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The last track day of the season for me was a few Sundays ago on October 14^th at Gateway International Raceway. This was the final of four track days put on by the MCRA, and despite a smaller number of riders, was a lot of fun. And the weather was perfect, sunny and 80 degrees in October!

As usual, I was doing Control Rider duty in the Novice and Intermediate groups. I’ve really tried to adopt more of an instructing role in the Novice group vs. the Chaperone role we generally do with the Intermediates. This means that I’m trying to seek out guys and gals who look like they need some help with the race line or getting around the track. I then get them to follow me for a few laps, showing them the proper lines, follow them for a lap to see how they are doing, and then move on to try to find another rider in the same situation (or get in front of them again for a refresher if they don’t improve).

I felt like this was the best job I’ve personally done in terms of helping out the Novice riders. Every session I’d work with one or two riders, I talked to at least one rider at pit out at the end of every session, and I had a few riders coming over to my pit area asking follow-up questions throughout the day. It’s pretty rewarding seeing someone who was riding really rough in the morning riding smoother and more confidently at the end of the day. Also, we see a lot of the same riders at all of over events, and it’s pretty cool to have seen the progression in skill level and speed of a lot of the Novice riders from our first day in May to the last day in October. Some made really, really big strides in their riding.

As usual, we had a race at the end of the day, where I was once again on Pole position due to my early registration. I got a good launch, but wheelied a bit off the line – actually I carried the front wheel about a foot off the ground until I shifted into 2^nd gear. Nice for show, not so good for getting to Turn 1 first! Also as usual, the top 2 guys pretty much checked out from the rest of us after 1 lap, turning crazy times like 1:06s and 1:07s. I was in 5^th place for the first few laps, but by about lap 7 or 8 I caught and passed the 4^th place rider between turns 4 and 5. I was able to put a few second gap on him for a while, but he slowly caught back up to me. When I hesitated to pass a lapper (my buddy Dave on his Buell), he dove underneath us both into Turn 8, and I was cursing myself for waiting to pass. I got around Dave on the front straight, but by then the 4^th place rider had put a little gap on me, and I only had 2 or 3 laps left. By then my rear tire was fairly greasy and I had slowed to the mid- 1:11s, so I was not in a good position to chase without taking some risks.

I ended up with 5^th, so it wasn’t terrible, but I really, REALLY wanted 4^th! Oh well. The positive was that, from a lap time perspective, I was right back in the zone of 1:10s that I had finally broken into in September. In fact, my first flying lap was a 1:10.50, and 11 of my first 12 laps (in an 18 lap race) were all in the 1:10s. The last 3 or 4 laps my times dropped off (because my rear tire was spinning up everywhere) to 1:11s, and a 1:12 on the last lap, but that just means that I recognized the tire situation and adjusted my pace accordingly, so there’s no shame in that.

So now the GSX-R goes into hibernation for the winter, and I’ll try to put a few more miles on the new Tiger 1050 in the garage before winter sets in…

As most of you probably know, Seda ran and finished the Chicago Marathon on October 7. Just one more reason to say My Wife Rocks!!

She trained religiously for 5 months for this, and was in great shape to complete the run. In addition, she raised over $3500 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a member of Team In Training. She really put forth a lot of effort in both her training and her fundraising, and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

The marathon itself was strange – it was actually cancelled at the 3 hours 30 min mark due to excessive heat (88 degees). Seda was able to finish, but was literally forced to walk most of the last 5 miles (see her note below).

The fun part for me (other than seeing Seda run, of course) was that my good buddy Ben was also in Chi-town to support his friend Mike in his marathon, so we hooked up and were cruising around town together, trying to get from checkpoint to checkpoint to see both Mike and Seda, who were about 30 minutes apart in the pack of 40,000 runners. This was a blast, as we hadn’t seen each other since last December. At one point we were literally running for 15 minutes, in our cargo shorts and backpacks, trying to get to Mile 17 before Mike crossed the line! Good thing we were able to catch cabs the for the other stops! We saw both Mike and Seda at miles 5, and 10, then Ben and I split up at Mile 17, as at that point Mike and Seda were far enough apart that if Ben stayed with me to see Seda, he’s miss his next check point.

It was really cool seeing so many runners – literally, the pack went on forever! Ben and I saw the pack about 1/2 mile in, and it’s just crazy, a wall of people that does not end. Ben has run Chicago twice, so it wasn’t new to him, but it was eye-opening for me. At the end of the day, I must say that I was inspired to try one. After further review, I think I’m going to train for a 1/2 marathon next year, but I’m making no commitments for a full one yet  ; )

I’m so proud of Seda for hanging in there and finishing! She Rocks!

For those of you how might have missed it, here is the email she sent out post-marathon:

Dear All,
 
As most of you already heard, the weather during the 30^th LaSalle Chicago Marathon was less than optimal. It got hot, really hot!
 
The race started nicely, I saw Jeff and Ben at mile 5 and 10, and Leyla, Ozgun and Ahmet between miles 7 and 8. Then I saw Jeff for the third time at mile 17 and he cheered me up, motivated me to keep going with a smile on my face. The heat started to get a lot of runners by then… As I passed the 21 mile mark, they announced that the race was over and we should stop running. During the announcement they also said that there were buses waiting for us at the next aid station and we would be taken to the finish line by bus. I kept hearing no more timing, no more racing, stop running… I kept telling myself that I wanted to finish it by myself. I could not believe this was happening. I continued running/walking to find Jeff – as I passed mile 17 he told me that he would be at mile 23. I passed the aid station but did not see any buses and started running slowly at least up until I found Jeff. Between mile 23 and 25 I walked with Jeff and Leyla. Since I wanted to finish the race running I started running again to finish the race.
 
I am honored to have run this race in memory of John Landin, as well as all the people whose names were on the ribbons many of you sent. It was a weekend that I will never forget. Thank you all for your support, calls, emails, thoughts. All of them helped and I thought of you all during my 5 hour 27 minutes run/walk.  
 
I am still sore and avoiding the stairs. Here is a really fun You Tube link that sums it nicely: http://youtube.com/watch?v=m-hCuYjvw2I
 
Have a wonderful week,
 
Seda