It’s always an amazing feeling when you see something you started take off and move outside of your little circle of the world. (Not that it happens much if ever for me.) But yesterday it did and it made me smile, I saw someone sporting a cap city cross t-shirt that I don’t know. Never saw the kid before. He probably doesn’t know me, I don’t know him. But he was sporting a cap city cross tee! That’s my baby. That’s my dream, my fight for the last few years. Lots of hours have been put into that series and it’s nice that heading into the second year we’re starting to see a ground swell. Pretty fantastic. Makes me smile.
The racing on Sunday was a different story. When the fuck am I going to get some god damn results. This is bullshit. I was feeling good and I thought I was riding pretty fast till I looked at the results. Are you kidding? I’ll try my geared bike, see how that goes this Sunday. If I end the cross season scratching the top ten in OVCX races and nothing changes… bye bye. That’s all I’ve got to say.
Fucking genius. That’s what DeeDee’s art is.
WTF dick head!
So we got Champion System to sponsor our series for 2008. I got to design the race leaders jersey (well, I’m the series coordinator. Who else is going to do it.) I just placed the order and now can’t wait to get them in. Who’s going to sport the leaders jersey this fall? Can’t wait to see.
Art? Been drawing religiously. Like almost everyday. Wish I could be drawing right now. Very good stuff. Future goals keep motivation high. It’s been many years since I felt this fire. Very good.
Check out Fred Stonehouse. Awesome paintings.
Amen to Angelique’s earlier post. Mast transit is the answer. Trains. Cars are stupid.
I like high gas prices. So there. I fondly remember visiting Germany with Andy back in 2002 for my friend Theresa’s wedding. Among many other things, we loved all the small cars there, and all the people on bikes. She told us that gas was $4 or $5 a gallon, and we were like, wha?! No wonder people commuted by bike and train, but what a good idea! It just makes sense. Well, now, years later, we’re getting there. I see more and more little cars and more and more people riding bikes to work.
Sure, it would be great if people chose more fuel efficient vehicles or commuted to work by bike without having high gas prices. But if that’s what makes people change, so be it. Those who think that more domestic drilling is the answer…they are missing the point.
Here is yet another reason why Portland, Oregon, seems like the coolest city ever. This afternoon, on NPR, Portland was featured for being arguably the most bike-friendly city in the United States. They have one bridge with 4 (that’s four!) bike lanes, and it’s still not enough for all the bike traffic during morning rush hour! Those who are leading the bicycle charge in the city say that Europe is their model. That rules. They get it.
Dead.
Fucking.
Last.
Yeah. I sported the DFL banner yet again this season. Pretty shameful. But wait, this was fun, I was smiling. I didn’t cramp and I enjoyed myself? My special hang loose socks pulled me through it (why else would you wear hang loose socks?). I was smiling and enjoying roasting in the 90% humidity. I was 18 minutes off of Steve-O’s winning time. That’s not too bad. He’s a fast dude. What gives? How am I supposed to Monday morning quarterback this thing? I got last but I liked it? I sucked, I was slow and walked every frickin’ hill but I liked it. How do I interpret this? I’m confused.
I decided earlier in the week that ‘fuck it, ride what’s fun.’ was the motto to live by. I’m never going to be pro, I’m never going to be known as a ‘local stud’. Enjoy yourself and have a smile or else what’s the point? I’ve beat myself up to much over results and just want to enjoy mountain bike racing. So I brought the rigid rig with a special 32 x 22 wimp gear for the muddy hills. I needed it.
We started with a lemans start. Yeah, running! My fat ass specialty! Good training for cross I guess. Got on my bike in last place and stayed there for two hours and fifteen minutes. Almost passed a few guys but then a hill came and I hiked it while they rode away. God damn gears! S&S trails is fun-tough, it flows but at the same time you’re either climbing or descending. Very short ups and downs. No time to recover means you’re constantly pushing the red zone. Add some technical rock sections and you’ve got yourself a hell of a course. Thumbs up, except for the death mud pits from the inch of rain. We rode through a corn field. Try riding through a corn field with 100 other riders over 3 laps and an inch of rain. That section was tough. Should have dismounted and ran that shit cross style.
This race was a test. A test on a few levels. Testing having fun worked. But I also I tried using a new anti-cramp pill called S! caps. Very good testing. No cramps, felt great. Lots of sodium. Also tried dowsing myself in water every 15 minutes or so. Had to stop and switch water bottles mid-race but I kept cool. Very good. Cool body core testing. Nice. So remember – Have FUN! I don’t race to win. I don’t race to beat Steve, Joe or Melanie. I race cuz it’s fun. And don’t ever lose sight of that. It’s fun.
I’ve been having trouble watching episodes of Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days TV show. I guess that is precisely why he does the work he does. It’s provocative and makes you think. On each episode, a person with strong views on something volunteers to live with someone else who has the opposite views on that issue.
The first show Andy and I watched this season was of particular interest to us: A meat lover goes to live with a family of animal rights activists. My blood boiled when the guy would say certain things like “Animals are here on this Earth to eat.” But, after the 30 days and a lot of different kinds of experiences, the meat eater saw the light…after being faced with the horrors of factory farming face to face, he even became something of an advocate for farm animals in the end.
But then we watched an episode about a Mormon woman who is anti-gay, and she goes to live with a gay couple who has adopted three children. Oh. To think about this episode makes my blood boil. I. just. can’t.ugh! Ugh! Alas, after the 30 days, there was no apparent enlightenment to come to that particular woman.
Right now, Andy’s watching an episode about a gun control advocate who went to live with a pro-gun guy in, guess where, Leesburg, Ohio! I knew I would get too upset to watch this. It’s so close to home, literally.
Morgan Spurlock does a service to encourage debate and discussion like this. Hooray for Morgan! But I am personally amazed at how firmly rooted I am in one camp or the other. There are certain things that I think are right, and I really despair when I am confronted with the harsh fact that other people don’t see things the way I do. I guess that’s not very open-minded. I recognize that. I’m going to try to work on this. Understanding people’s point of view is the key to harmony, right? Ugh. 
Models are such drama kings (and queens). They don’t want to do the real work. They don’t want to put in the time and enter the pain cave that modeling for 5-6 hours is. I ask them to dig deep and what do they do? Give me a big blank face. I ask them to jump on the hurt bus and what? Nothing. No commitment. What gives? Freakin’ models.
That time of year again. Catalog photo shoot season.
Got two more tattoo’s on Friday. Suddenly my arm is starting to look pretty covered. No turning back now. All or nothing.
East Fork Race report: So how do you draw inspiration or insight from the death dirge that happened on Sunday? God I raced like shit. I thought I was past this crap. I don’t want to talk about it and right another lame and complaining race report but Monday morning quarterbacking is all I’ve got. I planned on going out slow and taking it easy the first lap but the 2 mile pro-log got me fired up and I was hauling ass to keep in the front group. Went into the woods in 7-8th place, at one time was sitting top 5 I think and then I just imploded and dropped about 10 places on my second lap. Finished in 14th or something poor. Suck.
Photos always make blogs cool:
I don’t want to blog right now. Kiss grits.