183: diggin' your ditch

5:45am Sunday Morning.

Diane and I finish up loading up the Element, and head out of the drive way, off to another race around another soccer field.

Diane plugs in her ipod. Dave is singing. I hate Dave. But this morning his words hit me, he sings:

"Unplug your TV, turn off your phone, get heavy on with digging your ditch..."

Cyclocross is our ditch. Racing, practicing, riding, eating with friends, hanging with our teammates and brothers and sisters in the DCCoD, this is our ditch.
Sunday morning, both Diane and I weren't particularly happy with our ditch. Saturday's race at Granogue was a tough for both of us. Our results were not as strong as we had hoped, and worse off we both raced flat. We felt awful.

No excuses, but easily a product I'm sure of hiking around with Disco, Wes, Lauri, Kerry, CZ and Leo taping, and grooming the course. A labour of love, but a labor that none the less, had me feeling like hell Saturday morning during my race. So bad, that with 3 to go I considered walking off the course.

The funny thing about cyclocross is that despite it being a great community, we constantly kill ourselves. To earn a good result, a good starting position is really helpful. To get a good starting position you have to earn series points, which you have to earn by strong results. Kind of the Chicken and the Egg huh? So if you can be consistent, pull a couple top 25's , you can earn a shot at a good start, which can give you a shot to win.

Now be careful, because as soon as you win, some motherfucker will call you a sandbagger, and besmirch your good name on some email listserve. They will go Googling your results for the past 3 years, all in effort to blacken your eye. This is all the prize you get for earning what everyone who pays their money to race dreams of doing, to win. You work your ass off, you struggle to get better, you focus your season on cross, you finally win, and then because you are a winner, you must be killed.

Sorry. Those are the rules. Every time I think we as a community have grown past it, sure enough it happens all over again... Like a bad dejavu...

Cyclocross is a sick beast. But I digress, Saturday, the only reason I stayed in was the thought that by crossing that tape, walking off the course, I would screw not only today's race but potentially much of the rest of the season. As embarrassed as I was, I hate quiting. I hate admitting that I'm done. And as much I hate chasing points, some days, that's a product of what we do. Sick game.

So in our quiet, kind of angry determined drive, we showed up for Wiss Cross at the Ludwig's corner. It was great to see so many happy faces again, as we kitted up and got ready for our races.

I'll let Diane tell the story of her day, but mine went much better, solid start, blocked for my teammate, dangled off the lead group for 3 laps before finally the elastic broke, and I was stuck out on my own, I suffered, I still felt a little flat, but I did feel like I rode my style of race. I rode gritty, I rode tough. I didn't quit. And for my efforts, I got my 3rd ever top 10 finish in a MAC race. That felt pretty good.

A little bit of redemption. I won't see the front row again for a long time, but still, a solid ride.

Feels a little weird to have a hobby that has me talking about redemption. This is after all glorified beer league softball right? redemption... Like I said, this is a sick ass sport.

Next week, Monkey and I will be back to digging our ditch, loading up the car well before dawn and headed off to some park, or farm, or school and spend our day racing around another soccer field. We'll clean up, Cheer for our friends, drink a beer, and get ready for the next week. I love my ditch....

So the song ends:

"I'm diggin' a ditch where madness gives... Digging a ditch where silence lives... a ditch for when I'm old... Digging a ditch for stories told.... Where all these troubles that weigh down on me will rise... Unto your dreaming..."

respect

Faticus

ps: thanks to everyone who came out to Granogue this weekend. Thanks to everyone in the DccoD, FZK, Spot Brand whores, Audrea, Tom, Lauri , Suzy, the Delaware Cycling community, and all the C-3 Sollayers that helped out too. Despite not my best race effort, I was really proud of what a great event we pulled off... So proud to be apart of it...

best thing said to me all weekend:

"where's the pink helmet!!??"