not my gig.

I think next weekend will be my last officiating stint. I don't think I'll be renewing the license. It's just... not my gig. If you need to know more, ask, but in short, I'd rather be riding my bike slowly through the woods than watching other people ride their bikes around in circles.

Elk Grove was interesting, though. Definitely the quote of the day came from a Jelly Belly rider poking fun at the Garmin-Chipotle rider new to that peleton - the only one from his team - by shouting for all to hear, "I'm going to get you burrito boy!" Aside from that, not much went down. A little drama in Saturday's 1/2 race, but nothing special.

I'm exhausted, though. Two long days on my feet and in the sun, and another flight to Vegas this morning.

misplaced priorities. and 10again.

first, a shoutout to my homies in DC. what started in a park with a fountain in the middle has blossomed and grown... and made the 10 o'clock news. i just hope AZ isn't still riding his hot Vanilla for polo anymore...

last night, i was back at the track, officiatin'. i started this whole thing in an attempt to earn back the cost of the mechanic's and official's license i now hold- the hefty cost of a trip to colorado. well, i'm honestly not crazy about it. it's stressful, it's tiring, and it takes away all the shouting/socializing that i love to do. but once i started it was clear they needed more bodies, so now i'm roped in.

i realized, though, that since I'm working two races this weekend, I can't join the crew going to the Subaru Cup. i'm missing racing I could do in order to sit on the sidelines and have people shout at me because they think they took 3rd on the lap 20 sprint. when did this happen? it's too late to change it now but hot damn, i'd rather be riding trail.

last night during a miss n' out we called someone who happened to be a friend of mine and happened to think he wasn't the last over the line. naturally, he came to argue it. it really sucks when this happens. we don't make calls alone, and we don't make them for spite. if you think you're not last, or you're first, or whatever, maybe you don't realize that you cross the line in the middle of a pack of three, and the other two were accelerating while you slowed down, so the trailing edge of your rear wheel was indeed the last to cross the line, but you didn't realize it because your body was a good foot past the line at that point. it's just really frustrating... and is it worth arguing?

this morning, after getting home from the track later than 11 last night, with just 6 hours of sleep, I set out for a planned 7. it became 10. as I was running, I realized, first, that I was at LSD pace and could go really far when going that slow, and second, I hadn't run double-digits since the marathon. should have carried water, though. Molly and I were both doggin' it. Finished the 10 with a pokey 11:09 average, which isn't bad for no water, no dinner last night, and 6 hours of sleep.

view from the other side of the table

we showed up at the track last night with every intention of just sitting around, but word was they were one official short. I thought, hell, what's to lose? i volunteered for my first official gig. (you'll note me in ben's photo. i'm the one that's not a guy in a dark top.)

the nice thing about the track is you can practice scoring every lap, trying to get used to reading numbers and judging who's first on the line. the bad thing is it's a lot harder than it looks. i'm really glad there was always at least one other- and usually two other- officials scoring the line too. and seeing experienced in folks action gave me a few tricks i'll need to get on top of-- like using a tape recorder to score instead of trying to write that fast.

there wasn't a camera last night, so it was up to us. getting the first 4-6 is no problem, but the next clump... that's what's hard. and if someone in the top 4-6 had their number pinned in a bad location, my eyes would have to follow them past the line into turn 1 to score them, and by then another handful had crossed the line and i'd missed it. luckily the money wasn't any deeper than the first few, so it was ok. scoring points races is hard, for sure, but the guys showed me some tricks. but hey, if you're a racer:
pin your number right! that's on your SIDE, not your back.
anywho, there were 3 of us scoring, and after the race, the riders bombarded us to get results. one official was deep in conversation with a rider, one left right away, and i was left there alone with my sheets and folks wanting to know who took the 2nd place sprint points in lap 15 of the points race. UGH. what i learned: don't show your scoring sheets, it just gives people a reason to get grumpy and question the system. my chicken scratched numbers were hardly comforting to guys who really, really, REALLY SWEAR they took 4th place in lap 10. the worst was a lady who thought her rider got points in a sprint and in the middle of the race came to argue with us... though we were sitting on the line and she was 30' back and had the worst possible spot to see who actually hit the line in which order.
unless you have proof, don't argue! (this is particularly true if there's no money or upgrade points at stake!)
though one rider did catch a legitimate mistake on our part, which was corrected. he handled it well.

sucks, though, that i didn't get to talk to anyone all night- Amy and Ernie and Ann and Val and teammates and friends, all hanging out in the infield. Hi, everyone I didn't get to chat with!