Shirley, I jest

This:

I'm in the King of Pisgah Series... again... sorta.

Let's get past the part where I'm #9 and not #6.  I'm sure that was an oversight.  I was in the series last year, but in name only and my efforts only lasted for two events.  After a less than desirable finish at PMBAR and winning a very moist Pisgah 111K, I was faced with more than I wanted.  After the 111K, I woulda had to find a dry place to hunker down and fix my bike (rebuild it?) and then crawl back into my hammock to sleep all night in the rain again so that I could wake up (figuratively speaking) and ride the 55.5K  That was where I pulled the plug...

Which saved me from doing the Pisgah Monster Cross and the Double Dare.

But this year, I wanna knock them all out in one calendar year.  Being that I've never toed the line at the Monster Cross and haven't finished the Double Dare in two attempts?  Why not?

It does impact the "season" quite heavily.  More than half the races listed are KoP related.  And squeezing something else in?  Hmmmmmm...

I've got the 111/55.5K weekend coming up in a little over a week.  Then once I get back, I have five days to get ready for the week long Trans-Sylvania Epic.  I'll come back bonerifically fit, and wishing I had something to throw my fitness at two weeks later or so...

The week after TSE, there's the Pisgah Enduro and an 8 hour race less than a half hour from my house... but I will have been away from the homestead for way too many days to make that happen.  The next weekend, The Pie and I have some alone time scheduled in some exotic (TBD) location.  After that, there's the Iron Mountain 100k... but it's just a few days before the Tour de Burg.

Fuck me.  Not gonna happen.  Iron Mountain will have to wait... again.

And the Tour de Burg will put me in the best shape of the summer right around the 3/4 point in July.  What will I do with that fitness?

Nothing with a start/finish line.

I'll go on mancation with Bill Nye and Wirun in mid-August.  From there, I fulfill commitments.  Another Shenandoah Mountain 100, the Monster Cross, and Double Dare.  Maybe I get trounced by Bob Moss at the Wilkes 100K again... who knows?

So the King of Pisgah thing will dominate the whole year.  Consider this:  After one race, I'm sitting in sixth place, behind Sam Koerber, Sam Evans, Dave Wood, Charlie Roberts, and Garth "Sideshow Bob Buju Banton" Prosser.  Those names sound familiar?  They should.

So there's that.

And the fact that I'm on a single speed... and older than the rest of them... and they're super motivated by thousands of dollars in prize money.  I can only hope they all break a derailleur hanger at some point (and forget a spare).

Bless their hearts.

On a positive note (I'm all about being positive), I have this:

A screen door in my bike room that I can open up whilst typling away at the keyboard.  I can hear the birds in the jungle out back and feel the fresh air wafting into the room.  It's the small things in life that make it worth living.