Jacked up!

Man, I'm all jacked up--sounds like Big Dave is throwing down--strong work, my friend-- you have come a long, long way in the last year.

For those of you who do not know, the Big 'Un started riding again just about a year ago, after I called and invited him to come along with me to North Dakota and ride the Maah Daah Hey Trail in its entirety. To my surprise, he said yes without much coercion necessary. I was surprised for a number of reasons:  1. He had no bike--easily solved--my main man Zach at BeyondBikes came through with a sweet Niner/XT set up which, as always, was priced right.  2. He was going to need several days off from work--this became irrelevant because he got sick and could not work anyway.  3. Last, but certainly not least, the Big 'Un was a plush 260 lbs and had not exercised in several years (maybe more).

By the time Big Dave got his new bike, he had just short of 4 weeks to acquire the fitness necessary to ride 5-6 hrs a day for 4 straight days. The Dominion of Downtime Destruction and I have always talked pretty regularly but now we were talking every day or two--Dave sounded super happy riding and appropriately a little apprehensive wondering what in the hell he had gotten himself into. He kept asking if I thought he would be okay and I would say yes, of course, sure, no problem. Now if it were me, I definitely would not have been okay, but Dave is a unique creature in that he has the fortitude to destroy himself in the name of achieving a goal like no other person I know. So truth be told, yeah, I knew he was going to suffer--big time--but it never crossed my mind that he would not finish.  As it turns out, he did suffer and he did finish and had a lot of fun doing it.

Flash forward to August last year and I was getting myself ready for Leadville and I called Dave and asked him to crew for me. Again--he said sure, drove 10 hrs out to Leadville, arrived at 2:30am, got up at 5:30am, crewed all day for me,  slept for a couple of hours, got up at 5am and drove 10 hrs home, making it just in time to pick his family up at the airport in Omaha. I hope he knows how much that meant to me--thanks! As much as I thought driving 20 hrs in a two days was crazy, I was dumb-founded when Big Dave declared he was going to do Leadville next year and wanted to know if I was in too. The coolest part was I knew that he was hooked and the comeback was only a matter of time.

So here we are and this year's focus is Leadville--Dave asks from time to time if I think he will be okay with the 12,000 ft of climbing and of course I say, "Yes, you'll be fine. Do I think you will suffer? Absolutely, we all will, but that's the fun of it. Do I think you will go sub-12 hrs? Absolutely, because you will wreck yourself to finish if you have to."  And I have no doubt that he will suffer and will "Buckle." 

Dave--thanks for riding with me--I've had more fun in the last year than I've had in a long time.  Congrats on 212 lbs today! Congrats on the strong race finishes early season! Congrats on being much healthier.  This year is gonna rock!!