234: Green Boxer Shorts.

Driving home from the US Open Relay Championships today with my friend. We are coming through that tourist magnet that is Lancaster. We drive past Dutch Wonderland. He comments ,"I'm used to that meaning cheap hookers and mary jane."

As opposed to a campy amusement park I assume? I nearly wrecked the toaster laughing.

Today was a fun day. The US Open Relay Championships is one of Mike Kuhn's brilliant concepts and might be my favorite mountain bike race. It's a 4 man teams racing for 4 hours around a pretty short, yet incredibly intense loop. Some might say it's very crossy, but don't tell Buddy.

I raced today as a member of Buddy and the Keg breakers, the team was made up of E-town, Peaches, Buddy the leg breaker and me. Megs (PMP) was our manager, you know like the Macho Man and Elizabeth. She's slip us foreign objects so we could abuse the competition when the ref wasn't looking.

I had a good, day I was very pleased with how I rode, especially considering I have about half the hours I did last year, but that's an entire other story.

Let me confess something to you. I've been pissed off for about a month now. It's been a long time since I just walked around angry. I mean like since I was 24. Problem is I wish I could pin point what's pissing me off. Work? My brother? Lefty not pulling his weight, as Kevin is clearly my superior sideburn right now. The problem at the rock gym that I have struggled on for 3 weeks ? The simple fact that American Idol is still on television!? Maybe because these cookies don't have enough chips! The fact that I can't eat cookies and lose weight. How fair is that? What the fuck!

Diane and I have talked about it a bit, but I've had a tough time nailing it down. Just kind of weird.

I shared this with Kim today when she asked how I was. I'm not sure she was ready for me to lay that on her, but damn it just kinda popped out.

Later in the day she and BP yelled across the venue for me to smile, and I did. That was nice.

Thanks for thinking of me.

How did I repay her? Well, you know it was her birthday today, so I of course body slammed her on a log as I tried to pass. Yeah, it was really sweet, and I'm a good guy like that...

Today was a ton of fun, The Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware, and it's subsidiary the secret henry's team, along with Charm City Cycling formed quite a nasty little coven. Our team's battled each other, and the other 60 or so teams that showed up.

Racing was fast, and close. If I could hand design a course that suited my strengths, it would have been today's course. Did I mention I heart Mike Kuhn?

I was proud of my team, at the end of the day we were the 5th fastest team there, we lost 4th place by 8 seconds. I chased hard, but came up a few seconds shy. Oh well, it makes for a good story

I really had great teammates today, and I loved racing with them. Everyone laid it all out there, which really what more could you ask?

The cool thing about this relay is that is weighted, as such I expect our team will likely end up around 15th in the final scoring. That's cool too. If we were doing this to win stuff we would have quit a long time ago.

On my last lap my buddy Zach started shortly after me. Last year, I lost the 6th place spot for our team on the final lap, as Zach ran me down. This year out the gate and up the first climb I heard ole Zach yell to me, "I'm coming for you Faticus!" Perhaps he didn't realize I was chasing 4th place and a pretty full head of steam. Perhaps he didn't realize, I have ridden half the hours I did last year! Perhaps he didn't know I've been angry for a month.

Most days, Zach is stronger than me, but today, the memory of him running me down last year was burned deep in my memory. It just wasn't gonna happen again. Sorry kid, this time age beats beauty.

Perhaps the best part of the day for me, was the return of the ruler. 1 year, 4 months, and 29 days later- Slick Rick the Ruler has returned.

tonight I sit at my keyboard, and fumble through some words to describe what a great event today was, how happy I was with my ride, How grateful I am to be supported and surrounded by the great people I am, and how many great folks I have around me in the community.

I feel tired, I feel beaten, I feel exhilarated, most of all I don't feel so angry right now.

2 weeks left in mtb season!

respect

faticus.