August in a Nutshell...

The months keeping moving, flying by and every once in a while I stop to try and figure out what the heck I did with my time. This month: (ok this is pathetic, I had to go back to my ical to see what I did last month!) The Marin Century was Mike's first 100 mile ride. He did very well, finished in a little under 8 hours. I chose to do the metic century, however because heck- I've done 100 milers enough times to cover me through the end of 2007.
Yoichi and I decided at the first rest stop that we only wanted to ride the metric century.
We had started out at 7 am, so this meant we were done with the metric right around noon. It was a nice relaxing and enjoyable ride. We realized as we rode up Red Hill back toward the Cheese Factory, that the ride was going to be a whole lot windier for those coming back from the hundred. We came up Red Hill around 10:30am and the wind was already picking up!

The rest stop in Petaluma was sponsored by AIDS Lifecycle so it was fun to hang out there awhile with people we knew before heading back to the start

August 13th was Mike's 42nd birthday, which he celebrated in true Brown style, but what else but a Birthday Ride.
We met up at Nicasio with our friends Dave, Chris D, Chris Z & Michael, and did a 55 mile ride out to Marshall, then up to Tomales Bakery- down through Chileno Valley and up and over the back side of Wilson Hill on to Hicks Road and on to the Cheese Factory for salami and cheese.
Wouldn't you know it, we ran into Kelsey at the Cheese Factory and she rode back with us Nicasio, then onward back to San Francisco.
I guess I should mention that Mike is planning to do the two day "Big Sur Ride" that takes place at the end of September. The first day is 90 miles with a hellacious climb at mile 70, and the second day is about 72 miles with another good climb about mid way. This is why he has been getting out on his road bike a whole lot in the past month.For details on the Big Sur Ride, Sept 23,24 see http://www.cypressgroup.org/bigsur.htm
In the meantime, we've been riding A LOT! August 20th was the Tour d'Organics- an organized ride put on by Organic Athlete. It was basically a ride from Organic Farm to Organic Farm, with each farmer offering up fresh, organic fruits and vegetables at each rest stop. It was awesome! We are always so filled up with bad, well preserved "ride food" that this was a refreshing change. Michael, Chris Z, Mike, Sandy and I rode through most of the Sonoma Wine Country, an area we have ridden through many times before. But where we usually stop at schools, wineries, community centers, etc; this time we got to see the really rural areas and the farms that produce most of the Organic foods in the area.