A Zillion Thanks

I owe some big thanks to so many of you for contributing in a multitude of ways to the success of our Team Lucca this past year.

I was delighted to hear over and over again over the course of the year from people at so many events how great it was that we were there.

I hope that this next year brings as much enthusiasm, fun and exciting times for our team as this past one has.

So a huge thanks to all of you who showed up wearing those bright brown Team Lucca jerseys at way too many race events to mention.

It is always an honor to have you represent our Team but truly what excites me the most is the fact that all of you made a choice along the way to do something pretty incredible for yourselves.

Often at some point during any event I would find myself so moved, just thrilled, covered with goose bumps watching you accomplish your goals.

You are all an inspiration to me and I look foward to more good things to come.

Some special thanks to the following

Much of the effort of our team events this year in local races and training goes to these two ladies. Becky and Emily were relentless in their dedication, energy and input. Much of the success of Team Lucca 2010 is because of these two wonderful and talented runners.

Thrilling to have these two incredible ladies represent

Team Lucca around the world.

Karyn at the Western States 100, AR50, Iron Man Cozumel, and so many more races and Tamara in

Athens, Greece, Nashville, SF's "Bay to Breakers", San Diego half and then some.

Big thanks for the perpetual encouragement for the whole team from six time Iron Man finisher, Joanne - who also taught me the gross but necessary art of dislodging nose mucosa

( Not even sure mucosa is a real word, maybe a little Sarah P going on there, just trying to be delicate about the snot rocket thing)

Still, gotta keep those air passages open, right Jo?

Always grateful for my own personal inspiration - My boys

Luke and Joe

We could not have put together another successful Urban Cow/Team Lucca sponsored Running Symposium without the help, humor, years of experience filled running insights from one of my local running heros, Rick Kushman

Many thanks to you all and stay posted for TEAM LUCCA 2011

Pre Team Meeting coming middle of January

Hope to see you there ~ Terri

And they're off - California International Marathon

and they're incredible -

I run out of words describing this lady. The indefatigable Karyn Hoffman raced back from setting a personal record at the Ford Ironman last Sunday in Cozumel to be the 4:00 pace group leader at this mornings California International Marathon.

Run Margaret run! My inspiration, Margaret who is running CIM to celebrate her age which is what you get when you reverse the 2 and the 6 in 26 miles.

Margaret's son, Alex and his adorable Heather, both racing this morning to support mom. This "short" distance race being part of Alex's running plan in his training endeavor to someday soon hopefully, run the Western States 100.

Go Jim! Jim is already a Boston qualifier recently back from a marathon in Athens, Greece. Can't even tell you how many times Jim has run CIM. I just know he runs marathons like some people run to the grocery store. Jim will be picked up at around mile 20 and paced in by his incredible running daughter, Tamara.

Also running in with Jim is Team Lucca Coach, many time marathoner and mom to be, Becky MacBride.

Representing Team Lucca by way of Roxy Restaurant is the lovely Chrissie. Chrissie recently ran the Women's Nike Marathon in San Francisco where good looking firemen hand you a Tiffany necklace at the finish. This race being hard to get into for obvious reasons.

Wishing all of our Team Lucca Runners, the best, most painless, fastest for you, race today.

Best Little Team in the Land

So it was this past Thanksgiving morning that we put on multiple layers and headed out into the freezing cold morning to do what we love to do, run, walk and for some, just be with a crowd of about 25,000 others doing something good for this little city, this community, this place on the planet we call home. The "Run to Feed the Hungry" is a testament of this city's commitment to the needs of the less fortunate.

The Sacramento Food Bank is truly an inspiring organization run by my friend, Blake Young.

Team Lucca has participated in the "Run to Feed the Hungry" for 8 years now and in an effort to take the giving back idea up a notch has held a homespun raffle at the post team brunch the last three years.

Many thanks to -

• Richard Lewis and the Sacramento Theatre community for generously donating theatre tickets to upcoming shows like "9 to 5" and "Suds" http://californiamusicaltheatre.com
• Our Lucca neighbor, American Graffiti Tattoo for donating a free body piercing americangraffiiti-tattoo.com
• Katie Tipton for a brand new Snowboard
• Jeannie Bewley for a beautiful watch from http://jeanniesjewelry.com
• Rhett from Mercedes Benz of Sacramento for the Mercedes Swag bag http://mbsacramento.com
• Team Lucca's own, Gail Hart - One hour fitness training at "Training with a Personal Touch"
• Team Lucca's Phillip Wade from Arco Arena for a Chris Webber Royals Jersey
• Guy Couture for a One hour massage with "The Massage Guy" at 2617 J Street
• Gourmet Dog Treats by Jodie at http://givethedogabone.net
• Skin Care products and Gift Certificate from "The Laser & Skin Surgery Center of Northern California" http://skinlasers.com
• A Facial from Gina at "The Alternative Skin Care Day Spa"
• Delicious wines from D'Anneo Vineyards and a Four pack of Ferrari Carano Wine
• A Gorgeous Scarf by Lizzette Crosbie
• Holiday Pies by Pastry Chef Kristina Dula at Roxy Restaurant roxyrestaurantandbar.com
• Gift Certificates to Lucca and Roxy Restaurants http://luccarestaurant.com
• All Natural Beef Gift Certificates from Lucky Dog Ranch luckydogranchbeef.com

and more.

So thank you everyone so much for your generosity.

Thank you Gretchen, Glenn and the staff at Lucca and Roxy Restaurant, with your ticket selling effort we will be able to contribute $1500 to the Sacramento Food Bank.

Coming up next: California International Marathon

Scared? Check!

My son Luke and I, Last Thanksgiving

My friend gave me this great little yoga bag with the good intent of trying once again to get me to love yoga. It is peppered with inspiring sayings such as –

“Dance, Sing, Floss and Travel”

“Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle the setbacks”

“Friends are more important than money”

“Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to”

“Your outlook on life is a direct reflection on how much you like yourself”

And the one I think of every single day that I take off down the road on my bike

“Do one thing a day that scares you”

Easily done. Check that.

This morning not even a mile from home a large black SUV swerved right at me coming within arms distance while traveling about 40 mph down a wide enough for four cars, street.

Close call. Stomach flipping, heart pounding, fear filled, close call.

Don’t know what the heck that driver was thinking. Whether it was deliberate or if they were, early though it was, affected by drugs or alcohol or most likely just not paying attention, matters not. They still managed to scare the wits out of me.

That incident, just one example of the many crazy fear laden moments that cause me to achieve the daily fulfillment of the yoga bag mantra- “Do one thing a day that scares you”.

I know that even for cyclists who ride often and really well and have years of experience, cycling can be perpetually frightening . Cars and crazy drivers aside, on any given day on my ride to work there may just happen across the trail kamikaze squirrels, rattlesnakes, deer, turtles and turkeys all rightfully in their own little place in the universe at the exact moment, I squeal into a blind curve.

Rattle Snake on the Parkway

There is also particular to this time of the year, the dreaded leaves. I adore autumn especially the outrageously beautiful color changing of the leaves. Yet from a cycling perspective there is another dark side to the famous fall leaf. At some point through the transformation from beauty to wet and mushy pile of compost they extract a substance, slippery as all get out, that quickly turns any given bunch of leaves into bad-ness incarnate.

My one bad bike accident involved leaves.

While waiting to be x-rayed, one of the attending doctors said something like,

“Leaves was it? Surely you jest?” ( Either in my memory he was British or I am recently reading too many English novels)

Surely not, I said.

Wet mushy leaves are as terrifying as walnut husks, little fat acorns, broken glass, fallen branches.

There is too, the being in the middle of nowhere with a flat, the sudden rain or hail storm miles from home, the thankfully infrequent encounter with a slightly crazed homeless person and the most basic one act that many non-cyclists consider sheer madness - the clipping in of oneself to the frame of something on which you travel quite fast with only the tiniest bit of tire surface in contact with the earth at any given time.

So yes, doing one thing nearly every day that scares the heck out of me – accomplished. Check that.

Love my bike. Love to ride. Happy Autumn, truly my favorite season.

Stay tuned for next weeks information on our big event of the year, "The Run to Feed the Hungry"

Run to Feed the Hungry, Happening soon

Running - Riding - Triathlons

It has been one busy year, soon to be culminating with one of my favorite races

"The Run to Feed the Hungry" held every year on Thanksgiving morning http://runtofeedthehungry.com/

TEAM LUCCA will be out there in force much like in years past.

If you would like to join our team, register on line under TEAM LUCCA.

After the race join us at Roxy for a delicious complimentary Brunch.

Please call Roxy 916.489.2000 for more information

At our post race brunch you can purchase $2 raffle tickets for prizes such as theatre tickets, Kristina's holiday pies, magnums of wine and gift certificates to Lucca and Roxy, just to name a few.

All proceeds from the raffle go directly to the Sacramento Food Bank.

http://sacramentofoodbank.org

I look forward to seeing you on Thanksgiving.

Happy Autumn!

Terri

Urban Cow Second Annual Runners Symposium at Lucca

Join us This Wednesday Evening at Lucca

for our

2nd Annual Urban Cow Runners Symposium

$25 a ticket includes food and wine

Please call Glenn at Lucca to purchase tickets and for more information

916.669.5300

An evening with some of Sacramento's highly regarded runners talking - running

Deborah Meltvedt didn’t play organized sports but describes herself as a “wanna-be jock” since junior high. She came to running in her early 30s, and since then has run four marathons

Rick Kushman has run track and cross country since high school, has regularly been a nationally-ranked masters miler - says he can’t imagine life without some running in it, and despite being a middle-distance track guy, he’s come to believe there are few things better in the world than that long weekend run

Sam McManis has completed 10 Marathons is an excellent local runner and is currently training for the 2011 Boston Marathon

LeAnn Nienow competed in Ironman events in Canada, Brazil, Coeur D Alene and Western Australia

Tim Twietmeyer, 5 time Western States 100 Mile Winner. Tim has completed a sub 24 hour Western States 25 times

Rich Hanna, Race Director California Road Race Management. Rich is an Olympic Trials marathon qualifier, a two -time national 100-kilometer champion and was second in the world in the 100k

How far do you run? How fast ? Gadgets? Yes, no maybe so? What is the one piece of apparel or equipment you can’t live without? Typical training pace? Inspiration? Who is it? What is it? Where is it? Stretching? Foam rollers? Compression socks? Massage ? helpful? How much? What’s your favorite place to run in Sacramento? Ever hated a race? What do you think about when your body says QUIT! NOW? Racing etiquette, what’s your biggest pet peeve? What motivates you more than anything else? Do you have any little sayings you run by? Who is your favorite runner? Where do you line up at the race? What is your favorite brand of running shoes? If you could encourage one other person to be a runner, who would it be and why? We all start somewhere. Where did you start running? Favorite running saying? Caffeine, Shot Blocks, GU gels, Cytomax? Who is your favorite runner? Have you ever lost your cookies after a race? What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen happen in a race? What’s the funniest? Have you ever burst into tears at the finish line? Ipod? No Ipod? What’s your favorite running song? How darn proud are you of the huge increase of women runners these days? Worst running injury? How hard was it not to run? Do you even like running hills? What do you eat before a race? During a race? What’s the best race you’ve ever run and why? What one thing has made you a better runner? Do you sometimes hate running? What is the thought process that gets you out of bed on a cold early morning to go run 10 miles? Best running experience? Worst? How do you make it all work, training time wise? Best advice you’ve ever been given as a runner? Can you drink wine and run the next day? What’s your favorite time of the day to run? What’s it like running through the night? Have you ever been afraid? See any bears? Trail running or road running, what's your favorite ? What is it that pushes you through the wall? How does your spouse or partner deal with all the time you spend running?

What do you love the most about running?

Come find out - This Wednesday Evening

Lucca Restaurant 1615 J Street, Sacramento 916.669.5300

urbancowhalfmarathon.com

Allison MTB Worlds and Karin

Congratulations to the amazing Allison Mann who rode as the pro she is for TEAM USA at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Mont Sante Anne, Canada. We will be cheering for you all year Allison and hope to hear all about another great adventure in 2011 at the MTB World Championships in Champery, Switzerland.

If you love and live to Mountain Bike you can read about Allison's grand time at the world championship on her blog site http://allisonmann.net/

And good luck to an amazing Tri-athlete and ultra runner, Karin Weber Sanders who is participating in this weekends, Rio Del Lago 50K.

We're all wishing you all the best out there Karin!

1st Upcoming Spectacular September Event at Lucca

Join us for these two exciting events - one for cyclists, one for runners either and both for anyone who just wants to enjoy good food, beer and wine and have a really good time

Thursday Evening ~ September 23, 6:30 pm

We are happy to host the arrival of two guys, Paul and Adam who have been cycling across the country to raise money to purchase bikes for kids whose parents serve in the military.

You can read far more about them and their venture at their web site

http://bikefree.org/

And to celebrate their being in Sacramento, joining them all the way from Baltimore, their friend and ours -

2009 Top Chef Contestant, Jessica Sandlin

Jesse wil be assisting Lucca Chef, Ian MacBride in putting together a delicious four course dinner for $40 a person

Beer and Wine are not included

50% of all the dinners proceeds and wine/beer sales at the event , will go to the Bikefree organization.

Thank you already to Brian from Mike's Bikes who will be providing door prizes for the dinner.

http://mikesbikes.com

Come listen to Paul and Adams tell of their cross country cycling adventure and meet the charming and delightful, Chef Jessica Sandlin

Tickets can be purchased at Lucca Restaurant

1615 Street, Sacramento

916.669.5300

Runners event posted soon.

Talkin bout my generation

Today I had lunch with a very well educated, well spoken dear friend of mine, Alan and embarassingly heard myself blurt out at one point, “Alan, like that is so cool”. Thank God my brain registered what I was saying before I had time to add “dude” at the end of that completely cringe worthy kind of juvenile speak.

I hang around with a lot of young people. They rub off on me. The benefits are endless, they infuse the world, theirs and mine with energy and excitement. Drawbacks are the often overly exaggerated drama over the littlest thing, a state of being arising from not being worn down enough by the world quite yet.

I was telling my kitchen guys at Roxy the other day about marching in Denver’s central park when I was young in protest of the Vietnam war along with my fiery red headed die hard Democrat grandmother. I remember believing, protest aside, I was the epitome of coolness in my pink crochet vest, hippie head band and yellow bell bottoms. Grandma held my hand the whole time lest someone try to snatch me away while she and I took turns carrying a sign that read - WAR! NO MORE!

One of the guys responded with “Really? You were alive then? You’re THAT old?”

Last month the city of Sacramento hosted the Masters Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. The USATF typically requires that masters athletes be at least 40 years old prior to the day of the meet, however this meet included events for those in their thirties as well.

For any young runner looking for a shot of inspiration this would have been the place to be. While checking out all those beautiful “old” bodies, you just might have had your socks blown off by some of the paces these old runners set.

An example of some past records - In 2005 and at 72 years of age, Ginette Berdard ran the marathon course in New York in 3:46:18 and Sacramento’s own Barbara Miller set the women’s marathon record in the 60 plus age group in 1999 with a time of 3:14:50.

Or how about these guys, Ed Whitlock, from Canada who at 75 holds the men’s mile age group record with a time of 5:41:80 or Joseph King from the USA who at 82 years old set the record for the mile in his age group at 7:09:60.

Darn impressive.

I always enjoy when a new runner pours over the results of one of their first races and comes back to me with the surprising discovery that “I can’t believe 8 women in their fifties ran faster times than I did.” I just laugh and remind them, look what you have to look forward to. Great thing about running is you can keep getting faster and faster as long as you continue to work harder and harder.

Which I do not, work very hard that is, because the competitive bone in my body broke down a long time ago. I run now 100% of the time for the pure joy of running. If I race at all, it is only for the thrill of being out there with our team.

However, I am the biggest supporter of the plenty of others in my generation who with such great ability, devotion to the sport and distinguished sense of pride race passionately and often. I have a whole set of lady friends in their forties, fifties and sixties who have all completed so many Ironman events that I cannot even keep track.

And then there is Jim. The minute he starts to talk you know he is from Boston. And what runner can be from Boston and not aspire to go back there again and again to compete in the world’s most famous marathon. So very happy that Jim qualified to do so once again when he ran the San Francisco Marathon in July. And with that all I can say and please forgive me for this but on behalf of myself and Team Lucca - Jim you are like, really like, one super cool dude. Like just so awesome! So super groovy! Word up man! Word up.

Here is Jim’s synopsis of the race:

Terri,

Thanks for the kind words regarding my participation in the San Francisco Marathon. Becky MacBride and Tam convinced me to run SF when I failed to qualify at San Diego in June by less than 4 minutes. I needed a 4 hour finish. The course proved to be every bit as hilly as one could expect for a race that goes across the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Presidio, Golden Gate Park and then back to the Embarcadero. The weather stayed cool (52 degrees) and no wind. At ten mlles my watch died so I ran the rest of the race trying guess my time. At the finish I thought I was too late to qualify but Tam checked the computers and told me a few minutes later I had finished in 3:59:14. Needless to say it was good news for a very tired runner.

The course is very well maintained and has more than enough support. I know because I visited two of the first aid stations in attempt to resolve the blisters I picked up on the very steep downhills.

Becky did very well also, finishing well in front of me. Tam did the half marathon and really enjoyed the first half of the marathon course. I may actually be crazy enough to do it again next year.

Jim

Race for the Arts coming up soon

Never too late to mention -

A big thank you to James Navicky who came to the rescue with a kayak for Jeff for "The Great Race".

Jeff, awesome sous chef at Roxy realized he did not have time to make the six hour round trip drive to go pick up his kayak from his dad who had recently borrowed it. So it was James and Jennifer to the rescue with very short notice. As a proper thanks, Jeff has volunteered to make this wonderfully fit vegan couple a three course all vegan dinner at Roxy.

Jeff by the way did a great job at the race even though my team's kayaker Joe, beat Jeff by a minute. Always a proud mom. Still so much fun having all you guys out there.

And then it took a scientist. The winner of the "Legs" contest was Team Lucca marathoner, Andy Schile. Andy with his very astute scientific sensibilities had no problem figuring out 90% of those Team Lucca legs.

And speaking of legs-

Get yours ready because we race again, Saturday morning, August 28th at the "Race for the Arts"

Register soon as the registration cost always goes up right before the race.

http://raceforthearts.com

Complimetary family style breakfast on the patio at Roxy for all our Team Lucca runners after the race.

Racing in August

Next Team Lucca Race

Saturday Morning, August 28th

Race for the Arts, 5K

Willilam Land Park

Mid Summer Race

Midsummer Race Weekend

Get yourself ready for a short sweet race this Saturday, with an 8:30 start at the East Lawn Cemetary. When my friend Sal told me of his plans to start up a new Sacramento 5K race at this location, I had to laugh inwardly at his uncontained excitement every time he spoke of it. To me the thought of a race start and finish in a cemetary was a crazy awkward and somewhat morbid idea. I envisioned some people standing around in reverent silent respect and others in their unrestrained cheering of friend or famiy, jumping up and down way too close to someone in a state of eternal repose.

As it turns out the venue is quite beautiful and the race itself is truly one of the most well put together races in the city. East Lawn and surronding neighborhood provide a shade laden tranquil course around some of the most upper crust homes in all of Sacramento.

A belated mention of the San Diego Marathon and Half Marathon which six of our team participated in, Emily, Andy, Jim, Eric, Julie and Tamara.

The pros -
As a destination race San Diego has it all, beautiful beaches, great restaurants, plenty to do besides race.

The cons -
The race is touted as scenic with a big finish at Sea World. The whole group thought that besides Balboa Park and parts of downtown the scenery was rather disappointing. As far as Sea World, you end up in the parking lot. Pure hot asphalt were it took hours to reconnect and then be transported back to hotels.

Good luck to Becky, Tamara and Jim who will be racing in the San Francisco Marathon this Sunday. Should be a lovely weekend for racing.

http://The Great Race 2010

Andreas Kloeden, Alexandre Vinokourov, Frank Schleck ( the day he crashed and I crashed) Mark Krenshaw ( the day after he was ejected and the day I knew would be for me, a head butting kind of day).

Each morning before I ride to work and after getting up at five in the morning to watch the Tour de France, whether he wants to know or not, I tell Ron who I will be on that day. letour.fr/us/index.html

This morning as Ron is on his way out the door at five thirtyish, he turns around as if he just remembered something and asks “so who are you today honey?” He laughs, he always laughs at his Pippi Longstocking’s wife with the overly amped imagination.

Already wound up with excitement and too much caffeine I tell him, “Mark Cavendish, today I am Mark Cavendish. I am going to save it all for the wild sprint at the end and then turn it on like you can’t even imagine. It will all come down to the guy with the aero helmet, the skin suit, the Zipp wheels and me. It will be a screaming, chaotic, frenzied finish and I will nail it, a human mis-sile (as Phil Ligett would say) shot from a canon.”

markcavendish.co.uk/

Yeah right! Well one can dream for sure.

My husband smiles that God help me where did I find you kind of smile, rolls his eyes and tells me “good luck silly” and then we’re off. He to go work a couple hundred head of steers out at the ranch and me to do the cycling stage of the Great Race.

The Great Race which used to be referred to as Eppie’s Great Race is a unique home town event consisting of participants competing individually and on numerous teams. It takes place along the gorgeous American River parkway and has developed quite a following over the years. thegreatrace.org

At breakfast after the race it was great to hear both Julie and Eric, each who did all three stages of the race, the run, the ride and the kayak, declare it as one of the best races they have participated in. A really fun event filled kind of day.

Today once again, I got to be the cyclists on a team with my son Joe who did the kayak portion and friend Alan who ran the run. Our other team of fast guys, Dale with the run, Craig on the bike and Jeff in the Kayak, all from Lucca and Roxy are so good, I can imagine them being just thrilling to watch.

Mark Cavendish aside, truly this race is about fun and safety first, not in thinking you are someone you are not or participating at a level beyond your ability. What makes it interesting every year to me from a relay perspective is that you get thrown into the mix with some pretty fierce, top local competitive athletes and those that ride, run or kayak solely on an infrequent and recreational basis. With that kind of menagerie, some crazy dangerous accidents can and do happen. One guy today sadly enough was down in the middle of the trail when I rode by with EMT people already there performing CPR. I heard later he had a heart attack while riding. Down the trail further I passed another guy being helped half buried in dust, ashen gray and covered in blood.

I try to convey to our team to ride, run, swim, kayak, perform at your own level so that you do not hurt yourself or anyone else. Truly no one besides one’s self, by the time all is said and done usually remembers or even cares all that much how many seconds or minutes it took to get to that finish line. Racing at this level is meant to be first and foremost cause for a good time. I know when the adrenaline builds to various degrees, a good old heart pounding, keen eyed, crazy competitive sense rises in the best of us or the worst of us. Yet racing at our level anyway should never get so out of hand that one’s health or safety are compromised.

Among the highest level of professionals and among the truly gifted athletic, be it Lance Armstrong riding the tour or my son Luke going over Mt. Palomar on his training ride today or Karyn Hoffman doing her ultra runs, all consider every factor, analyze and think through well before hand how best to adhere to and maintain a successful and often times winning performance well within their capability.

Hydration and nutrition, past injury and daily recovery, equipment, the course and even a daily physical and mental analysis are all vastly important in determining their own unique ability and the realm of performance that they will expect to operate within, on any given day.

So no you shouldn’t or rather I shouldn’t think I am Mark Cavendish - or maybe only when no one is looking. Just kidding -truly I am an overly safe rider, nothing like breaking something badly and painfully, to make one so right away.

So with that, here is a little trifle of race wisdom for next week’s race when it may be close to 100 degrees out on the course.

Race smart. Race well. Race happy.

Congratulations to Julie, Eric and Leann for becoming Great Race Ironmen and our relay Team Lucca people, Joe, Jeff, Craig, Dale, Alan and Megan. So wonderful to see those brown jerseys flying along the trail in every direction this morning.

Thank you Emily, Andy, Dan and Becky and the numerous people I heard yell “Go Team Lucca’ along the way.

Finally, with pro cycling still on the mind, one of the guys at work recently asked me who my favorite pro cycling team really is – Team Radioshack? Columbia HTC? BMC? Team Saxo Bank?

Beyond a doubt, Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12. A professional group of women cyclists, founded by Nicola Cranmer. I got to see some of them in action at the Tour of California. You can find them on facebook. They are incredible and an inspiration to all women cyclists.

teamtwenty12.com

Hope to see many of you next weekend. Alzheimer’s Aid Race. Saturday morning, fun times running.