There were two theories behind Gastown Sprints going into the winter:
1. The place would overflow because it’s awful out. During the summer, it’s gorgeous and amazing to be outside in the good weather so people don’t think to go inside. So, therefore, if it’s shitty out, people are going to migrate inside. Right? Apparently not.
2. It’s so awful out that no one wants to leave their houses to go anywhere. Couriers start to hate cycling so the last thing they want to do at the end of the day is slog through the wet to show up to a bar to ride more (a friend’s theory), and students start to believe that they don’t (or can’t) have a life because of their work. After not even a month in the rainy season, I kind of feel like leaning towards this one considering what went down Wednesday…
Which was very few people showed up. Which is too bad because it’s such a cool idea and could be really big and more fun than it already is with more competition…
I still get so freaked out before. My body goes into overdrive and adrenaline kicks in an hour or so before I head down because I am terrified that this time I’ll be revealed as an imposter and my spinning legs will just be blocks of cement and just get owned in my first heat. Haha. One ticket to Crazytown.
Showed up and was quite unimpressed with the lack of people. Hung out with Moses, Louise (who apologetically told me she’d told her roadie friends… pfft. I think in my head I responded with ‘Bring it, Bitches…’ even though they WOULD probably own me as they do this sort of thing on a regular basis. haha), James and Craig (former Bike Dr. manager). We had six on the girls’ side and 14 on the guys’ side. Raced heats and my first head to head was against… Moses. I guess the girl I was supposed to race took off so he graciously stepped up and jumped on a bike to own me. Haha I think Moses is a secret kick-ass roller racing ninja. For a guy who says he doesn’t do much, he threw down a solid 24 and change, which is sweet. I think Louise and I should start racing the boys because I really think it would make us faster, just like in skiing if you race faster people, you get faster.
So, final showdown, Louise and I. I put it in my head that this time, I’m going to put down as much as I can on the line, check my seat to make sure it won’t drop mid-race, and focus. Scary countdown and hammer… should’ve checked my hair as it came half out of its elastic and went EVERYWHERE. But, I continued on. We were closer than I’ve ever been to her and the little blue line was slipping in front of the yellow one here and there and suddenly it was over and the name that flashed on the screen was mine…
Have your name in lights? Exciiiiting.
Pretty schweet, eh? Haha. It was quite fun. We were looking at pictures last night and James mentioned that we should try to get more picture like this one… it’s almost like tennis (there we go again – tennis similes, I know, I know…): the winner seems to stay on the venue just a little longer, letting what just happened sink in, basking in the win. Pretty cool.
What did I win, you ask? A free beer, free haircut, and 40 bucks. Awwwww yeah.
I think my favourite part of the night, win or lose, is when you leave Pub 340, get on your bike and do a lap of the city. Nice and relaxed casual urban fare.
Friday night headed down to Gastown with the Jounalism crew. Tons of fun because we ended up at the Chill Winston, which is Moses’ favourite bar so I got to hang out with everyone and enjoy some classy martinis.
After we left the bar, we somehow got separated with some miscommunication. Geoff and I hung out on Water St. waiting for the others to get back to us. Started a game of Spot the Pirate. Pretty easy rules:
1. Watch groups of people as they approach.
2. Pick out who is the mostly likely to be a pirate. Use your own descriptions here… so long as you can back up your choice with hard evidence, it will be accepted.
3. Proceed to give voice to your pirate/make fun of them? in a pirate accent. Which inevitable turns into an Irish accent for some reason. So long as you throw in a couple ‘Yarrs.’ or other pirate-oriented words, you’re fine.
4. Bonus points for picking out No Pants Girls. A.K.A. the girls of Gastown that wear dresses where their jackets are longer than said dresses so it gives the illusion that they are, in fact, not wearing any pants. Yeah, got made fun of a lot by us.
Worked all day Saturday. Tired. Rainy. Depressing. Very strange and different dynamic to have Pol back in the store and to have so few of the people I started with not work there anymore.
Last night headed over to James/Brodie's place. Enjoyed some homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (amazing), The Hangover (fuuuunny), and Brodie's pictures from travelling. Makes me want to travel.
Now it’s Sunday. I’m stuffed up. Sick? Confused because normally I have a pretty good immune system but this fall has sucked, health-wise. Maybe because I’m not training? Too much stress? Not enough sleep? I don’t know. Sigh.
It sucks though because I’d really like to go out and do something… hike, rock climb, whatever but I’m scared, as I’ve already had one lung infection, to push things too hard in case I screw things up worse. But I have this fuzzy idea of a little bit of activity might be able to boost your body and it just throws down on you being sick and wins. And then you’re fine. I don’t know. Maybe it’s the cotton in my head talking?
Pic du jour (click to see full awesomeness... haha):
Quote du jour:
“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.”
Tonight's a showing of The Revival - bike movie made in Vancouver - at the Rickshaw at 8:30ish? So, if you're reading this and live in Vancouver, you should come down to 254 E Hastings and get ready to have your mind blown. It's going to be awesome.
Oh, and I got hit by a car last week... not a big deal. I'm fine. Keep on the DL. Tell my mom and I'll kill you. haha
No comments:
Post a Comment