Gone But Not Forgotten...

It's been one hell of a week! I've taken a little time off from blogging to catch up on some other things and celebrate Thanksgiving with the family.

On Saturday November 20th,  a group of us cyclists met in Nashville for a canned food drive on bikes.  We all met at the Nashville Farmers Market and rode out to several local grocery stores to purchase food for the region's hungry.  The ride was a huge success!  In total, our group collected over 400 pounds of food and it was all done by bicycle!

Last weekend, I competed in the second race of the "Cross The Way" cyclocross series. This race was held in my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I woke up early Sunday morning and hoped on the CX bike and rode out to The Page Farm for the race. After pre-riding the course, I felt great and was ready for the race ahead. At the start line, we were all called up based on the last race's positions. As always, a lot of shit talking takes place. There were several new faces at this race since it was a TBRA (Tennessee Bicycle Racing Association) points race.

 

At the start, I got a good jump on the hole shot and was up front throughout the first lap. During the second lap, I fumbled around a couple of turns too fast and got passed by Tony Adair. He had been right on my ass the entire 1st lap and I knew he would make his break at any point. Shortly thereafter, I came around another turn that had some patches of mud. My front tire got sideways and I counter steered in an effort to correct myself. Being a man of big feet, my right foot got in the way of my front wheel causing my wheel to catch and sending me over the handlebars. Several choice words were said (sorry to the parents of the young children watching) and I took a moment to gather my bearings. Once I stood up to get back on the bike, I felt a harsh pain in my left thigh. It felt like I had pulled something. I got on the bike and gave it everything I had to finish the race. My front wheel was warped, causing it to rub the brake really badly during each rotation. Between the pain and the front wheel, it was all I could do to even move the bike. From the time I crashed till the end of the race, I lost 3 positions. That put my to a 5th place finish. At the end of the race, I was met by my friends with a big HTFU (read Nov. 12th's post to understand) and some beers.

After several beers, I was feeling good and back on the bike for the Single Speed race. Again, several new faces showed up to race for points. We have previously had an unwritten rule that if you want to race in the Single Speed CX class, you will need to drink a beer for each lap you complete (during the lap).  During the race, I soon figured out that the one rule of a single speed race is, there are no rules!  While all the others were picking their man and actually racing, Dan Hensley (Owner of Nashville Bicycle Lounge) and I were the only two drunks to cross the finish line.  Needless to say, our finishes were not anything to brag about but we definitely had a lot of fun getting there!  Overall, everyone seemed to have a good race and it couldn't have happened at a better venue!  The Page family were awesome for letting us use their property to race on!

Later in the week, my wife and I packed up her car and headed to East Tennessee to visit family for Thanksgiving. On the way to Knoxville, my wife's car blew a water pump! This was definitely the last thing I wanted to happen while out of town. We had the car towed to a local VW specialist and was quoted nearly $1200 to fix it. There was no way I was gonna pay $1200 for a stupid water pump and timing belt. We then chose the rent a uhaul trailer and my father-in-law towed our car back to Murfreesboro behind his pickup. Luckily, we have a good repair shop in town that will fix the car for a reasonable price. Even though this break down was not wanted, it did bring a new realization to the Thanksgiving holiday. My wife and I are extremely thankful for our families and their help when we were in need!

Now, we're back in the Boro with our lives ahead of us. I'll be back to blogging this week. So, stay tuned for my uneventful posts about the life of Jimmy Deane!