191: boycott? no way jose...

Friday night Monkey and I are out trying to get dinner.

We live in a College town and all the kids are back. Getting into a restaurant without a reservation can be a wasted effort. I'm not pointing fingers here, but someone couldn't make up her where they wanted to eat, so we are bouncing from restaurant to restaurant trying to get something to eat before 10:00 at night.

Finally we are at the end of the strip, the last place to eat, and I say to the hostess, dressed much like Ms. thang, "table for two please" Ms. Thang responds, " be about 30 minutes, why don't you stop back then." As she promptly looks away and dismisses me. I get her attention, "so are you taking people's names?" Agitated she responds, "you should come back in 30 minutes" I see the paper in front of her, with names on it. "So that's a list with peoples names on it for a table, I'd love to have my name on it" Ms. Thang shrugs, and places my name on the list. "I'll see you in 30 minutes" she says dismissing me again.

I walk over to the pop corn machine, get a fresh bowl. Walking back over to the hostess stand, I position Diane with her back to Ms. Thang, and begin to eat popcorn and stare at the rude hostess. I put on my best creepy old guy who drives a big van with no windows face, and I just stare at her.

She wasn't nice to us. She was too cool. Perhaps you have noticed, I am a little creepy.

Ten minutes later we are sitting at our table enjoying cold drinks.

Phelps School Race:

This is my view of the masters race, may have no actual basis in truth, but pretty much how I thought it went down.

Fun course, and despite raining all night the course was wet, but not muddy. The course demanded a lot of power, and with very few technical sections it was pretty much put your foot on the gas and go the entire race. No place to hide behind technical skills. It was also very humid, and made breathing a little harder than cross normally does.

The field was stacked as Hebe, Yozell, Auer, Resinger, and Big Time took off pretty quickly. There was a second group of 5-7 with Piccalo, McDaniel, Cordisco, Tortello, Kealsy, Cline, Long, a couple of dudes I didn't know. This is where I slotted in.

On the third of 6 laps the second group had pretty much blown up and spread out. I was on the tail end of that. Last weekend took a lot out of me. I'm guessing I my should have done something other sit on the couch with the dogs all week. (sorry coach).

Finally with 2 to go, my legs started coming around and I felt like I was making up some ground. Tom had been pretty much taking me to the woodshed all day. I was hanging onto his wheel like I owned it. We were closing in on a Guy's guy on the last lap when Tom flatted with about 1/2 a lap to go. The Guys guy slide out on the technical section I attacked and stole 10th. Tough day at the office, big fields, fast dudes - tons of fun.

Monkey had a very nice day herself taking 4th in the cat four. She sat on a nice group of Kim, Kathrine and Tammy as long as she could. After throwing up in her mouth a little, she nailed it down and rolled home for a very solid finish.

Monkey and I have each done 5 cross races this year, and it's not October yet. That's sweet.

I got a few emails regarding a boycott of MABRA Cross by Fatmarc. There was some activity over on the old MidAtlanticBrotherhood list too. While I appreciate both Mayhew and Tom trying to negotiate me some start money: 700 billion dollars worth, let me be very clear here:

THERE IS NO BOYCOTT OF MABRA CROSS BY FATMARC.

I just don't want any rumors swelling. I love cross and want to help it grow. I hope I'm seen by my peers as a community guy that wants to bring people together, not get into petty pissing matches. Despite being jettisoned from the mabra promoters list by an unknown man lurking in the shadows, I consider the mabra promoters friends, and would do nothing to negatively impact their events. They are quality events.

If you look at the past few years, I have historically done 3-4 mabra races as the season got going. This year 2 of those races are now MAC races, additionally I'm racing outside of the MidAtlantic the weekend of Hagerstown, and this weekend Diane had to work Sunday so we raced Saturday. No ill intend, just scheduling conflicts.

Ed Sanders is one of my favorite cross races anywhere. That's where I got hooked back into cross, that's were I met Wes and Mayhew, and frankly Rob and Erik are awesome guys. It just happens that this year, from a scheduling standpoint, I couldn't make the race.

Let me reiterate: THERE IS NO FATMARC BOYCOTT OF MABRA CROSS.

However, if someone wants to pay me start money, I'm willing to listen. 700 Billion dollars is simply a starting point, I'm willing to negotiate.

check out my sweet new 3/4 high top Vans:

respect

fatmarc

Thanks to Anthony at cyclingcaptured.com for the nice action photos.