Happy Memorial Day!

Here is an article from the Military Times about my little brother Mikah and his Marine buddies in Afghanistan:

No running water, but Reilly's got a sweet gym

 

Mikah

Cpl. Mikah Rust, right, gives his shoulders a workout Tuesday with a makeshift barbell at Combat Outpost Reilly, Afghanistan. Lance Cpl. Joseph Roncolato looks on.

COMBAT OUTPOST REILLY, Afghanistan — There’s nothing like a combat zone gymnasium to make you feel like a doughy, wimpy scrub.

At least that’s the experience I had after checking out the gym here today. I’m a gym rat myself and a veteran of Washington, D.C.’s summer softball leagues, but with the air temperature soaring well above 100 degrees, I was surprised to see Lance Cpl. Joseph Roncolato and Cpl. Mikah Rust, both assigned to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, pumping iron as though they were in the air-conditioning at their neighborhood Gold’s Gym.

The gym is a sight to behold. A combination of boards, pipes, pulleys, chains, duct tape and sand bags, it allows Marines to work out pretty much every major muscle group. There’s enough room for about 10 people to exercise at one time, far better than the gyms I saw at Camp Hanson and Combat Outpost Yazzie. Bench press? The Marines at Reilly have built a flat bench and an incline bench out of wood, and use a heavy pipe wrapped in chains as a barbell.

Tricep extensions? The Marines built a pulley system that can be adjusted by adding or subtracting sand bags. Bicep curls?  There are a variety of ammo cans packed with dirt and a mysterious set of 40-pound dumbbells, which Roncolato and Rust guessed someone received in the mail. In short, it’s a pretty nice setup – especially when you consider Reilly doesn’t have running water or an indoor chow hall.

As for the temperature, well, it looks like the Marines aren’t fans of working out in the heat, either. “It could be cooler, but we’re used to it, I guess,” said Rust, his drenched T-shirt stuck to his skin. “We actually had that conversation not that long ago,” Roncolato said. “Why are we out here working out at noon?”

Wedding Pics

My Family

left to right: Trey, Dana, Ira, Josh, Mom, Dad, Mikah, new sister-in-law Casey, Erika, brother-in-law Dusty, Aubrey, Jer, me (note the sock tan), my husband Todd, Dree. This was the "married family only" pic, it is missing Dree's long time boyfriend Josh and Dana's girlfriend Julie.

Casey and Mikah

Mikah and Buddies

Todd, Dana, Julie, Josh, Dad, Erika and far right, Grandma.

Sisters

(Some) Brothers

Jer and Dad adding finishing touches to Jer's wedding gift to Mikah and Casey.

Jer and Dad are the car guys of the family and Jer is the most artistic one, the carvings on the top of the box were pretty impressive.

See the red Nissan Pathfinder in the background? That was my car when I was 16. When we moved into the motorhome I gave it to Dad, it now has ~280k miles on it and runs really well (thanks to Dad fixing it up). With all these kids, my parent's driveway looks like a used car lot. Dad keeps his hotrod and vet in the garage and there are 6+ car in the driveway.

I saw my entire (huge) family in one week and most of Todd's.

Quick update (I'll add pictures later. Yes, I did wear a dress to the wedding I'm sure they are on facebook by now...): Monday - Colorado Springs ride, Todd left to pick up my brother Jer in Denver and hit the road in the VW to TN. I drove the house to Alamosa Tuesday - drove to Durango, hung out at Grandma's with Grandma and my full-timing Aunt and Uncle, rode around Vallecito Lake Wednesday - rode up Middle Mountain Road to 11k feet, threw all four dresses I own in a bag with bike clothes, took pets to vet and kennel, stopped by walmart to buy luggage, drove Grandma to Albuquerque. Thursday - flew with Grandma to Knoxville, TN, attended my brother Mikah's rehearsal dinner, hung out with my family. Friday - rode Mikah's road bike in Oak Ridge, TN, had a blast at Mikah's and Casey's wedding. Saturday - rode in 90+ degree heat and humidity, stood in front of the 7-11 fridge trying to cool off an hour into the ride, hung out with family some more, celebrated Father's Day. Sunday - flew back to ABQ, met up with Todd's Dad, step-Mom and two of his brothers and families to watch Todd's brother Jason race in a SCCA autocross race, rode in 90 degree heat with no humidity, huge difference, no problem. Monday - after Grandma's Dr. appointment drove back to Durango. Fit a bike, two labs that don't get along, a kitty and Grandma in the 2 door Nissan Frontier. Arrived back at Grandma's cabin where my Aunt and Uncle, cousins Mitch and Mona and families were there with their motorhome, 5th wheel, and truck camper respectively. I was at all times confused about which town I was in (I am used to changing towns every week not every day). Having a bike stashed in ABQ, Durango and borrowing one in TN worked out well for trying to get short rides in. I loved seeing everyone!

Teva Games and Colorado Springs

I raced my sister Erika Powers in the last two races which was fun. She usually races the Intermountain Cup Series in Utah.

Erika

I placed 12th in the Teva games, which I was fine with, and 18th in the Colorado Springs race which I am not at all happy about. This was my first trip to the Teva games and it was pretty cool. We could watch climbing, kayaking and dog jumping right there in the venue; but I'm not sure if anyone even knew there was a bike race going on since it took place on the outskirts of the village. Todd and I stayed in Breckenridge because there is no place for the motorhome in Vail. I LOVE the Frisco/Breckenridge area! There are bike paths and trails everywhere; there is even a paved bike path that goes all the way to Vail (I heard it goes on to Glenwood Springs).

My very poor attempt at taking a picture of a kayaker

The Teva games XC course was a pretty typical ski hill course with lots of fire road climbing. The downhill was the best part of the course but didn't seem to last long enough which was both good and bad; if you were behind a slow descender you didn't have to wait long before it opened up so you could pass.

The Colorado Springs course just was the opposite. It was a really fun course, all single track (albeit wider at the bottom) with lots of rock gardens and techy sections. This made it difficult to pass if there was a line of people in front of you. I spent more time trackstanding in the race than all the races I've ever done combined; great practice for my skills clinics but horrible for a National race. Allison did a good write up of how it felt on the course and the confusion at the start.

To make things worse, they came up with the craziest start scenario I've ever seen. In an attempt to spread things out for the pros and to meet UCI regulations, they lined us up facing backwards at the Start/Finish, “paraded” us over to a remote start, which funneled us through a narrow opening in the gates and ultimately had us lined up in the opposite direction, completely reshuffled. It was here that they let us know we’d be doing one lap fewer than originally posted, and that we’d be doing a much shorter parade lap than stated on the course description. Instead, they sent us up a twisty paved road with gates up the middle (effectively a yellow-line rule), had us do a tight U-turn, sent us back down on the other side of the same road, then through the original start/finish and into the single track. Quite a few of us in the second half of the field had to put a foot down and wait at the U-turn.

By doing this, they not only failed to spread the field out, they also violated UCI regulations by changing the course within 24 hours of the race start and by shortening the race to less than an hour and forty five minutes average; not to mention refusing to have a manager’s meeting the day before, another UCI regulation. Oh well. My legs didn't feel all that fast anyway, but I was moving up the entire race and could have used another lap.

The best part of traveling is meeting new and old friends. Thank you Jeff and Cammie Kennedy for all the help while we were here, course info, road workout routes, coffee shop, tour of downtown and BBQ! Next up I’m headed to Durango to see family, then driving to Albuquerque where I’ll catch a plane to TN for my brother's wedding (I need to get rid of this farmer's tan!), then back to Breckenridge for the Firecracker 50; this will be my first marathon race and I have no idea what to expect.