April in Stockton... you know the routine. Asparagus Festival! This, the 23rd one, was held in beautiful downtown Stockton on what felt like the hottest day of the year. Emily and I arrived at 6:45 in the morning to register for the 5k Spear-It Fun Run.

This was the first organized run either of us have ever did and felt good out there, not stopping or walking at all. When we approached the water station Emily even suggested we slow down a little and let the group ahead of us go through and get their water. This way, we would miss the mess of the bunch and get our cups without stopping... what a smart idea.

We completed the 5k in 33:35. I've ran faster but haven't ran at all since December. It sure was a far cry from my first attempt at running a mile in 2006.



So, besides the 5k run, I tried deep fried asparagus for the first time, we saw some amazing frisbee dogs and met Martin Yan from Yan Can Cook!

Check out the pics here.

Check out last year's Asparagus Festival.

I recently posted about my goal of riding my 10,000th mile by July. So far, I recently crossed over the 9,100 mile mark... I am almost there. Given that great weather is ahead, I see no problem smashing my 10,000 mile goal.

To celebrate the miles, I started taking a picture every 100 miles. No matter where I am, when I cross each 100 miles, I take a picture and send it to Flickr. Enjoy.



If you see me riding through Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, etc., and see me taking a picture while I'm riding, get my attention and say, "cheese"!

On Sunday, Mike and I rode the Primavera Century. We got an early start out of Stockton and pulled in to the parking lot in Union City a couple of minutes after 7 AM. I rode the 100 mile route in 2005 but Mike and I decided to ride the 100k.

Mike and I both immediatley noticed that all of the departing riders were wearing long pants. We both neglected to bring long pants. "We'll be fine." I kept saying. We checked in quickly, got our 100k route sheet and headed out! We caught up with a couple of guys from Alamo and had a few good laughs as we rolled through Union City, Fremont and Milpitas. It was a little chilly outside but I was pretty happy that I didn't over dress for the day.

After the first rest stop and just as we approached the first climb at Calaveras road we saw a couple of guys riding fixed gear bikes. Wow, those fixies are amazing! These guys were easily 20 years older than me and were in amazing shape! Mike stayed with me for a minute or so until I punched ahead. I felt great and was happy to be climbing again! I waited for Mike at the top and we headed back down the other side together.

As we got to Sunol I was feeling great. I still ride a triple (52/42/30) but have been considering converting to a double for some time. After climbing very well up Calaveras in my middle ring I told myself that I would avoid the smallest ring all day.

About 30 minutes before Mike and I rolled in to the Sunol rest stop I got a text message from Dan on Twitter. Oh what fun Twitter is. I only recently decided to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, thanks to David at the FredCast (the internet's premiere cycling podcast!). I love Twitter and have been playing around with tracking keywords via text message. Besides tracking 'Stockton' and 'Lodi' I also started tracking 'Primavera' a couple of days before this ride. All I got was a bunch of stuff in Spanish and had to eventually untrack it. It was my tracking of 'Pleasanton' that introduced me to Dan. This guy flew through the 100k course! His stats were incredible... gave me chills reading it.

After a slight climb up Dublin Canyon and the final rest stop we approached my favorite part of this ride: Palomares Road. Here's a pic of the view in front of me.


This climb was tough but I was able to keep it in the middle ring the whole way up. Again, I felt really good on this climb and marched up the hill gritting my teeth and sweating bullets the whole way. When I got near the top the other riders that were waiting and cheering helped me crest the top. As soon as I could see the top, I stood up and pushed to the top. I waited for a few minutes and then went down about a mile or so to find Mike. I was happy to find him working hard to get to the top and after letting him rest for a a brief spell, I paced him up to the top. Mike often kills me on the flats but will freely admit climbing is not his strength. Given that, I was amazed at his perceiverance and proud that he pushed to get to the top the way he did.

Here's the top of Palomares looking down on the road I took to get here.


On the back side of Palomares, I flew down and enjoyed the prize of a fast descent, topping at 35 MPH! It was a good ride back in to Union City. After we loaded the bikes up we headed to the school for the post-ride meal. I was dissapointed with the food here. The food was just ok but was craving a Pepsi. I normally don't drink soda but have been used to a post-ride pop. Not at this ride. Water, gatorade, lemonade and instant tea (yuk!) were the only options. The lasagna was good but the bread and brownies could have doubled for hockey pucks.

All in all, I really enjoyed this ride. Very clear road markings and decent rest stops. A very, very nice course with great views and awesome hills. Check out the few pics I took here.

Final stats: 64.8 miles / 13.4 MPH

Primavera next year? Absolutely! Maybe I'll even do the 100 miles again. Next big ride - The Delta Century (100 mile).

Check out Dan's blog entry here.

Mike and I went to game three of the ECHL playoffs last night to watch the Stockton Thunder square off against the Las Vegas Wranglers. The Thunder took an early lead with the first goal and then even got up to a 0-3 advantage. The cheers were quieted by the end of regulation when the Wranglers scored three unanswered goals of their own. We played a tough OT period but just couldn't score, even with a couple of power plays! The Wrangler finally put us out of our misery with less than a minute left on the clock. The Thunder are now down 3-1 and need another win to stay alive.

Check out the pics here.


I also took a couple of videos. The first one is the of the first goal scored of the game, the second one is one of a flying puck (not sure how well that comes across on YouTube).

Happy 4th Birthday to the youngest member of our household. Sashi Noir Beckwith turns 4 years old today.

It seems like only yesterday when Dawn and the girls took me to see her. "Just come see her, Dad" said Emily. "If you don't like her we don't have to bring her home" Makenzy added. Well, we all went to see her and it worked... there was no way I was telling them no.


June 2004


It isn't just Sashi that is growing up fast... look at the girls!


Look at her now... at four years old.

Happy birthday Sashi!