Saying goodbye

In the last 4 years or so I have been involved with the youth ministry at my church and in that time I have had the opportunityto get to become good friends with the youth pastor. I’m not really sure how it happened but just something about his integrity and openness drew me to him and i was able to let my guard down and talk to him about a lot of things I was dealing wit in life. On the opposite side he shared with me a lot of the challenges he was facing with life and ministry. In the last 2 years Joel really pushed me spiritually and I believe because of his influence I am a better christian for it.

He has been called to start a church in the city of Baltimore and moved over there this week. Even though I’m sad to see him go I know beyond any doubt that God is going to use him and his family in a great way to reach the lost and hurting in Baltimore. At one time I thought about moving to Baltimore to help with the church plant but that is not what God has planned for me. I don’t want to sound prideful or arrogant but I also believe there are great plans for Greensboro Baptist Church and I’m looking forward to what God has in store for us.

I know that we will cross paths again but I still have a sense of loss for the close friendship we had. Please keep the Kurz’s and the rest of the Garden Community Church plant team in your prayers.

9 Days with Rachel

This last week and a half I had a great time with just my 4 year old daughter Rachel and myself. My wife Lori and my son Jimmy have been down in Florida at Teen Missions. I will always remember this special time we had together. I am sorry to say that that much timer away from Mommy is starting to take it’s toll on Rachel and truth be told me too. We are both looking forward to pick Lori and Jimmy up tomorrow from BWI at 2 oclock after our churchs VBS.

What a dirty mountain bike

After the 24 Hours of Big Bear I went to wash my Fisher mountain bike up from the somewhat muddy course this year and decided to take a couple of pics to show how hard the course was. When I was washing the bike I noticed somehow I broke a tooth off of my middle chainring I guess from all the mud on the crankset I noticed it wasn’t shifting right.

I also noticed that disc brakes might not be a bad idea after all. After so much mud v-Brakes don’t queit work as well.

Most of the time I pride myself on keeping my bikes clean but this time the mud is a badge of honor. Took about an hour and a half to get the Fisher clean. That West Virginia clay can really stick to stuff.

100 degree recovery ride

As if the very tough, muddy course at Big Bear wasn’t enough of a challenge I though I would get in a 35 mile recovery ride yesterday in 100 degree heat and about 90% humidity. I lost about 5 pounds on that ride but I am sorry to say that it was water loss instead of the fat that I need to lose.

After the effort I put in at Big Bear my legs needed a nice easy ride to work out the lactic acid and loosen up a little bit.

 

24 Hours of Big Bear

I got back from the 17th annual 24 Hours of Big Bear last night around 7:00. I was there for two reasons the first and most inportant in my opinion was to help my friend and very talented bike wrench Jim Ressler do free mechanical support for any racer who needed it. We started working on bikes around 8:00 on Saturday morning. I had to leave for my first lap around 2 that afternoon. Jim was working on bikes until around 9 that night. At that time one of the IC3 teams needed a rider so he did 1 lap for IC3 Five Alive.

The second reason I was there was to race for the Loco Polaco team. It rained very hard Last Tuesday and Wendesday in West Virgina so the course was very wet and muddy. Everyones lap times were slower then years past but my 2 team mates Chris and Bill that went out before me put in great lap times. Around 3:30 it was my time to go hit the course. I was doing great for the first 6 miles of the 12.2 mile course. At that time there is a very long technical downhill. About 3/4 of the way down I slip in so mud and go down thankfully on my left side so I don’t hurt my right arm. No prob I get back up covered in mud and continue. At the bottom of that downhill there is a pretty good climb which I attach hard. But after that climb my right triceps start to cramp. The only reasons I can think of is my right arm hasn’t got all the strength back since I broke it back in November. Once it started cramping my right elbow pretty much locked up which really slowed me down. Once I got to the finish line for my lap my arm was useless. My teammates wouldn’t let me race for the rest of the day. Thankfully around 3:00 in the morning I felt like I could do another Lap. So they let me go out around 4:30 in the morning. That way if my arm really messed up I would not have to worry about my light battery dying on me since the sun came up around 5:30.  That lap went pretty good but my arm hurt like crazy but it did not lock up on me and My team told me that I shaved 10 minutes off my lap time. So it was a pretty good weekend. My team came in 14thout of 30 teams in sport class so I am happy with that result.

Ride of Silence

bike advoiLast night May 21 at 7 pm was the International Ride Of Silence in which I had the privilege of being able to ride with out of Rehoboth Delaware. The Ride of Silence is a ride but on every year to remember those who were killed or injured last year by motorists. The website is rideofsilence.org.

Last night out of Rehoboth we had 45 cyclists comeout for the ride. We rode in a double paceline at 12mph down route 1 with 2 state troopers as escorts. It was strange riding in such a large group without anyone talking. We also wore armbands most wore black in remembrance of those who have been killed. While others wore red to show that they have been in accidents and injured by motorists. The people from the Milford cycling group had me wear a red arm band because of a road bike accident I was involved in with a pickup a bout a month ago.[hope to write about that later.

I was very pleased by the turnout of cyclists in our area as well as the large turnouts from around the world. I know locally we had a large amount of media coverage. The local tv station even had a live feed of our roll out.

It is my hope that some motorists learn that we have a legal right to be on the road and to look out for cyclists and pedestrians

 

Loco Polaco

Here’s my latest cycling team for 24 hours at Big Bear.  I’m the 2nd from the left.

A Fun Work Weekend

Tomorrow I have a wonderful opportunity to get away for an extended weekend. I will be flying down to Nashville Tennessee to help out with a friend with the ministry God has layed on his heart. My friend Oliver has started a ministry called Mission to Missionaries, missiontm.org, . Oliver was a missionary kid so he knows the needs that our missionaries face.  Mission to Missionaries is going to be a retreat center for missionaries so when they come home from their mission Fields they can have a place to come and relax and have some quiettime before going back to the field or going to different churches for fund raising.

They have some very pretty property by a small town called Crossville Tennessee in the mountains. We will be clearing out areas for some more road as well as clearing around a stream, that runs through the property

Not looking forward to getting up at 2:30 in the morning but it will be well worth it. I hope I don’t run into problems at the airport because of the stainless steel holding my arm together. Even though we will be working hard I am looking forward to spending some time with old friends and meeting new ones.

Hope to write about it Monday when I get back.

Olympic torch

I was looking at internet news this morning and came across an article about the Olympic torch relay through San Francisco and the protests involved with the relay. I support those that are protesting in a non violent way. As a follower of Christ I believe there are many human rights violations in China concerning Tibet as well as their treatment of some of their own citizens. I do not support those that are protesting with violence I don’t see how that can help but only make matters worst for those we are trying to help.

I am encourage by the movement in a lot of mountain bike circles to make sure that they do not buy bikes or components that were made in China as a form of protest. In my opinion it would be nice to see mountain bikers and cyclists boycott the Olympics. If that isn’t the case I pray somehow through the summer Olympics that the spotlight will be put on these human rights issues and change in China.

I try to keep my politcal views out of my blog but I felt that I had to write on this subject.

Thursday night rides

Even though the time change was a few weeks ago I am happy to say that last night was the official 5 oclock Thursday night Milford group ride kick off. It is so nice getting together and riding with other cyclists during the week.

Even though it was the start of the season there was only 4 of us. The weather was less the favorable with a temp of 48 degrees and wind out of the southwest at 25 mph with a steady rain it was still a great ride just being out on the bike with good friends.

Over the years our Milford Delaware group has grown from 3 of us to about an average of 10 to 20 riders showing up for our Tuesday and Thursday night rides. If you are ever around Milford and would like to ride please join us.