Vicariously Fit

This past weekend was the last big hurrah of the cycling season here. Matt probably will do one more race. If you read my knitting blog you'll know that Matt was very disappointed in his Tour de Christiana results. A bad crash, poor timing on the time trial and no points were gained to move up to a Cat 3 rider.

However, it was a lot of fun. I always ask the guys, as they sit around and bitch about how they did (man, these guys love to sit around and bitch about how they did in the races) if they had fun. Bryan, who also crashed on Saturday (pretty badly) but still had a great time trial (his specialty) on Sunday, cocked his head to the side, and thought about it for a few seconds and declared, yes, it was a great racing weekend. He had a lot of fun.

I guess that's the part a lot of people don't get about racing. They see the wins/trophey's/medels and high results. It's not about that at all. It's about the fun. The seeing how hard they can push themselves, even after a set back (like missing your starting time at the time trial). To evaluate, to talk about what you can improve, congradulating each other for the hard work. It's about the commradery of the sport. The individual effort, but still with a team mentality.

Matt lucked into a great group of guys. Most bikers do a "buddy system" style of training. You find someone with about the same skills/endurance/personality to train with. Cycling partners is very common. Matt and Jim are cycling buddies. However, Matt's whole team is very tight knit... to the point that an other rider at the race commented on it. It's hard for amatuers to have a decent sized team that close. It's hard to get together at the same time to train. So while cycling partners are common, a close knit team is very rare at this level. I know it's one of the reasons they have fun.

So I spent yesterday watching them blow themselves up (twice... time trial in the morning then a crit in the afternoon). I was beat by the time I got home. Makes me think about how tired I was just from cheering (yes, my throat hurts today) and I didn't even race.

I do envy them. In a good way. I really wish I had that drive, that kind of enjoyment, the physical ability to do something like that. I guess all I can do is what I'm capable of doing, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate what they do. Or how incredibly sexy Matt's legs are...