A Week to Go

A week from tonight, Jah willing, I'll be hunkered down in the Lyndon Motor Lodge, in Lyndon, VT poring over the Rasputitsa route and getting myself thoroughly jacked for the Big Race.

Pair with friends and family

Actually, in a way, I'm doing that tonight, Friday, April 8, though situated in the comfort of Shad Headquarters, with a basement refrigerator full of Spencer IPAs brewed by Trappist monks two towns over. Except that tonight I'm psyching for the immediate weekend ahead, not race weekend. Tomorrow and Sunday I have to log some major miles.

The tentative good news is that the fickle April weather may cooperate and deliver a mostly rain-free, though not warm, Saturday and Sunday. The training plan is for a long road ride tomorrow (Saturday), possibly attempting an assault on the Mon Vontusett, a round distance ride on the order of 45 miles. Sunday, The Virginian and I will meet in Montague in the morning and hit the dirt roads and forest paths for another 40+ miles.

The obvious question that legions of Team Shad fans around the globe are asking is "Will the boys be ready for the big day?" It's a fair question and I'm happy to report, with certainty, that the short answer is "YES." The long answer is "Fuck YES."

And here's why.

I've said it repeatedly, The Virginian is like a Navy SEAL, he's like John Muir or Meriwether Lewis. He's always prepared, he bears up well under duress, he's indefatigable. He would climb a sequoia in a lightening storm just to be closer to the spectacle. And he's been getting some good rides in lately.

As for myself, Dubstoevsky, man of fragile shoulders and indomitable appetite, I, too, can be counted on to go the distance. On any given day, I can suffer with the best of them and not abandon the quest. I can go honey badger at a moment's noticed. Like a gila monster, I will bite and then chew my venom into the wound of the Rasputitsa. And I too have put in some good hard miles in the last month.

Team Shad is comprised of a duo of iron workers. Together, we sling slag and slop bones, we hack and smelt. We will go to Vermont like Visigoths. Hannibal may have crossed the Alps on elephants but Team Shad will circumnavigate Burke Mountain on aluminum steeds, climbing into the ethereal mist like Lao Tzu meandering The Way. Mindfulness and pillaging. Yin and yang.

Or, to spin it a different way, consider Winston Churchill and his abiding wisdom for the ages. We're all over that philosophy. We will definitely keep going.