I was walking around downtown Marquette last night, before and after eating dinner, and lots of people just came up and started talking to me. The predominate question was, “How bad was it watching?” It is extremely cool that peers sympathized with my plight.

And the answer was – awful. It was horrible watching a race that I wanted and should have been riding. I almost couldn’t stand it. If I would have brought my clothes to the start, I would have ridden. I guess I learned something. I wouldn’t have won the race, but only one guy wins anyway. I would have done really poorly by my standards, but those standards were meaningless considering the conditions.

I drove to a couple places on the course and watched the leaders go by. I learned a lot about the sport and myself by doing so. I came to Marquette originally to try to win the Ore to Shore. That wasn’t possible. So, I now wish I would have just started the race (with some wet wipes in my pocket) and experienced the day from on a bike. Watching made me realize that it really doesn’t matter who you’re racing with, it will always be someone.

I probably wouldn’t have been riding with Cole, Brian, Tristan and Co. for that long, but I would have eventually found a group of guys my speed to enjoy the day with. And it probably would have been a few of the great guys that came up and asked me about how I felt, etc. downtown. It would have been a pleasure to ride from Negaunee to Marquette with them.

The non racing rubbed me so much the wrong way, that later in the afternoon, yesterday, I got on my bike and rode out to the course and rode the last 20 miles just to get a flavor of the course. That really didn’t come close to helping.

For me, racing a bike race is 100X more fun than watching a bike race. And watching is usually pretty fun on its own. Not yesterday though.

Catherine had a pretty bad race (13th) by her standards, but was still all smiles at the finish.

I’m pretty sure that neither Tristan or Brian were super good with how they placed either, but they both were happy at the finish.

Okay, I had wanted to comment on Vaughter’s coming out statement he did with the New York Times, but it isn’t happening this morning. The internet at Dennis’ is super slow and there are some concrete guys here laying a new pad for a new wood shed, so I need to go and “help”.

Yesterday I drove back to Cable from Marquette and rode a new single track from Bodecker up North towards Telemark. It is amazing. Something like up at Whistler. Huge berms and banked corners. The guys building trails for CAMBA put an enormous amount of time and effort into these. It is super fun.

I’m still not feeling that great, so it was really an effort riding a MTB bikes off road yesterday. Ride MTB bikes takes a ton more effort than riding a road bike.

I’m already in a funk because the Olympics are over. With the Tour de France all July, then the Olympics, most my mornings are partially consumed by watching sporting events. Now, it’s over cold turkey. I guess I’ve have a couple more hours every morning.

Okay, I better get back out to the construction job. I’ll mull over this Vaughter’s mission statement another day and post tomorrow.

This is Julia, a friend that moved here from Russian. She is mixing me up a concoction of activated charcoal and prune juice. I guess I went overboard on the Pepto-Bismol.

The new concrete.

My buddy Harley waiting for his guy, Tim, the concrete guy.