Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Return of Sharpie John

Today I came up with a brilliant, two part plan.

Part one-Throw the road bike on the bus in the morning and use it to ride home after work.

Part two-When I get home on the road bike, throw the mountain bike in the car and zip over to Theodore Wirth for a couple of laps on dirt.

There was one flaw in this plan, my bicycles' engine in not running very well-too much inactivity over winter. By about half way through the first lap at Wirth I was sucking wind and feeling a little "off". I just could not get in the groove and start flowing down the trail. At the end of the first lap I sat at the trail head trying to catch my breath and get my heart rate back down out of the stratosphere. While wiping sweat from my eyes I debated taking a second lap or heading back to the car. The car sounded pretty good.

Then the decision was made for me.

A guy rolled up to the trail head and I pulled one of those classic inner dialogs "Is that....? No. Wait. Shit, yes it is." Sure enough it was an old friend that I haven't seen in years. Lots of years. Turns out hes a bike nut, has been mountain biking for years and even works for Erik's Bikes. So we sat and caught up, talked bikes and picked up like it had only been a week since we had seen each other. Of course when he asked if I was going to do another lap there was no way I was going to say no.

He took off like someone who has been riding all winter. I knew the pace was going to be fast but I was determined not to get dropped.

Now here's the funny thing. Even though I was more fatigued than when I got there my previous unease on the bike was gone. I was hitting the right lines, staying off the brakes and having way more fun. It is remarkable how riding behind a faster rider can get you to push yourself a little harder. I managed to more or less keep up with him for the entire lap. What I thought was going to turn into a lame ride ended up being a lot of fun.

All fun aside, I was D-U-N done when I got back to the car-just spent. I got back to the house and was standing on my back steps when I realized I was trying to unlock my house with the key fob for my car. I laughed at myself and remembered the time I tried to unclip from my accelerator pedal in almost the same set of circumstances.

I made myself some dinner and cracked a beer. Turned into a pretty good evening.

I don't think I will have any trouble falling asleep.

2 comments:

queasyfish said...

Nice story, sounds great. Do I know that guy?

SeanH said...

John Haugh-aka Sharpie John. He got that nickname because he used to pass out at parties and get the sharpie treatment fairly often. He was the bass player in Acid Fly. This was back in the day when I was hanging out with the Dogshine guys and that whole revolving scene of different bands. You may have met him, but most likely you haven't.