I Feel A Smile When the Pain Comes

It was supposed to be a light week, only 6.5 hours on the bike, according to the OMTP (old man training plan). So I did the gym thing Monday and Wednesday, rode the Higher Ground ride on Tuesday, and rode the north side with B and Big Worm Thursday. Easy pace, knowing the Stomp XC race was going on Saturday I figured we'd do a little light ride Sunday. Things don't always go as planned though do they?

Saturday was 48 degrees with a 15 mph wind and cloudy. I couldn't get B out of bed, I couldn't blame him, so I went to the race solo. Odd how riding the same trails I've ridden a lot seemed different when someone says "race". The event was well run and I got a good workout. I also got some revenge for the beating I took at the CX race last year, he had a good excuse though. It was still cold when we finished, especially after standing around in wet riding gear. So after I got home I built a fire and took a snooze on the couch. Hey, it's what old men do. Little did I know what lay in store for Sunday.

It was still cold Sunday morning, with a good chance for rain. I figured there was no way we were riding so I pigged out on the donuts my family had gotten me for my birthday and planned on spending the day on the couch. Then the phone rings, it's big Worm leaving me a message about a ride Silk's planning, so I check my email. Sure enough, another exploring type of ride, starting at the St. Marks trail head, heading who knows where. Big Worm, Big Jim, and B are the only ones mentally unsound enough to take Silk up on his offer. I check the radar, it shows rain. Silk says "it'll just be light". He doesn't know anything about predicting the weather. It started raining on us an hour into the ride and didn't stop for what seemed like 2 hours. And no, it wasn't just "light".

Big Worm did a better job describing the journey in his blog so I won't rehash the details.

Silk has some sick fascination with riding to the Ocklocknee River on his mountain bike. The best I can figure at our closest point we were still 18 miles away. He didn't bring a map, in fact if BJ hadn't had his Garmin we'd probably still be down there. The only thing that turned us around was a creek crossing deep enough to have to swim.

On the way back we stopped at Trout Pond for water, we had eaten all of our food. We were cold, tired, wet, and hungry. But we all had these big stupid grins on our faces. How could that possibly have been fun? Why does suffering make some people smile?

Anyhoo, after almost 5 hours of pedaling we made it back to the trucks. It was starting to get dark, it was still cold, but the rain had stopped. I had brought some of those birthday donuts, we each devoured one. Still smiling, it was a great birthday.

Thanks to BJ for the pictures!