well, there he was. Thanks for the help Dennis......
Diane and I were talking about wheels. I said maybe this fall we'd keep our eyes out for a deal on some nice carbon wheels that we could share for the cross season. She got a funny look on her face. I proceeded to comment that I could read her mind.
She says, "what !?" I replied in a really bad fake Diane voice, "we'll get some carbon wheels alright, but there no way your fatass is gonna beat the hell out of my wheels..." She laughed out loud, and replied, "first, I don't talk like a tranny, second it wasn't exactly like that..."
...Talked to Tom late Friday night. "hey man, watch you doing?" Tom replied, "nothing" I asked him, "wanna go to a mtb race with me tomorrow?" Tom replied, "sure". " Meet me at Wawa, I'll drive" , I offered. "no way dude, I'd driving..." was Tom's retort. He picked me up with the crafter the next morning. Tom was kind enough to let me drive home after the race... Super Sweet... Thanks for the ride Tom!
...Mass Relay was this weekend. One of my favorite events ever. I was nestled into a sweet little community with the Fast Forward Kids, Dirty Girls, Secret Henry's team and my own team C3: Twenty 20 Cycles. We had a great time hanging, and heckling each other...
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I love Buddy the Keg Breaker. Seriously one of my favorite people in the world. I love racing with the guy too. He's got three laps into his legs. Strong laps. Looks a the clock and realizes that if he turns he's fastest lap of the day for his final lap, he'll get L-Web out right at the buzzer.
L-Web has since put on street clothes. Buddy drinks a beer, and says, "looks like there's a bike race going on..." He proceeds to throw down his fastest lap of the day, and came just 20 seconds short of forcing L-Web into another lap. L-Web did have to kit up again...
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I was teamed with Auer, Tom McKay, and Joe Lilibridge. Four hours, short laps, fast exchanges, lot of tight racing... Outstanding...
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Lap One:
For some reason I ended up running the Lemans start.... I mean Auer is a runner, but I ended up running. Makes no sense at all. I tried to do my best to stay near the front. I watched Eric Easterby, who I coached in wrestling (talk about feeling old) and was an excellent xc runner in High School blow right by me. Finally got to the bike. I was hurting. But moving up...
Halfway through the lap, I found myself in a pretty nice group with Mike Laub, Slick Rick and Benny the Jewlar. The course opened up and I attacked, got a good gap and rode it in to pass off to my teammate Auer,
who all the while heckled me. Mckay would say to me later, "you did a nice job with that run, but it's pretty obvious you aren't a runner..."
Lap Two:Amazing how much better my legs feel when I don't have to run for 3 minutes before the lap. Flowed well. Felt great. Superfun.
Lap Three:My fastest lap, felt like the bike had no chain. I was dancing on the pedals and the lap flew by. Problem is for the first time ever in one of these team relay races, I missed my exchange. Joe came in, I didn't see him, and he was stuck in the transition area for 1 minute. UGH!! I fought back as hard as I could, but know we lost at least one spot to the Mountain Sport Guys. Rookie mistake on my part, this will appear to be my slowest lap, it was actually my fastest..
Lap Four:Legs felt good, but starting to feel the effects of 3 all out efforts. Again, I was flying carving up the single track, felt great. Really happy with my efforts today...
Hit the last section of trail, which was pretty long, and I got held up by another slower rider.
Held up is probably not the right term, mugged is more like it. Despite me announcing I was coming, that I was coming hot, asking nicely repeatedly to pass, the dude refused to let me through. "really!?" "really!?" Worse off the guy is a dude I know and is from my hometown. Here he was totally cock blocking me on the last tight section. The trail finally opened up and I jumped around him.
To say I was pissed might be an understatement. I hate unsportsmanlike behavior. I always pass courteously, always let folks know, politely, where I am, when I'm coming. I let people pass who are clearly faster pass me like a knife through butter (just ask the matt miller experience and Adam Driscoll)
I'll admit I've taken dudes to the tape, I've blocked for a teammate in the break, I held someone up for a quick second if we were racing close, but this dude was the Berlin wall, for an entire 2-3 minute section of trail. Racing is Racing, but refusing to let someone pass is totally bush league. Totally unsportsmanlike.
Thanks to my teammates who had to endure my not so sunny outlook afterwards... thanks for talking me down a little... the dude to his credit came up to me a the portolets and apologized...
And we did what 40 year old men do to resolve an issue... we hugged it out.
all ends well...
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In the end after a few excel sortings of the results C3:tiny little robots sent to destroy was the 8th fastest team. In the points race we got killed. The event is a weighted event based on your category, with each lap given a point value for your class. Additional points can be earned by finding the bonus Easter eggs that were hidden on the course. Our team is all experts, and we didn't find any Easter eggs.
More importantly, we all got 4 laps in, plus that damn little hurtful run I did...Sam the hammer's team was (sam, bad andy, meatball and kennedy) was 4th fastest...
BTW... thanks for coming in at 4:04 Joe, had it been 4:01, you know how long I left you standing in the transition, I would have felt really awful... I already likely cost us the 7th ... UGH such a rookie mistake...
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Rode with Kid Chris this weekend too. He is home from Greensville, SC for the Holiday. We were chatting about life, and riding. Chris comments, "I'm working a lot, I feel like I hardly get to ride anymore." I was a little concerned and asked, "how much are you getting a week?" Chris replies, "only 12-15 hours a week." I turned back and looked at Chris offering this, "Fxck You Buddy, Eff you..." He Laughed.
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what a great day
thanks for reading.respect.
fatmarc
