LoVe Vs. Hate: DouBle DaRe StaGe 2

Man, I felt like I had spent the day working on my meditation techniques.
When you visit a temple and you train for meditation it is common for the monks to slap the sh*t out of your back with a stick while you meditate to test your focus.

My Back was jacked. My lower back muscles were so tense I was amazed. I felt like I got caught in some hip hop beat down and I had no choice but to roll into a ball and let my back absorb the beating.

I contemplated trying to find an excuse for not getting up and doing the damn thing.

But I came with a goal. Tour the race, crack the nut, test the gear, have fun and FINISH.

So I motivated my bad self, did my thing and got dressed. I decided no front pack today and the smartest move I made was bring my other shoes. I slid my sidi's on and decided I was going to go into battle Undercover Kross Kountry Karateka. I donned my black warrior wool, donned my bibs under my baggy specialized shorts, I was coming to make fight today.

My knee tendon was tender and after stretching my back on the floor I actually felt revived. I was going to carry the weight I had in the front pack and add it to my Ergon pack. Thought it might help me climb, I still had the same weight, but distributed differently. I still used my rear pack, cause it was convenient and kicking alot of ass and I was really liking it.

Well, I was slapped in the face by the temperature and as we rolled up to the spot, I was pre dressed and layering up. I put it all on, but later discovered my second pair of wool socks is nowhere near as good as the first pair, no wonder I froze my feet off at Ididaride. I looked like a male model for specialized as I had the entire set on. The start happened fast, it was like at one moment, there was no one there, then he rings the cowbell and BAM! Racers appeared out of thin air.

We were off quick. The destination a time trial to the top of Pilot Mtn road, the very same road I cracked on the last time I was out here.

I was cold, tired, sore and miserable and here we are pedaling up hill. I could feel the Hate creeping in my heart, and the steeper it got, the more I started hating. Soon, again, finally after 70 plus miles in the mountains, I did it. I abandoned my 1 x9 philosophy clicked into the granny gear. I would ride, then stop, then ride then stop. Then ride then walk, then stop, then bitch and moan, then ride again, then hate and hate some more. I was over it.

Got to the top of pilot mtn road and saw Steve there bundled up in an Army jacket. He kinda looked like he had been rescued by the Red Cross.

I heard someone say the day before, that "just remember Eric is a sadistic Son of a B**Ch!". Well he was cruel as well. After climbing for 14 and a half miles straight, we now had to keep going up towards the intersection of Farlow Gap and Art Loeb Trail and then take the hiking trail to the parkway to Ivestor Gap. I was putting the food down a bowl of cereal was not enough fuel for the effort and ordeal I had just endured, so I ate my Avocado cheese and Turkey sandwich and 3 Snickers and some brownies and an Zone Bar. Calorie engorging process, I'm a scientist.

We started hiking up the side of the mountain. Steve disappeared again, I was happy he wasn't waiting on me to a point, but at the same time I thought it might of been nice to VENT with someone, cause now my heart was more full of HATE then EVER!!!!

At some point, I had mentally given up and I leaned against a tree with my bike placed haphazardly in the bushes as if I had grown upset with her. The sun was shining on me. I was sitting there absorbing the warmth evaluating just exactly what in the hell I was doing out there.
I was like, "F***k this bike racing s**t, this is F****in Bull s***!, I was out of control.

My heart was to the brim and toppling over with hate. I then sent some text to my wife, venting, listened to a voice mail my friend left me, texted my friend Marcel, I was just kinda done.

Eventually I was like, Imma find Steve and Imma head back. So I'm walking and next thing I know, my bike wont move. Turns out that a rock kicked up and knocked my rear derailleur into my wheel.

I took a deep breath, hung the bike up in a tree by the seat Ala repair stand style. I pulled out my trusty blue park tool and with the flat head screwdriver, gently pried it out of my wheel. Got it back out, clicked thru the gears and got to more walking.

Got to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Finally, to find Steve enjoying his surroundings. I felt bad that he was having to wait for me, but I was truthfully doing my best here. We got onto riding pretty much right away and made our way up and down to Balsam Rock Road?, and we started climbing again. Kinda Sucky, Steve just riding away. Then at the top we find a bunch of racers and it turns out, despite what I thought was a painfully slow pace, we were not that far behind the "peloton" of riders. We made our way down this ridiculous Jeep road that was going to take us to the First and Mandatory checkpoint Ivestor Gap.

Once I got on this road, seems like my food engorging finally got processed and I started to put a little hammer down and actually liked the rock garden that the road had become; it was actually kind fun I was having a good time for the first time in the day. Everyone I passed, I suddenly found myself studying the beauty in everyone that crossed my path. People I normally would of found to be n0t so eye friendly, I was suddenly blessed with the heat seeking ability, to see their beauty.

It wasn't limited to people, I was seeing it in everything. The habitat made me think, that this is what it must be like to mountan bike on the moon. I had never ridden in a place that had that feeling. I knew we were at almost the highest point in the land cause as I looked around and I could see all the peaks and nothing taller then where I stood.

We made the mandatory checkpoint, we got our passports, we made our plans. The challenge the same as yesterdays but with a slingshot instead of a B B gun. I failed the special test, but I was overjoyed. I was elated, I was laying there enjoying the sun just happy and laughing and joking. My heart that had been full of hate, had now been filled to the brim with nothing but pure love. I was done suffering.

We started making our way back, Ridiculous 8 minute long downhill runs on the road in traffic. Then before I knew it kicked up again and Steve was gone again. We had made the plan to try to nab two more checkpoints for a total of 3 that would of gave us 8.5. The plan take the Blue Ridge Parkway to 276 to 477. So we got split up, I got to the spot and saw 276 and spotted a drainage ditch that I could ride in and decided to cut across. Hung a left on 276 and started big ring hammering down the mountain just flying, going so fast that at one point I caught up to a group of cars and descended the mountain in the draft of a jeep Cherokee, seemed appropriate at the moment.

Got to 477 and no Steve. At that moment I figured it out, he must have been waiting up at the actual road turn to 276 and couldn't see me and I couldn't see him. I was 11 miles down the road now and there was no way I was riding back up. So I cleared a spot in the sun and decided to take a nap. I rested and set my alarm for an hour, and after 40 minutes I got up and decided that since I didn't have a map and I didn't have the checkpoint list, my only choice was to go ahead and go for the one checkpoint I knew, take a pic and head back to the finish.

I grabbed a rock and wrote STEVE with an arrow on the ground and then wrote a message on a post telling him my plan hoping he would see it. As I started packing up and clipping my buckles on my pack, Steve pulls up. We discuss what happened and we take off.

The plan, as a result of our final rookie mistake for the race, we decided to go with my new plan and nab the checkpoint I knew.

My heart full of love, my stomach full of food, and my head a little more clearer, I started hammering the 477 fire road climb. Steve was right there, though he was a little off the pace. But he had also ridden a long ass climb twice looking for me after we got split up, so I figured that smoked him a little so I made sure to stay close even if it meant for me to ease up my pace here or there or once or twice.

We got going, rode Bennett gap which is a slice of technical marble cake and scored our checkpoint. At that point, every time I had ridden there, we hauled as down coontree to 276. Steve said, let's finish Bennett Gap. I had now been trusting his judgement for 20 hours I wasn't about to stop now. Bennett Gap turned out to be my second favorite trail of the ride. Downhill, flowy with sick gentle step drops, it was awesome. We hit the fire road and I made it clear to Steve that if for some reason this trail started pointing downhill that I would wait at the bottom and that I didn't want to cross the finish line without him.

Funny, just as we finish that conversation we make a turn, and Bam the finish line, our day two was done, we were alive, strong and finished at 430 something on Sunday.

We said our goodbyes and thank yous and drank some awesome Organic Beer, and rolled out. Got cleaned up and hung out with my three most favorite North Carolina Residents Ed and Jiff and the BABY. We went and had some ridiculous good Thai food and I tried to score us free desert and I was cutting it up, SO HIGH off my endorphins, I felt like the mission was accomplished.

I will go BAck who's coming with me!!!

Part 3 the reflections and musings is last.
LATERS,
LOS