Wonderland Cyclocross and The Iron Cross VI...

Last Saturday, November 22nd, I competed in the Cat C (Beginner) race at Wonderland Cyclocross in Lancaster, PA. The weather provided nearly perfect cyclocross conditions; as it was in the mid-20s, snowing, with fast changing cloud cover, and a windchill factor making it feel like it was in the 'teens. I say near perfect, because the temperature caused parts of the course to freeze (the sandpit and a number of corners that could have been really fun and mucky) making those areas far too easy to negotiate. Apparently the conditions favored me, because much to my surprise when I checked the posted results on Tuesday I discovered that I had placed 4th.


Ami and Zoe accompanied me to the race. Zoe got cold and started shivering, so Ami had to put her back in the car before I finished. However, that did give Ami a chance to take one photo of me on the course. Unfortunately, I neglected to point out to her that I had mounted a zoom lens on the camera and did not demonstrate its operation to her. The fact that we arrived at the course about 10 minutes before the start really was not very helpful in our preparation - I was unable to review the camera with her, warm up, or use the restroom after the 2 and 1/2 hour drive north. No, I do not believe that needing to use the restroom helped my finish and I do not plan on using that as a technique in the future. I've highlighted myself in the race photo; I'm just remounting my bike after one of the post barrier run-ups on the course.


While writing this post, it occurred to me that I neglected to write anything about the Iron Cross VI race that I competed in back on October 12th. I had been waiting on getting together some photos from the race and then I guess I just got distracted with all of the other things we have going on (baby preparations, job search, etc.).





The Iron Cross was definitely the most exciting race that I had the fortune to participate in this year. It is the longest cyclocross race held in the United States at 62+ miles and it covers the trails and roads up, down, and around the mountains/big hills of Michaux State Forest in Gardners, PA - about 25 miles north of Gettysburg.




The race promoters bill the race as 62+ miles because, although they go to very respectable lengths to prevent such disasters, it is still somewhat easy to get stupid and find yourself off the course and lost in the woods or Amish Country. I personally added about 10 miles to the distance I covered after touring some rustic cabins at the top of one of the hills and then later took a detour to race the horse buggys down at the bottom of another mountain.











This is a topo map of the race.












I think the best part of the course is a "run-up" called Wigwam Hill. This consists of a portion of a rocky hiking trail that ascends about 500 feet over the course of about a tenth of a mile, necessitating that your bike be carried as you use your free hand to staedy yourself while climbing the hill. There were also loose, rocky descents that necessitated the carrying of my bike.








Although I finshed 98th out of 105 in my category at 6:51:06 (some who finished ahead of me had actually been behind me when they had been forced to take a shorter, easier road route back to the finish after failing to make it to the final checkpoint before the cut-off time) I still had a blast and hope to ride the race
again in the future. Here are the results and more info about the race.





I would like to extend a special thanks to Element of the Eye Photography and Judy Allison for their great photos of the race.

Photo Shoot

Here are some of Liam's first photos!  We had a 4D ultrasound today and it was great!  He was not terribly coorporative at first, he had his hands and feet in front of his face, but we were able to get some pretty decent facial shots eventually.  Lars' Dad Sheldon and my parents Bill and BJ were able to watch remotely on their computers while they were conferenced in on a call so we were able to share this experience with them.  It's so hard to be far from your family at times like this, and it was wonderful that they were able to be involved!  So who do you think he looks like? 

And the Winner is...

Liam Anders!  This will be the baby's name.  It's been in the top choices since the beginning, even though Lars was really pushing for something with Magnus in it.  But this name won in the end because it has familial meaning on both sides.  My Dad is William (and my Mom is Billie, as she ointed out the other day) and Anders is a good Scandinavian name that is in Lars' family.  So we fnally have name!  

Another Dr.'s Visit

We had another Dr.'s visit today and it went really well.  My cervix is unchanged from my last appointment (which is GREAT news!) and he told me that the bedrest will only last until I'm 34 weeks, which would be December 17th.  Just in time for Christmas!  He has also scheduled our c-section for January 22, 2009, so that look like it will be the baby's birthday!  Unless he shows up early, which is entirely possible.  But it's so great to have that date scheduled!  Now if we could just decide on a name...

Bedrest

I went to the Dr. today as a follow up to our hospital visit on Thursday night.  She has recommended bedrest indefinately.  The good new is that my cervix still looks pretty good.  When she did the physical examination she said it felt very, very short (she estimated it to be less than 1cm) but with the ultra sound it actually measured almost 4cm, which is great!  She also said there was no funneling, meaning my cervix is not currently opening from the inside, which is also good news.  The bad news is that I continue to have quite a few contractions, some so painful they are waking me up at night, despite being on a medication called Pro.cardia to stop them.  I know the medication is working because they always start to get worse when it's time for another dose.  

In other news we are finally buying our crib today (thanks, Mom and Dad!!!).  I have been given permission to accompany Lars to the store to make this purchase as long as I don't drive and I don't lift anything.  We'll make it quick and hopefully it will arrive before the baby!

Labor and Delivery

We had our first experience with the Anne Arundel Labor and Delivery unit last night, sooner than we would have liked.  I started having pretty consistent contractions yesterday afternoon and my Dr. recommended a trip to the hospital so she could check me out.  By the time they got me hooked up to the monitors I was having contractions about every 5 minutes.  They wanted to give me a medicine called Tributeline (sp?) but decided against that because I have a history of tachycardia.  They ended up giving me Procardia, which has WONDERFUL side effects!  It makes your heart pound, it makes you really dizzy, and it give you a killer headache!  But it also stopped the contractions.  At least the headache only bother me and not the baby.  

I was not showing signs of cervical dilation,  but the Dr. did say my cervix was very short.  I will stay on the medicine and on bedrest until at least Monday.  I see the Dr. again on Monday and hopefully at that point I will not be having any more contractions and my cervix will have grown another couple of centimeters!

Also, they performed another test on my that measures Fetal Fibronectin, something that is secreted prior to delivery.  If you have a positive test you have a 15% chance of delivering in the next 2 weeks.  If it's negative you have a 99% chance of NOT delivering in the next 2 weeks.  Mine was thankfully negative.  

That has not been an easy road for us.  Getting pregnant was a struggle and being pregnant has also been tough, but it will be so worth it in the end!

The Name Game...

So, to answer one of the most common questions that we receive, we have not yet decided upon a name for our soon to be born son. I really want to choose something distinctive and at least somewhat Norse in sound. Ami's priority is to find a set of names that sound great together, that won't cause our son to be ridiculed (although, most children seem to be able to find something to make fun of in any name - or they find something else... it's just part of growing up), and that reflects her ancestry.

We've spent a fair amount of time discussing possibilities and this is what we have come up with so far:

Liam Henry Rhys Anders Hunter Magnus Christian Drake
Cash Crash Carter Luke Ryder Conor Austin Cooper
Issac Beckett Leif Turner Gunnar Lachlan Rainier

We have 2 sets of names that we both feel pretty good about, but neither have really claimed our hearts.

Liam Anders Johnson
and
Hunter Magnus Johnson

Since we have not yet made a decision, Ami thought we should open the floor to suggestions. Please comment with any thoughts on our lists or names that you think we might like to consider.

Lars

Election Day...

I do hope everyone went out yesterday and executed their civic duty. I was excited to do so yet again and happy to see that there was a pretty good line of 50-75 people at our precinct first thing in the morning (I have not had to wait in line for the 3 previous elections that I have participated in here). I had to wait about 30-40 minutes, but everything went very smoothly and I was kept occupied while in line by reading Moby Dick. However, I cannot say that I was able to make much progress - it is a pretty long novel. We really need to let all of the poll workers know how much we appreciate their efforts. As the day progressed, the line became non-existent and Ami was able to walk right in, vote, and leave.

I think we, as a nation, deserve a round of applause for seeing a dignified end to this long campaign and I look forward to our president-elect being the sort of "Uniter" that we were falsely promised 8 years ago.

Lars