episode 124: oxygen debt

My return to Tuesday Night Titans

"hello, thanks for calling the clog factory this is fatmarc speaking, how can I help you?


" hey, dude, it's Buddy. how you doing?"

"Me, I'm feeling better, still coughing a lot, but getting better, you?"

"I'm still pretty tired from the weekend. Matt and I were talking, and figured Todd is going to be flying tonight,
we might just let him go, you know ride a kinder, mellower pace, what do you think ?"

"Hmmm. well, I'm kinda interested to see what's in the tank, I might not have an option, but really my goal was to
hang in for an hour or so, and roll off on my own a bit. I can go mellow, no worries."

"Okay, so we'll play it by ear, but I think I'm gonna be mellow..."

I hung up the phone and said to myself. This is going to be a hard ride. Anytime Buddy says he's looking for an easier ride, someone is going to get their legs ripped off. I just hope that it's not gonna be me.

Sure enough, Todd (el presidente), Matt (run forest), Buddy the leg breaker, Rob (ntntacfmb20), E-town, and a couple of fellas I didn't get to met, rolled out of the Pike Creek Church parking lot and charged towards the judge morris section. Buddy,
looking for a kinder gentler ride was all over Todd, not giving any quarter, and not asking for any.

My goal for the night was pretty clearly to hang on for an hour. I struggled, I suffered, I had a couple of coughing fits, but my ego, my ego wouldn't allow me to drop off. It felt like we left with a large group, but pretty quickly the selection was made. After cruising back to the church
for the 6:00 pick where Slick Rick and Biddle (ty domi of cross) jumped in.

Todd attacked up to the bird sanctuary, my eyes just rolled back in my head. I thought I saw this guy:

so of course I had to stop and give him a hug. It turns out it was all an hallucination, and I never did stop. Up front Todd, Buddy and now E-town continued to
drive the pace, I fought to stay on the E-town's wheel, I was suffering pretty badly. I asked myself, "did Saturday hurt this much?"

I found more success hovering about 5 feet off of the group. Matty and Rob hovered a few feet off my back wheel. I hopped I wasn't jamming them up.

At the bottom of shock and awe, Todd did a little group up. I glanced at my watch :59 minutes. I made it. Todd looked to head out to the other side of white clay, and I advised I was going there but needed to back off, thankfully I think Todd wanted to back it down a bit too. Matt and Buddy, who started a little earlier headed for home. E-town skipped out at the far end of white clay, and up to corner catch. After his effort tonight, that kid better never try to use the "poor mountain bike skills line again" he was flying, and I was proud of his efforts.

Rob, Todd and I finished a nice loop, at a little more humane pace. All in All a good ride.

Hills from Heck with Fatmarc, or How hard can climbing with a fat guy be?

Perhaps bitter from my last experience on the hills from hell ride, you know where it turned into a "I have the biggest cock" contest before we hit the hills, I decided to have my own hill ride. That's right, play by my rules or I'm taking my bases and going home. I am such a sonofabitch.

With Jens (formerly known as Jan) help, we launched the "hills with fatmarc" ride which drew some pretty tough characters and climbers. Our group was E-town, Jens (formerly known as Jan) , Rob (ntntamfmb20), John H, Lamont (son of fred sanford) , JAY-Z and I.

Up the first couple of climbs it was pretty clear I was out classed. The cold air had me hacking like a guy with a 2 pack a day habit. In the woods I can hide behind my skills to some point, on the hills from hell loop there is no hiding. Either you got it our you don't, and I didn't. Four climbs into a 10 climb ride, it was clear, I was the lead ass of the day.

At the base of the world famous Landenberg wall, I slipped off the back, as the temperature dropped and I was being pelted by hail. I asked myself, "cough, cough, what the hell are you doing here?" So I headed up the white clay trail on my road bike, all the way back to Newark. I passed a couple of mountain bikers along the way, they did a double take as I sped past them on my road bike. I rode past a Marine ROTC group who was out running and they called me "Lance Armstrong Mother Fucker", I responded with "semper fi soldier, semper fi".

I might have felt pretty hard core rocking my road bike down the double track trail, and passing the world famous parking area where many of my friends were conceived in the early 70's. You know except for the fact that I punked out of the ride tonight. Two easy days, that should be good, and hopefully a mellow weekend with some good miles.

I can't wait to get that last 20% back that I'm missing. Or I hope to God that I'm missing. Or at least be able to breathe again. The Baker's dozen is looming large. I hope I can stop coughing by that race. If not I'm just going start eating this roast beef sandwich from the whip everyday. It was a tasty treat for sure.

respect.
fm