What do they mean by "5 Points 50" anyways?

Tomorrow's gonna be one of those days.  Up early, pack the car, drive to work, and wait until I can put the big buildings in my rear view mirror.  I can't get time off until 4:00PM, so I'm only making my way west as far as Cleveland, TN and then staying the night there.  It was the best plan I could come up with to get a somewhat decent night sleep but still be close enough to the race (an hour) that I don't have to be up too early.

The idea of driving alone until 10:30-11:00PM to have to get out of my car, set up camp, and wind down enough to fall asleep was more than I could wrap my brain around.

The Lula Lake Land Trust 5 Points 50.  A bucket list race that I'll finally have a check mark next to (hopefully) by Saturday afternoon.  The single speed field (23 entries) is the third biggest in the 50 mile race, only bested by the men 30-49 (37 entries, the other class I could enter) and the men 19-29 (24 entries).  I don't recognize a lot of the names in SS, but that don't mean anything because:

I have a terrible memory.

There's always the influx of geared interlopers into the mix.

I do know Eric Nicoletti, or Nico as most know him.  Fellow Faster Mustache teammate from Atlanta, maker of many podiums in the races that he frequents, and King of the Tour de Charlotte '14.

I'm pretty sure he's also beat my fastest time ever at ORAMM... oh, and also also is about ten to eleven times more talented than me when it comes to making a mountain bike cycle do what it can do in the woods.  That's not me throwing in the towel, just gonna throw shit at a wall and seeing what sticks until I get tired of throwing shit.

But all that is just podium talk and conjecture and hardly my motivation for making the journey over the border.  A new experience will be had, new trails will be ridden, and memories will be made.  It's been a long week, and I'm just looking forward to zoning out for four or five hours... and then sitting around drinking beer with friends and stuff.

Zoning out will be exactly what I'm doing on the bike cycle part of the day.  My stupid little bike computer that does nothing more than tell time decided to give up the ghost recently.  Once again, I will be just feeling my way around in terms of nutrition, hydration, pacing, and any idea how long I've been in the woods. (edit: it just started working again this morning, so now it's down to whether or not I want to spend three minutes putting it back on).

Timepiecelesssness is fine.  It's how I've done 90% of the races I've been in since '08 or '09.More throwing shit, as it were.

Pumped to be stoked to put on my last number plate of the year, unless... things.  Cross came, something might happen in Atlanta, also there's something else nearby the piques my interest.

But nothing that's gonna involve four or five hours of hammering.

Woot.  Time to get fat(ter).