So for the past several weeks I've been thinking about everything that it would take to get the Kickball Tournament going in PH and giving little thought to anything past that. I wish I had not been so sort sighted. Tomorrow (Saturday August 23) at noon Tim Finkel is going to do something truly remarkable, and I should be there for it. He is going to get on his bike and ride it for 24 hours in a row, not only is he going to ride it, he is going to race against several other men that will be on the same single track mountain bike course. That might sound completely stupid to some people, and to be honest if I didn't share a house with Tim I wouldn't understand it either.
I tend to think about things, weird things, and recently I've really started to think about this race. The more I learn about it the more I truly respect the undertaking he is doing here. Last year he ran the marathon, and from my perspective that seems like something that I could do compared to this monstrous task. By the way, in no way am I claiming to be capable of either, its just that from my little world it would be the difference between climbing Everest with a helicopter, every bit of technology, and top professional help to climbing Everest the way Sly Stallone ran around the mountain in Cliffhanger only with the 4 fattest Sherpas in the world strapped to my back with big rocks in there pockets.
I was reading Tim's food plan for the race, and I couldn't help but hear that neurotic voice in my head say "Who is going to make sure all of this happens!??!?!?!?!?!!?!" Out of no where I felt like I should be the one responsible for it, it was then I realized I screwed up and was very short sighted for the past several weeks. Although he is some very capable hands, at the end of the day they guys with him know what he will need more than I will. Even if I wanted to go now, I wouldn't be able to because, like an idiot I don't have the right paperwork to get across the boarder with, and you know they are searching a creep like me.
So tomorrow when you are eating your lunch, Tim will be getting on his bike. When you are eating your dinner, he will still be on his bike. When you get cleaned up and get into your comfy bed, bike. When you wake up....still on the GD bike. When you flip through the channels Sunday morning, Tim will be on that !$@^&$*(@#$ BIKE!!!! Who knows what will happen to him. At this point it has little or nothing to do with physical fitness for him, he has put the work in. It's a mind game, I don't think it will hit him for the first 8-10 hours, but after that I would imagine it would be like a heroin withdraw at some point. The little green monkey's might be waiting for him in the dark, he might find nirvana or he might find hell on earth, more than likely both, either way when you really think about it it's a scary deal and he has all my respect for even having the courage to test his metal that much. This is one of those things that I will be kicking myself about for a long time to come for not being there to see it with my own eyes.
1 comment:
Ryan,
Even though you were not there it still meant a lot to me that you were thinking about this endeavor. At one point in the race (somewhere around 5am) when I was struggling to maintain my first place time gap and wondering how I will be able to keep turning over the pedals I came through my pits and Kroske told me that you said to tell me you love me and that you had a woody! At that time, it was the perfect motivation I needed to persevere. It hadn't dawned on me until then that people were following the race via Kroske's TM updates and I started to not only race for myself but for everyone who has supported me in this adventure.
I appreciate that you have been genuinly interested in all this and have listened to me probably tell the same stories repeatedly, toiled over my diet, sat and listened about mundane training details, put up with me trotting around in lycra, and took the time to really understand this all means to me.
T-Dog
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