It was pretty awesome. Even if it took me a whole day and 3 hrs the following morning to be prepared and ready to leave and actually drive towards Look Park.
Not racing Day one took all the stress out, more stress was relieved (but at a price - lost the wrenching gig, which kind of sucked, was sort of hoping for the cash to pay for the racing and the travel - oh well) but not being in the pits for the pro races meant i could roam and wander and heckle and watch and hang out and everything. And relax. As much as you can relax running/riding around a CX venue from spot to spot and walking/riding from one end to the other and back.
If you show up, just race, and then just eat and leave, bike racing is not terribly taxing. If you show up, race, cool down, eat, clean up, organize a bit, then run around cheering for your friends and catching up with other friends, never sitting, never not moving, no down time, man it takes a bit out of you.
but so good. grateful to actually be able to do that.
All day packing, prep'n finding bikes, debated doing the bottom bracket on the White bike (bearings are fucking hosed btw - shocking - but hey 8-9 months on $4 of bearings ain't so bad) but opted against it and went with just picking up the spare parts from the shop and doing the rest. The pace I was moving? Might have taken me three hours to pop out the bearings and push two new ones back in.
Lodging was secured in the luxurious and friendly Timmie's home for old bike racers, on course. Which mean for once I could leave my car at the venue and me too. I often do usually leave the car at the venue if i have a car there at all, but this time, some how between the heckling the running around and everything else, some how managed to have nearly zero beers until dinner time in the trailer. And yes I polished off an olympics ring worth of beer. And then another once i crawled into the cubby space before sleeping.
My donation to the race was a club row tent space we didn't really use. David B didn't want to use it, I set it up thinking i'd be using it as a staging for the pros... but.... funny thing that. Also was kind of awesome being stuck between Adam and JPowers/Nobel on club row but it also mean all the fun people were like way over not near me, making it kind of not a great place to hang out, unless you were a groupie of my neighbors, of which there were plenty. Flush that $50 but damn given how amazing this weekend was? Totally worth it. And hey I got another day to show off the unique tent weights.
Day one actually was kind of a blurr. I didn't take any photos, I didn't pull out the megaphone but I did have the orange jumpsuit on and I rode the course for a couple laps on the Single Speed, aka the 26" 1x1 Surly Mt bike with disc brakes and 700c wheels. Aka the heavy as fuck bike that drives like a dream. Great for some things, not so much for the super speedway that is NoHo.
Kind of more a Talledega or Pocono course vs Daytona. Super fast but with a few technical elements to keep you on your toes. Grass crit? Fuck yeah. And I ain't pedaling as well as most lately, but oddly some how, it is weird, but I'm not losing spots or time in technical sections anymore. Which kind of baffles me. Usually people fly away from me in the tech stuff and I reel em back in on the pedaly bits only to eventually get blown up. Now I just can't pedal but i can hang in the turns mostly. Probably too much beer, but i like beer and no beer means i'd only be a tiny bit faster.
So once the pro race wrapped up and I finally made my way over to Timmies home for bike racers who've been racing longer than 90% of the cat 3 field was alive they already had the party started. But they are a welcoming and friendly bunch. Food was consumed, beers were consumed, stories told. Cronoman at one point said "You never had a chance." I've been thinking about those words. They stung. They honestly hurt. I've never felt i had a chance, ever, in pretty much anything. But crazy guy's words spurred a bit of introspection. I've reconciled personally, with myself, things turned out much better for me this way than any other option.
This is probably not nearly cryptic enough, it may revert to draft when I re-read it or something. Chances are it'll say up long enough for at least one of you to read it. shoot me some negative feedback when you do so it isn't flying into a vacuum. But I'm getting close to the point of being able to write it off. One of my closest and wisest friends called it. I'm the first rung on the ladder, better get used to being stepped on and forgotten about.
Writing that, and then recalling Myerspace's words of course, well, can't find them now. I had a screenshot on my phone for years, but probably purged it trying to keep it alive a little longer... ANYWAY! writing that made something click even more into place.
Without that first rung, the second rung is too high. Without the first rung on the ladder you can't get to the second, without the first rung it is impossible to climb to the top carrying the load of your past. Have you ever tried to skip a step under load? Easy to do when you are unencumbered and not weighed down. Try it carrying what feels like the weight of the world. Not possible.
Hey look at that. I introspected myself out of the hole.
Anyway, Timmie's trailer was filled with laughter and stories, and MacDonald or Solobreak coined the Timmie Lou Retton and we laughed our asses off. About that and so much more.
I climbed into the bunk and slept, a rarity at NoHo, Usually I'm battling a crash bar in a couch bed support all night, or battling having drank Look park dry. This was weird. But Damn. 6am showed up f'n EARLY... and when you're racing at 9:45 that critical coffee/food window is fucking tough to hit.
And I didn't hit it... And I had a headache all day.
But that's a story for a different day.
I've said enough.
I'm going to publish, finish making dinner, ignore the internet, re-read it in the morning, and maybe delete most of what I wrote and then write some distracting bit about Sunday. And the actual race.
Just finished a Matt Moore contraband Heady Topper. Also my wife REALLY liked the HELL YES lager from Moat Mt yesterday, so i guess i need to find more of that sooner than later? Or just whenever I see it i'll get some and make her happy.
Oh, damn, recognition, as an educator, in my position, i'm usually at the top rung, the students get to me after a long climb and i get them the final bit, maybe not conditioned enough to be used to being the first rung?
Also, i'd hoped to make the trip to Supercross Cup and stuff, last year was amazing, looooved helping, but, i need to work on some important shit here. Some major bullshity news that doesn't involve CX and involves basically the destruction of the world has derailed my focus, i need to regain that focus.
Current idea: orange fuckface asshole is deliberately putting up the most extreme for cabinet positions so that when he puts in nearly as extreme but not Nazis they'll be accepted. Also. Remember, it takes him a huge number of fucking weeks to pick an apprentice. JUST ONE! AND HE HAS TO FILL A HUGE FUCKING ADMINISTRATION?!?!?!?!? HOW THE FUCK? And people wonder what drives the displaced and ignored to strap explosives under their clothes....
Hold on motherfuckers this ride is about to get really really rough.
i'd say heddwch, but i think i need to learn how to say Fuck YOU in welsh, or i may just start signing off with this one:
Cachu bant ti cachu mes,
or maybe this one:
Cauc cle wyneb cachau ewythr cachau
nah - you know what? We need peace more than anything ever, esp now
Heddwch
-G
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