This Weekend: Fall Races and Oktoberfests Kick-off

It seems like there are two distinct race seasons in North Idaho1. Early summer (May - early July)2. Fall (September - October)So, we pretty much have August off. Except for the Cd'A Tri. Forgot about that one. I have to admit, the fall races are my favorite. Even though the earlier races include Ironman, the Cd'A Marathon and Hayden Triathlon, athletes go into those races having to worry about heat and probably didn't get to train in the heat much. That makes it pretty hard. But, if you do your races in the fall, you get to reap the benefits of the cooler air and beautiful fall colors. Trust me, it's much better this way :)So on that note, this weekend kicks off the fall races with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday.I love this race because it is one of the few fundraisers where most of the money stays locally. About 80 percent of all the proceeds benefit local cancer patients or help to fund cancer screenings. On top of that, there are other events like Paddy's Breast Fest tonight that also benefit the Komen Foundation as well as the Kootenai Health Foundation's Cancer Patient Support Fund. This is a yearly tradition for us.Next weekend is a whole other beast with two different bike events and Oktoberfest (can you believe it's already Oktoberfest!?).I hope to go into more detail about this later, but just in case here's a brief overview.Crit Fest - Have you ever heard of a criterium? Me neither. Apparently it's a bike race that will be through the streets of downtown Cd'A next Friday night. There are several different events as well as an Open Rally Ride for anyone, including kids, cruisers or whatever. The nest day, Saturday, is the Coeur d'Fondo which is a road ride around the lake. There are several distances to register for, including the Gran Fondo witch is 108 miles. I think I'll just show up for the beer drinking after ;)All of the info. for both bike events are on the Fondo site.There will be more to come next week about Oktoberfests and the race I'm doing (hint: it's the Hayden Lake half marathon) later in October.Cheers to the weekend!Andy