Alma Rebirth!

I just had the best weekend... and it is only Wednesday! Monique and I were lucky enough to hang with Paul, Karen and Jordan the last two days and it had all the ingredients of a perfect weekend. Perfect weather, friends, fun in the water, good food, jacuzzi and trail time!

They are such a motivational family too. After returning from Everest last month they ran their first running event (a 33mile ultramarathon) with little run specific training. Paul finished in the top 10 and Karen was 45 minutes faster than the next women. To mix it up they raced the 12 hours of Rim Nordic less than a week later and Karen took 2nd place (just 4min behind) in the pro women field and Paul won the pro mens field. How about Jordan? He is on his way to climbing the 7 sumits of the world at just 12 years old. Inspirational fo sho!

After a little splashing around yesterday I had some work to do this morning but my Moots is still in route back from Arkansas so. . . . The Alma was REBORN!!! I have missed that bike so much and now she is a hot little girl! I already had my extra double chain ring, rigid fork and a few parts from Monique already on it and in no time Paul had the setup complete! By the time I was done with my work Paul had my bike ready to rip! I LOVE MY BIKE!

The Alma did however have to live up to its reputation and we made a few stops to "fix r up" on the way... oh, sweet Alma memories

We had a quick loop through Aliso and got to witness Jordan ripping the downhills on his bike...Good times! I have never climbed up Nyse street in Laguna before but we made that "effort" on the way back to the cars. Quite the kick in the butt and registered over 20% grade on my GPS.


The results were also posted for the South Central XTERRA CUP and I am stoked that I got so lucky with my placing. While I was off lost and spraining my ankle on the run I had 6 guys (between me and Fred) pass me in the last quarter mile before the finish BUT was just super lucky that NONE of them were in my age group! I had some second thoughts about just following the two guys into the finish later on but I am glad that it worked out the way that it did...

I think I am all set now to qualify for XTERRA Nationals and this weekend Monique will be racing the Tahoe XTERRA (her 3rd this year) which should get her qualified to go also... I am so pumped to see her crossing the finish line! If my Moots does not get here I may even be riding the Alma in Tahoe. She is alive and well!