184: buy the ticket, take the ride.

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

The first inclement weather we had to deal with thus far this cross season, and the DCCoD secret practice rolled on. The group was a little smaller then usual but still very robust. We were lucky to have special guest stars, Adam and Kevin. Everyone who took the night off, just know we were out in the rain working our asses off. I'm not telling you that to intimidate you, just to make you aware, so you'll understand when we miss a race because we are sick.

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

It was getting dark earlier; I was tired, the light mist made the corners extra slippery. Liz put the evening in perspective when she announced she was rolling a little early as she was meeting her family, as it was a year ago that she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Let me mention that she will be racing at Fairhill. Toughest person I know. Proud to have her in the Coalition.

The wet grass made the course much slower. It was tough to power out of corners, keeping momentum in the wet corners was even more important as the energy needed to accelerate back to speed coming out of the corners was much greater as the wet grass felt like a million little hands trying to slow my bike.

“For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.”

Around one corner I went in a little hot came out on my ass. Looked up and saw Jebbagger doing a superman over me. Luckily that kid is pretty nimble and did a nice little summersault out of it and we both got up laughing about it….

Lesson of the day, keep the momentum, but not too much. Push the envelope, just don’t ball it up and throw it away.

“The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”

About midway thru practice I see this guy:

At first I thought it was the dude from “I know what you did last summer…” then I realized it was more like freakin’ Ben Kenobi peaking over a sand dune looking down on young Skywalker getting his ass kicked by a bunch of sand people.

Once the creepy guy took his hood off, I could tell it was Jedi Master SLIK RIK checking in on practice on the nastiest day of the season so far. My guess is he wanted to make sure the disciples were keeping the faith. No worries. We have been taught by the best.

Evening finished up over a couple of beers and a couple of tacos. El Jefe still has the special DCCoD wing, and the waitress are always happy to see us. Not sure if that is because we tip well, or if they dig Rotten’s facial hair. Newt took the place of Summerhill this week, although I think Summerhill took far worse beatings. We just busted newt for having custom bikes.

This evening I met up with Tom and America’s Most Wanted: E-town, race promoter of the upcoming Wayne Scott Memorial Cyclocross Race. This is a FSVS and DCCoD event, and Tom and I are on course lay out and grooming. That’s how we started working together at Monkey Hill, life’s one big circle. But I digress, things are coming together nicely. Don’t miss this event. Register now.

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”


Respect.
faticus