I spent my birthday doing what I love: pushing through my limits in the mountains. I combined two of ABQ's hardest road rides into something a little insane. A ride that totalled nearly 11 hrs door-to-door (10 hrs in the saddle), 108 miles, and 10,000 ft of climbing. I did the "round the mountain" ride starting about 8am from my place, down Lead to the Bosque Trail and fought a north headwind to Bernalillo. I climbed past Placitas and hit the gravel stretch around 10:30am. That part is brutally relentless climbing over rocks, gravel, and dirt at a crawl for 7-miles. By noon I intersected the paved crest road 536, but turned right to climb the 2000 ft to the top of Sandia Peak. I summitted at 1am and ripped down the hill to have a big lunch burrito at Lazy Lizard. This is the point where any normal cyclist would go home, but instead I stashed my backpack under a tree and reclimbed the 4000 ft to the top of Sandia (in a relaxed 2 1/2 hrs). I didn't think I would make it, but the legs didn't cramp and the podcasts took my mind off the knee pain. I limped into the top and snagged a summit photo at nearly 5pm. From there it was nearly all downhill. I tucked into the standard 40 mph descent, turned right to Tijeras, and rode into a blinding setting sun and up-canyon wind back to my place at 6:45pm. Overall the body felt good the whole day. The Cytomax hydration and Taos Mountain Bar nutrition seemed to work for the extended effort. Unfortunately, my phone had some trouble holding a GPS signal and I didn't get my official stats for what may be the hardest century ride in the state!



2nd Sandia Peak summit of the day after 10,000 ft of climbing!


Birthday dinner: beer and ibuprofen.



I also hosted this year's Snowzobra "Pray For Snow" Party. It was perhaps the best year yet--which is saying a lot because this party has had some rather storied history including ice luges, flaming skis, a full matanza feast, and that one time we made the nightly news. But this year we had 75 people show up to burn the Snowzobra and I started Albuquerque's First Annual Gelande Quaffing Championships. Oh and I also went the extra mile to weld up a monstrous, 12' tall effigy skeleton made of rebar to appease Ullr using Supra's wire-feed welder.

I also built the setup for Gelande Quaffing - a drinking game that originates from the darkest recesses of ski culture (Jackson Hole). This was the centerpiece of this year's festivities so I had everyone cajole their closest friends and remotest colleagues to partake in the event. 4-person teams caught airborne beer with one hand to score points. I was convinced that the Josiah, Spencer, Sam, Jay team would be unbeatable, but when it came to the championship round, a few beers were dropped (Spenc and Sam!), and we fell 19-20 to a co-ed team (Kelley, Laura, Dave, Nathan) that threw a perfect game of 10 for 10 handle catches.





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