[OrRando] Introduction

Dread Pirate Kermit frogpirate at gmail.com
Fri Mar 7 14:58:22 PST 2008


I've been lurking for a little bit and thought I'd toss out an intro.
Some of you may know me from Cycle Oregon '04 and /or Race Across
Oregon '05 (and '06-'07 as crew).

Our website;I have not done much here in a long time.
http://www.candyassllamas.com/

I'm 48 and have always owned a bicycle but really only became a
"cyclist" in 2004. I met the woman that became my wife in late '03,
and cycling was her passion. Motor-cycling was (and still is, now with
cycling added) mine. By January '04 we were all but living together
and in February we signed up for Cycle Oregon. That year it was held
in SW Oregon with the penultimate climb being Crater Lake. As it
turned out it snowed that day and we (wisely) stayed in camp. However
"Dead Indian Road" was a good test for a rider that had only been
riding for 8 months!

2004 saw my first organized ride (Monster Cookie) my first Century
(Reach the Beach) and of many other firsts in cycling for me! That
year I read everything about cycling I could get my hands on,
including a book called "Going the Distance" by multi-time RAAM
finisher George Thomas . I told my wife that was crazy, but that
George's shorter "Race Across Oregon" (RAO) looked doable. She told me
I was crazy.

In November of '04 I had to go somewhere for a business trip. When I
got back Lisa had gotten an e-mail that there was a 4-day RAO training
camp coming up in the spring. She thought it might be fun but we
weren't sure we could do it. So being the innocents we were, we called
George and asked his opinion. By the end of the phone call he had
convinced us that we could not only do the training camp, but we
should do the race as a two-person relay team! That's how we became
the Candy Ass Llama's, the first two-person mixed team to race and
finish the Race Across Oregon.

In '06 & '07 we mostly helped other Ultra Racers. Lisa and I crewed
for "You can call me Al" Smudz in the '06 & '07 RAO, leading to a DNF
in '06 and overall 1st place in '07. We also crewed for Al at Sebring
in '07 (2nd place). Lisa volunteered at RAAM HQ in '07, spending 2 1/2
weeks in Boulder, CO answering phone calls and riding her bike in her
off time. My big thing in '07 was a little motorcycle rally called the
"Iron Butt Rally" in which I rode 10,300 miles in 11 days. Overall in
'07 I rode just over 26,000 miles on my motorcycle (and maybe 150 on
my bicycle!)

This year we are back to cycling. Lisa has joined a RAAM soloist as a
crew member and we are both signed up for Cycle Oregon. I am doing a
small motorcycle rally - the Utah 1088, only 1088 miles in 24 hours -
in June. Other than that we are just going to get out and ride some of
our favorite organized rides and favorite unorganized routes. Next
year we want to ride the HooDoo 500 route, probably as a supported
week ride.

I have a strong desire to do more long rides, like, oh say brevets.
However my riding partner - the lovely Lisa - has no desire to do
unsupported rides so I'm limited in how much I'll actually be able to.
She and I want to do a coast-to-coast ride in the next 5-7 years and
it will be supported (just ask her!) I am currently having a new bike
built that will be more conducive to doing long rides, a Co-Motion
Nor'wester that I will be setting up for supported touring, brevet's
etc. I was hoping to meet everyone at Snoosville but alas I have a
sister in need and brotherly duty calls.

Here is a bad picture of me taken just before last years IBR:

http://www.ironbuttrally.com/ibr/2007/html/46-1.html

I hope that wasn't TOO long winded! Regards, Ken


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