The 2013 race season has offically started, and I hit the ground running! On March 9, I laced up my Nike running shoes and headed up to the Buck Mountain Mudslinger for a six and a half mile trail running race put on by Run Wild Adventures. After driving up in cold foggy conditions my cousin and I arrived at the event to sunny skies and perfect trail conditions.

Last year’s race was run in about a foot of snow covering most of the race course, and were it wasn’t covered in snow it was deep mud making for very tough running conditions. The course consisted of horse trail, double track, fast downhills, and a lot of climbing. After the gun went off I was able to join a group at the front of about twenty racers in the first half mile before the first climb. Once the climb started to get really steep I was able to start making a few passes and work my way up to about tenth place. Read more »

On September 23, my teammate Ryan Eisele and I dusted off our mtorbikes and headed to the Dick Jagow Memorial Grand Prix. The race is held at Washougal Motocross Park. I purchased a new Yamaha YZ450F in mid-August, so I started practicing 45 minute motos again on my mx track. The last mx race I had done was in 2008 and I knew I would be rusty even with a month of preparation. The Dick Jagow race used the whole Washougal mx track and surrounding fields and single track. It was similar to the 6hr mountain bike race that was held there in June–minus the mud!

I decided to race in the 30 amateur class. After a recent tailbone injury and not as much time on the moto, Ryan rode in the Sportsman category. The Sportsman class rides with the Women’s class so he offered to lend my wife a hand if she needed it as she was racing too. The grand prix began with a dead engine start and lasted hour and 45 minutes with the course being about 5 miles per lap. I got off to a slow start and most of the single track trails were extremely dusty which made trying to close any kind of gap on a rider ahead almost impossible. Read more »