The Everyday Athlete

Let us speak plainly.
The race did not go as planned.
Buried on the start line despite my early arrival.  4o-something headed into the single track.
Are you kidding me?

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It’s here.  The Crusade is upon us.  Tomorrow morning.
We ventured out last night to Portland Velo’s First Friday gathering at the Lucky Lab and then over the Roots Brewing Company for the Cross Crusade Kickoff Party.  The ‘crossers were out in force.  Rabid.  Frothing.

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Last week, reader Guy Smith of the Crossniacs forwarded me a link to this article in the New York Times.  In the first paragraph, the author quotes a former coach who once told him, “Pedal until you taste blood.”
I liked that.
I thought about it a lot.
The perfect’cross race is composed of a lot of things, […]

Lights, cameras, beer!
What a show.  We rolled with an impossibly crazy posse, crashed the VIP area (thanks, Brad!), stole flats of beer, made Flava-Flav style necklaces out of stolen objects, and heckled Mr. Armstrong.
Most memorable?  Lance comes down the hill past us on a warm up lap.  Dead silence until “Little” (aka Richard)  calls out, […]

What’s the shiniest, twinkliest, most soggy way to start the ‘cross season?  StarCrossed 2008, baby.
It starts raining while we are driving up and as soon as the first drop hits the windshield, I know we are in for it.  Glory hallelujah.  Rain!  Now this is cyclocross, damnit.

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Team Bobo is headed north this weekend for some good old Washington style racing.  I have wanted to race Starcrossed ever since I first read about it on Molly Cameron’s blog so long ago.  As a Seattle native, I’m proud that there is such a kick-ass rockstar race in my old stomping grounds.
So what if […]

So, last week I killed a bird and gained a remount.  My mother sent me an email that said, “Poor birdie.”  My old friend Tej commented likewise.
Yesterday, I got my new racing bike.  The deal has been in the works for a long time, so for me, the novelty had worn off a bit.  I […]

I hate Kruger’s.
That’s not really true, but it used to be fun to say since I’d never done any races there.  It’s like a kid with broccoli.
“I hate broccoli!”
“But you’ve never tried it!”
“I hate broccoli!!”
I met Krugers in 2006.  On a cold November morning I stood by and watched at Kruger’s Crossing as half the […]

Wow.
Talk about a challenging cyclocross course. I spent half the race today choking on powder-fine dust and the other half huffing up the run-up from hell.  I didn’t feel good.  I didn’t feel fast.  And, to be honest, I didn’t really have that much fun.
The best part of my race was when Dave from Ironclad […]

Breaking the bird’s neck seems like a bad omen but I remind myself that I believe neither in omens nor birds.
Still, when I feel the bone snap under me, my heart drops into my gut and my sentence stops inside my mouth, without bothering to find a period.

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