Wednesday, February 18, 2009

there are some things that are good to do . . .



once. run a marathon. do an ironman triathlon. 24 hours solo on a ( hopefully singlespeed ) mtn bike. if you live in wisconsin, i think the birkie falls into that category. even twice, seein as your first one will be from the back and all you do is walk the whole time. but here we see a group of fellows who have lost perspective - indeed i was once amongst their number. the first wave of the birkie is not the place of a civilized human being, and i spent too mant february mornings among that number. i expect to be in "recovery" from that for a long time. how uncivilized a place, you ask ?? how about this - my buddy and i are standing there, shaking and shivering in the group, when a nearby speedy female asks us to "form a circle" for her. you know where i am going here. in a crowd of 1000, with close to 20 times that number in the immediate vicinty, helicopters in the sky, the governer up on a podium making a speech, and the star spangled banner about to play, this lady wanted a bunch of skinny dudes dressed in stretchy underwear to provide cover for her pre-race ritual - quite literally ON the freaking start line.

one of the esteemed circle-makers was a young hot-rod, and i am reasonably sure that until then the exact nature of the mechanics involved in all those ladies rooms he had seen all his life was a bit of a mystery to him, apart from perhaps how one powder's their nose - he certainly found out.

so good luck to all those infected with birkie fever this weekend - that particular incident, along with a few other things over the years provided my prescription for the malady. and whatever ya do - watch out for the yellow snow ( and it may not be from where the huskies go ).

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