3-17-13

Martin: Berries, berries everywhere.

Today we were off along the road to the town of Stanley. This region is full of farms selling all kinds of berries and stone fruits and this time, we wanted to do our own picking. The heat was keeping the travellers down and there were only a handful of people in the extensive berry farm that we drove into. Plastic bags in hand, we headed out to the designated rows. They provide you with a list of the different berries in season and which rows currently have the ripest fruit. On with the picking and a case of two in the mouth for every one in the bag. Not long before we all had a messy looking purple/blue lipstick job on our mouths. Very relaxing picking fruit – just like watching the stars. You ever feel that you have eaten too many cherries? Well that’s how we were feeling by this point. And we still had 10kg of picked fruit!

 Me: Fat Tire 40 Race - McDowell Mountains.
Beth, Jane, Kata
St. Patrick's Day - 2013

Today's mountain bike race was great! 250 riders and tough!

As you can see it was a beautiful course lined with poppies. However, the majority of the time I was focussed on Beth's wheel in front of me. She is a strong pro rider from Tucson! We were together the whole time and she made me work hard to stay with her.

 It was a very exciting ending with an all out sprint and a photo finish between Beth and I! You can see just how close it was in this photo. Thrilling!

Finish Time: 3 hours 3 minutes and 45 seconds (for both of us).

Fun slow motion video of the finish.

Thanks, Nick for the video and photos.