You Don't Know What You've Got Til It's Gone

Wow. I'm so glad I decided on that as Today's title... Otherwise I may not have watched this. Yep, 1:00 on a Tuesday.

So As you may have gathered, I haven't spent my month away from blogging totally getting my stuff together. "Hey maybe he has a job now". No I just needed a break. Wow, one whole month since Moab. In some ways it seems like yesterday, in another its a long way off.

Racing in Moab was an experience I'll always remember. I'm really proud of it as an accomplishment. I started thinking about it because I just wanted to see if I could do it. Finish.

Not quit. I felt like I had to show something for my summer of leisure. I didn't really expect to be in the hunt.

I have to thank all the people that helped me. Weather cooking, feeding me, working on my bike, communicating with Pam, or just cheering me on. I really owe a huge percentage of my success to my friends that hung out. Thank you so much! (Unfortunately, no one signed up for the chamois creme applicator position, so I had to do it myself. While this did keep people out of my Ruffles / M&M's "did you see where he just put that hand?", I still wound up with a severely chapped backside.)

Your brain goes some weird places in the middle of the night. I started talking to myself around sunset. I must have really looked like a certifiably crazy person as the night wore on. I passed people at some odd times: singing 'This is how we do it'; ringing my bell like a madman; perfecting the art of peeing off the bike. I got some long hard looks. More Pics here, Thanks to Ryan.

After finishing I was surprised at how OK I felt. I had some problems with my hands loosing feeling, and I really did shed a layer of snakeskin off my butt, but mostly I just felt hungry. Unbelievably hungry. 3 cheeseburgers a day hungry. Luckily our "Eat your way across the midwest tour" began almost immediately after the race. More on that later.

After the race, it was surprising how I just seemed to lose all power. When I told a fellow 24 hour participant my plans to race 'cross in a couple weeks she just laughed at me. She was right. It felt like I was trying to drive a 4 cylinder over Vail pass. I just had nothing. My cross "racing" in Kentucky just became a group ride in the mud. I had hoped to get my father excited about Cyclocross (the sport of the future) by dazzling him with my power and speed on Saturday. After watching me effectively 'push rope' against a stacked field he decided to skip Sunday's event.

Kentucky came a couple weeks into awesome road trip. We had already toured the boyhood home of Brian Peters, gone to Milwaukee and the Beechwood Blaster, and a quick couple of days in Chicago. (Pam did not win the champion's sweater this year in Beechwood. However, she has already began a focused training regiment to guarantee domination next year)

Soooo. The weather is still unbelievably good for riding right now. Actually, I think I'm going to take my wife on a bike date to Eagle RIGHT NOW! Peace out.