Eat, Drink & Be Merry because you can

Come eat raw fish next Tuesday night so the Redlands Bicycle Classic doesn't go belly up like Pool Gel went belly up.



Okay, let's talk about how lame this is. As part of their team camp, and I suppose as a team building exercise, the Kelly Benefits Strategies Medifast guys went skiing. IN THEIR TEAM JACKETS! Somewhere there's a PR hack that is hated by the entire Kelly Benefits team now because he or she made those guys pose for pictures half kitted up. Lucky for those gusy, their team camp wasn't somewhere south of the Equator. The PR photo would have been of them swimming, surfing, or snorkeling in their team bibs.

Back to reality. On a more serious note, I found out about this today - from the District 37 web site:

"It is with a great deal of sadness, that I report that we lost a fellow racer Sunday night. Jimmy Finerty, an Expert Open racer, did not survive surgery for a crushed lung and torn aorta. Jimmy had a high speed crash some where around check one of the Desert MC National Hare & Hound, and was hit by his bike. He was able to get up and ride back to camp, where his family took him to Rescue-3. Jimmy was transported by medivac to the hospital. He passed during the operation. Jimmy had taken the last year off from racing, and the DMC National was his return to racing. Previously, he had raced the National Hare and Hound Series for 6 years. He leaves behind a wife, Kacey, a son, and parents. All of DMC is very distraught over this unfortunate turn of events. Our heart felt condolences to the Finerty family, we all feel the loss. May Godspeed Jimmy."

Now, I'm not gonna go on and on about how precious life is, or about how he died doing what he enjoyed, or even about how although I didn't know this guy, I feel a strange connection because we shared the same love for desert racing. None of that is important because the real tragedy is that he left behind a young son.

On a daily basis, armed with a double-edged sword, I fight with myself over the topic of motorycle racing. I've seen way too many people killed and put in wheel chairs so most of the time I'm relieved to have put that life behind me. Yet, other times I struggle with the thought of Ryder not getting the opportunity to experience life growing up on a motorcycle. I don't know if it's because we've had rain recently, or if it's because it's the start of a new motorcycle racing season, or if it's because Ryder is getting closer to the age where he can ride, or if it's because I'm just getting old and tired of wrining myself out on the bicycle week after week, but dirt bikes have been on my mind a lot lately, and in a big way. And then I read something like above and I'm back to thinking that life for he and I could still be pretty good if we just stick to pedal bikes. Even though it still has its harzards that I'm well aware of, Denise & I could probably give Ryder a similar experience through a childhood of bicycle racing.

That said, I still miss things like riding a special test in Wickenburg, chasing ribbon through Cougar Buttes, leap-frogging from pit to pit on Hwy 95 in Nevada, overlooking the Mojave at sunset, and the smell of creosote bushes after a good rain. But I know missing all of that stuff is much better than missing a family member. I feel very bad for Jimmy Finerty's wife and young son.