and I’m a little disappointed.  I was hoping to try out my new camera on Saturday, but I expected to miss out on Spring Prairie because this is my weekend to be on call for work.  Ultimately, I missed out on both days of racing.

We’re buying a house and trying to sell our condo.  We hope to close on the house on Wednesday, but if that doesn’t happen, we’ll definitely close the following week.  In the meantime, we’ve gotten several showing requests for our condo, which is great!  But, it’s also quite inconvenient since at least one of us needs to be home to walk the dogs while the realtor shows the place.  This weekend, our realtor was out of town for a wedding so we both needed to be available for two showings on Saturday.  Since we expected an afternoon full of rain and thunder, neither Cliff nor I thought much of bailing on Winfield.  The showings went okay, and as Murphy’s law would have it, the rain stayed away.  It’s no coincidence that one of our dogs is named Murphy.

Next weekend: MS 150.  Hopefully soon I’ll be posting pictures of our new house!

What?! No racing this weekend?

May 23, 2009 at 8:08 am | In Life, cycling | Leave a Comment

I was looking forward to the three days of racing that the ABD Memorial Day Masters Race would bring, until I looked at the schedule.  For some reason, the only available Cat 4 races are a combined Masters 30+ 1/2/3/4 race, or a 40+ Cat 4 race.  Since Cliff isn’t 40 yet, he would have been racing with the 1/2/3/4s, which isn’t much fun when you’re a 4 and know that you have very little hope of doing well.  So, we’re taking the weekend off.

I think the next race we’ll attend is the June 6-7 race in Winfield.

2009 Monsters of the Midway

May 16, 2009 at 10:43 pm | In MS, Race Photos, cycling | Leave a Comment
Tags: , , ,

I’m glad the weather ended up being pretty nice today, but the forecast fooled me into leaving my sunblock at home.  I’m now paying for that mistake: my face is sunburned!  Thankfully it was cool enough out that I wore long sleeves and jeans today or the rest of my body would be burned, too.

Several people asked me whether I was racing today and my immediate response is always the same: hell no!  I’m afraid of crashing and refuse to risk it in a road race or criterium.  Besides, I’m just way too slow.  Today reinforced my fear of crashing with the three ambulance visits that I saw as the result of three different crashes.  I know that at least two racers were transported to the hospital.  I’ll stick with taking photos from the sidelines until cross season, thanks.  

Team MS had a great showing today!  Jessica Hill won the Women’s 3/4 race.  Erik Weibe finished in the 9-man break in the Masters 30+ race, and Cliff Golz took 6th in the Cat 4 race.  

Pictures from today’s races can be found here.

2009 Vernon Hills Criterium

May 3, 2009 at 9:18 pm | In Race Photos, cycling | Leave a Comment
Tags: ,

Today was a great day for racing in Vernon Hills!  I didn’t expect the weather to be nearly as nice as it turned out, so I ended up getting a bit of a sunburn.  I’ll have to remember the sunblock for the next race (and hope I actually need it!).

Race photos are posted here.  It was great seeing some folks who I haven’t seen in months (since Cross season ended) or even longer (since the last road race).  

Is Spring here yet?

April 10, 2009 at 7:44 am | In Life | Leave a Comment

I think I’ve been wallowing in self pity because the days aren’t getting much warmer and the sun still isn’t getting up before I do.  But, hopefully, it will be time to snap out of the “winter doldrums” soon!  

The first race that I’ll be able to attend and take pictures is Vernon Hills on May 3.  See you then!

Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.