Everyone's A Friend

Often times it's easy for one to become bitter and jaded to things when you become a large part of it's landscape... I guess in some ways I have gone through this type of thing a few times in my life. I have had ups and downs in the world of music and cycling. At some point all the dedication and extra hours of promoting and advocating seemed to eat away at the fun factor. I can't blame it on cyclist or local bands etc. Ultimately... It is some sort of burnout, out side stressers our staleness that seems to drive one away from things they enjoy. To add to all of those points, sometimes 'life' seems to find ways to make it difficult to pursue your passions.

In short I guess you could take pieces off all of those things and come up with the reasons why I have been away from the bike for so long. Honestly, I just didn't want to ride... I had lost the fire. I made a promise with myself that if I never rode again and I was happy what did it matter. In the back of my head, I always knew I would find my way back. It's taken a few years but the fun factor has returned and so has my desire to ride and race.

One thing that I managed to forget about on my cycling sabbatical... Is the sense of 'Family' Mountain Bikers seem to have. It doesn't matter what you are ridding or when you started, we are all part of the tribe. I was reminded of this fact earlier in the year with a gracious frame donation from some old friends. It continued on race day with some handshakes and smiles as I registered and started to kit up. It even continued after the racing was over with folks happy to see me back in the fray. Thanks to everyone for making me welcome and happy to see me back. As for my results, I was pretty pleased eighth out of twenty four. That was way better than I could have predicted. It was just nice to get those first pedal strokes out of the way and hopefully some of the jitters. Who knows what will happen in the weeks and months to come...

I will leave the rest of my feelings and thoughts up to BLACKGOD to explain for me. Another amazing band from a couple of Louisville's favorite sons.... Patterson and Pennington

 

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