... bumpin' around the town like when you're drivin' a Range Rover
Another entertaining weekend up in the SC.
Yesterday I got up at the ungodly hour of 9:45 go to karting with the NorCalBMW.com crew... it's a monthly event, this was my second time.
Last time I practiced + qualified in first place of the slower of our 2 run-groups... then went wire-to-wire in the 20 mins race to take first place!
This time, after much waiting (they scheduled another group at the same time as us), I qualified in first again, in the slower group (they just pick somewhat arbitrarily based on what they know of your past performance). But my best time in practice was a 19.650, I was absolutely FLYING. It was way faster than the 20.27 (approx) that I managed last month. I beat everyone in my practice fairly well, and did well enough to get bumped into the "fast" group for the race. Unfortunately, I'm just not fast enough to run with those guys. I ended up in 6th of 7th in the fast group, with a best lap time of 19.75 (yeah, didn't even manage to go as fast in a 20 min race while racing with FAST people, as I did in a 10 min practice!). It was frustrating because I'm trying to get a 19.5 in order to qualify for the FAST twin-engine karts. As most tracks they have faster karts you can drive if you manage to turn really fast laps, but its typically pretty hard. This place is no different. Anyway, I just couldn't keep up with the faster guys... Two of the guys in our group broke the 19.250 track record with times in the low 19.0's... absolutely blazing. These guys know what they're doing.
It really takes a lot out of you to drive those karts hard for 30 mins. After my 10 min practice my arms and shoulders were more sore than they were after the practice AND race last month. At the end of the race this time, I was just dead tired, beat, slightly dizzy.. I was pushing so hard that I had to tense my whole body through every corner..even my abs are sore today. Well, actually, my whole body is sore today -- my ribs took quite a beating from the seats.
Oh well, next month I will break 19.5, I swear it :)
After karting, we went to On The Border for drinks and mexican food... had probably 20 or so of us there. Jeff brought his girls too. Big, fun group. Didn't leave to go home until 3:30... which is something, since we checked in for karting at 10:30!
Saturday night was Kirsten's birthday party, so I met up with her and some friends at her apartment, where we hung out then went to Gordon Biersch in Palo Alto.
I ended up sleeping late AGAIN, this time till 1:45 in the afternoon today... its getting so bad, I only have a few hours of sunlight after I get up!
Did some shopping, and made it out to Costco for food and gas. On my way home I saw a grey Lotus Elise going by the other way... acting on a hunch, I turned around at the next light, sped over to the truck scales, and found my friend Kevin weighing his car... 1960lbs, not bad for 200hp, considering that my car weighs a whopping 3060lbs!
I talked Kevin into letting me take his car for a spin around the block, it was AWESOME. That car always makes me break out the mental finance calculator.. :)
We shot the breeze for awhile.. then I headed home. But didn't make it another half mile down De La Cruz before JR and Jon Wahl pulled up next to me at a stoplight, with Jeff Urbanski, visiting from Marquette.. he left SCU after his 03-04 freshman year, he comes to visit at least once a year. So I made another detour and went to In-N-Out with them... then after stopping at Safeway, didn't make it home till well after dark.. just in time to pay some bills and watch some TV!
Crazy.. can't go anywhere in this town without seeing people you know... I love it!
- reid
Yesterday I got up at the ungodly hour of 9:45 go to karting with the NorCalBMW.com crew... it's a monthly event, this was my second time.
Last time I practiced + qualified in first place of the slower of our 2 run-groups... then went wire-to-wire in the 20 mins race to take first place!
This time, after much waiting (they scheduled another group at the same time as us), I qualified in first again, in the slower group (they just pick somewhat arbitrarily based on what they know of your past performance). But my best time in practice was a 19.650, I was absolutely FLYING. It was way faster than the 20.27 (approx) that I managed last month. I beat everyone in my practice fairly well, and did well enough to get bumped into the "fast" group for the race. Unfortunately, I'm just not fast enough to run with those guys. I ended up in 6th of 7th in the fast group, with a best lap time of 19.75 (yeah, didn't even manage to go as fast in a 20 min race while racing with FAST people, as I did in a 10 min practice!). It was frustrating because I'm trying to get a 19.5 in order to qualify for the FAST twin-engine karts. As most tracks they have faster karts you can drive if you manage to turn really fast laps, but its typically pretty hard. This place is no different. Anyway, I just couldn't keep up with the faster guys... Two of the guys in our group broke the 19.250 track record with times in the low 19.0's... absolutely blazing. These guys know what they're doing.
It really takes a lot out of you to drive those karts hard for 30 mins. After my 10 min practice my arms and shoulders were more sore than they were after the practice AND race last month. At the end of the race this time, I was just dead tired, beat, slightly dizzy.. I was pushing so hard that I had to tense my whole body through every corner..even my abs are sore today. Well, actually, my whole body is sore today -- my ribs took quite a beating from the seats.
Oh well, next month I will break 19.5, I swear it :)
After karting, we went to On The Border for drinks and mexican food... had probably 20 or so of us there. Jeff brought his girls too. Big, fun group. Didn't leave to go home until 3:30... which is something, since we checked in for karting at 10:30!
Saturday night was Kirsten's birthday party, so I met up with her and some friends at her apartment, where we hung out then went to Gordon Biersch in Palo Alto.
I ended up sleeping late AGAIN, this time till 1:45 in the afternoon today... its getting so bad, I only have a few hours of sunlight after I get up!
Did some shopping, and made it out to Costco for food and gas. On my way home I saw a grey Lotus Elise going by the other way... acting on a hunch, I turned around at the next light, sped over to the truck scales, and found my friend Kevin weighing his car... 1960lbs, not bad for 200hp, considering that my car weighs a whopping 3060lbs!
I talked Kevin into letting me take his car for a spin around the block, it was AWESOME. That car always makes me break out the mental finance calculator.. :)
We shot the breeze for awhile.. then I headed home. But didn't make it another half mile down De La Cruz before JR and Jon Wahl pulled up next to me at a stoplight, with Jeff Urbanski, visiting from Marquette.. he left SCU after his 03-04 freshman year, he comes to visit at least once a year. So I made another detour and went to In-N-Out with them... then after stopping at Safeway, didn't make it home till well after dark.. just in time to pay some bills and watch some TV!
Crazy.. can't go anywhere in this town without seeing people you know... I love it!
- reid