196: sixteen

Friday night was the reindeer run down in town. This is a run put on by Mark the shark and it benefits the special Olympics. Fort James got me involved with the DE special Olympics a few years ago, and I'll admit it one of the parts of the game I love the most.

As Fort James and Mark the Shark both hold a special place in the hearts of the Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware members, there were plenty of us on hand running and volunteering.
Monkey, Rotten Rob, Super Liz, Megan (potty mouth princess), and Brey la la all ran.

My job was working with Alan the cleaner, Reston (son of the cleaner), Jay-Z, E-town, and Jan at the finish line, keeping folks in line and in finishing order as they tore their race tags and passed them on to the Jay and Jan at the end of the line. E-town demonstrated his sidewalk linebacker skills taking out one gentleman twice his size who was trying to run up the line and advance his position after the race was complete. Stay in line, give the kind German your tag and no one gets hurt. Here Liz shows how it's done.

Following the run, the DCCoD convened upon homegrown for an important meeting. It was good to see the White hand of Saron and the (soon to be) bride of Saron to make the meeting as well. Rotten said it perhaps best, "it's a little odd that it took a 5k run to get this many of the DccoDers together again." It was a good point, as the season has wained, dinners after practice have gone by the wayside largely. Sad, but true.
Good news is that not a single drop of Chimay was in the house by the time everyone left.

Long live the DCCoD.

Sunday was the final cross race of the mid-atlantic season. To make a long story short, Sven Nystrom and I got clear pretty early, and were able to keep the gap and working together ended up with us crossing the line together arms raised. So yeah, that was a pretty damn good day for us.Highlight of the race included:

- officials adding an extra lap with 2 to go. We were feeling pretty good up to that point, and were chatting a bit, then we saw the extra card, and we got really quiet at that point. That extra lap really, really hurt. Some days it's good to have dig a little more.

- Sven's awesome wife telling him not to be a nice guy. She gave me a big hug at dinner and we laughed about it. At the end of the day Chris is one of the guys I respect the most, and I am really proud to have him as a teammate. His work ethic, and more importantly how he studies the sport, studies the course, is really second to none. It was an honor to ride with him, and I knew that we'd for sure finish together as teammates. We rode as teammates, and we'd finish that way. Today was clearly one of the highlights of my year. It's always great to have awesome teammates.

- As Chris and I came through the pavilion area, my favorite announcer says, "Teammates Fatmarc and Sven Nystrom, both from C3. How can you tell them apart? Let me tell you, Chris is tall, and lean, and very handsome- fatmarc is not." Chris and I cracked up as I muttered, "nice, really freaking nice..." Somedays it's good to be heckled by the announcer... That might have been the funniest thing he's said the entire time he has been announcing cross.
- As E-town finished up his final lap in the elite race, my belly swelled with pride as the same announcer nailed it saying, "that's E-town finishing up a very good ride, and putting yet another C3 rider on the podium.." Some days it's good to be apart of the evil empire.

after the race, many of the C3 teammates got together at a local watering hole for some fine grub. We presented Jon Hostetter ( the 2nd), a gift showing our appreciation for his support of the team. Class Act all the way, and one of my favorite people to work pit with for sure.

It was also awesome to meet Bernie's wife and awesome son Sean. So freaking cute.

Well, race fans, cross 2007 is done for me. Today was my 16th race, and although I can't believe cross is over, I am also looking forward to Ben and Jerry's, to sleeping in, and to getting back on the mountain bike.

sometimes I have to remind myself that this is really all beer league softball. Perhaps taken to a little crazier level, but really beer league softball. In ten years, no one will remember who did what in what race, but the people you meet, the people we have in this community, those relationships, they are the real prize from cross. They will stay with us forever.

That being said, I was super stoked to get a win today!

Tomorrow the bikes get washed for the last time, and thrown in the basement, I instantly gain 15lbs, and I will have a difficult time trying to keep up with Buddy the keg breaker and Peaches again. Fixed gear donut rides anyone?

respect.
faticus