Friends around the world...

Thanks to God that I have been able to compete in adventure sports and meet the most wonderful people from all over the world. I will post them a few at a time. I'm lucky to have them in my life...


Benoit Turcotte; Vancouver, BC, Canada

Ben and I met while sweating our butts off in 100+ degree heat at the Nuevo Leon Outdoor Challenge (Mexico) in June 2005. He is working on his Master's Degree at the University of BC. He enjoys traveling to Mexico to train with his AR team and plans to race the Nuevo Leon Outdoor Challenge in November. This photo is from his first ever Half Iron Man Triathlon earlier this year.



Claudio Saa; La Serena, Chile

Claudio was on staff at the Patagonia Expedition Race when I was there in February 2006. He was very helpful and even gave us some much needed food when we were heading off on our 5 day trekking section. He is an adventure racer and an architect in Chile. He recently presented a big project to his advisors.





Bill McBlaine; Los Angeles, California, USA

I met Bill at Primal Quest 2003 Telluride, Colorado where he was a volunteer. He became one of Team FRED's biggest fans and has become one of my best friends! He just did his first triathlon and now I'm one of HIS biggest fans...

Bill's note:
Thank you to everyone who helped out with my fundraising and sent me support. It was a fantastic season and the race was a lot of fun. Race day was really nice, cool temps for the swim and bike and it didn’t get warm till the run. The one mile swim for this race takes place through part of a kelp bed, with the unique swim skill called the “kelp crawl” coming in handy. I had been pretty apprehensive about the swim but it went quite well and I finished faster than I had anticipated. All the training really paid off on that leg. The bike was along a beautiful road passing by the Monterey shoreline. Aside from a broken spoke (!) that kept my wheel rubbing on the brakes most of the ride, it went smoothly though a bit slower than planned. The run was a fairly flat course that I ran faster than I had hoped for. That was really a surprise since I had been off running so much due to injuries. All in all a great experience, thanks to the TnT coaches, Mentors and Staff.

Although my event is over, my fundraising continues. I still have a bit to go to complete my fundraising. Team in Training fielded a team of over 200 racers in the Pacific Grove Triathlon and together we raised OVER 1.2 MILLION dollars. I’m proud to be part of this team and I encourage you to continue to donate to this great cause. Last February I learned that a friend’s co-worker was diagnosed with Leukemia. He immediately began treatments and ultimately had a stem cell transplant. As of a few weeks ago he is in remission, back with his family, back at work and back doing the things that he loves. He benefited from the research conducted by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the patient services that the Society provides. Please consider making a donation to extend the work of this worthwhile and needed organization.

You may donate online by heading to ;

http://www.active.com/donate/tntgla/tntglaBMcBlai

You may also send a check made out to LLS, mail it to me at
Bill McBlaine
3521 Lomita Blvd, #100
Torrance, CA 90505
All donations are 100% tax deductible. You will automatically receive a receipt.
I’m now planning my next triathlon….see you at the races.

Bill McBlaine

Bern's Movie Review: The Illusionist

The trick was on me,,,literally! I was bamboozled by The Illusionist! For some reason I thought I was going to see the movie The Prestige with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman--which has not even been released yet! So when it turned out to be this movie, I was very dissapointed. Don't get me wrong, Ed Norton is one of my favorite actors, but this flick didn't do him justice. I guess I was looking for more drama, magic, action, twists, and turns! Instead I got too much gushy, mushy love story. Anyhow, now's a great time for a "Guest Review" from the one, the only, mountain biker & Galaga extraordinaire Super Mario!

Review by Mario Correa

Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a magician in early 1900's Vienna, who falls in love with a woman well above his social standing. When she becomes engaged to a Crown Prince, Eisenheim uses his powers to win her back and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna.

The love story/murder mistery with a bit of the supernatural leaves the ending open to two interpretations, depending on a person's view of the supernatural. The scientific world in which the royal officials believe does not allow for such magical things to be real. And Eisenheim sets up the entire "magic" production as an elaborate ruse for him to win back his woman.

On the otherhand, being open to the idea of the supernatural could lead to a different interpretation. It could be that Eisenheim's love did die but he could still communicate with her. End of story. However, in order to get the ever inquisitive inspector "off his back" and not pester him with questions, Eisenheim HAD to give him a simple mechanical, rational explanation of how the orange trick worked. Having a rational answer for that, then everything else is rational (the unexplained was just a good slight of hand) and no more inspector to deal with ever.

In one case it's a happy ending, unlike Romeo and Juliet, but in the other it's a tragedy as all the illusionist has are conjered up images of his lost love. I liked the intertwining of illusion and the supernatural and I like that the ending was essentially left up to the viewer. The Eisenhiem character reminded me of another occultish type figure: Rasputin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin

Too bad it was only 24 hours...

Congratulations to SUPER MARIO!!! He was the overall solo winner with 21 laps at the 24 Hours of Adrenalin at Hurkey Creek! That's incredible!

Quote of the year: "Too bad it was only 24 hours. I could have kept riding!" Super Mario after riding almost 200 miles in 24 hours!

24 Hours of DMS

I decided not to race this one but I still had my own version of the 24 Hours of Adrenalin! I DMS'd the members of Team Sho-Air through the night!

Bern DMSing at 1:30am.

Thanks to Terry for keeping me company. He's also a Sho-Air rider but this time he was the 24 hour bike mechanic!

My DMS and Terry's mechanics must have worked! The Sho-Air teams were great! The 4 man team won 1st place with 29 laps and the 5 man team won 4th place!

Ich moeschte schokolade

I was invited to be a journalist at The Raid World Championships of adventure racing in Quebec, Canada from September 9-15, 2006. You can find my race reports on checkpointzero.com.

It was quite interesting seeing a race from a journalist's point of view as opposed to a racer's. But I must admit that for now, I would prefer racing. I have a greater appreciation for what the journalists do during a race. It's definitely not all fun, games and a free trip. It is work. And I appreciate them for promoting the sport I love.

I was so lucky to have met some wonderful people to share the experience with. We spent an entire 7 days together in a van, on the course, in hotels; waiting, writing, eating, practicing German, waiting, eating, laughing, writing...it was great!

The family... Sascha Jurek: German writing for www.funsporting.de ; Bernice: American racer/journalist writing for checkpointzero.com; Susan McKenzie: Canadian writing for sleepmonsters.com and reporting for Canadian radio; Arnd Hemmersbach German photographer

Although it was work, we did have some time for fun...


I took my very first helicopter ride on the first day of the race. They flew us over the racers while they were kayaking down river. It was absolutely incredible!

Sascha Jurek and Bern ready to take flight.

The organization also sent us whale watching! We saw a bunch of fin whales, humpbacks, and belugas. The tour operator said we were lucky to have such a great day with lots of whales.

Watching the finish of The Raid and listening to Isaac Wilson of Team GoLite give an interview reminded me why I love adventure racing...but don't ask me to explain!

Bern on the ferry leaving the Saguenay region of Quebec, Canada.