Just one more thing...

During the darker moments of my Shenandoah Mountain 100 effort, I not only quit racing for 2015, I considered what other sports I might venture into or at least how quickly could I get a fully suspended bicycle that I could drag to the top of Pilot Rock so I can take selfies with a can of beer and make it look like I still like to ride bikes.

But as I promised myself, no big decisions until I gave it a few days... and I did.

And then I entered the Fool's Gold 50 miler (not the 100).

Why not or why or hows come?

Dunno.  I think I enjoy "racing" my bike for somewhere in the neighborhood of four to six hours.  Long enough for "old man legs" to matter, but not so long that I have to have some kind of focus over a period of time equal to or greater than a work day.  So no hundred for me.  Besides my lack of desire to be on a bike that long, there are other things going against the full distance option.

My iPod Shuffle no longer lasts more than seven, maybe eight hours. 

I'll be drinking beer shortly after noon as opposed to having to wait until... I dunno... some time later than that.

I think I'm done doing hundies for a while, unless I do one I've never been to before. 

I made a commitment to my Faster Mustache teammate to do this race if he did the Shenandoah.  I was drinking beer at the time I made this promise (so was he), and I think he's the kinda guy that would let me out of this if I really asked nicely.  If memory serves me correctly though, I quite enjoyed the trails there, and I can remember a few mistakes I made last time that I would like to make right.  I'll also being staying with a group of people who won't tempt me to drink ALL the beers the night before, which means I'm staying with anybody not named Watts.

I don't blame Watts for the decision I made this past Saturday night.  I still applaud him for his logic.  That was the best time I've had at the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in years (aside from the first two or three hours of actual riding).  I'm looking forward to just eating right, pedaling my bike hard for four plus some hours, and then being totally irresponsible for the rest of the year.

Speaking of being irresponsible (on my part), it would seem as if they're limiting the beer for the fifty milers at the after-race happy times through the use of "beer tickets."

I'm not counting on my sex appeal garnering me a whole lot of extra tickets, so if you're the sort that doesn't really drink or even like beer, find the guy in the ultra-hot green jorts and hook him up.  I will give you a hug, an autograph and/or a schmarmy look.  Your choice.

No word on the 420/4:20 beer prize (closest 50 finisher to 4:20 time and 100 miler finisher to 4:20PM), but I'm prepared to adjust any goals on the fly.  Since the race is sponsored by Terrapin this year and not Sweetwater, there's a chance this little glory (loop)hole might be closed.