Ross was my favorite friend

The big decision for the week will be whether or not I race at this Sunday's Cyclo Ross race in Veterans Park.  Last year, it was back pain that kept me from racing.  The year before, I think it was just me being cheap... or was it my back again?  I'm getting old and can't remember what my excuse has been and how many years I've been coming up with them.

This year, my aches and pains are not terribly significant (just annoying, huzzah!), but my commitment to not push myself too hard until I feel really good again is there.  I know all those run-ups and the barrier-hopping probably isn't the best idea.  I'm also impatiently waiting for the cessation of phlegm production from the bug I got back in November.

I'm also looking over at my bike, with its 3.0 front tire and 32X19 gearing and wondering how much time I want to put into making it a more "deliberate" bike for racing cross.

I'm pretty sure it would take me more time to swap all the things over and back afterwards than it would to actually race the single speed class.... wait, thirty minutes?  Yes, it would be much more work, especially including clean up if it's muddy.

I think I'll go back to my cheapness excuse.  I see that one day licenses are now $15 ($15? When did that happen?), pre-registration is $25, and the one time bib number fee is $5... $45 total.  Thirty minutes on the course (assuming I don't get pulled for being too slow or not having enough sleeves).

Looking back through the archives, I don't see that I was bitching about the whole money thing last year, but I had the Old Man Back™ excuse, so maybe I wasn't even looking for some other reason to not race (again).  I do happen to race for an awesome team that does some partial race fee reimbursement at the end of the year, so I can only half complain about that price.

I also would like to squeeze in a real (more than 30 minute) ride this weekend...

So, in the "pro-racing this weekend column," what do we have?

1.  Too much FOMO and a desire to YOLO.  I've opted out for too many years and this would just be another "year of not."  It's not like the race is gonna get cheaper, USAC will back down on the one day fee, or the venue will move even closer to my house.

2.  I shouldn't even bother thinking about swapping the bike over to make it more cross friendly.  I would normally get my ass handed to me by the strong NCCX single speeding folks who cross over into the Cat1s later, but this year?  There's gonna be so many out-of-towners coming in for Nats next weekend.  I'd probably be lucky to mid-pack even if I make a bunch of changes to my Vertigo.  Dumb.

3.  I bought a 12 pack of Sierra Nevada to bring with me, and if I know I'm racing at 11:30AM, I'll be less likely to start into them too early.  At least if I race for a half hour, I'll feel like I earned the right to drink the rest of the afternoon.

4.  If I do this race, just once, I will never have to write this same blog post ever again. Ever.  I will have YOLO'ed and gotten over my FOMO.  I will win.

I think I've talked myself into it, the only scary thing being that I did so five days in advance with a whole lot of hours left to talk myself out of it.

Meh.