Brrrrrrrrrr... and beyond!!!

Howdy, all! 

It's another double header weekend for the 50@50 Project, with tomorrows' Portland Polar Plunge and Sunday's Worst Day of the Year Ride.  I think I'm more nervous about jumping in the freezing cold river than I am of riding 18 miles around town!  Oh well - the project moves on!

The Portland Polar Plunge is a fundraiser for the Oregon Special Olympics.  While I didn't put a lot of effort into raising money, I AM participating and in doing so I hope that shows my full support for this very worthy cause.  Plus, I am super proud of Camera Crew my wife for jumping in with me.  It's metaphorical to how she's approached this whole insane project, jumping in with both feet.  I love her dearly!

Sundays ride will be short and sweet, although the weather could turn it into short and crash and burn.  Let's check the weather forecast, shall we:  Sunday calls for a high of 50, low of 41 and mostly sunny.  Worst day ride, my arse.  (cross yer fingers!)

What is the 'beyond' part of this post, you ask?  You DID ask, didn't you?  No?  Hmmm... well anyway, the beyond part is that I and my lovely, dedicated, slightly crazy-for-going-along-with-me-on-this-adventure wife have been busy signing up for more events!  See, this is how you commit to these things - you sign up, you spend the money AND then you tell people.

Which events, you ask?  Wha... again, you didn't ask?  Well, now I'm just confused.  Grrrr...

Okay, next/new events on the calendar:
February 23rd - Cartathlon 3, an adventure race around Portland wherein teams of five obtain clues from food cart pods around the city - and we get to eat!

February 24th - Hazel Dell 8k, that's right - we're heading to the 'couv

March 3rd - Red Lizard Five Miler

March 17th - Shamrock Run 8k, followed immediately by the annual Beer Garden Standing In Line Contest

March 30th - Spring Classic Duathlon, a 5k run-15 mile bike-5k run - especially excited for this one because my baby sister is doing this event, too!  Go, Susie!

April 7th - Bridge to Brews 10k or as I like to call it - 'return to the scene of the crime'.

May 11th (my Dad's birthday) - the Inland Empire 50 mile bike ride, held in the beautiful Tri-Cities, WA.  This weekend will be extra mah-ve-lous because the one and only Kyle Miller and his lovely wife Raynee will be joining us as well as putting us up (or is it 'putting up with us'?)  And maybe - just maybe - my baby brother Rich will come down from Spokane to ride along.  (hint hint)

June 9th - Portland Parks and Rec starts their $5 5k events, so we're doing those as filler for weekends when... it's not busy.  (sigh)  Yeah, weekends are gonna be packed - with fun and accomplishment and achieving this crazy goal of mine.

As you can see by the events thus far in the 50@50 Project, I am trying to keep it interesting by participating in a wide variety of events, not just going out and running 50 - 5k's (although that would be pretty cool, too).  I mean, come on - the first event was a freakin' snowshoe race!  Also note that we are willing to travel!  And that the distances and complexity of the events is growing (see entry above for March 30th) 

But mostly take note that we are willing to - nay, capable of - dragging others down with us.

Heh heh...