"I'm sure those were the droids I was looking for, officer."
If you haven’t been here since yesterday morning, then this is the first time you’ve seen the new blog layout. I’ve been contemplating a change for quite some time now, but I struggled with the thought of even attempting it. When I first setup this crap a few years ago, I kind of clicked on the settings all willy nilly and settled for the end result. I never really liked it, but I learned to live with it. But as they say, “Change is gon’ come.”
I wanted to make it a little more obvious that you were here to see me, and that’s why I put a picture on the header. As far as the layout is concerned, it was a little cluttered and messy before. I really hated the colors, although I’m not too sure how I feel about the current ones either. Maybe another change is in the future. For now though, you’ll have to deal with it. Hopefully at least now it’s a little easier to read.
Anyway, I figured that I should talk about another race in the Winter Series on Sunday. Lunchbox decided to brave the cold and get out to see what he could do on the trail. He’s not really a “racer”, but he does like to see if he can at least stay outta last place. At 6’3” and about 215 pounds, he’s not really suited to compete against frail little children. He probably should be riding with the Clydesdale class, but he’d rather go out there with other kids and have fun.
He started out pretty steady, not really fighting for position. His goal was to stay upright out there, trying to not crash (like I did.) He was having fun, even though the cold air probably hurt to breathe.
When the small-bodied racer children leave the rest of the field in the dust, he usually has a hard time keeping himself motivated. In this case though, he found some friendly competition to keep himself occupied.
My friend Ben, who races in my class, has his son Benji (on the right in the photo above) out there to ride with the kid’s group too. Lunchbox enjoyed “racing” against another non-pro level junior rider, and they traded places on the trail pretty much the whole race. They kept each other going, and probably saw much faster lap times because of it. Their only goal was to beat the other guy, so they went at it.
At one point I witnessed Benji pulling away:
But Lunchbox wasn’t having it:
Every time they got to the fire road, they would talk smack and try to pass each other.
Photo credit: Ben Hund
On the last lap, they went at it again. With the end in sight, they both sprinted for the finish line.
When they crossed the line, it was a photo finish. Lunchbox got the “win” by a few tenths of a second.
The boys were tired from their battle:
And just like that, they were no longer competitors. Those two pushed it out there, and I’m pretty proud. Some of the superstar racer kids had no idea what was going on at the back of the pack, so they probably missed the best racing action of the day. When you are way too serious, you miss out on all the fun. Kids like these are what the junior-class races should be about: fun and friendly competition. They aren’t hunting down sponsors, trying to please a local shop race team, or putting in miles and miles of training just to get better. They ride bikes because it’s fun, which is what kids should be doing anyway.
Super-serious has a place in racing I suppose, but for me personally, it’s all about the fun.
Maybe you should change your riding habits if you're one of those "serious" types. You'll probably have a lot more fun.
It’s like being a kid all over again.
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