Onward and Downward and Fred Ward

As I found myself mourning the loss of my days of riding in a row streak, I decided to keep one long-standing streak alive.

I'm going back to the Trans-Sylvania Epic in 2022.  

2010 me.  Sleeves.  Watch.  No glasses or gloves.  High posting.  One water bottle.  If it wasn't for the snot running down my face and the garish footwear, I wouldn't recognize myself.

I think this will be my 12th year... as long as I include the year when I broke my butts hole and ended up getting X-rays and pain killers and a Hungry Man-sized meal of defeat and despair.

I think I'm gonna race in the 50+ Class again.  Why?  In the immortal words of Bluto Blutarsky, "belch...why not?"

I'm still mulling over the decision as to which bike to do the things I do on.  Part of me wants to bring all three bikes using the same exact Bluto-based reasoning mentioned previously.  I can think of days where a suspension fork would be nice, and other days where gears would make sense (R.B. Winter, I'm looking at you).  I dunno.  Bringing three bikes would be a pain in the ass, but I'm driving up not flying tho...

I need to love my children all the same.

So yeah, in the first half of 2022, I'm doing Moab Rocks and East Coast Rocks.  So.  Much.  Rocks.

Oh, Winter Shart Tarck was supposed to start this past Sunday.  I was gonna sit on the fence until Saturday and then decide what to do.  The past two back-to-back weekends of shite weather in Charlotte has done a number on our trails, and I'm guessing most of them will be a mess for some time to come, what with freeze/thaw issues this whole week.  Even The Pisgah (capital T) is in a sad state of affairs right now.  My desperation to ride my mountain bike anywhere would have been enough to overcome my aversion to paying $35 (day of) to ride the "just okay" new course, but Parks and Rec of Rock Hill wouldn't allow the race to go on.  Rightly so, I'd say.  Mebbe (big mebbe) everything woulda been fine, but there was still plenty of ice to be had Sunday morning, and I don't think I'd wanna send racers buzzing around on a sheet of death.

I was going to base my participation in the whole series on my performance that day.  If I was in the hunt, I'd stick it out.  If my fitness wasn't there, and I was just serving as pack fodder, I'd bail.

Well, now I've gone and made plans that will keep me outta the hunt starting this weekend, so that problem has solved itself.  No series for me this year, although mebbe I'll interlope for a day, otherwise there won't be anything on my radar now until mebbe the Uwharrie MTB Challenge.  It's a two day event with one day options, and I'm still trying to play out the logistics of how to pull off the two day race with a 3+ hour round trip each day or a hotel stay or camping... at a time when I don't even wanna go outside to walk the garbage to the curb.

Bike racing.  Soon.  

Till then, I'm chasing the sun.

Sorry, almost forgot the Fred Ward content.