Don’t ask me why, but I’ve celebrated past birthdays in ways as unorthodox as a hippopotamus wearing a top hat. For example, there was the one I spent a claustrophobic night underneath my ‘69 MGB replacing a stuck oil pressure relief valve in her newly rebuilt motor in order to get her back on the road for the first time in 14 months. On my 30th, I tumbled out of an airplane even though it was well-engineered and perfectly functional. But the birthday that had to take the cake (ha) was last year’s when I desperately rode 135 miles through the barren and waterless Great Divide Basin while dealing with sleep deprivation and hyponatremia on Day 14 of the Tour Divide Canada-to-Mexico mountain bike race.

This year, then, I was perfectly content spending my birthday in a more conventional manner. For example, with friends. Continue reading »

Considering that I’ve been living in the same neighborhood for 3.5 years, you’d think that I’d have explored every square inch of trail around it by now. It is quite disgraceful, then, that I never “discovered” the recreation trail separating the nearby Fort Collins Country Club and Richard’s Lake despite living less than a mile away — until now. It’s especially shameful because this particular jeep trail is perhaps the most scenic in the entire area. Continue reading »

It is a universally agreed upon fact that I am the slowest eater in the world which is probably why it took me almost an hour to finish a plate of Tandoori chicken and naan served up by the Taj Mahal at the Taste of Fort Collins. This did not, however, stop me from talking smack about the participants sitting onstage at Civic Center Park in front of 3.5-pound pies during an eating contest.

“Man, I can’t believe no one could eat the whole thing after ten minutes,” I exclaimed. Ultimately, the sole woman up there was proclaimed the winner as she managed to eat more of her pie than any of the guys. Somewhere in the world, Takeru Kobayashi must be rolling his eyes. At least no one puked. Continue reading »

There is one weekend each year when downtown Fort Collins turns into a virtual movie set for American Graffiti — the second Saturday of June when the Old Town Car Show takes place. Notwithstanding the economic recession and recent Seattle-like weather, hundreds of glimmering cars and trucks from decades past stood proud with chrome and lacquer seemingly a foot deep, eager to be admired and, in one or two cases where permissible, touched. Continue reading »

It seemed like my last few races were full of missed opportunities. First, there was the Houska Houska 5k in which I was in third or fourth place for most of the race, yet had to settle for sixth after being outsprinted in the last half-mile by others including a high school sophomore. Then, in the Vail Pass Hill Climb in the Teva Mountain Games, I lost what would have been a sure second place when I got off course after the first half-mile and lost three minutes. So if I had any goals for the Run for a Child’s Sake 5k, it was to Simply Not Blow It. Continue reading »