Meet the 2013 Bloggers

Over the next few months, we'll be hearing from a number of people with different perspectives on how to approach this event. The posts will range from people doing the event for the first time, to the 17th time, or those who will be coaching our fitness and nutrition regimen. Keep your eyes out for a lot of helpful information from now until May 20th.

Meet the Bloggers

Aaron West
This will be Aaron's third attempt on Mitchell, but possibly the most challenging yet. He is dealing with a freak stress fracture that occurred late last year. If he heals in time, he will be facing Mitchell with very little training. He has his own blog, SteepClimbs.com, where he talks about adventures in the southeast. He is serving as the editor of this year's Assaults blog.

Peter Kay
Peter's first big event and group ride was the 1995 Assault on Marion. The year after, he tried Mitchell for the first time, completing his first Assault in a painfully long 11 hours. Since then he has been hooked! Eventually he took to racing, then later coaching with TotalCyclist, and in 2010 took over as head coach of the Spartanburg Junior Cycling Team. He returned to the Assaults in 2011 as the Ride Director (and launched this blog). Now he is riding and racing with Athletix Benefetting Globalbike, and hopes to set a PR on this year's AoMM.

Bobby Sweeting 
Bobby is a transplant from Connecticut and Florida, now living in Asheville, NC. He is a pro cyclist, member of the Kenda Pro 5-Hour Energy Team, and he has a successful coaching company called Kinetic Potential. He will be sharing occasional training tips and areas to focus to prepare for the big event. 

Kelli Jennings
Kelli lives is a professional nutritionist living in the Denver, CO area. She is also a cyclist, mountain biker, and mountain climber. Her most impressive achievement is climbing 50 of the 'Fourteeners' in Colorado. She is also a nutritional coach with her own company, Apex Nutrition. She'll be talking about training diets and fueling rides.

Kevin Pearl
Kevin aka "The Masher" will be attempting Mitchell for the first time. He's a former Marine that lives in Kentucky. He has been cycling since 2006, and developed a true passion for the sport. He is not new to climbing, having succeeded at Hincapie's Gran Fondo last year, but Mitchell will be a new type of challenge for him. You can read more from Kevin at Ram Cycling.

Paul Thomas
Paul is an assistant professor of Education at Furman University, after teaching and coaching in high school for 18 years. He started cycling seriously around 1984-1985 and rode his first Assault in 1988, finishing in an exhausting and excited 7:15. His best time so far is 5:57 (62nd place), when he was 46. He has flirted with the golden 6-hour mark a few other times, finishing in 6:09 and 6:10 in recent years. He has entered about 17 Assaults and a handful or so Marion rides, completing about 15 of the Mitchell Assaults. Two of his worst experiences were an 8-hour day in 2004, when he had just returned to serious cycling, and abandoning the blistering hot ride the year after his best time.


These are the major players for now. We hope to be able to share the occasional guest post as well. 

Please feel free to leave feedback, questions, or requests in the comments.

Happy Riding!