A Saturday in Rainy Gloucester

Today was the Grand Prix of Gloucester cyclocross race. I awoke at 6 am and the rains were slapping my window like an angry drunk his family. I wanted to crawl back in bed, and had every excuse to.

Nonetheless, I clawed my way to my car, drove to Starbucks, coffee'd up, and ate my habitual pre-race chocolate doughnut and drove the hour up to Gloucester.

It was windy, raining hard, and I didn't even bother to warm up because I didn't want to get wet before the race.

I was lined up in the front row, first time ever. Three....two....one....go....can I get the hole shot? No. Hey, how about if I watch 40 people pass me in the next 10 seconds? OK, that sounds like a solid plan.

It was a good race for me, though. I'm getting better. Last year, I finished 86th on Saturday's race. Today, I finished 57th. So...all that mountain biking with @guerra is starting to pay off. Maybe next year I can finish in the 30s. There's a lot of skinny dudes that finish in the 30s, and I might not be able to drink beers with @guerra anymore if I wanna see those kind of results.

After the race, my new pro-looking saddle and handlebar tape was still sparkling white. I figure I'd better capture how PIMP I look (remember my new white shoes a few months ago?) while I still look Pimp. Because hey, if you can't beat them at the bike racing, you can always look better than them.

I have a 50mm 1.4 lens that I don't use very often. It's absolutely a fantastic lens. Everyone should have a sharp prime like this in their collection.