Introductions - Hi from the City of Subdued Excitement

I'm Robert, a semi-broke college student who has been on bikes since I can remember. Never really anything worth mentioning (Wal-Mart bikes), but I have loved riding them all the same. I just picked up an older Giant Rincon for $40, took it to a maintenance clinic and have been riding it around campus since. I'm looking at a road bike to use to get into shape and possibly even ride in a sprint triathalon.

By the way: The City of Subdued Excitement is Bellingham, Washington. I also spend a good amount of time in Port Orchard, where most of my family lives.

Greetings! Glad you joined the forums. Although I would think I would pick the city of
Lawton, Oklahoma as being the city of subdued excitement. ;)

Hi Robert-
are you going to do a bike leg for Ski to Sea next weekend?

Unfortunately I don't even know what Ski to Sea is and I will be out of town (though that is still up in the air). Care to inform me?

It's an 87-mile multisport relay that happens every Memorial Day weekend (always Sunday), starting up on Mt. Baker and ending in Bellingham Bay. The legs are:

Cross-country skiing (I'll be doing this leg this Sunday)
Downhill skiing
Running
Road bike
canoe
Mtn Bike
Sea Kayak

It's primarily a team event (1 person per leg), although there are a few masochistic smaller groups that do it as a duo or individuals that do it as an ironman competition. Some local businesses recruit top (i.e., Olympic or national team class) athletes to be on sponsored teams.

Ooh, now that sounds fun! Unfortunately I know I will be gone on Sunday. Is there a site or anything for this, where I can find leg lengths? It'd be interesting to see if I could get enough people next year to do a team.

Happy to oblige: http://www.skitosea.com/

The cross-country skiing leg is short (only 7K) but brutal, since most of the time is spent skiing up downhill runs.

The `downhill' skiing leg has to be the cruelest, since they ski a short ways, then have to take off their skis and carry them and their poles on a 900-foot (so I have been told) climb *in their ski boots* in very warm soft snow / slush to get to some local top, then ski back down to where they started.

The run is 7 or 8 miles, almost all of it downhill except for the last 1/4 mile which is a slight uphill (although at that point it feels like Mt. Everest).

The road bike leg is 36 miles, and the average speed for the top riders is close to 30 MPH.

not sure about the lengths of the other legs.

That's interesting, might have to see about throwing together a team for next year's go-around. I can already think of an XC Skier, possibly a snowboarder, a road cyclist. I could train for either the mountain bike portion or the running portion (though a real runner would probably be a better idea). Can't think of a kayaker or any canoers, though. I suppose I could post an ad in the Outdoor Center at some point.