208: hey ho let's go

Thanksgiving Eve, if there is such a thing, Monkey and I go into town to Kildare's to meet Breyla-al, J-Dub, and Dan Mc. Dan's brother is in a band, and we are going to check them out.

Monkey and I get there a little early and are pretty hungry, so we sit down. The waiter comes over and is pretty nice. He asks us if we had been to Kildare's before. I respond, "sadly, yes. We went to the one in West Chester. The guy at the door was a tool, the food was bad, and our waitress wasn't very nice either, we're here to see the band and figured we'd grab a bite and see what happens."

The poor waiter was kinda caught off guard, I pretty sure he didn't expect that answer. Regardless he rolled with the punches, " sorry you had that experience, we'll do much better, I've been with the company for a while and the staff at West Chester can be lame..."

Needless to say the waiter was super nice the rest of the night, the manager stopped over an apologized for our previous experience, and hell we ever got comped a dessert. Truth is I didn't really expect anything, was really just being an ass, which I do from time to time, but this guy was super nice. Overall I still think the food a Kildare's is not so hot, but I'd go back if nothing else because our waiter worked his ass off. For what it is worth, we did tip very generously.

Was a pretty fruitful weekend for riding, did a really fun mtb ride with just about everyone on thanksgiving morning. The niner felt really good, considering it's the second time I've ridden it since August. I really enjoyed the re-hydration break. Camouflaged High Life cans, who knew?

Friday Monkey and I did a little recovery ride down in white clay...

Sunday was the MABRA series finals, and the Delaware/Maryland/DC state championships. I won a Delaware State Championship back in 99, and took second to Fort James in 2002, but since moving to Maryland I haven't so much as sniffed a medal. Couple that with Auer's opportunity to win the overall series with a win in the race, and placing a couple bodies between himself and Marc Gwadz, the 2007 series champ, and suddenly the race had a lot on the line for our team.

I believe the cold, wet, muddy conditions worked to our favor, as Kris was able to get the win and I got 3rd chasing this guy, the best I could. Nystrom rounded out the top 4. We were pretty happy. Gwadz is a class act. I have a lot of respect for him as a rider, and he certainly brought honor to the jersey this year. I have to believe had the conditions been different the outcome could have easily gone the other way.

For me, taking third overall, allowed me to take the silver medal for Maryland, with of course teammate Auer taking the gold, and Nystrom taking the 35+ bronze. That's a 35-39 Maryland sweep for C3-Sollay.com for anyone scoring at home.

I'm pretty stoked about my placing. My medal, like my other two state championship medals will end up here.

It's one of those rituals for me.

All in all, a pretty super weekend.

respect.

fatmarc
ps:

love this shot of PA cat 2/3 state champion Zach Adams.

the emotion, the effort. I know how hard the kid works, and how much he pulls through. I'm lucky to have this guy as a teammate and a friend.