Glencoe Grand Prix – Special Project

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

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.

Matthew from xXx

Zionts Boys Kicking Butt on the Hill!

This kid almost ran me over!

2009 Cobb Park

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

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

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!