Sunday Post Ride

And it begins on dirt...well actually after an hour delay of drive back and forth, it begins on dirt. The plan had been to do a pre-ride on The King of Burlingame TT Race course. Saturday's weather had been beautiful, sunny warm 50's and today's was to be better, sunnier, warmer, 50'ers/Sixty-ish. I was going to meet up with the Team at 8 a.m. in the parking lot and do a couple of laps, scout out the course, pick lines etc.

That didn't happen. I got up in plenty of time, even had the bike ready to go, but I didn't hear from the team until 730-ish or so. I figured they'd call as they started to head South towards Burlingame State Park. I figured it'd take'em almost an hour to reach, at the very least 45 minutes (and that's haulin', state trooper take-me-to lock-up haulin'). By the time they called I was in the idle of full conversation wtih my wife, planning our next trip, cruise, vacation time, destination etc. We're considering a trans-Atlantic cruise to Europe. I had never been a fan of round the block Caribbean cruises: "Sooo I'm gonna pay you an obnoxious amount of cash so you drive my floating hotel around the Caribbean-block only to drop me off to where we started?" I always thought a cruise should take you some place, as in a mode of transportation. The Caribbean, I'm a little sick of, for me its like Florida south, just minus rednecks & pick-ups. Why would I want to visit third world island beaches?

But I will admit, the Disney Cruise line has a best kept secret: All of the adult luxuries are never too crowded, unlike regular cruise lines. Because with Disney, all of the parents with kids are WITH THEIR CHILDREN and are NOT taking up valuable space at the grown up sections of the ship, like the spa, the gym, the coffee shops, all of it relatively crowd free. Disney was wise in dividing the ship into 3 areas; everyone (think a billion children), family (fewer people/older children usually wanting nothing to do with their parents) and finally No Children Under 18 (almost empty).

I'd hook-up with them later. Its Sunday. I'm in no rush. At this point I wasn't, I didn't have to meet them. It wasn't like they were depending on me as guide or for a ride to the park. Never the less, I threw on gear, grabbed bike and was off. Shooting down Route 3 South. I figured I'd catch-up and meet them somewhere on course. That never happened.

I pull into the lot, park next to Mr Cat 1's Nissan and start the mad dash to unload bike, strip down to race kit which I wore underneath my running pants and RFN track jacket and the throw on..."Wait a minute." The mental check and flash backs commences: Air in tires, Water bottles, helmet, HRM, Bike CPU, sandals for post ride, kit, pants..."Oh F"

God damned SHOES! I forgot my freaking shoes. I forgot my fricken shoes. So the dilemma ensues: Drive back, grab shoes and return OR drive back grab shoes and ride Arcadia. Time wise I'd lose a total of an hour, maybe more going to and back. Fuck it. I drove out here to pre-ride, I'm going to pre-ride. I knew I'd never meet up with my team, but that didn't matter I needed to know how I'd do on course.

I finally returned to Burlingame, just in time to see 3 thugs in a late model Nissan drive out. The guy with the beard in the drivers seat looked like he hasn't seen a woman or sunlight in a while, his passenger had the post high look and his rear passenger had an enforcer look about him. These hoodlums were my team mates. They had just completed 2 laps on course: 1 way on the direction of the course and the other way backwards. After we exchanged some info about the course, dry, technical here, rocky there, we drove our separate ways. I pulled into the same spot where I been just about an hour earlier. I unload and began my confused look around the lot for the trail entrance.

As I started out I ran into3 riders from Thursday Night Group, Steve with the old school Merlin and Fast Freddy. Again riders were finishing as I have yet to start. Talking to Freddy, we swapped stories of returning to riding after injury, mine with severed tendons right leg/foot and Freddy...severed left ring finger. Holy Shit!

I knew he got injured last year but seriously, severed finger. OM f'G! Even when he showed me I couldn't believe my eyes. There it was, gone. No ring on that finger. No finger. It wasn't a clean sever either. The surgeons had tried to re-attach but a few days post surgery the skin turned black and the severed portion of his finger died. The only option was removal. The doctors had removed the damaged portion of the finger and folded over the excess flesh and sewn back onto itself like a flap and then closed it all up.

From what Freddy tells me, he had been stepping down from a ladder when he either slipped or jumped down catching his ring on a burr in the ladder and...'really mangled it up.' Wow here I am bitching about not being able to walk or run properly, numbness and there's Freddy...missing digit and all. He had lost the portion of his finger just above the 1st joint away from the knuckle. I'm still in shock. Wow.

We quickly turned turned our attention to the important things to a cyclist: Eating, Riding and Fucking, sometimes the order may change depending on the day..." But as long as I can (insert noun)...I'm OK." Freddy gave the lay out of the course, conditions and the all important: HOW TO GET ONTO THE FRICKEN COURSE directions. We wished each other well for race day and would ride again on some Thursday night in the future.

I began course with a great feeling a dirt under my wheels, legs turning over the big gears, tires humming along. I was OK. A couple of technical sections here and there and I started to really wonder about my off road skills. My immediate thought: I need to get on the balance board more. I think part of me was reluctant about slamming down the torque and muscling my way through the technical sections. It was probably ghost thoughts of roady efficiency-go for cadence versus STOMP ON THE PEDALS.

The tech sections were overall, OK. Simply put OK. I could've done worse but I made it through OK. I guess I was hesitant abut damaging equipment and walking back to the Jeep, especially since I had no sense of distant (fricken bike CPU wasn't working). Long story short I ended up going off course and ended up with about 8 extra bonus mile (could've been more, but bike computer was down so who knows). The KoB is less than 3 weeks away.