I mean when you really sit down and think about you as a person, as a human being, as a creature that habitates on this Earth, it's a bit weird. I sometimes look into the mirror and wonder about this person I'm staring back at. How did I get here, who am I as a person, and where the hell am I going.
My name is Garet Lee Steinmetz, I know this much. But sometimes I seem foreign even to myself. It's a tough feeling to explain but it's pops its head through my conscious cloud from time to time.
So I: rode my cross bike the other night. It got me thinking about who I am as a rider and what I truely enjoy.
I'm sorry, but cyclecross is not one one of these things.
As much as I try to find enjoyment in it, and as much as I love pain, I somehow can't get into it. Every year is different in the ways of my excuses. This year it boils down to a few different factors. First is I now work weekends. Both days. Bummer, but it is what it is. For now. Secondly, I only have so many vacation days. My mountain bike racing has done a pretty good number to those slim days, so therefore I'm left with just a few left and honestly I can think of a lot better things to do with them than going racing on grass.
I am a mountain biker.
The friends, the adrenaline, the never ending array of different trails, flow, landscape, and personality. The technical aspect that trumps pure physical power with the need of finesse and actual skill. The ability to flick a machine between your legs like a cigarette into the wind as you whip through corners at what feels like breakneck speed.
You can skirt some of these feelings on a cross bike, but you can never fully achieve them.
So I will do what I do every fall and winter. I will ride, alot. With friends, by myself, here, there, wherever the dirt is good. I'll gravitate away from road to find gravel when the trails are wet, but when they are dry and I have the time that's where you'll find me.
Because this is who I am.
"This is who I am"...A showboater that DNF?
ReplyDeleteHaha, touche. But for reasons none related to sweet air showboating. That was more just to have a little fun at a otherwise bad day. Maybe you're superhuman and have never had one of those days. I also doubt you've ever had to try to keep up with those boys on even a good day, much less a rough one.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, maybe you have. But you've choosen to hid beind the internet to throw your stones.
You. Are. So. Hard.
G
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3biwHnIArMg
ReplyDeleteCatching sweet air off something everyone else is avoiding while riding barely mid pack is far from showboating. If you were leading the race and doing that then sure it could be called showboating. But if it is even half as fun as it looks then f%&k em', do it!
ReplyDelete