Racing and changing plans

It was meant as a title about opting out of racing at Eco-cross tomorrow. Too much to get put together for this weekend to spend the better part of the day out on the Cape again.

I love that race, I love the farm, first CX race I did in my 'come back' that place is kind of awesome. Last year and the mud bath racing Derek Griggs was so much FUN.

The girls were on board with going, but I think I need to pull back, and just focus on getting my ass to NoHo in one piece not super tired or worn down. And half kind of thinking I'll race the SSCX at NoHo, why? because why the fuck not, also, i may not but it will def be the pit bike if i'm not racing it.

Wind back to a more optimistic time, aka last weekend. Sunday's race. It was cold and raining. Warmed up on the white blue with the old zipps and the fango rear. i was losing the back end all over the place even with a ridiculously low amount of pressure. And it was wet and a bit sandy and gritty, and then Giulia, while racing, reported that the fango WAS NOT GOOD.  I made a bee line back to the car, got started switching over to the Limus...  but then had the thought, and Eric the viking agreed, or it was his idea, i don't remember, but why not race the SSCX? The tires were pretty much perfect for the course, it has disc brakes...  So what if it was heavy, the course was relatively flat, only a few places I had to heft it over anything. New plan, put white blue with super sketchy wheels in the pit, talked to Kenny and he'd be ready to make a 61 neutral bike work if needed. And then Ride the course just before the race on the SSCX to make sure it would work. If not? Well we'll deal with that when it happens.

So i did a lap, and it felt not terrible. A bit slow out of the corners but perfectly geared everywhere else and never felt too tall except after that hairpin before the sand pit. The day two course was a bit different than Saturday, it felt different, more techincal maybe?

Syl was there with his nice fresh legs. I had a front row start. SSCX was a bit of a limit but not too bad, fortunately i can spin shit and never felt i was limited by cadence.

The day before I hit the right hand turn in 6th position, not sunday, more like 10th...  and it wasn't the bike. It was more me i think, or i dunno? barriers, sand turns run up down turn turn pedal turn pedal. actually kind of fun. BUT also cold.

even with baselayer on i was on the cold side, fingers were cool and legs were not as warm as I wanted for the first couple laps. I warmed up or the temp warmed up or something by the end but i think the cold had a bit of an impact. I got a decent gap over Syl at first, but he worked his way back up. Spent the first couple laps racing with the guy i was racing with the day before, Syl made contact, i did a few things better but not enough and he slowly eeked out a bike length here, and there, and then I lost contact, i was 30+ seconds ahead of the guy behind me based on the turn positions and all that with two laps to go, I gave it one more hard effort to close the gap to Syl but my back was starting to protest and my legs were tired and when it seemed futile I packed it in and did just enough to hold that position, not worrying about the time or the gap to syl.

It was fun. it was awesome. It was cold and wet but so good.

I'm looking forward to escaping a bit this weekend. Hanging out with friends, friends that are really almost more like family. Fuck it, they ARE family. we all know each other really well, most of us know each other's secrets or know stuff about each other than we've forgotten ourselves.

I'm not racing Saturday, but I am heading up earlier than later to be there with everyone. Maybe catch a couple laps on the day one course, maybe work, maybe not work, maybe just hang out and have fun. Take a break from everything that's been happening.

And hug everyone. #ALLTHEHUGS

we need more hugs.

i need more hugs.

we'll get through this somehow... i'm cautiously more optimistic than I was before. fear and sadness slowly being replaced by the hope we can use this to move forward. Russ posted this last night, it was a good read. Perhaps we can move forward and leave that tainted legacy of the Clinton era behind. But for now, I may just have to have an extra beer or two tonight...

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