Raining Excite

Right now, my excite is all about next week.  I received the schedule of events for the 2nd Maxxis Appalachian Summit next weekend.  Still can't believe I'm getting in on this.

The word "presentation" is used four times, as in "Presentation 1," "Presentation 2," etc.  That means I'm going to have to sit still and listen... for what looks like two hours but in four half hour increments over two days.  I think I can do that.  I used to ride my bike for 24 hours at a time.  This should be marginally easier.

The rest of the schedule looks like a dream.  Coffee, breakfast, bikes, lunch, bikes, dinner, beer, bikes, beer. Repeat.

I'm aware of the fact that the "dream" isn't always all that.  I've borne witness to such media events in the past.  Lots of time standing around with mostly dudes between all the occasional riding.  The word "shuttle" is sprinkled in there quite a bit... although I've ridden a bit in the area last year.  Ups will still have to be earned at some point.  They're everywhere.

I'm wondering if I'm going to come out of this ahead or behind fitness-wise.  Access to the incredible food at Mulberry Gap three times a day and coolers full of Terrapin beer VS a smorgasbord of good trail so close by?  Which one's going to come out on top?  I mean, this will be March, the time of year when I start thinking about how much I don't want to feel like a lump of shit in April.

April.  6 Hours of Warrior Creek.

Who's registered? Me and Nick "Dip 'n Spray" Barlow, that's who.  We struggled a bit last year staying on the straight and narrow path for sure.  Looking at the archives, I see that I had a shitty day finding out that my lease was up, the rent was increasing, and the house was already on the renatl market all within a couple hours.  I was driven to drink and found Barlow out and about doing the same (despite our mutual agreement to do the opposite of that).  A late evening followed by waking up to a dead battery in the Honda Fit of Rage at 5:50AM.  Fuzzy/angry heads do not make fast laps.  We ended up being a couple minutes off the winning pace every lap all day long.  Meh.

This year.  Magic.  We're sequestering ourselves from the rest of the world in an undisclosed location close to the race the night before.  There will be beers, but fewer in number and in a controlled environment, so okay.

But we're both gonna need a solid March to bring anything close to an A-game, because we both agree that we're probably C students right now.  Mebbe C+ if you factor in facial hair.