Tough Sayin'...

You pretty much have to love Maine, and Maine'ers. I don't know of any state with a bettah accent or more useful sayings. To wit: "tough sayin', 'thout knowin'." "'Thout" is Maine for "without." The principle being "I don't want to look like an ass by making some baseless conjecture like you warm staters would probably jump at the chance to do. If I don't know it, I ain't saying it."

So then, MABRA racing starts next week at Black Hills. Plenty of people have pinned one on already, probably many more haven't. I haven't. There are plenty of guys signed up for the Masters race who are complete and utter gamers, so it should be an interesting day.

"My goals are later in the year."
"Courses like this don't really suit me."
"I put in a huge week this week, I'm just doing this for some speed work."
"I haven't worked on any short efforts yet this year."

An interesting day in the sense that I'm likely to get that nice metallic taste in the back of my mouth, question my entire purpose in spending the time training, become certain that I'll never be top ten in another race ever again, etc.

So yeah, unless I happen to randomly be leading the race with about 1/2 lap to go and everyone behind me slides out on an oily spot, the magical 8 ball isn't giving a lot of "signs point to yes" when I ask it if I'm going to come home from Black Hills with a little brass in pocket, but it's still a race. You go to races to race. I plan to get my money's worth.