POA No, not piece of….well, you finish it.
June 27th, 2009POA, stand for Piedmont Orthopedic Associates. They are in Greenville, and this year, they have been doing a crit series over at the old G-Braves stadium, which is now the Municipal Stadium of Greenville. Joey and Trey had been telling me about going over there, and this past Thursday I decided that it was time to go out and turn the cranks in anger. I emailed TD (Thad Dulin) to see if he was coming out to play, and he came back with a big affirmative, so I was ready to roll.
The course is in a parking lot, so no traffic worries there, it circumnavigates the old stadium, short course, rough road, but hey, it is a cheap race, which is good. TD said that he would be there around 6pm, and I figured that would be close to when I would get there. That would give us about and hour and half to spin around and try to get used to the heat, which was pretty nasty, considering this parking lot as most parking lots, does not have any trees or shade, sorta like a large frying pan with people as the eggs.
Thad and I met up after getting our numbers and headed out, the conversation quickly turned to our guv’ner and his exploits, and the jokes insued.
Back to the race. The crowd was not big, but it was a good field none the less, this is a P123 race, so a good mix of all were in there. The course starts on an uphill, takes a left over the top, then descends down to turn three. Turn four is the tightest, but not bad, then you have the uphill.
A couple of moves took off, I hit it one time up the hill, got away, then was joined by Jim Cunningham. We were coming around for a prime for some Cytomax, and here come Alan Trip. We fight for the prime with Alan nipping me at the line…Sucka, I could have used that mix. We roll back into the field, and a few more moves try to go. Nothing is really getting any distance, so I sit for a bit. I did not know what time it was, but on the way around, the field slowed, one of those “We have been hitting it for a little while, let’s all slow down a bit feelings.” HMMMM, I think I will see if I can get away…”Who said that?” That little voice in my head said that…”Why do you want to do that?” I say…”Because we can right now.” “Good enough.” I roll off on the left hand side, kinda of Leduc style, not standing, just ramping the speed up to see what happens.
Well, it happened, I got away, and for the next thirty minutes I fought, and I mean I fought. It was rough, but in the same instance, it was great. Ten minutes left and I am struggling though, and the pack is starting to really gain on me now, the hand is quickly going toward empty, like someone shot a bullet in my tank, and then I see it…Here comes TD….Classic TD move, let things happen, then strike like a cobra at the end and sley everyone behind. I am passed, but not after collecting a prime and some good camera time…(Aside: There was no camera, only the imagination of someone in oxygen debt, dehydration, and sicko mind.) Thad passes and I scream at him to rip it, then here come Alan in a small group of three chasing and I scream at him as well. Then I keep rolling around. The announcer has been collecting bones from the crowd for a gamblers prime, and the pot is at $48.25. He tells me on the next lap that I can get in and go for that prime…I point to the guys coming up from behind and motioned that, “I am not going for that, these guys have been working for it and that would be lame on my part to do something like that.” I roll around until 5 to go and then pull over. Being the publicity hog that I am, I promptly go over and grab the announcers mic to let everyone know that I was throwing in the only dollar that I had to help up that Gambler’s Prime, and just to get to talk on the microphone. I almost broke out into some singing, but was unsure of the way the crowd would take it…Just kidding.
Thad put the hammer down on them, Alan got second. I had a great time, and I am sure that next month I will be back over there, trying my hand again. This is one of those races, that since it is in the same place all the time, you get a chance to try different strategies and see which one works. That is cool, so I will do that. Come out and try it, entry is $15 bones, and you have a chance to at least make your money back, and get in a good workout.
HUMP

