Introducing Flat Stanley

The Flat Stanley project was a created by a teacher for kids to make connections with other kids involved in the project. Flat Stanley is a paper cut out that kids would take with them to some of the cool places they go or fun activities they do, kind of like the gnome prank from Amelie. I developed my own Flat Stanley for my 50 in 500, and it is my green Volcom hat Lina gave me for Christmas. I realized that I've had it in most of the trips on my BLOG, so I'm planning to keep it that way and bring my Flat Stanley to all the cool places I go and fun things I do. Italy, check.

My boss Todd's Flat Stanley is the rocker horns, which he attempts to show in 99% of the pictures taken of him. Here we are in Venice with our Flat Stanleys.

2. Give Back to Cal Poly

So I thought about it and figured the best way to give back to my alma mater Cal Poly was not to give it money (6 years of tuition was enough), but instead to share the knowledge I have gained working at Oakley for the past 7 years. I'm sure they would prefer money.
Cal Poly Industrial Engineering Lecturer Karen Bangs used to be my boss's boss at his old company. I volunteered to go back up to SLO and give a presentation about Demand Planning to her supply chain class since he wouldn't be able to go. You never have to twist my arm to go back to SLO for anything, and coupling this with the Wildflower race made it a no brainer. And it gave Lina and Audrey the chance to check out the biggest Forever 21 clothing store in the world!
So I developed a presentation but mostly winged it. I told them I had the public speaking skills of a 13 year old so they're expectations were low, then I blabbed about how being a demand planner is awesome because you are heavily involved in several levels of the business, and you have a lot of control over it's success by developing the proper supply. I think the students understood what I had to say, you never know though as there are always a few kids yawning and sleeping the whole time. I may have gotten a couple dudes interested in mountain biking too, but hopefully some of them want to go into demand planning after they graduate. I enjoyed being in front of the class and it just instills the desire to become a teacher that much more. All in due time I guess. It was also pretty cool to cruise around the school like in the old days, but some of the students look so young. I get older and they stay the same age man.
In addition I got go for an awesome MTB ride with my bro-in-law Robby. He lives in Paso with Lina's sister Tina and their 2 daughters Presley and Piper. We rode this wonderful trail called Morning Glory, that drops from the radio towers on top of Cuesta Grade at about 2500 ft. down at least 1000-1500 feet to the top of Poly Canyon. The trail is the closest thing to a dirt and rock rollercoaster as you can get, with bermed turns, small jumps, and mini rock drops that you can ride 50 mph through. One of the funnest trails in the state if you ask me. Also, you can see the great views from the trails out there, with SLO in the distance behind me. Freaking awesome, and 95% of the people in SLO don't even know these trails are here, I know I didn't while I lived there.

10. Beat 59 minutes at Wildflower MTB Triathlon

This one was harder than I expected. My training regiment this year included a decent amount of MTB/run sessions during my lunch break where I would ride Whiting and immediately transition to running shoes and do a 2.25 mile run around the Oakley building. I did no swim training which is probably the reason I couldn't break 59 minutes.

Here's how it went down, Wildflower is considered the Woodstock of triathlons, its a big festival with 3 different race lengths and like 7000 competitors. The MTB tri is the shortest and sells out the fastest (1000 competitors) as people that just want to try a triathlon do this one first. While the pros compete in the long course (half iron man) and a lot of amateurs do as well (because they are insane), the MTB race is short and fast and has competitors of all levels. In fact, I finished my entire race, ate lunch, caught up with friends, and took a nap all while my friend Gabe did the bike leg of his long course race (that would be 56 miles of road bike hell). The MTB tri is a .25 mile swim, a 10 mile bike ride, and a 2 mile run; sounds easy but isn't when you are trying to sprint the whole thing.

So it was a lot of the same old guys I've seen there the past 2 years, old surfer buddies from college that are doing this for fun like me, and they stay and camp and party all night (not like me). Last year I sucked so bad going 1:03.44, a full 4+ minutes slower than the year before. This year I was more prepared, and I had a sweet 29er hardtail I borrowed from my friend Andy. The bike weighed about 25 lbs and was faaaast, I almost didn't have to pedal. I did the swim this year wetsuit free, which was advantageous in the transitions and the water was not that cold. I felt alright, but was trying to cruise so I wouldn't get too tired for the bike. I was about 40 seconds slower than my first year, but I shaved that time and more in the transition. Then to the bike, I was smoking fools as I was only passed by one guy and I must have passed 500 on my way through the 2 lap course. Thank you Andy. When I got to the transition for the run, the was no one around me, the people ahead of me were too far to catch up to and no one was chasing me down so I cruised the run (I was hurting pretty bad). But with Lina there as my good luck charm, I saw her working so hard to take pictures of me that I was able to pull through and break the hour mark at 59:50. Close enough to my goal to be satisfied, and I placed 4th in my age group and 11th overall and was definitely the fastest out of all my friends (take that!). Come to find out that top 3 get some sweet plaques so I have a new goal for next year: Top 3 whatever it takes!!!

In addition, my sister Audrey tried the race for her first time. Although she was a good swimmer in high school, the open water swim got the best of her and she didn't enjoy it. Then turns out she doesn't like mountain biking as she hates going downhill. Unfortunately, she missed the turn for the 2nd lap of the bike leg and got disqualified. She still did the run, not knowing she missed a lap on the bike and ran it faster than me at just barely over 7 min miles. Turns out she is a really fast runner and plans to stick to running races where she can dominate!