Upside down on the zip zip zipper

 Happy fucking New Year!  Here we go!!

I mean, here we go...

What can serve as a better example of getting on a pointless roller coaster that just goes round and round and round and also feels like way more up than down than signing up for another year of the Winter Shart Tarck Series racing?

I was all stoked about a return to something close to a normalcy for five weeks in a row, but of course COVID wasn't done fucking things up.  For the first time ever, the event(s) will not be at the Renaissance Park location.  I think the event has been going on since '03 or '04 mebbe, and while the course has been tweaked a billionty times, it's always been at our beloved Renni.  This will also be one of the very few times where I wasn't able to attend a trail prep day and improve things in an approved...

semi-approved...

and basically unapproved manner.

Not taking shovel to dirt in the upcoming weeks will not make me feel better about my attendance, although there's a lot less of a chance that I'll smash my finger moving rocks or overdo it shoveling crush 'n run in an effort to winterize the course.

I'm super bummed about the concept of not being able to ride my bike to the race this year.  Twenty four to twenty six miles round trip on some roads in Charlotte I'd rather not ride a bike on as well as some busier two lane roads in South Carolina. 

It was a mental hurdle to jump getting over the idea of driving my car five weeks in a row down to Anne Springs Close Greenway, but honestly, what do I have better to do?  It's pretty predictable to determine that I'll still be working every other week through February, so my time is there to waste.  I'm pretty sure I've roped in Dr Mike to carpool with me, so at least I'll have buenos company.

Enough with the semi-negative aspects.  There are certainly some positives.  Yeth, COVID has made racing somewhat "less" than what we used to have, but I'm a firm believer that it can be done safely.  Each category is limited to twenty five riders (I assume for a masked/spaced grid start).  Even if there's some spectating to do, it's not too hard to find a place to keep some distance from each other and the riders.

Another tick in the "pros column" is that the course will be all new to me... I should say "courses."  They have two routes that will swap week to week, so this year should at least feel a little less "time to make the donuts" when I wake up five Sundays in a row for race day.

And as always, nothing replicates the kind of fitness you can get from doing intense intervals once a week for forty minutes.  I don't "exercise."  I ride or I race (or I sit on the couch and watch others ride and race).  There's not a lot of in between... although I've been known to just "ride" during a "race."

photo cred: Devon Balet

So, another year of riding in circles but not the same circles as usual and not the same circles week after week and still getting outside with friends... regardless of the weather.