What am I gonna do now?

Since next year is now this year, I might as well start talking about it. Assuming I don't sneak into a short track race or two before then, the first race I'm doing in 2012 will be the Icycle XC/Night Downhill on January 28th.

This race never disappoints. I've been doing it off and on since 1999 (I think), but I have skipped it for many years now.

This would be Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever's view in the back of the "DH shuttle." If I had to guess, the year was 2001. I'm basing that on my green Boreas helmet and the Santa Cruz Bullit I'm holding on to. The format was different back then. Night DH Saturday/XC race Sunday. That year I managed to win the Sport DH class, get victoriously smashed on beer and Mad Dog, and came back from sleeping on the floor to win the XC race the following day. Good times.

I think the duration of my most recent absence between Icycles has a direct correlation to just how bad of a hangover I had at the last one. Four years equals one bad hangover.

It all started innocently enough, happiness abounding all over the place.

photo cred: let's assume Brado took all the pictures in today's post

It was a relatively beautiful day. Things were looking up for the XC race.

Remember, this was a time long ago. I was fresh off my World Championship win in 2006 and looking to get back to the business of having fun. It was the time of the re-painted Zion frame and well before there were any Awesome Straps.

That's a toe strap pulling tube securing duties.

I had fun "racing"....

until I got lost, ended up going backwards on the course, ran headlong into traffic that was rolling the correct direction, and quit. Then the bad things started.

I brought a bottle of Chimay and two bottles of Mad Dog (it's an Icycle thing). Someone else brought kegs of beer and fire. I had one failed attempt at a practice DH run and decided it was safer to just keep drinking. It was not.

Nick the Stick put the beatdown on me.

Someone poured me into bed. Someone else stole the keys to the Dirty Little Box, did donuts in the ball field, and left it out there.

I woke up with a broken rib, blood with the viscosity of gravy, and a swollen head. You shoulda seen the other guy.

So, it took me four years to put that pain behind me, and for the last three years I had to read about how great the event was on MTBR's NC/SC forum.

But not this year.

I plan on being there, although I have yet to register. I plan on traveling with the younger crowd from Charlotte, and there seems to be some latency in their resolve to register as well. Someone needs to crack the whip around here.

And as promised...

The Wednesday retro Dick pic of the week.

That's me and my inflatable Sylvester-in-a-speedboat pool toy. I still have those trunks, although they fit a bit more snug on me now.