Flash backs

Did my duties of going up and down a hill many many times. One thing about those rides is they hurt but they don't take long so I spent a few hours doing damage control on both Anthem's Yep this past weekend it almost took longer to clean the bike than it did to race the event that got it dirty. Seems to be the trend for this season.

While having bike parts spread out over the yard I had one of those trippy 60's flashback from smoking way to many drugs in the 50's. Ya I know the math doesn't work since I was born in the 70's. With the 9 hour this weekend and the 24 hour team next weekend I started thinking about my first time ever even seeing a mountain bike race let alone an endurance race.

It was right around this time 9 years ago that my sister invited me down to Hardwood Hills to hang out with a bunch of her friends from Ottawa who were doing the really long relay race. I'm like sure why not. This was the 24 hour of Adrenaline and was at that point the largest 24 hour race in North America. Ya I didn't know any of that stuff at this point. So here I was, the cool guy rolling in a slammed Acura (yes former street racer) with the music blaring and a smoke in my mouth (yes I used to smoke, a lot) No one seemed impressed.

I stayed the whole time and got sucked in. Helped wrench on a few bikes through the race (I did spend many hours on bikes in my teens and yes I still smoked) I was hooked. I was also a little embarrassed about smoking. I think there were roughly 2000 racers and there may have been 5 of us spectators who smoked. There was no lynching at that point. What it did do was a great thing. After the race I had such I great time that I said that I wouldn 't be on the sideline next year, I'll be in the grunt of it. 3 weeks later I had quit smoking cold turkey from that pack a day life. At that point I had smoked for more than half my life.

So what happened, obviously I went from one addiction to another. I sometimes wonder which one would be healthier or cheaper. I can't see myself quiting cycling cold turkey. Hell I think at the level that I'm at now I would be considered a hardcore crack addict. I did race the next year on a 5 person team with my sister. Let's just say it was interesting but it was a starting point.

Well I'm seeing things back in the right time frame again so it's time to go to work. More tomorrow