Two weekends, two kinds of fun.


Last weekend was my first shot at the lovely Team Time Trial event. I kind of got wrangled into this thing when a couple of my teammates decided that they were going to do it, and needed a 3rd guy. My reputation of being game for anything made me the lucky duck in this case. The team time trial is run when the team, consisting in this case of four members heads out on a set course with a bazillion dollars worth of disk wheels and aero bars and then we all take turns pedaling till we puke around a 40 kilometer course. It was all going well, I had borrowed an extra 1000 dollars worth of bike shit, had changed my bike all around into some sort of freakazoid TT rig and then soon enough it was race day. My teammate Ted Slack picked me up at the house, about 5:30 in the morning and we were on our way. We registered, met up with the other two guys and started to get ready. What was this!?! I had utterly forgotten my cycling shoes! If you've ever tried to race your bike on clipless pedals while wearing running shoes, you know that this isn't a recipe for success.

So, I did what any self respecting cyclist would do, and I followed the lead of the greats who came before me, namely, Dave Stoller from Breaking Away, and taped my feet to the pedals. As it turned out, it wasn't such a bad idea. We simply rolled to the starting line, and then Ted held me upright while one of the other guys strapped my feet to the pedals with athletic tape. Now that I was trapped on the bike, there was nowhere for me to go but forward, so on we went. As it turned out I was the fastest guy on the course with his feet taped to the pedals, which won me accolades from the Tough Guy department. Additionally, thanks to my burly teammates, we ended up winning the New Jersey Cat 4. Team Time Trial Championships, complete with a great big trophy, some medals and also some schwag.


This weekend Jennifer and I are packing up. We have in our bags 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags, 1 gallon of sake, one hatchet, 4 sets of undies (two each) one small Japanese trinket, and 1 bottle each of sunblock and bug spray.
We fly out of Philadelphia tomorrow at 7:00 AM. Any guesses as to where we'ere headed? I'll fill you in with more details as they materialize.