022: seven days

I am seven days into my annual attempt at growing a beard. Out at OR there were tons of dudes with killer beards and I admit, I got beard envy. I also recognize that 21 days has typically been my limit for beard growth. I think monkey’s cut off is much shorter than that, and frankly she holds some leverage that is far more powerful than any beard envy. Let’s hope she doesn’t pull that card until at least 22 days…

Saw this on the internerd and wanted to share with Buddy and Rachael:

Ken has been hawking his race pretty aggressively. You can register here. I wish him the best, but also know that races grow organically, very few events draw huge crowds right out the gate, even if you throw a ton of money at them, even if you question the commitment of all the masters in the region.

Most promoters aren’t making money off of their cross races. We have never come close to breaking even on Granogue Cross. Monkey and I won’t make the race this weekend, the combination of Monk’s injury and our current financial situation dictate that we stay close to home. Good Luck to the crossers heading out there…

Did the smack-down ride last night, which should really be called the smack down of fatmarc’s ego. Super solid group last night. The super elite of our community were absent, but that didn’t mean there was a lack of firepower. Sure there were no cat 1’s, no Canadian Olympians, no skinny new cat 2’s and no disco dancers, but there was a tough group of solid, strong, smart, talented experienced rider there. Doyle and Jay Jay are the savviest of all. Sadly, I am not talented, smart, strong or very experienced so I got it handed to me pretty good last night. I can barely spell savvy.

At the core of the smack-down are 6 hard hills, not counting as much suffering as flat-landers like myself can try and dish out in between hills. I’ll admit that you’ll probably drop me on the hills, but I’m going to do my damnedest to make you suffer in between the hills. Meatloaf said 2 out of 3 and bad, I made it to the top of three and a half of the climbs with the group, the other 2 and a half, well not so much. I wasn’t even in the same damn zip code.

After being dislodged from the group half way up the final hill, I was kinda spinning in, when I saw Best in Show waiting for the autobus. I threw it in the big ring and started charging for him, until he turned around and started to bail with Dr. Collins. I pulled the plug on my chase and rode in with the Shark, Amy and President Ryan.

Best thing someone said to me tonight on the ride, “the word survival isn’t even in your vocabulary is it?” The best compliments come from CZ, always. I never expect them either.

You know, I know most of you will have no idea who any of the people I referenced above are, but I do. The names are changed to protect the innocent sort of. Still hope you can follow the story.

Got on the scale this morning and was south of 170 for the first time in 2009. I’ll admit I know this is less a product of smart eating, and hard work than the end result of chasing a bunch really fast guys over six stupid fucking hills and squeezing a ton of water out of my body. What do you want? I do come from a long line of wrestlers. Now to make it stick.

Wes, this is for you.

What can you do for $8 ? I don’t even want to know what a $8 BJ looks like.

Thanks for reading.

Respect
Fatmarc

“rule no. 6: don’t take yourself too seriously”