Good ol’ Matt and I have completed Biketober: Week 1 with 5 commutes between home and work since last Wednesday. The weather has been very good, if a little chilly up until today when it rained on the way home. Also, according to Matt’s own statistics, it’s getting easier every day (on a cardio-pulmonarial level).

It’s been a pretty busy week in the cycling world with as much bad news as good. Meanwhile, the ride has provided me some time to gel my thoughts on cycling safety. More after the jump…

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…or is it BIKTOBER? You tell me.

All I know is that Matt Rasnake and I are going to attempt to ride out bikes to work every day in the month of October. Not exactly a tale of epic proportions or anything, but definitely something worth noting, I think.

You bike commuting folks in major metropolitan areas are probably thinking “wow, way to go, you hayseeds! I do that every day,” but let me tell ya that it just doesn’t happen so much here in Louisville. I’m seeing more and more bike commuters here in Louisville, but it’s still kind of a novel thing for our suburban-sprawl town.

Bike commuting is becoming more popular, not only because we “Got a War On” or “Oil Prices are Sky High” or “The Economy Is in the Toilet”, but because Louisville has been rolling out a bike-friendly city plan over the last decade. We’ve got 30 miles of bike lanes (in fits and starts all around the city), and just last week the city announced $4.9 million dollar grant from the state for bike friendliness improvements. Thanks to the [Review] of the State’s Bike Grant to Louisville over at State of the Commonwealth, I now know that some of those improvements are slated for Taylorsville Road (near my home) and the Bluegrass Industrial Park (near my work). Huzzah!

Here’s my ride from Home to Work:

View Larger Map

More later – a diary may ensue.

aka The Trial and Tribulations of The Dangville Ocho Stinkos, Weeks 3 and 4

This week in the Power Creative Fantasy Football League, the Dangville Ocho Stinkos clashed with Charlie Dillon’s “The Widow Makers”. Would Aaron “Favre Who?” Rodgers continue to be as good or better? Would Terrell Owens’ head inflate to the size of a basketball. How did my Kicker Round-Robin do? Details after the jump.

Previous weeks: 1, 2

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The 2008 World Soaring Masters is this weekend! It’s a huge, multi-national remote-controlled soaring contest held once every two years up in Muncie, Indiana.  You may remember that I covered the World Soaring Masters in 2006 and had my updates published in the November 2006 issue of RC Soaring Digest (pp 4-16). This year, I’m headed up there to compete in what should prove to be a fun and exciting event. Looking forward to meeting some of the great international competitors.

This year, I’ll be covering it again – but this time I’ll be LIVE BLOGGING it over on the Louisville Area Soaring Society website. The contest runs Friday-Sunday, so keep hitting “REFRESH”:

2008 World Soaring Masters Live Blog @ LouisvilleSoaring.org

aka The Trials and Tribulations of the Dangville Ocho Stinkos, Week 2

This week in the Power Creative Fantasy Football League, the Dangville Ocho Stinkos clashed with the “Cup Busters” (managed by one of those creative types in the other building).  Going into the matchup, I was a reasonable favorite to win… details after the jump.

Previous weeks: 1

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Lotsa wind on Sunday, as you might have heard. Kelly and I had a day planned that got slightly crazy and ended with us snapping photos and biking around our tree-lined and tree-felled neighborhood, returning home to a darkened abode.  More after the jump.

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Co-worker, talented illustrator and all-round nice guy Mason Ploch recently had one of his political cartoons published in the Courier-Journal. Excellent art and a good zinger of a gag, too :)

aka The Trials and Tribulations of The Dangville Ocho Stinkos

This past weekend marks the opening week for the National Football League (NFL).  As some of you may know, I enjoy a bit of “fantasy sports” (as previously mentioned) – specifically baseball.  I’ve been playing fantasy baseball for 8 or 10 years, and just last year made my fantasy football debut in a league at my workplace. I ended up 5-8 on the season and just missed making the playoffs.  This year, I intend to do better. Football, suffice it to say, is much different than baseball.

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(20 minutes, 60 megs, so be patient!)

Shot on location during Kelly’s Ironman Louisville 2008 race!

Big thanks to Hunter, Jamie, Matt, Sara, Chris, Mom, Katy, Ron, Erica, Scotty, Jen, Kelly’s sister Cherie, Kelly’s dad Jerry, Tony, Megan, Tony, Keith, Beth, Team Hatton and everyone I forgot to mention who came down to IronMan Louisville on August 31st to cheer Kelly on. It was an amazing end to a year-long odyssey.

(Also much love to Doug for the HD camera, which I took great pains not to break during the day)

KELLY WILSON… YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!

Kelly and I would both like to extend a hearty “THANK YOU” to everyone who has supported her through this adventure. I know that many of you didn’t understand just WHAT she was getting herself into, much less understand WHY she was doing it. I hope that having followed her journey, you’ve been gained a little insight into what drives Kelly as well as some inspiration. While Kelly might now be an IRONMAN (which I no doubt will be oft reminded), she is just an average girl. Something in her “switched on” a few years back is all.

In short – I never want to hear “I could NEVER do that” out of any of you! I’m sure the Kelly of many years ago said the same thing… and look what happened to her! All of us are capable of great things.

While Kelly’s been running for the last few years, this Ironman thing is a whole other ball of wax. Did you notice all the of “Team <insert last name here>” shirts out on the course yesterday? That largely doesn’t happen in running. The IronMan demands the love and support of many for the Ironman hopeful, which you all gave without demand. We are forever in your debt for that. And the minute you start YOUR adventure, you know Kelly and I will be there!

Photos

Check out the 2008.08.31 – Kelly’s IronMan Louisville gallery for photos!

More photos @ Flickr tagged as “IronMan Louisville 2008″.

Video
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2008 IronMan Louisville Highlight DVD given to Award Banquet attendees!

WLKY Channel 32 Live Report @ Ironman Louisville 2008

Race Reports

“Team Brazo” IronMan Louisville 2008 Race Report

Update: WLKY32′s John Boel did not fare well at IMLou 2008 – The ‘Ville Voice has the scoop: Boel’s Ironman Ends Badly. I saw him on Southern Parkway, probably around mile 8? or so – I knew he was shooting for a sub-12 hour time (he finished in 12:16 in 2007) and assumed he was in the home stretch – but that wasn’t the case at all. Looks like the bike hurt him much more than last year, and whereas he started the run last year doing something like 9 minute miles, he didn’t this year. View his 2008 results here. I know it’s got to be devastating for him and his family.

Further Boel Update: Boel describes his IronMan in “IronMan beats Boel” over at WLKY’s website. A lot of dehydration going on lately…