countdown to LC world quals (or Drink Now Bitches)

hallo friday; hallo señor jameson.
pleased to meet you!

off to southern maryland this weekend for qualifiers for long-course duathlon worlds. long-course = 12K run - 70-ishK bike - 8K run = fucking snooze-ville. i can't remember the last time i rode my bike more than 50K, and i most certainly didn't precede OR follow it with any kind of running nonsense. in the Finn Universe, though, it makes perfect sense to begin my long-course career with a worlds qualifier. why ELSE would you run and cycle and run for 4 hours, esp in a heat index of 100+F as sunday promises to bring?

the run and bike courses are deadly flat and don't think that because they run through the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge they're any kind of fun. i did a short-course race here and nearly died of sheer boredom. the only wildlife i saw was a dead squirrel on the shoulder and that amused me for about 8 nanoseconds. also, "blackwater" makes me think of the doobie brothers song, which makes me want to ask you to pass the spliff and get me another beer. it does NOT inspire me to tear the legs off my competitors.

top 3 in each age group go to worlds (in richmond, in october) and looking at my field's entry i see at least two women who're way more studly than this here boozehound, chicks with national and world titles. good thing i have been eating chocolate non-stop since monday, stoking the glycogen stores you know. that extra junk in my trunk is muscle, bro.

the one saving grace is that my teammates will be there too, and whining's not allowed in that crowd. case in point is this email convo from yesterday:

[AJ] On another note, I am somewhat handicapped. I hit a goose walking across the road and crashed my bike. I have some good road rash up the left side of my body and arms. owweee. I should be OK to go by Sunday... at least to run.
[sir aeroflot chumblenucks] Should have paid attention to the "Goose Crossing" sign, Goose has the right away.
[hen] There are so many thousands of things to say here my head re-booted... Hey J, do you still have that fake goose doll that we can put at mile 17 on the bike?
[finn] if not i'm thinkin D in that swan costume bjork wore a couple years ago. swan/goose, it's all the same when you're pegged. hen, do you make the happy mac sound when your head reboots?
[hen] I do, because I am using the iPhone it does it for me.
[finn] nyah nyah, nyahnyah nyah nyah nyahnyah nyah nyahnyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.
[pf] If I see D on the course as a swan/goose I will spew my gatorade endurance everywhere.
[hen] OMG like the Jersey devil... it will be worth NOT going to worlds to see him jump out with a gaggle chasing after AJ... totally YouTube stuff... so shhhh don't tell AJ our scheme.

note that not one person meeped a note of sympathy for a dude who's just given roadies another round of ammunition to use in their argument that tri-geeks are phreds with no bike-handling skillz.

but all that's sunday and between now and then is MFBT.

happy weekend all.