The injuries continue...

Don't catch Surly hubs with your face. More specifically...don't ride for 3 hours in the desert, miss a turn, break your chain, wonder lost for an hour, turn around, ask 6 people for quicklinks, receive 6 useless 3/32 quicklinks, stumble to the finish 6 hours later, drink in the sun, skip a nap, drink mini pitchers of Pabst, receive schwag, continue drinking, meet new friends, decide to leave bar, and then look up when your name is called. Unless you want a friend of 24 hours to John Elway a Surly hub across the bar and hit you square in your upper teeth protector. And thank god my lip got in the way, or I'd be sporting a 3 tooth grill with the letters UPS across the front.

This is my second single speed event "related" injury to date. The first being the all too famous hematoma, which still persists today. There's a quote from "The Rev" from that weekend that sticks laughably in my head. Because Ben is a certified paramedic, I use him for all things medical, from crashes to heartbreak, and his diagnosis of the Hematoma was that "it'd be around till Thanksgiving." Hmmm.. August 21st to Jan 26th...that's a long time for this bruise think to stick around. It'll probably be there forever. The deep deep insides of the ole love handles where acquainted with blood for such a long time that they've grown quite fond of eachother. Time cannot break their affectatious bond.

And now the lip. After 6+ 0f hours of riding in unseasonal-for-me-heat, following a sleepless tour of Phoenix, following 16 days on the Colorado all laced with cheap American/Mexican beer, the idea of waiting in a hospital emergency room at 2 am didn't sound all that enticing. Result: a thin piece of duct tape over the wound. That lasted 24 hours before I had to return to work (that place I left on Dec. 8th) where neither my company nor my client would much approve of a duct tape hitler mustachioed consultant. Maybe I'm making assumptions. Duct tape off, wound exposed, and now left to heal as is pretty much equals scar. Another life long memory of SS fun. Tattoos are for pussies.

Dejay and I are throwing SSUSA on May 2nd in Elijay, GA with the help of the fine folks at DSG. If you're dying to see how I next manage to injure myself, mark your calendars and keep your eyes peeled for more information. Everyone knows I'm not all that much fun, but someone there will kick up a party, and you might get to witness me lose a limb or something.
SSAZ, by the way, was one hell of an event. Dejay knows how to convince people to drive a long way to race. Or it could be Montana's ever deepening snow base, or Minnesota's near record breaking 89 hours below 0 (and that's real zero, like Fahrenheit Zero, not that lame ass Celsius zero the candiens all brag about). An awesome course. About as different from east coast riding as it gets, with some familiar aspects Lots of technical ribbon wide singletrack, but in wide open spaces. What kept your line tight was an endless number of cactus and side wall hungry rocks. Rolling profiles, gradual ridge climbs, punchy climbs, and pucker enducing descents. Definitely on my official list for next year, with my own bike, and a little more time to enjoy it. The post rafting blitz attack on borrowed bike certainly did not do it justice. And next year, if I can stick with Kirkpatrick and Latham and NOT get lost, I'll have another SS title to add to the wall.

There are pictures, and some good ones as far as I can tell, but they are all trapped on my camera for now. Just use your imagination.