Saying no to good things to say yes to the best things

I had already planned to write this post this weekend, but now that I'm in the hospital with Beth in the ealry stages of labor, the time is now.

One of my main riding goals this year was to make the selection for the Marathon Mountain Bike World Championships.  I alreday took the biggest step in making that happen by qualifying with my result at the Grand Raid in Switzerland last summer.  As far as I know I'm the only American to race a World Marathon Series event and place top 20 to automatically qualify for Worlds.  The race is in France the first weekend of October. 

Of course there was a big change for Beth and I at the start of this year.  Plans have changed.  I quickly thought back to a message from Church that Pastor Rick has talked about pretty often.  Most of the time we get too busy in life.  We have to learn to say no to some good things, in order to say yes to the best things.  Now is the best opportunity I have ever had to do that.   A fall race trip to Europe including Worlds would have been good, but the blessing Beth and I are about to receive will be the best.

As we wait to welcome our daughter into the world it's all in God's hands now.  I'm so thankful for all that Beth and I already have, and can't really imagine the even better things we still have in store.  Thank you to our family and friends for all of your support the last few months!  We love you guys!

Help me win an entry to the 2013 TransRockies 7-day mountain bike race!

Please help me with a quick vote!

There's a contest going on for a free entry to the TransRockies stage race in Canada, July 2013. If I win I will donate the Scott mountain bike to charity and race my heart out in Canada next summer.

Please click on the link below and "vote now" for my photo "EFFORT".  You can vote once per day through July 23.  Feel free to ask others to vote too.

http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/237846/voteable_entries/54511510

Thank you and God Bless!! Dana

Who's your coach?

After finishing second at the 2011 United States half-marathon championships, Hall went to drug testing, a standard procedure. Asked on a form to list his coach, he wrote: God.

You have to list the name of a real person, a doping official said.

“He is a real person,” Hall responded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sports/olympics/faith-is-central-to-marathoner-ryan-halls-approach.html?_r=1

Great article on Ryan Hall!

BC Days 4 to 7

BC days 0 to 3

BC Update

This race is a lot of work!  I've raced 5 days in a row now and think the shortest race was 2hr 25min.  And most of those minutes were spent on really technical single track.  Single track that I'm not quite used to and have to work really hard to get through.  It's a whole body workout for sure.  On top of that I try to do the following as quick as possible after finishing each race.

1. Find my gear bag in the pile of 500 identical gear bags.  Yes they are at least labeled and organized.
2. Make a recovery drink.
3.  Eat a couple other snacks provided by the race.
4.  Wash my very muddy bike.  I've spent more time washing my bike this week then the entire year leading up to the race.
5. Take a shower in the shower trailer.
6. Wash out my clothes a little at the bike wash or shower as possible.
7. Pick a tent in tent city.
8. Carry my 50 pound gear bag to the tent.
9. Set out my muddy wet gear to start (hopefully) dying.
10.  Call Beth!


Then it's time for dinner, maybe go to the daily awards / racer briefing, a little reading and bedtime.  Oh yeah, a couple of the days we also had to spend a coupe hours riding ferries and buses in there as well...


The courses have been great on days 3,4,5 and I have been feeling fairly good.  There is still energy to burn, I'm just a little achy and don't have the normal top end I would at any one day race.  I'm thankful to be here making the most of my good health, meeting some cool people (from 33 countries) and seeing some awesome places.  If you haven't been checking out the pictures - you should be!   


Thanks for following me!  Dana

http://bcbikerace.com/news-and-media/photos/day-4-sechelt

Day 1

After 2 long days of travel on planes, trains, boats, buses, buses, boats, buses (in that order) it was good to ride hard today.   And it takes a lot of hard effort to get though the technical, rooty, trails here smoothly.  After 2hr 40min I ended up 10th in the open field...   A couple pros are a whole level above everyone else and I lost about 5min to the 5-9th place guys.  It's not the result I dreamed of, but I truly enjoyed the day.  


The eating, packing, and travel process is starting to become routine.  Finishing the race early makes it easy to wash the bike and get a shower and avoid some of the lines everyone else has to wait in.  It will be crazy to do 6 more days of races as tough as today, but I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm excited to see what else God has in store for me this week.  For now it's time to get back to reading The Green Mile in the tent!