Oh my God, that had to be the most painful 130 km today. somehow I think I was kind of unwell from the humidity in the basement, and I cooked myself. Today I just felt like I was running out of energy, kind of reminds me of the time Rick Hellard and I did a 180 km ride in Mallorca. They say you can't really bonk more than once, but I think I have a way of going through bonk after bonk, that's what today was like. I was on the front trying to act tough, but I knew there was a problem when Tasha pulled around me once on rollers saying "it's not hard enough". Well I can't really accept that, so I just grin and bear it, not fun. I'm not exactly sure if I was almost sick or something, but I got home and had a fever, chills, pain all over. I thought...well I'm not going to say what I thought, but it lasted about 4 hours and I'm ok now.
Tasha says it was the 800 km "rest" week I did last week...bah..well....now that I think of it...maybe.
Funny Story. So during my "unwellness" I was on the couch moning like a baby, I watched the X-Games. Who do I see but Dave Mira, the greatest BMX'er doing Super rally car driving. I met Dave a few times while I was living in North Carolina. We were supposed to go for a ride, but not a week after we were drinking some tasty Beverages at a local Greenville Hang Out, I fractured 3 vertebrae, in what has to be less than logical thing to do with a bike.
Things were alot different back then. I was racing mountain bikes with a University team, doing 24 hour races. Training consisted of going to the gym and well riding my bike and jumping over stuff. No heart rate, no speedometer, no regimentation. Seeing Dave it just kind of reminded me of a time when things were so different. Funny how I had actually thought of trying to "go pro" as a mountain biker back then. 9 years later it's still a similar dream, but this time it feels like it's happening.
DSJ
1 comment:
ain't no money in mtbing. Be glad you didn't!
I'm not sure if Bill H ever made much dough off it all(?). I'm sure he had a blast though.
I've been to a couple of staged stuff (www.adventurerace.com, transrockies, BCBike race etc...) and some hundred milers (www.usmtb100.com). Met a couple of high end mtbrs like
Harlan Price
Chris Eatough
Jeff Schalk
Jeremiah Bishop
Andreas Hestler
Tinker Juarez
Louis Kobin
Marg Fedyna
Sue Haywood
etc...
Most just love the sport. Best quote ever had to be from Chris Eatough (Trek site) - "yah have to love the sport"
Sums things up for mtbing - don't expect to get paid a lot of dough cause it just doesn't have the audience as other sports like hockey, baseball, basketball does. The camera (media) just needs to mount itself in the corner of the room. And, the sport is displayed to millions of people. Advertisement is big business. Numbers count when it comes to advertisement.
Thems the fact pretty much. Mtbing doesn't haul in huge numbers.
Mindya, along my ventures I did come across - Jamie Whitmore back in 2006. She made about 100k a year off of X-terra races.
I'm sure Tinker makes his fare share off of advertising for Cannodale and Kenda (heck, they named a tire after him!).
And, the dude just looks rad! Plus, he's been racing for over 30 years (he's in his late 40s). The dude kicks ass! big time!
I heard Jeremiah Bishop (www.jeremiahbishop.com) makes about 25k a year base salary. And, he's one of the best out there.
Same goes for Chris and Jeff (I think Jeff gave up an Engineering career to race. Races because he loves it, from what he stated).
Yah really gotta love the sport is what I got out of it all.
Can't be in mtbing for the dough, cause there isn't all that much to go around (no high numbers from media coverage).
Big money in tri though. All the rich folks go there :)
I don't do tri :(
I sink when swimming (mindya I use to be a lifeguard way back when...).
First and foremost, I think yah gotta enjoy what the sport is. Secondly, promote it (to youth to others out there). Third, if yah can make some dough off it (yah gotta eat sometime!).
Passion, determination, drive & adventure. Keeps yah in your youth (I don't wanta get old and smelly!)
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