Up to the ridgeline
So recently I have been a bit too involved with the mtbr.com world. Generally speaking I speak a reasonable bit of my mind, I do not go overboard and start name calling. Trying to not call out someone on being elitist all the while trying to be nice, is a bit hard.
The latest is about the cost of races and if it is “bad Ju Ju” to ride a race course of the day of a race. The races in question are two I have done, one is the best i have ever ridden and the other, honestly, is barely a blip on the radar of good races. Not mentioning the names is me being nice. The second of the races has a HUGE local following and is billed as a very hard race…. um no. It is a good course for where it is located, but exceptional in any regard it is not. This race has the “bad Ju Ju” attached to it.
I stand by my assertion that riding a race course the day of the race isn’t especially bad. Realizing that doing so after the race has started, not getting in the way of the race in any way and not partaking of the race course aid stations seems, to me, to me not a terrible thing. Certain folks seem to think it is….. I don’t get it at all. How is it a problem? How is it “bad Ju Ju”? People seem to have set notions about what they think is right and wrong and nothing that is written, said or otherwise logically explained changes these notions. When logic or rational thinking gets too involved names start getting called, disparaging remarks get made.
These people don’t know me, and that I have actually run into the people I am in discourse with online. As a rule I leave out my personal interactions with these folks due largely to the fact that they don’t know me and may or may not recall the momentary interactions. Mostly I witness these upright and helpful people riding past me and the person I am helping fixing the flat, inflate the tire, pull the chain from the spokes, or whatever the person I am helping needs. Now, because these people put out, in the internet world, how cool and nifty they are I recognize them. I find for the most part these people not entertaining at all but for years when I lived overseas they allowed me to see what I was missing.
Now that I am back, I see that “missing” was the wrong term. i missed nothing. When overseas I had, still have, great friends, before I left MidMO I had great friends, and here in the VA I have some great friends. I would rather ride the local trail with these people than read what these “cool” bloggers get to do. I do blog, but mostly so that my friends oversea can see what I am doing. Several of them also have blogs, so we keep up with what is going on via the blogs.
So what is my point, I may be off line for a bit from mtbr. I remember the good old days when mtbr was a group of people wanting to help each other out and get stoked on what everyone else was doing, now it is a bunch of people who grew up in front of a computer who don’t interact well with people, unless it is part of their internet “crew”.
And the picture is to prove that I do ride with people, who in general seem to think I am not an immoral, angry, evil, trial poaching, day ruining, mean to children, dog kicking, person. Normally I am a reasonably decent fellow.
Good thing the dog loves me!
