It was the meh of times...

Last post before PMBAR.  I know.  Sorry.

Looking forward to riding with my first new partner in five years.  It's been awhile since I've spent 8-12 hours in the woods with someone who isn't Zac.  Used to swap it up at least every couple years to stay fresh.  Back to that modus operandi for awhile, I guess...

unless I give Watts a bad experience like what happened to Zac and I at the Year of the Wooden Nickle PMBAR (2011?) and I feel compelled to try again.

Me, after the race started, wondering where my pooping partner went.

Almost every year after that was just seeking some form of redemption in the form of a top 5 finish in the overall, and once the SS class was added and we took the top step, one more (failed) shot at a repeat.

We've been through a bunch together.  Sickness, broken bike parts, wooden nickle trickery, not-so-fit years, and lots of not so entirely perfect route selection on my part.  Best thing we ever did was (mebbe) invent Pack-less PMBAR.  Four years in a row doing the race without a hydration pack.  Smartest thing I/we ever did.  I'll never go back on that.

So, Watts.  Good partner?  Probably.  He's pleasant to be around, in that way that these two guys are a good fit for each other:

Watts doesn't know much about the Pisgah, as far as trails go... other than the fact that he likes them and that they are made of dirt, rocks, mud, roots, and creeks.  He does know how to drive there, and that's pretty clutch.  He's also donkey strong right now.

That's him standing high above Chris J and Gary C, two guys who can crush... and he crushed them.  Like a beer can.  Well, less like a can and more like a Capri Sun juice sack.  But still crushed tho.

Watts has also encouraged me to go back to my rigid roots.  I haven't done PMBAR on a unsuspended bike since 2011, Zac and I's first year together.  After that, we did what we felt like we had to do to increase our chances of making great bike race.  This decision is more or less because Watts (you know, bike shop owner Watts) doesn't have a fjork, and it would seem that the powers that be want to keep my dream XC fjork (that I pretty much want for the Pisgah 111... and I dunno?) out of my hands until such time that it's useless to me in 2016.

The weather is looking terribly pleasant.  This makes me happy and sad.  It will be nice to play in the woods with Watts and having the sun shine down on our balding heads, but I feel like we would do better with a little added misery.

We're old.  We're grumpy.  We're already a peg lower on the mood-o-meter than the youthful team of Zac and Nick.  We have much less further to fall before we hit bottom if things go sideways.

Then there's Scott Rusinko and his partner (who is an unknown to me).

Third at last week's Cohutta 100 and constantly exploring the Pisgah.  He also bought the same tiny hat with flowers on it, so we've got a fashion score to settle as well.

Then toss in Faster Mustache teammates Nik and Colin and a few other unknowns, and we have the recipe for an interesting race indeed.

I am excite about this race in a way that one can only truly understand once they've done it.  All the unknowns... check points, route options, other team's and their decisions (good and bad), bumping into riders coming from the opposite direction, wondering where they are going and where they have been, the likelihood of a mechanical in Pisgah when riding all day...

So.  Much.  Excite.

See you next week.