218: a freakin' week.

Wow, it's been a week since I last updated.

I had a couple posts ready, just never posted them. I'll try to squeeze a lot into this one.

This one will be a three part post. A little long, but what the hell, sit back and enjoy.


I. New Year's Day: Amnesty Ride:


On New Year’s Day I skipped the local mountain bike ride to take part in the 17th Annual Amnesty Ride hosted by Billy V. Truth be told I knew the mountain bike ride would be more fun, but I have been really enjoying my fixed gear recently. I also wanted to pay my respect to Billy V. Billy is the dean of road cycling in this area. I have learned a ton following the guy
around for years, and always enjoy being in the pack with him.

This year most of my conversations could be summed up with these statements:

“dude, it’s fucking cold”

“yeah, I think my eye is frozen”

At one point I was on the front, chatting a bit with Blair and Kris. Then I looked at Blair, and then I looked at Kris and I asked, “ okay, does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? To the left is Canadian Olympian and all around Strong Man Blair, to the Right is World Champion Duathlete Kris. In the middle, Freakin’ Fatmarc !? I am so not worthy…” She laughed, he laughed it was all good.

we turned the corner and I found my rightful spot at the back of the pack.

II. MAC Prom:

Since the team MAC cup has disappeared, and is rumored to be in Gunnar's Garage or Leaches's parent's basement, Auer thought it would be a good idea to give everyone on C3 their own MAC CUP's so we could all once again drink from the MAC cup.

Everyday this year, I will drinketh from the cup and have wonderful memories.






Jake rocks. Alyssa too (not pictured)

Heidi was saucy!

Ladies Love Sweet Johnny!

Regan thinks to herself, "is the glass empty or unfull?"

Some have called this man a genius, some have called him a madman.

He is both. I heart Tom

.

Bad Kat and I with Cheshire smiles.

Don't be surprised if this one ends up on a Christmas Card or something!

Cross Boss. (es)

Harlow, worlds bound LVG and Shawn...

Kim looked simply stunning.

She did have her number pinned on the wrong side.


III. I fell in love with my MTB again.

Great ride Saturday morning early. On my very simple, very basic mtb. I almost felt proficient carving the trails of middlerun. I happily rode all the trails in middle run in about an hour and a half. I wasn't the smoothest or most efficient linker of trails. My ride was miles of smiles.



Sunday I had some friends over for a tour of Fairhill. It was really fun.

Lauri took this picture of our group.

Dennis took this picture of Lauri.

For those scoring at home: Meatball, Jebalicous, Bad Kat, Bad Andy, Jake, Auer, Jan, Kennedy, Sam the hammer, Colin, Dennisbike, Bill (father of the hammer), JHIII,Bilson, Zach, Kim,Breyla-a, and Elizabeth made the two hour tour.

mid point of the ride:

Bike felt great today, again trails were superhero good, and in some sections I felt like I had a little flow. Truly an amazing day.

Dennisbike practices a little parallel climbing.

Meatball gets down on a log stunt.

Finally, Monkey and Breyla-la set up a facebook account for me.

We'll see how that goes. Perhaps a sign that the apocalypse is upon us.

respect

faticus

217: doing the belgium.

nice mellow base ride. gray, foggy, cold, misty the entire ride, pretty much perfect. About 3/4 this through we stopped at Northbrook for some fine donuts and coffee before heading back to finish out the ride. Very fun group including : Monkey, PMP, E-town, Tom Mc, Jebalicous, L-Web, Bilson, Dennisbike, Disco, Bill and me.

Northbrook Orchard Store sits on top of a rather long, and grinding climb. Just before the climb starts there is a set of treacherous railroad tracks. Normally I have no issue getting across railroad tracks, but this particular set has claimed many a rider, and in fact last year took down Tom.

Disco and I were just recounting how nasty these tracks are, and our plan to get off and walk them when Monkey charged across. She was almost clear when her rear wheel got caught and spun out, she stacked it up pretty good. Bill, veteran of Wilmington racing and riding, was following closely behind Monkey as she kindly took him down with her. He must have been saying to himself "message to self: avoid riding with the cross kids."

Once we made sure Diane and Bill were okay, Tom said to Diane perhaps the funniest moment of the day, "those tracks are really dangerous, if only we knew that, if only we had known that someone could crash there, and that when they are wet, it's best to walk them, sadly it appears we had no idea..."

we all laughed. Once at the store, the donuts were hot, fresh and just amazing. the ride ended up very well. I heart my fixed gear.

I was super stoked to get my newest edition of EMBROCATION cycling journal this weekend.

Jeremy Dunn has put together an amazing magazine/journal/snap shot of cross culture. Version 2.5 is a smaller version, but frankly still amazing. I'll admit I was more than stoked when Jeremy asked me to put together an essay, and when the article actually made the cut, I was doing a little dance in my living room.

For what it's worth I highly recommend picking up a copy, not for my essay, but for the overall experience...

respect.

fatmarc

216: Holiday Whirlwind

We are beautiful, We are doomed...



Christmas Eve Eve: Buddy the Keg breaker guided Rachael, Monkey and I through the Victory Holiday Dinner. 5 courses of wonderful food, each served with a beer matching the food perfectly. I was pretty much hammered after the second beer.

those bastards were picking on me and said I should be "fatcornelius" because my hands are hairy. At least my back isn't hairy you damn dirty ape haters.

There were waitresses in beer wench outfits. Not the most progressive, but what the hell. Diane isn't a beer person. In fact she pretty much hates it, but like a trouper she sampled each one.

Christmas eve we headed down to catch up with Diane's family. Our youngest nephew and I often wrestle and play around. When I first got to the house, he ran up to me and said, "Hi Uncle Fatmarc!" and proceeded to punch me in my junk as hard as he could, laugh and run away. It was the most direct and painful shot to the junk I have had in years. He thought it was so funny he got me two more times during the night when I was least expecting it. I'm gonna have to teach that kid a rear choke hold or something.

Christmas has my brother down from NE to stay with me, and catch up with the rest of my family at my parent's place.

The day was pretty great, but reinforced how freakin' crazy my family is. Just think I could have been a miniature schnauzer. I am after all an evil son of an ape. Ah the holidays, can't run, can't hide. Just drink yourself silly.It was wonderful having kids around my place Christmas morning, that was pretty freakin' awesome. It was great to see everyone. The kids loved Diane's new teletubie suit!
Friday saw me finally get back on the bike. A couple of us slipped over to Fairhill which was nice and frozen early on. As the day wore on it started to get a little sloppy, and we quickly headed for the fire roads and the loop home. I crashed once riding a silly stunt and knocked my wheel out of true.
here are some truths about me:

(1) I am a total son of a bitch, and evil. I should have been a dog or an ape.
(2) I eat out every night. We are considering just taking our kitchen out of the house.
(3) I am bitter and never funny.
(4) I hate sarcasm.
(5) I'm looking forward to anonymous comments saying I'm ruining the trails that I rode when they were frozen.
(6) I am an ass.

But your are reading this blog so you already know all of that. That's probably what keeps you coming back for more.

happy holidays Folks thanks for reading!

Looking forward to a nice donut ride in the morning.


respect
fatmarc

215: stupid fun

So I admit I was feeling a little bit of cyclocross withdrawal, I mean if you do something every weekend for 3 months and then it suddenly stops, it feels just a little weird. When Anne Rock sent me a note about the urban cross race, and Lenore confirmed for me it was on despite icy conditions here in northern del, how could I resist ?

Jebalicous and I got to the race, paid our entry fee of $5, and walked through the shop of Bilenkey bike works into to the junk yard. Instead of the status quo pinned on number, once you registered you were given a Styrofoam plate, and they used packing tape to attach it to you. You walked through the metal shop and out the back door.


At the opening of the junkyard there was a keg of beer, and fire in a trash can off to the left, and then an army of Philly bike couriers, single speeders, tired crossers and other assorted bike nerds. It was also great to see my C3-Sollay teammate Kevin Dillard.

The course was super fun. Originally I had planned to race in pants and a sweatshirt. There were 2 heats of 25 or so. Jeb was in the heat before mine, He was wearing pajama bottoms and riding his mountain bike, because cross season is over. Jeb’s pajamas got really nasty and muddy fast. Jeff in his PJ was chasing Harlan around the course. Looking at the muddy mess that was Jeff’s wet sagging pajama pants, I realized it would be in my best interest to throw on some tights and shorts.

Harlan won his heat with Jebalicous 2nd, Joe Reynolds 3rd and Josh West 4th.

My heat went well, I had planned to ride with Anne Rock, but she stood me up.

So I kind of started slowly, and then over the hurdles, I found I was able to move through traffic, I got myself back to 4th place by the end of the first lap. Action Dan was out in front of me, and despite my efforts to close the gap, we stayed pretty much the same distance away from each other the entire race. Around the switch backs I decided to try a different strategy. I asked Dan to slow down. “hey Dan you mind slowing down so I can catch up?” this tactic didn’t work any better. At the end of my heat I was beat by three good guys: Big Bush, Porno Pete, and Action Dan. My fourth place finish was good enough to advance to the finals, and low and behold Anne showed up. Jeff and I were both really cold, and figured racing around the junk yard once without crashing into a car and having to be rushed to the hospital to get a tetanus shot was good enough, so Anne took our place in the finals with Jeff’s number on one side, and mine on the other.


She rocked it! Anne you have represented the DCCoD Proudly. We salute your service!

All in all a good day, it felt good to drive the bike fast again or what I perceived to be fast anyway. Since Reston the only bike I have ridden is my beloved fixed gear. As much as I like that bike, my cross bike felt like sex on fire as I carved through wreckage that was this wonderful course. I love my cross bikes. LOVE them. I'm due for new cross frames this year, it will be mighty interesting trying to replace my current rigs.

I also got to meet Joe Reynold’s sister. She as nice. Good to see niceness runs in that family.

a pretty awesome day I must say. Freakin' silly stupid fun.

respect.
fatmarc

214: a bike ride

Really nice mellow road ride today. Good group, good fun, bad blogging.

The group was L-Web, Jebalicous, E-town, Potty Mouth Princess, Mike K, Dennisbike, Jan, Kid Chris, Monkey and I.

Jeb and Lweb each ate an apple fritter with me when we got home.

apple fritters are brilliant.

Since writing about a mellow road ride is kinda boring here were my 10 favorite songs of 2008.

10 best songs of 2008.

Viva La Vida- coldplay
Something is not right with me- cold war kids
Stay Positive- the hold steady
Strange Overtones- David Bryn and Bryan Eno
Sex on Fire- kings of leon
We are beautiful, We are Doomed- Los Campesinos !
Time to Pretend- MGMT
Ally Walk With Me- Ravonettes
Superstar- Sonic Youth
House of Cards- Radiohead

it was hard for me to leave out the eagles of death metal, as I really like their newest album, but I couldn't decide to bump any of these. I wore out my radiohead disc, and played the shit out of the ravonettes. They made me go back to listen to more Jesus and Mary Chain... wow, I feel old.

respect

fatmarc

213: you, me, dancing...

"If there’s one thing I can never confess it’s that I can’t dance a single step. "

Blog’s been a little slow true believers. Cross is over. Withdrawal sets in. This will be a lame post.

I’m in the middle of perhaps my biggest weight gain period of the year. Very Dangerous time for me. Last year from rockburn to Christmas was 167lbs to 180lbs. My discovery of the apple fritter has lead to a long road of happy donut moments:but sad scale moments. Is it bad to weigh yourself 3 times a day?

A disgusting display of gluttony if I ever saw one. I am after all freaking fatmarc.

This year, I’m really trying to show a bit more self control. It is hard. Coming from
Cross to our semi-annual sales meeting, company Christmas party , and just the holidays in general which are as much about food as anything else. I swear I can feel my metabolism slowing down.

Food and getting dressed up. Yes Bad Andy, I had to shave everyday this week, and actually iron. I wore a shirt and tie two days this week.

Riding has been non existent really. Wet/warm weather has trails as a muck bath that I'm not participating in.

I have gotten out for a couple of spins on the ole fixed gear. That was fun. And of course the rides to the packie For some highlife…

If I can hold on to the weight just a little bit until Christmas, life is going to be much easier in January.

It would be great to be able to get out on the bike this weekend, if mother nature can just cooperate...

Been listening to a lot more music again.

Try these on for size: here, here, here.

thank god for college radio.

We’ll see. told you this was a lame post at the top.

respect
Fattermarc

212: body snatchers

Last weekend was the final cross race in the Mid-Atlantic. Kevin Dillard is one of my teammates and does an amazing job taking photos at most of the races during the season.

This week he had a different project. He wanted to do some portraits of the racers from the region. He set us up in front of a big white screen and took a couple shots of each of us. He had us stand in front of a white screen and just kinda stared at us. After a moment he gave this instruction “First lets, get a good picture, the kind you’d send you parents or something” Next Kevin says, “pretend you are a rock star” here’s how some of them came out:

So for example:

My coach Chris:
For the parents:

Like a Rock Star:
Cyclists always think they are tough guys.

My teammate Norman:

Like a rock star: Norman, you are a dead sexy bitch.

This is Harlow and her little dog:

Harlow is very fast and has a dog with her, so she doesn’t need a rock star shot.

this is Jan's :

and his rock star shot:

Germans do engineering great, rock stars not so much.

Diane and Breyla-la went for the tellatubbie look

If you dress like tellatubbie you don't need a rock star shot needed.

Jebalicous with the straight shot

and the "I am not a crook pose"

Think he knows that reference?

I love this picture of Tom. He looks peaceful.I wonder if he's thinking, "I'm finally in New Order" ?

I hope Kevin calls this one "Smash Crash"
And of course mine: And when Kevin told me to pretend I was a rock star, well this was the best I could come up with:
Ugh. How embarrassing. I mean only thousands of people see my rock star shot as well an
Oddly hairy man picking his nose. What rock star picks his/her nose? Oh well. Maybe I’ll end up at some art showing. Super Sweet.

respect

faticus

thanks to Kevin for allowing me to use these shots. Full gallery here