Playing by (or with) the rules

The month of May, or as I like to think of it, the month of tossing feces at a wind propulsion device.  Hard racing all month long... one weekend off in four.  Ten days of rubbing elbows and tires.

Packless PMBAR is on again.  It woulda been brilliant last year, except that Zac was sick as a dog who just ate a dead dog.  Even with his limitations, we coulda got a top ten finish... but he wanted that 7th checkpoint for pride regardless of the one hour time bonus and the 1.5-2 hours of effort (in the cold rain) to get it. 

If you don't understand that, then you haven't done PMBAR.

I am ready.

The required gear.  There's a lot of it.  Aside from the helmet, stuff that I don't carry on 99% of the rides I go on.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Items numbers 4, 7 and 10 on the list.  Emergency blanket (inside a Tube Tarp) and whistle (actually half a whistle, but it still works) strapped to the top tube with a Mutherload strap which totally destroys my frame's aesthetically clean lines, and a blinkie.

Items 2, 5, 9 and 11.  Rain jacket (one of those shitty plastic ponchos... waterproof and the opposite of breathable), a bike computer with no purpose other than acting as a "timepiece," a compass that I think was attached to some cargo shorts I bought over a decade ago, and my emergency light source, which if I have to turn it on, it's a real emergency.

Items 1, 3, 6, 8 and 12.  Helmet (der), iodine (tucked away with the Gu Brew for iodine flavor killing goodness and electrolytes), gauze, tape and lighter in my Tülbag, and the required 2014 Pisgah map... which is so similar to the 2013 map, but anyways.

Non-required gear, in a sense.  It's illegal to be naked in the woods in NC, so clothes are in order.  45-71­° with zero chance of rain right now.  Under shirt and METAL arm warmers might not be needed.  Flexy, two "seasons" old SIDI shoes for all the hike-a-bike, and twelve gels because I gotta eat and they're close to being something like food.

That's it for eight to eleven hours in the woods with friends.

Now you can play along at home.

I'm not posting tomorrow.  Figure I'm better off getting a good night's sleep tonight since I think there will be loads of pillow talk Friday night.