This is how reckless I am. I had to look up where the race was. It’s next weekend.
My wife laughed and asked how it is I do this to myself, and I explained that I try never to say to no to an adventure. Friends ask me to do things with them all the time. Sometimes it’s a race. Sometimes it’s an epic hike, or an ultramarathon. I say yes, mainly to put myself on the hook for doing crazy shit.
Six months out there is no downside to saying no, but I have a peculiar inability to envision future dates. In my mind, things that are in the future are neither near nor far. They’re just later. And so, I was taken completely by surprise when my friend Bruce emailed me last night to say, “Okay so denial about how soon this event is, is starting to get tough.”
Right. It’s next weekend.
So I looked up where it is. New Hampshire. Great. It has “Mountain” in the title. Not a good sign. Also, “24 Hours.” Hmmm. That’s gonna hurt. As it turns out, this is an all-day event, with teams of four relaying a 9 mile course. Here’s another thing. I don’t recall exactly the last time I was on my mountain bike. Was it this month? Was it last? Yes. One of those.
I’m also running (yes, yes, I know) a mountain half-marathon in Vermont this weekend, so a last minute tune-up on the trail bike isn’t going to happen. I seem to enjoy all the various flavors of dumm.
The good news is that, in normal situations, where I’m either training or truly prepared for an event, I go through a period of anxiety leading up to it. In my current predicament, getting nervous seems entirely beside the point, pointless, ludicrous, superfluous. All the things.
I guess that’s the power of yes.
This week’s TCIF asks, do you say yes? How often? Do you ever regret making a commitment too far out? Or are you like me, sorta willing to throw yourself into whatever blender is spinning, and just hoping that whatever comes out tastes good?
I’ll finish the answer to that after October. I signed up for the Santa Fe full Century in April as soon as it opened up. Have not done a Century since 2007. Figured it was put up or shut up time. I think it is all mental, and my mental is in worse shape than my physical.
I only say yes if I am 100% committed from the gitgo, I know myself too well to fool both myself, friends or family. I have never had an issue saying ‘no’ although others have a hard time hearing it. Acceptance or therapy, you choose. I guess I could try ‘maybe’ but that just means a lot more texting….
I typically never commit and I do miss out. I keep convincing myself that I’ll have something else going on or something will come up.
That said, I signed up for a May gravel fundo in January or February because COVID. A friend told me later that he’d signed up so I was pretty stoked. Fast forward and it got postponed until August 15th and I forgot about when and just kept riding for fun. So, long story short is, I’ve not really ridden very far on gravel – ever. MTB yes. Not my CX bike so…
This could be fun. Except my friend bailed because his MTB series has a race that weekend. At least when I embarrass myself, it will be in front of complete strangers!