July 9, 2023Our club put on a criterium and in my effort to try out a few different kinds of racing (despite being a slowpoke) I entered. I rode in the Citizen class again because that’s the type of license I got for the season. This time there were three riders instead of two at the Stieda race earlier. The other guys (despite being in Citizen where all genders can enter, we were all dudes) had raced the day before with the iGregari SugarBoddy Criterium, which was on the same course but in the opposite direction.
May 27, 2023 We only had two people in my category for this race. The category being Citizen, which is supposed to be a mixed gender, less intense beginner kind of racing. The other guy, Keith, was also part of my cycling club but he said he was only in this class by mistake. He was confused and could probably have been in the Mens’ Category 4. But there we were.
We got to start with the Women Cat 4 group which was awesome. They pushed me hard and did all the work so I just had to hang with the bunch. And I did. I went the fastest I’d ever done 40km.
October 15, 2022 I was the last competitor across the line in the Novice class of the Zombie Baby Walter Cross race. But a bunch of people had been lapped or did not finish, so I wasn’t actually in last place. It’s funny how that feels.
It’s not so funny how it feels to wipe out trying to turn while sliding down a grassy hill. Which I did. But I kept going, gritting my teeth while kids in my race were bunny-hopping the barriers.
September 2, 2022 I returned to cyclocross in 2022, and went back to the same race in the same park. I’m not sure if that makes this a classic or not.
I’d tested this course beforehand. My house is just across the river from the “indestructible Strathcona Science Park” so this was where I’d been riding up and down hills and practicing my off-cambers the week before.
September 1, 2022 Strathcona Science Park is a provincial park just outside Edmonton. It’s rutted and full of gopher holes and apparently has toxic seepage in places. There’s no sandy area but it does have a big downhill with long stairs for a runup.
This is my “home course” because I used to live just across the river, so it’s a convenient place to practice my cx race techniques, do laps to build my stamina and just generally rip around.
May 9, 2022 My knee went pop in the last 7km of the ride and Mike who I’d been riding with left me behind. It was all right though. I was going to finish my first road race. And yes, I was slow, but that was okay.
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August 24, 2018 The smoke from wildfires has been darkening our skies in Edmonton, and I realized when biking between the flames of the Suncor refineries that the grim brown greyness, the miasma of grit, this is what it feels like to live in Edmonton compared to Nanaimo. It isn’t always so externalized but even on the days when the sky is clear this is a foul place to be exiled.
I’m reading The Silmarillion these days and I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about Tolkien’s elves. I’m hurt by and see my own follies in Feanor’s foolish oaths that lead to exile and ruin. That it’s told in high-spoken language makes it feel more significant than my bullshit.
October 28, 2016 In followup to the last post, yes, I did enjoy Nanaimo more than Campbell River. But now it’s time to be moving again. My partner and I are headed to Edmonton to start new jobs on November 7th. It’s a return to the prairies for me and I think I’ll like it better than I did when last I lived in Winnipeg.
I’ve spent most of my 30s out on the west coast and I do like the mildness of the winters here. But maybe it’s okay to live somewhere a little harder to deal with. A little (lot) colder, but with better food (non-sushi division). The new job should be much better than working for my former employer.