I’m looking forward to 2020 although it’s kind of hard to say exactly why. I don’t really have much of a plan put together, I really only have 3 events that I’m registered for at the moment, and yet I’m pretty excited about how the year on bikes is starting to shape up. Some of that excitement has to be due to the fact that two of the events that I’m signed up for, Katie is also registered and one of those events we’re registered as a duo, more on that in a few minutes. I’m pretty sure that her being more involved in bike riding and events is going to create some logistical challenges for me that weren’t there before. However, I’m happy to take them on. Oh, and I may have some new wheels too, but I’ll share more about that another time.
So far for 2020 the only things that are confirmed are The Appalachian Journey, PMBAR, and Double Dare. Interestingly enough those are all partner/duo events. I’m looking at a handful of other things as well, some that I’ve done in the past, a couple that I haven’t. The Swank 65 will surely be on the calendar for the end of the year. I’m trying hard to figure out how to make the Tran-Sylvania Epic work out, honestly I’d kind of like to make a duo work there as well. Stage Races are tough to make work with the family so we’ll see, I have had my eye on this one for a few years now though.
The Appalachian Journey should be really exciting, Katie and I are signed up as a Duo for the Long Doggie (there are 3 distance options, with the longest being 110 miles and referred to as “The Long Doggie”). 110 miles and about 11,000 ft of elevation, in rural Virginia, So provided neither one of us kills the other one and we’re still married at the end it should be an awesome day. The fun part is that Katie’s been talking about something like this for a while and after a few years of dealing with pregnancies, breastfeeding, and all that madness having the chance to be a teammate with her on a goal like this is pretty cool. I just hope she pulls her weight…
Still this excitement for the year on bikes has had me all kinds of distracted lately. I think a lot of it has to do with how much I’ve had the chance to talk about PMBAR. Katie found a friend who was interested and got registered for PMBAR. So she’s had all kinds of questions about what to expect, what trails go where, how to get certain places, all the things that I could talk about for days. Her inquisitive nature combined with my excitement about connecting trails and the lure of PMBAR make for a lot of distractions. I’m reading my old passports and remembering the Prolog debacle of 2018, the Bradley Creek out and Back, the wooden nickel year, the year I got so cold and could barely eat my burrito I was shaking so bad, man I could write/talk about PMBAR for days. I’ve got to say I’m more excited than ever to get into racing this year. Old PMBAR reports, 2019 PMBAR , 2018 PMBAR , 2017 PMBAR , 2016 PMBAR , 2015 PMBAR
It’ll be hard to do anymore events than I did last year and realistically I’m not sure that I want to. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a big part of me that wants to do more however that means more scheduled time not with the family. I do think that the way the events I did last year were pretty spread out helped in making it work as well as it could with the family schedule.
