With that 'old' 36 year old ginger from Scotland? Wahoo Fitness video series?
I know I must have shared it. I watched it. He did the vid about West Highland Way?
Season 2 popped up a few weeks ago:
https://youtu.be/mUbJRxxytaQ
And that..
yeah well, what's the point GeWilli.
Well I went over to BBC to look for MTB World Champ coverage, saw the big headline I tweeted about this morning. A fucking FANTASTIC read and write up by Evie (go read it esp if you have daughters in sport - or work with young women in any sport).
And this:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-62650682 I saw the thumbnail photo, hmm that guy looks familiar, it couldn't be? could it?
yeah... Rab, one and the same.
A year ago plus a few days we lost another wickedly fast ginger (while I was racing at Great Glen last year), Evan died going into the final turn, just about to win in a dream like finish against a crazy stacked field. I would be lying if his death wasn't on my mind going into my race this year. So much can happen, esp when you push your body as hard as he did, or as I was going to do, they were different ways of creating physical stress, but sleepless constant pedaling isn't something everyone can do. Going insanely fast much the same.
Rab, died in his sleep, a few days after winning the Scottish title. He hit a super high note, went to sleep, never woke up again.
Evan went into that last turn, and nothing else after that.
Remember that quote from last year?
Yeah the one that caused such extreme visceral panic and anxiety and just would wreck me every time I saw it, and esp that first time reading it on the morning of my birthday.
this one:
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
― Henry David Thoreau
I don't have the same reaction, perhaps the passing of a year, this last lap around the sun has transformed me a little, or dulled the edge of the blade the words hold.
Perhaps it is the loss of my Father, falling so close, and living with that hole, and never really (still) fully grieving, or reconciling the loss.
It is an unknown perplexity that I'm not quite exploring, the why it has changed. Mostly because it is a relief to not have three sentences ready to unravel you totally, at will.
Of course it didn't help to start the day off listening to this playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kUtBAELFkPvgZ9hO_0ZQ5FlPZzwZl_xVg
And that my office smells like coffee, mineral spirits, Finish line wet lube (cross country lube as it used to be called) and generic lemon scented pledge. Yeah it is smackdown and the ride home last night was not in the rain but it was wet. And no i didn't have time last night or this morning to do all that. And of course it reminds me of a person who commented that they loved the smell of the mineral spirits in my office.
Rab did launch himself. Wahoo did a great job of documenting it and for that I'm grateful.
amor fati motherfuckers
heddwch
G
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