The truth hurts
So I’m looking at what people “googled” to get to my site and what do I find? “Stunted maturity”. I hope they got what they were looking for.
I hate 24 hour racing. Any race that requires sleep deprivation, and has no beverage related reward at the finish line sucks. So why do it? Well for that exact reason. I know I can knock out a hundie without losing it. Twelve hour races are hard, but they don’t mess with my sleep. Multi-day stage racing is just a party on wheels. 24’s are the devil’s race. I am always worried about whether or not I will be able to push on all night or if the icy grip of the sandman come to me in the wee hours. I hate it, and that’s why I still do them on occasion. Knowing that it is an unkown, trying to keep it together for 24 hours, and planning everything just right… that’s why I do it.
Why do I liken the WSC to the cult classic “Highlander”? I feel drawn to this race as if an unnatural force has been pushing me towards it ever since they announced it this spring. I need to be there, and I don’t know why. I don’t know who I’ll be up against, but whoever they are they will certainly be a worthy adversary. Any time I go up against another single speeder in an endurance event I realize that he must be just as crazy (or worse) than me. For whatever reason he will be drawn to the starting line on Saturday just like me, and for 24 hours I will have to cross swords with him. I don’t know who he is, and he is faceless in my imagination. All I know is that I want to crush him, destroy him, tear his heart out, and then shake hands with him and say “nice race”.
I do ask this. If you know me and you are going to Conyers do me a favor. Don’t tell me what lap I am on, or how I am doing in the standings. I am on my own agenda till dawn, and then I will start racing. I have a plan and it involves me being as ignorant as possible to the fact that I am racing. It involves me driving myself into the ground headfirst for eighteen hours, and then coming up with a battle plan.
I’m not a warmonger, but I do have respect for a truly comitted crazy. One of my favorite “hell bent for leather nut-jobs” is none other than Patton. The man was nuts, but he had big balls and he knew how to motivate.
Some beautiful quotes from the craziest Viking to ever walk this earth, George S Patton:
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
Battle is an orgy of disorder.
Better to fight for something than live for nothing.
Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
It’s the unconquerable soul of man, not the nature of the weapon he uses, that insures victory.
May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.
Three days till “The Quickening”
“It’s gonna get pretty cold down in Conyers so I think layering will be the key to victory. Well that, and the fact that I have a big sword, and I will strike down all that oppose me. Maybe that’s really the key.”
