Cycling Oklahoma
Cycling Oklahoma
Dave Ortloff and The Dirt-EZZ
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We sit down with Dave Ortloff to trace a life on bikes from rigid forks and jorts to Cat 1 wins, White Rim epics, and choosing joy over endless intervals. We also launch The Dirties, a new, irreverent awards night to celebrate trail crews and the people who make our scene hum.
• sponsors, local events, and dates for Damn Zombies and OKXC
• Dave’s origin story from Lake Thunderbird to Bluff Creek
• stepping through Cat 3 to Cat 1 and what it cost
• training structure, coaching insights, and erg mode heresy
• White Rim logistics, beauty, and safety lessons
• Little Sugar strategy, sodium mistakes, and pacing
• gear talk on tires, pressures, tubeless, and side knobs
• why flow is meditation and community is the win
• announcing The Dirties awards night details and sponsors
The Dirt -EZZ will have free pizza, cash bar, and raffle at Angry Scotsman, Thursday, February 26, 6–9 pm. Pizza at 6. Awards at 7. “Please come join us. It’s really just a good time for a bunch of fools to hang out and laugh at each other.”
Dirt-EZZ Details https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1872VTJwwR/
What is up, Cycling Oklahoma? Thank you so much for joining another episode. This one's great. Uh, Dave is a fantastic guy, but we get into his writing, his story, and some of his cool adventures. But we're also on here to promote uh a new mountain bike award situation called the dirties. It's coming up. Get all the full details uh in the show notes and in this episode, but I know you're gonna love it. It's really truly just a good time and a party that we're having. Um, and it's coming up, it's gonna be really, really soon. It's February 26th. All the details, again, in the show notes in this episode. Please come join us. It's gonna be so fun. Um, and it really is just a way for us to all hang out, have a good time, have some drinks, have some food, uh, get to know each other and see each other off the bikes. So that's it. It's nothing, nothing more, nothing fancy. Um, it's really just a good time for a bunch of fools to get together and uh hang out and laugh at each other. So, uh, of course, this is brought to us by the one and only more overhead door. I cannot thank these guys enough. Uh, they do so much for the cycling community and so much for uh this podcast. And so I'm so appreciative of more overhead door. If you need anything to do with your garage door this uh springtime, as you're getting ready for spring cleaning, getting ready for all the good stuff, uh storms rolling through and you haven't storm damage, please reach out to More Overhead Door. They support us, let's support them. Uh, they're located in Moore Oklahoma. You can find them on all the Googs, so just look them up. And our other amazing sponsor is the Damn Zombies Race, uh, which is an endurance race coming up, and it's on February 21st. Remember, on the 21st, on Saturday, not Sunday, don't screw that up and show up on Sunday. It's Saturday, February 21st. Damn Zombies Endurance Race. You can do teams of any kind, two-person, um, you know, relay it up. You can do a two or three-hour race, you can do a six-hour race. If you want to do a six-hour race and you only want to ride for three or four hours, that's what you do. If you want to sign up for the three and ride two and quit early, like I did uh at the first endurance race, do that. But come out and support this event. Uh, all the money is going to a phenomenal cause. Um, you know, the the G3 series is putting this uh endurance series on this winter, and they have done a fantastic job. Each race has gotten more and more people, and this one is gonna be the final events of the series. So please come out and do that again. February 21st, the Dan Zombies Endurance Race. It's at Arcadia, three-hour version, six-hour version, and team versions. But you can't you can't go wrong with riding your bike at Arcadia. Phenomenal trail. I'm sure the course is gonna be fantastic, and it's supporting some really, really great stuff here. So uh come join us. I hope you guys are uh getting tuned up for the mountain bike season coming up. Uh, OKXC is right around the corner and going to be phenomenal. It's the only full state mountain bike series there is out there. Um, OKXC is going to Tulsa, uh, it's coming to Oklahoma City, it's going to Stillwater. It's the only statewide series. We have a bunch of new and exciting things happening with that series as far as age groups and things like that. We have a vintage category, which is going to be so much fun. It really truly is that category in series is just for fun. And it's going to be at the end of the day. So, like, come have fun, relax, enjoy riding your mountain bike, playing in the dirt, playing in the trees. But OKXC, you can get all the details uh out there on all the socials. But uh come join us. The series is gonna be phenomenal. The trails are just amazing. Uh, and um, it's gonna be a start of something fantastic. So thanks so much for joining, and we'll talk to you soon. All right, we're live, we're rolling, and I'm excited about this one for a variety of reasons. We are gonna talk about a brand new award tonight, something that's not been done that we know of in this way. And this was your wacky idea. So let's explain who you are and how in the world we got here.
SPEAKER_01:Well, my name's Dave Ortloff, uh, longtime listener, first time talker. Yes. Um, yeah, I uh I'm a guy that is I'm 53 years old, uh, moved to Norman from a small town to go to OU and kind of gotten into the uh the mountain biking community like 30 years ago. No, I was riding with Sheridan Mark Hard out at Lake Thunderbird 30 years ago with a 26 inch or no suspension. How fun with it 40 PSI on the tire.
SPEAKER_00:You still have that because we have a category for that. No, no, sold it too bad. Come out of retirement.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I uh I'm excited about that, although there's gonna be some crashes. Those old bikes. Oh, that's gonna be the best part. They are not as capable as the new ones. But so yeah, I've been riding mountain bikes since college. Um where'd you grow up at? I grew up in Medill. Oh uh down by Lake Tuxhoma, and uh couldn't wait to get out of that little town. Not not a lot to do. I I'm a I'm a I'm kind of a ADD. I like to go do stuff. Did you play in ball sports or any of that stuff, you're all nope, nope, was not a big athlete. Um, but did like riding my bike. Actually, my bike uh in my hometown was my freedom. I don't like a lot of kids, as long as I was home before the streetlights came on. My parents didn't really care where I was.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:And my brother pointed out that there were some motocross trails uh in the little suburb of Medale called Oakland, and I would ride those with my friends on my Western Flyer. So I've been riding mountain bikes since I was a little kid. Yeah, exactly. I had no idea. So yeah, I guess it was kind of instilled in me early on, and it was fun to do that in college. Uh put my mountain bike on my credit card like a good smart college kid would. Yeah. So the way uh you did it, you got that's right. You got a free t-shirt to get a credit card and then spin it on stupid stamps. Um I did, actually, yes.
SPEAKER_00:I was gonna say, and if you went to OU, yeah, that's probably like the only place there was.
SPEAKER_01:Uh no suspension, and uh, but loved it. Uh rode out there as much as I could. And then it was just, you know, once you make the investment, uh and at the time they weren't as expensive, but I loved it that you could it was kind of free. And as a college kid, you know, you put the bike on the credit card and get a get a helmet. And I think I used to ride in jorts. Uh in fact, I rode the 12 miles of hell a couple years in my in my jean shorts.
SPEAKER_00:Not uh I've heard about that race. So right when I was getting into all this stuff was like the last year of that race. So I did I was I was like when I got into like multi-sport and road stuff, like any of that. So I had no idea about it, but I always heard about it. And then once I understood about mountain biking, that race went away. So for people that don't know, why don't you tell them what that race was?
SPEAKER_01:Uh the 12 miles of hell out on the air uh out on the army base, Fort Sill, and it was just chunky, rocky stuff that I think they would normally use for tanks or artillery. Like it was it was deserty, but very rocky, uh, a lot of elevation, just really hard stuff. And it was kind of a ride of passage, I think, to have any any street cred if you were a local mountain biker back then, if you didn't ride the 12 miles of hell, which by the way, my first year, I had this really you know old school spinometer, cyclometer, and at the 12 mile mark, I was like, this is more than 12. And I think that year it was 15 or 16.
SPEAKER_00:Just really, really hard miles. They had a when you're at 12 and you can't see, or you're still going away from have no idea where where it was.
SPEAKER_01:But I knew I knew I was a long way from where we started. Right. Um but yeah, that was uh the the second year I knew more and knew what to expect, but it was uh I think that was my first mountain bike race. So that's uh that's going from zero to Yeah, that's a good way to intro yourself.
SPEAKER_00:If your first mountain bike race is in the Med Park vicinity, yeah, made some poor choices. Yeah, and I probably had 40 pounds of pressure in the tires, of course, all the wrong things.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god. Was it rigid or at least have suspension on the front? Oh, no suspension at all. Anywhere. No, no, no, no, no. That was that was much more than my credit card allowance would would allow. But uh so did that, and then really just kind of uh my my my friend Tim Rice, who I still ride with, uh we rode a lot together, and then um, you know, life happened, moved to uh Oklahoma City, would still ride uh bluff occasionally, um, but got into the road bike a little bit with some friends and uh enjoyed that, and then really would just kind of jump back on the mountain bike really as a novelty for probably oh a decade or so, and then moved up to uh near Man Memorial, which where I've lived for the last 20 years, and Bluff Creek was right there. And I'd I'd ridden, I used to drive up from Norman to ride Bluff, and that was back in when it was a four-mile loop and you went in and out of the in and out of the creek a lot. Now it's so rooted, yeah. Uh a little bit more um dynamic than it is now. I mean, they've done the best they can uh with what they've got now, and if the bridges kept washing out, and that was the problem. But back in the day it was it was pretty challenging, and you had a lot of ups and downs, which was cool. But then uh rode out there a fair amount and then just kind of had that as my um sanity to go out there and ride. It was mainly bluff. Uh Arcadia wasn't nearly what it was uh back then, and then would occasionally go um just if I was on a family trip somewhere, throw the bike on the back, um fell in love with Crested Butte riding out there and kind of just did it on my own and and never really um paid attention to the local race scene. Would just try to go out and ride as fast as I could and stay as fast as I uh as I could be, and would upgrade my bike every few years. And that was kind of my thing to do when I had the window, and uh my wife knew it would really help with my sanity to just go burn off some energy. Apparently, I can't relax until I have earned it. Oh, okay. May have the same affliction. So uh she would say sometimes, don't you need to just go write your mouth back for a few hours? So um, so it's always been kind of one of those things in my world that really was good therapy. Um to me, I've always told when people ask me about it as a as a professional that works downtown and we're you know, uh, you know, I do a very professional thing. A lot of people don't know that about me and they seem really surprised. And I said, well, it's kind of like to me, it's like hiking. You get the you're outdoors, you're in nature. Um, but he also combined that with like a roller coaster and adrenaline. Um I was out at Arcadia last night in the dark, uh riding by myself. Probably not smart, but um, that's a that's a rush. I love it. And so it's helped me, it's kind of been my therapy. Um had some crashes over the years that my wife likes to remind me about. Uh, but about I'd say probably five years ago, uh, my daughter had a friend at school, and she said, Well, Rebecca's dad mountain bikes. You guys should ride together. And I was like, Well, uh, okay, I'm sure if he's my age and he mountain bikes, like, really, okay. Yeah, he's a doctor. All right, well, maybe, maybe. And uh it turned out to be Dr. Schrader, Stu Schrader, yeah, one of the founders of off camera. Great guy. And so he and I think he took me up to McMurtry the first time.
SPEAKER_00:And uh I think that's a bold move going with somebody you don't arrive. Another trail. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy, that could go a lot of directions.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And I just I was my expectations were very low. And I think he was a little surprised that I kept up. Uh I kept up for the first 23 miles, and I think on the 23rd and 24th, he he shook me. You guys went big on day one.
SPEAKER_00:We did. We did. That's how stew rolls. I can say that might be a little bit of uh both of you having uh it was we had to establish some type A situations happening there.
SPEAKER_01:But I think we both realized like, oh is this my new best friend? This is my new writing best friend.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We just become best friends. We just became best friends for sure. Oh my goodness. Well, that's a heck of an intro to a friendship.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and so then uh I I inherited a great doctor, and now I've got a doctor who's a friend, so I got him, I can text him and get myself in front. Get can you send me a script? Uh not that he would ever do that. No, no, no, as far as the medical community. He always examines me first. For sure. But he uh great guy, and then he I introduced him to Tim Rice, who's uh we kind of reconnected and started writing again uh probably about 10 years ago. And we'd done some, we'd go to Bentonville and Crested Butte and do some other writing adventures, and it was really our kind of our thing. And then Stu kept encouraging us. He was like, You guys are fast, you should there's this local race, and I was like, Yeah, we've heard of it. Tim is not a rules guy at all. He does not like rules, he's just a rebel by nature. What does Tim do? Tim is uh he works, uh, does sales for SquareDia big uh sales guy. Yeah, got it international but really smart guy. Uh-huh. But he's just always, ever since I've known him, he's that rebel. He's just he just doesn't like rules. And so we just thought, well, we don't want to be told where we have to ride and the rules and sign, you know, sign up and wear a plate and all your bike and all this stuff. And so uh we finally did it, and then we both totally got hooked because we were cat three and we crushed. We were doing, yeah, we did really well. Uh he's Tim would always get first place, and I was like, uh I was like Ricky Bobby and the other guy. I was always I was Cal Norton. Uh-huh. Uh and uh rarely was able to win. But he got first place in Cat Three, our first year of Tour de Dirt. I got second place, and we had a great time. And then just kind of met our tribe for the first time. Yeah. This uh this group of people that my wife would say are afflicted uh with this thing that we do. But obviously, we all uh think this is a cool hobby, and so it was really fun to meet the cast of characters that are uh that are in this community. And then that's a great way to put it. Yeah, and then we got uh we got into cat two, and that was a little harder. And uh you you remember fitting me on that Yeti, that 36-pound yeah, it was huge, huge bike with the biggest knobbiest tires. It was it was not an XC racing bike. Not even close. Yeah, that was a burly bike. And somebody had told me, uh, my buddy in Santa Fe was like, there's no such thing as too much bike. Well, if you're racing XCOM, probably not. Correct. But if you're trying to win races at Draper, there is. Yes. And so um I was able to buy a used Epic from one of my teammates at off-camber, and I still feel like I'm riding an e-bike, even though it's not, just because it was 10 pounds lighter. Yeah, so much easier to ride. Um, carbon wheels, uh, all the stuff, all the stuff that helps. And so did really well. Uh that first cat two year, uh, Tim and I both had weird things in our families and other things in life. So we kind of were sporadic. We kind of didn't commit to that season. And then the next year, I was able to fully commit with my new bike and did really well. Um, was able to win cat two and then got, you know, really got into it. And then last year, um, really got into it. Got a new bike, got a coach, Chris Stromman, amazing coach, was training six days a week, felt like I had two jobs and was able to uh successfully, uh, even though Brad Eaton from Tulsa, this amazing, uh, amazing writer that was putting clearly a lot more time uh and effort in real fitness. Yeah, uh he's riding with like the the pro roadies up in Tulsa.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he got he and not that he came out of nowhere, but he got real fast.
SPEAKER_01:And he was he was not drinking, he was eating all these. I was I was still having fun. So he came at the end and and almost got me, but I pulled off the cat won a victory, mainly because of the points uh dropping three races and all that. He he he rode one too few races. So uh so I pulled that off and proud of that, but learned that um there's a price to pay for that. It was cool to be fast. Uh was able to do some epic rides, uh, went out with Saxby. We didn't have white rim, kept up with those guys because I was the old guy in the group. You know what? It's a big because Saxby is was fit and Ethan's fit. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a big it my goal was just to not slow them down. So I had that motivation early in the year, and then I did uh Little Sugar last year, which was the hardest race I've ever done in Bentonville. Six hours and 42 minutes of just a lot of single track. Long day, but that was cool to to have that under my belt, and then um kind of committed to my wife and my kids uh that I was going to ramp down a little bit this year, and um so I am I've learned to kind of like try to have some systematic uh method to my training, but really just zone two on the trainer and ride hard on the trails. That's kind of what's kind of my current approach. And I don't think I'm gonna be winning too many Cat1 races this year, but I'm gonna have fun doing it and I'm gonna go ride with my friends because not too many of my friends uh got invites to go ride last year because I was on the trainer doing something very specific, which you know to Chris's credit, it worked. I got really fast. Um, but it's been cool to go from the totally recreational rider who thinks he's kind of fast to seeing kind of measuring myself, and then that whole journey of all the things you learn, you can take things as a man, especially to an extreme. Um my wife, when I bought my first bike, she was there with me, and when she found out it didn't come with pedals, she freaked out. And so now compared to there's a lot of yeah, what I paid for my current bike versus that one, it's just it's like tenfold, I think. So uh but you can buy you can buy some speed, but you can only buy so much speed. But just just that community of folks that uh that I've gotten to know and enjoy hanging out with. I mean, that's to me, that's half the fun of race days, just hanging out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah, I've been down that similar path. And it's funny because last time we did an episode with uh I think it was Alan who told me he's like, he goes, Kate broke you. And I was like, it it did break me now that you say that and you go back, but I'm I'm the same as you. Like, I'm all when I'm in, we're all in. I'm gonna I'm gonna focus on my training, I'm gonna follow a real training plan, I'm gonna like probably clean up nutrition stuff a little bit, drinking stuff a little bit, like plan around races, not maybe not where you're peeking for a race, but like you have a plan and you have a focus and you're in and you get results from that, and it's good, but you sacrifice X, Y, and Z. Yep. And when you're but you're like, but this is my focus, this is what I'm gonna do. And then when it's over, then you realize what you sacrificed, and then it but it it takes a year or two to unwind that and you have no interest. You're like, I mean, I want to be fast, but I don't want to do what I know I need to do to be fast. And then you get out there and it's just like a year or two of fun. It you kind of then you kind of start, damn, that that person shouldn't have beat me. I that it kind of like kind of hits me that that person beat me. And it takes about a year or two of like dealing with that, and then you're like, all right, let's do it again.
SPEAKER_01:I agree. And it's been cool to see that cycle in our community where where guys will maybe not even race or they'll just come out and be like, hey, I'm not in shape. Yep. Um I mean, I don't know if you know, but John Denton won the single, yeah, won the male six-hour endurance race. And that dude, he's gonna kick my butt this year. I mean, he's over 60 years old. He's sneaky, yeah. He's yeah, he's impressive.
SPEAKER_00:Um he's always he's always fit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and he had a few other guys. I mean, I'm not I'm not getting any younger. I'm 53, and so to see uh those guys that can if you could stay healthy, clearly, I've had some pretty catastrophic well, I've had some interesting injuries over the years, as we all have. Um it's cool to see if you if you stick with it, um, within reason, you can really stay in shape. And it's cool to be I was never really an athlete growing up, um, certainly not a team sports guy, but um this biking thing, I just I don't know, I just love doing it. There's just something about being out there in the flow, um maneuvering that back around and just hauling buttons.
SPEAKER_00:For me, it's kind of like well, I think we're kind of similar, and being sales guys and having that ADD kind of brain chemistry. For me to sit still, it's not the easiest thing in the world. I do meditate here and there and like try to stay on top of that and try to like do it. But for me, when I'm mountain biking, it's and trail running, which I haven't been able to do in a while, but like when I'm mountain biking, when you're doing it, it's meditative. Like I can think about nothing, I can't think about work, I can't think about lactose. Or if you do, you're in trouble. Right. And especially when you're flowing, and especially if you're like on somebody's wheel and you guys are same speed and you're rolling and it's just flowing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that is, and that is there's a a moment of zen where yeah you're especially like at night when I'm with this fast guys that we ride with at night sometimes, and you're just everybody knows what they're doing, and you're all and nobody's worried too much about somebody brinking when they shouldn't and all that. It's just meditating. It's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00:You you think about nothing besides like what's right in front of you. It's fun.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's a good point. I've tried meditating and I can't, but I think you're right. I think that's one of the reasons maybe I do it because I can get into that state. Yeah. Uh and Tim and I've talked about the the beauty of it is you can't think, you can't afford to think about a couple things. Now, if on my road bike yeah riding for three hours straight, yeah, you think about all sorts of things. And I've it's great, it's a great way for me to just get out and process that my brain work through things.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, with mountain biking, uh, it's a little different. Um that's why I think that's where I get where I love it so much. And why I'm like, man, and then if you want to just back off a little bit, then you can take it all in. Yeah, you can look around, you can see nature, you can look for the birds, you see the squirrels, you do all that stuff. So you kind of get the best of both worlds of being a kid on your bike looking at fun stuff in nature and seeing sunsets and seeing cool views. But then, man, when you want to flow, you can just shut the world out and just flow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Rob Rob was Rob Bell was with me last night for a lap out on outer space at Arcadia, and we came down by the water, and last night was so perfect. So perfect. Um, 70 degrees. Well, at that point, it was like you know, 60s, but um no wind. The the moon shining off the water was just beautiful. But Rob Bell was behind me. I couldn't see that we had to keep keep hammering. I didn't want to have the now, didn't want him to run over you. No, this old guy's slowing me down.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that and the and I think uh, you know, me and Smoke talk about it all the time. How it's so strange how a bicycle, which we all had when we were, or most of us had when we were kids, and you just think about as a toy, right, ends up giving you the friends that you're gonna have for life, or like at least for these formidable years of your life, right? It takes you to places you would never ever Ever take a vacation to or go see, but it also gives you views that such a small percentage of the planet ever get to see. But like that right last night, how many people in Edmund would ever go to Lake Arcadia and look at the moon off the water? Like no one, because nobody's there, right? The random campers are out there. Yeah, it was perfect. But that's it. You get to see things and experience things that you would just never get to experience in life. And it's all because of a bicycle. It's so wild.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. When you break it down. It's in those moments, man, they bring you back for sure. Um it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then other moments you may be limping when you get back to the parking lot. It's just like me at the three-hour last week. Both ends of the spectrum, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Joshua Hayes had a broken seat on that. He yeah, broke his seat rails off. So yeah, well, let's well, I want to jump into a couple races. Well, since we brought up the six-hour last week, how did it go for you guys? Because you did the relay. Uh, it was fun.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, Joe, fortunately, about three days ahead, he texted me. He's like, Hey man, I hope you're not like upset about having me as your partner because I'm trying to nurse this knee thing. Just so you know, like we were racing against uh Fred, uh Lightek and Jason. Jason Canary, yeah, fast guys. And he's like, Well, we don't have much chance anyway, so how about we just take it easy? And that was music to my ears again. I'm trying to settle. So yeah, it was fun. Um, I ended up um getting four laps, thinking I was gonna do five, and then when I rolled in, Jason Canary was like, Well, you're done, dude. Like, have a beer. And I'm like, What? He's like, do the math. And I looked up and I looked at my watch. I was like, Oh yeah, sweet. So yeah, it was kind of a bonus. We would have gotten second anyway. Yeah, that's even better. Yeah, even if I'd done the extra lap. That's even better. But no, that was fun. Great day, great uh great group. Uh it was awesome. Fun trail. Yeah, fun trail. I haven't been up there in a while. Yeah, same. But yes, a great great day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the the weather was just beautiful. So good. And that's kind of how I felt about it. Like, we did I did the three-hour roll through, kind of had a group that I was chasing. I'd get on their wheel and I'd fall off like 10, 15, 20 seconds. I'd get back on the wheel and I'd fall back off. And then I was just like looking at the math. I was like, okay, math-wise, I can do one more lap. This and I have I have hour and a half fitness. I have hour fitness, okay, basically.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And so I was like, I got there and I looked at the math, and I'm like, okay, so I do one more lap, probably gonna finish where I'm at right now. The that lapse pro because they were like 40-ish minute lapse. The first 10-15 minutes, it's probably gonna feel okay. Right. That middle 15 minutes, it's gonna be a death march. The last 10 is it's gonna be like, I am so hate this, and I'm gonna like, I just gonna be so mad at myself, and for no reason. And so, and I don't mentally I but the start of a race, I know how it's gonna end because I'm like, today I I will puke my brains out, and that person is not getting away from me. I will do anything in my power to catch that person. Yeah, and then some days I'm at the front and I'm like, I don't know, I'll bride a lap or two and see what happens. I don't know, we'll see go from there. And that's the attitude for that. So then when I got done with that lap, I'm like, okay, I could do one more and it doesn't matter. Or I could stop and I won't be miserable. And so I it was perfect timing because Lindsay, she was in Europe for work trip. So I get done, talk for a few minutes, she FaceTimes me, and I was like, Well, this is perfect timing. So I'll go grab a beer, FaceTime with her, go sit by the lake, and then I see people coming through with that word that I would have been finishing with. Yeah, like 30 minutes later, I was like, Oh, they look terrible. Good call. Good call. Priorities.
SPEAKER_01:Well, this was my second time to do a team and team race. Yeah, and it it takes it's cool. You do a 40-minute lap and you rest for 40 minutes. And I think if it's really cold out, I've never had to deal with that. That would be bad because you'd be sweating and you come back and you just have to stay warm. But um, on a warm day, if the weather's good, I would highly encourage people to sign up for the six-hour team. It's cool. You just and and usually it's kind of a chill. Yeah, and and it's the best part of endurance racing. And I would blow by some of the guys towards the end, and I'd be like, hey, I'm a team, I'm doing teens, but this is only my third and fourth lab. And they're like, Oh, okay. Yeah. Because they were like, Where did this guy come from?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's the worst is whenever you're doing the three hour and you start halfway through the six hour, yeah. You catch those guys and they're like on their fourth and fifth hour, and yeah, they just look like death warmed over, and you're like on your second lap, you feel pretty good. Realize this is what I'm gonna feel like in a couple hours. Right. Yeah. So those are nice.
SPEAKER_01:That was a fun event.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, I don't know that Skip's gonna work out. It doesn't sound like it. But Arcadia at the end of the month, at the end of February, which will be a great way to kick off the spring season. And we'll get into some other things that are gonna kick off the spring season here in just a sec. But let's go back and touch on white rim. How was that experience for you? That was awesome. Explain to people what that is for people that don't know.
SPEAKER_01:So the White Rim Trail is a hundred-mile loop uh in a very beautiful but very um desolate and out-of-the-way place in uh outside of Moab. And so Saxby, I got lucky because Saxby has this thing every year. He does this, it's some Tibetan monk, I don't know, some some philosophy he has to do one hard thing every year. And I'm very impressed. He does it every year. Uh and sometimes he drags his friends along with him, and sometimes he drags them to South Africa and and and breaks them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but I got uh problem was that one was my idea. Oh screen myself. I thought it was his. No, okay. Well, but he talked about it and then he's like, let's do it. I'm like So he okay. One of the reasons he wanted to do it, he'd check that box. Check that box, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So his list his 2025 box checker was this white rim trail. Uh it's unsupported. You have to have uh a lot of water. We had five or six liters on each of us. Uh so it was Ethan Hume Hume Hume, Ethan, uh Saxby and myself. None of us knew each other that well. So to go on a Ethan and I drove out because Saxby was of course already there doing fun stuff, and then he rode back with us. So we drove out with his his bike and his gear, and Ethan and I had a great all day, long day drive getting to to Moab. And then uh just the experience with those guys, we uh got perfect weather for that ride. Um, started early in the morning, finished in I think just under nine hours. Is it it's a hundred miles? A hundred miles, and it's mainly double tracks, mainly jeep trails. But we would uh we'd had a different few different caravans of these um like four-wheel drive, really impressive vehicles, and we're just blowing their doors off, and they're kind of looking at us like I've got this$80,000 Jeep that I've got all this lift kit and all this stuff on there, and these guys on their bikes are blowing by me. Uh, and other than a couple of motocross bikes, uh motorcycles out there that passed us, we were uh we were certainly the fastest thing out there that day. But I will say, and my I think I told my wife this, we rode for about three hours and never saw another human being. And that's the middle of the desert. Awesome and scary. Yeah, a little scary. And our cell phones, of course, didn't work. Nothing. You're in the middle and no. Yeah, so I knew I could text with my iPhone and the satellite. Um, I kind of learned how to do that before that, just in case. But had a great day. Um, Ethan let his sodium levels get a little bit low, so he cramped up a little bit at the end, but it was nice as the old guy to be able to uh to stay strong, and I don't think they regretted me uh going along, at least as a fellow writer.
SPEAKER_00:What was some of your highlights from that whole trip? Not necessarily maybe that ride, but like you guys had a great experience. You drive out, you get what almost a week in Moab, which is never been there. It's amazing. Oh, you'd never been? Never been. I'm a I'm a Colorado guy, so uh, but I never really because I was there like two weeks before.
SPEAKER_01:Almost or maybe like a week before you so crazy, incredible. Um, and just really I I think I enjoyed the writing was fantastic, but I enjoyed just kind of hanging out with those guys. Um seeing that other side of Saxby that it doesn't really uh show very often. Yeah, that was fun. Seeing him get a little silly. Uh as we say in Marshall County, we got a little got ignorant, we got ignored a little bit. Yeah. Um and then we had a couple of great dinners. Um, one on the Sunset Grill overlooking Moab and a perfect night and just had a really good time. The beauty out there is yeah, you can't explain that. And the the weird thing about White Rim was it's so beautiful. Like we're of course, we're taking lots of pictures at first. And then we're just come around another corner, we're like, well, that's more beautiful than the last one, but we gotta we gotta keep rolling. Gotta get going. We can't we can't stop to to so it was I wish I'd had a drone or something like that, or something that would have just that I could have that I now own that I didn't then that I could have had follow us for you know 10, 20 seconds of time, taking the you know, from from a great perspective, taking the uh the You can't explain what it's like when you're because that part that you guys part of where you uh like the Mag 7 trails and stuff, I raced on that, which is kind of in the area that you guys were on.
SPEAKER_00:We started on a Jeep road there and ended on a Jeep Road there, and you can't because when you're on the single track, you can't really look around much out there, especially on the slip rocks. You gotta pay attention. Yeah, but when you're on that jeep road and you look around, you just like you can't put it into words the awe that you're under. Yeah, and if desert beauty is your beauty and you haven't been up there, you gotta go. Agreed. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:And it's maybe not even take your bike, just go out and rent a floor side by side and just go drive around. Yeah, and go maybe go 20 miles in. I mean the first 20 miles, depending on which direction you go. All so impressive. Yes, fantastic. Really cool. That worked out really well. Um, but overall, just kind of hanging out with those guys. Um, we you know, we'd have our little rented a little tiny house, uh Airbnb, and had our all of our bike stand. We're all out there working. We got our we're like the white trash with our all of our uh we'd wash our gear and then we, you know, instead of laying it, we just lay it on the front porch in the sun. It was you know dry in about an hour, but it we I I drove up one day after Clampett's next door. I was like, oh man, we're we're really making this, we're classing up the place. Yeah. But uh we ended up riding the Porcupine Rim, uh, which was great. I would have loved to do the full enchilado, but we were out there in April and it was still snowed up up.
SPEAKER_00:Because it snowed the day before our race. And because we did Porcupine and we it snowed the top of it um the day before. So when we were there, it was like still snow on the ground and muddy. I'm gonna tell you what you don't want is coming around some of those corners at the top of that trail when it's muddy, and you're like from me to you from the edge. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. And the rocks are mud and that was crazy. That that that wasn't a lot of fun. No, I could only imagine. Um and you had never done porcupine. What did you think of Porcupine? Because what I thought about it and what I thought afterwards were two completely different things.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't know a ton about it. Um, I knew it was gonna be beautiful riding along that cliff. Um it's wild. It was wild. And then the the you know, I've ridden a lot of terrain, but the solid rock stuff, that slick rock, um, it's a whole different thing. You you can trust the tires, but it's this, it doesn't give at all. It's so bumpy. It's bumpy, and even with and I only had you know 120 um suspension front back. Ethan had a little bit more. Um, and Ethan had ridden Ethan was raised in Arizona, so he's a desert rider, which was clear because on some of that downhill chunky stuff, Saxby and I are holding off for Deer Live and we like, and he Ethan's just gone. He's just it's different. He's gone. Yeah, so he's clearly he's got that skill set. Um but we man, we had a great time. None of us had any big uh crashes. Um oh well, I did get a concussion. Oh shit. I I forgot about it, ironically. We are too um we stopped at a little uh a highly rated trail system. No, this was we we left Moab. We were on our way to um Durango, I believe. Okay. And um there was this little trail system Saxby had read about. It had amazing reviews and it was fun. And we're cruising along and uh having a great time. And then uh we're uh we're back at the truck taking our gear off, and I look down and I say, guys, why am I so why am I covered in dirt? And they look at me like, you don't remember? Oh no. And so the the two or three minute ride back to the truck after my epic crash where I yard sailed um with my gear everywhere. Um yeah, I didn't remember. And so um they freaked out a little bit and then uh had to go get a new helmet because I split split the back of my helmet open. Oh my gosh. Uh landed pretty much. What did you do? Do you what did they tell you you did? I think there was a I was up on a ridge and got too close to a stump, and I think the stump got in my back wheel maybe and kind of stopped me, and then I ended up like flying through the air, and the ridge was Ethan said like four or five feet tall, so I went over it and landed on the back of my head. Oh my gosh. So uh I don't remember, but they say it was epic. Of course, Saxby was ahead of Saxby was ahead of us thinking this Ethan was back there to help me. Oh my gosh, that's scary. And then uh yeah, then we went to uh to lunch and uh I started screwing with him and asking him the same question two or three times, and they finally said, dude, stop, but we're taking to the hospital right now. Uh but anyway, so I I didn't write any more of that that trip. Uh they rode in in uh Durango and uh uh and then they call it because we went to Santa Fe and the weather wasn't very conducive. But we had a great time. Highly recommend Moab if you've never been. It's totally different. But uh other than Crested Butte uh and Bentonville is probably the most uh you'll see the most mountain bikes on the on the on cars that you'll have to see in your life. So you're you're kind of not an outlier in those communities. You you don't feel like you're it's you feel normal there, which is cool.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, if you don't live outside, Moab is the most worthless place for you. It's Moab itself was not what I expected.
SPEAKER_01:No, I agree.
SPEAKER_00:I was expecting more of a town, like more of a city, and it's basically restaurants and places to rent outdoor equipment. Yeah, yeah. I expected more of a resort community like me too. More of a mountain, Colorado cool town. Yeah, but it's just and but everything there's trying to kill you. So everything. Yeah, every business is trying to kill you. Like everything. Yeah, no, it's it's beautiful, but it's it's wild.
SPEAKER_01:It was it was great, great experience. And again, had I not met those guys in this community, I would have never done that. Yeah. Uh ironically, I went out there. I think when Ethan came to pick me up, that was the first time he had met my wife. Saxby had never met her. So she's like, My husband is going across Moab. And then, of course, I get a concussion and she hears that. She's like, I know I shouldn't have let him get that. That's right. But no, Saxby, that's what I do. Had a great time, but yeah, that's a that's a long, a lot of togetherness. It could have it could have gone off the rails. For sure. But we all got along really well. And uh yeah, we're uh and now that I consider them some of my my better friends. So that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, I want to touch on little sugar because you said that was the hardest race you'd ever done.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:But I also got passed by you at Washtaw when you came by essentially on your e-bike and I was on my deathbed. Well, there's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, I don't know if we've had this conversation. Yeah, I remember in one of your podcasts. I've in fact I had my my family listen to it. Uh you were bragging on them this day, Bortlot that blew your doors up.
SPEAKER_00:You came by so happy and smiley, and I was just trying to get home.
SPEAKER_01:There there needs to be a word, a term for this, but I experienced it the other day. I've got a um a new friend that's uh used to race for the Texas AM mountain biking team, but you know, a few years, he's got he's in the middle of young kids, he's not in great shape. And so I gave him a tour of the outer space loop at Arcadia, and then he was done. And then he left, and then I got to just tear it up. I was, you know, I was a little like I've been writing this at really slow pace, and now I'm gonna open it up. And so at Washita Challenge, that's kind of what it was like. I was um a couple of guys from our off-camera team were racing, and we'd kind of agreed to kind of race together. But um, Stu and a couple of the other guys got um Dustin Anderson, he got sick. Uh, he didn't realize that he had a really bad cold, and that's why he wasn't riding well. And so I was waiting on those guys and ended up just literally riding in circles at one rest stop, waiting for them. And I finally uh And you were fit at this time. Yeah, and one of the other guys was like, dude, just go. And so I was able to so I had a bit of an advantage. Then again, I caught you, so I don't know. Um, but it was it was a tough race. Those wet rocks were incredibly challenging. But the first half of that race was scary. That was that was scary. I was really glad I didn't scrape myself up more than I did. But yeah, and then they said it was the last year of that race.
SPEAKER_00:Is it coming back, or do we haven't heard if it's coming back or not? Supposedly last I heard was that was the last year because the people that had always done it were done with it. Right. And then that was the last year, big hurrah, blah, blah, blah. And then at the race, Drummond got some inside info that there was another group that would potentially take it over. But I haven't heard anything else about it this year, so I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the only reason I did it is because Stu and a few other guys said you gotta do it last year. And he had always talked about how crazy hard it was and all the elevation and all that.
SPEAKER_00:I don't it's not even close to the hardest race I've ever done. I think it's a hard day. Right. That's it. Yeah, and if it wasn't wet, it would have been a significantly faster day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, it's just a hard day. I don't think it's anything monumental besides maybe, but if you've never gone and done something hard, then I can see how you can be like, this is the stupid and the hardest thing I've ever done.
SPEAKER_01:The best part about that race was again, I hadn't researched it. I hadn't done the race before. And uh when a guy at the last like checkpoint where they give you the zip tie was like, hey, it's it's like gravel road of the next eight miles, six of it are gravel road. I was like, Really? Yeah. And so that really helped me get a pep in my steps. So the thing about a little sugar though is I was expecting a lot more road and sidewalk. Uh I did uh Camp Leadville with Stu a couple of years ago, and I was amazed at how much of that course is yes, it's elevation, it's at elevation, but you're on gravel or even pavement for a lot. A lot of it. And then the other's just jeep trail. And so um Little Sugar, the difference was I kept thinking, well, we're getting close to town, so surely we're gonna hop on some sidewalk or pave it. No, they they figured it out. I mean, you might go on sidewalk for a block or two and you're like, all right, cool, and then you're back in single track. So they had figured out the route where it was uh as Chris Drummond said, which I couldn't agree more. He's like, it's death by a thousand cuts out there. Uh and all the tire uh carnage out there with these guys that are just because of their tire slants.
SPEAKER_00:There's no long big climbs. Like, really, they're they're just steep and never stop.
SPEAKER_01:Short punchy climbs are never flat. Short punchy climbs. It's just never flat. And that loose rock over hard pack, it's a whole other thing you gotta figure out. It makes you a lot better rider.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, the thing is you don't get to take advantage of the downhills, right? Because it's gonna have you know turns in it, plus that loose over hard, and you're constantly trying to stay on trail, and especially on that old school bench cut, like on some of the old school trails that they have out there, right? And because they kind of slope off like the back 40 is a perfect example of that. Like some of the trails are big and wide and beautiful, and they're fairly easy, relatively saying. But the other ones, the old school ones that they're started with, they're only like 18, 24 inches wide, and yeah, you can and they're kind of always pushing you off the trail, pushing you downhill. Off camber, yeah, you you kind of lean through leaning uphill so you don't slide off. That's it.
SPEAKER_01:It's six hours of never getting to relax and calm down. It was uh it was tougher than I thought. And I had never um had an issue with um sodium, so I started cramping up at the halfway point. I got off the hot. It was it was warm, but I just I have this system, my cyclometer every 30 minutes, it tells me to eat. I decided to load the race route in, and this is a great little cautionary tale on race day. Never try anything new. But somebody said, You really case, you know, Kate, you don't want to get lost out there, so you might as well dump the the map into your into your winehood. So I did that the night before thinking, okay, cool. And then I hit start and my screen looks totally different. Uh I'm old now, I can't see small numbers. So I couldn't tell how long I've been writing. This map was at the bottom, and I'm sure I could have pulled over and figured it out, but I was like, I gotta keep going, keep up with these guys. And so um the 30-minute alarm to to eat, which was you know, got some sodium stuff, you don't realize how much time's going by. Uh, you know, I was I was probably eating those things every hour or in 15 until I got to the thid midway point, and I literally, as soon as I would stop pedaling, both legs cramped up and were completely rigid and straight, and I get off my bike, and these poor volunteers were like, We don't know how to help you, but nothing we do, I should I don't know. And so I'm literally I'm peg legging. I'm I'm peg legging over to the water and uh helpless. And it eventually got a little better, but I knew that anytime I had any sort of a punchy climb, anytime I had to put down a certain amount of watts, they were gonna cramp up again. Or anytime I pulled over and had to put a foot down, that would automatically that leg would seize up. So it was, I don't know how many times um so hopeless. I had to pull over and just let this group buy me because I I just cramped up and couldn't couldn't do it. So uh that was that I learned a lot there. Never, never let your uh sodium, never get behind on sodium, uh overdo it, I think, if anything. And uh but I was really happy to have that um have that behind me and uh probably won't do it again anytime real soon. But I would imagine in the next year or two. Um I'll probably try it again. You know how it goes. Yeah, it wasn't Cape Epic, but it wasn't but I think it was a one day of Cape Epic. And so to think that I would have to do that day after day or no, that would have broken me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I can speak from experience, don't do it. Um well let's let's jump into well this year, you you're you're doing it for fun, but just gonna relax. Gonna kind of relax in your racing. Um are you coach get coach this year? Or are you just kind of self-coach this year?
SPEAKER_01:No, self-coach. Okay. Self-coach. Chris Drummond's amazing. I highly recommend his coaching. In fact, I was wearing his kit, uh the uh RD2 2d9. That's I always get it wrong. 2d9 kit. Um so now I've uh when I wear that I have a feeling people are like, oh, this guy's gonna be fast. So I may not get to wear that much longer exactly. But uh yeah, he was he was fantastic, uh, really uh impressed. I'd had another coach earlier in the year that was more of a road coach. Um and uh no, Chris was great.
SPEAKER_00:Are you gonna do any do you have any big races on the schedule this year besides just the local stuff? Not yet.
SPEAKER_01:Not yet. We'll see. Playing it by year. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we'll see if how inspired I get. But yeah, I've noticed these cycles of especially the Cat One guys and gals that kind of they'll they'll because it's hard if you've got a day job, yeah, uh in a family and all that stuff, um, it's a little selfish, um, admittedly. And so I I kind of had that one year agreement with my family, and so now uh my daughter can enjoy the family without dad on the train or watching TV.
SPEAKER_00:That yeah, to be to be fat, and it is impressive. Once you put in the work and the dedication to like see how fast. You can get not even saying you're the fastest in winning categories, but just seeing how good you can get personally. And then you see these guys that are always fast for 10 years, you're like, for one, they are probably naturally talent gifted. Agreed. Agreed. And then for them to put in that much work for that many years all the time, like that's all they do. And then you realize, like, oh, I don't necessarily want it that bad all the time. Agreed. Not all the time. Not my personality. Yep. But it's it's impressive to see someone that can do it for a long period of time. Yeah. Because it takes a lot.
SPEAKER_01:And I think the other thing for me to can commit to last year is I'm not getting any younger. And I thought, I wonder if I can get faster than I've ever been at 53.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:As opposed to uh how many week how many hours a week were you training? Because it's six days a week between an hour and an hour and forty-five. Everything was structured. But then sometimes it'd be a three hour ride uh he'd have me do on a Saturday uh or weekend. And so yeah, it was very structured. Uh I'd say on average, yeah, probably averaged out to almost two hours a day. So it was and and I've heard of people training a lot more than that. But uh for me 12 hours of structure on a a week is that's pretty good. Right. And then the and then the thing that made it so much worse was he heard that I was using erg mode on my trainer and he was like, Oh dude, you gotta do that manually, dude. I was like, What? No. You have to pay attention? No. Because I just turn on a I put on Netflix and watch it and have it going in the background and just feel like, oh, this is hard. And like, how much longer is this? Exactly. But now uh now I have to like pay attention. And then the just like out on the real world, the the you're up a hill or going down a hill and you're having to adjust and change gears, and it's just yeah, yeah, leave it on erg mode.
SPEAKER_00:He gets so mad at me because I use the erg mode. I don't he doesn't coach me, but and it's my cyclocross bike. That's my trainer bike. Um he hates that so much. Like, that's the word cyclocross bike belongs. Leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and then and then one when I was early on in training, uh, I was out at Arcadia trying to kind of do what he was trying to get me to do, uh kind of a longer three-hour zone two ride. And uh then I run into Fred Leidick and he's like, Have you been to the dual slalom? I was like, Yeah, a couple times he was like, Well, let's race it. He's like, Well, okay. And then Chris, you know, my my bride feeds up to him a couple days later, he's like, What were you what? This is not so too. I was like, sorry, man. I got can't help it. Fred challenged me. Uh-huh. And so uh yeah. If you really care, you can't. And you can't. That's ex exhibit A on why I just thought, how many of those fun opportunities did I miss? Yeah. Instead of being out on the trail, I was in my house on my trainer. Just but if that's what you if that's the priority, that's the priority. And I'm sure there would have been a way for me to do it. Um I I was trying to just kind of check all the boxes and do exactly what the zones that I was instructed. And I'm sure Chris was probably like, dude, you don't have to do exactly, but don't be going on a zone two day. Don't go race fret on the dual slalom several times. Right. Because you guys keep getting, you know, like, well, uh two best two out of three. Best four out of so anyway. So I got in a little bit of trouble from my coach on that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh, let's but before we get into some uh some fun like yard sale questions, let's talk about something, some wild idea that you came up with recently. Uh-huh. And what in the world have you created? What kind of mess have you gotten yourself into?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, kind of wondering that myself. Uh so yeah, I've always just really appreciated the the guys that are out there working on the trails. I've done a few trail days over the years, and and then you know, I've I'm not one of those guys that never does them. Me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but I still feel like based on the amount of writing that I do, I'm not pulling my weight as far as trail stuff. And again, yeah, I'm not uh getting any younger. I uh I don't know if you've noticed it's gone, but there was a cedar tree stump at the very beginning of uh outer space, right in the middle of the trail, uh kind of on a ridge. Uh, and it almost took me out one day. And so I thought I'm gonna and so I called Joe and it's like, hey, you mind if I take that out? He said, sure. And so I spent, I don't know, an hour out there with uh a sawzall and an axe. Cedar, cedar is hard wood, and those stumps are really deep. Yeah, weird. And uh about 20 people rode by me. It was on a Saturday, so I didn't pick the best day to to and I put some tools where they could see, but about 20, 25 people rode by me while I was out there doing that, and not one of them thanked me, which I didn't expect to be thanked, but I just thought, and I always try to thank the trail guys, but I think it's a very thankless job. Yeah, big time. And I think uh unless I you could correct me if I'm wrong, but I think all those guys are out there just doing it on their own time so if you're getting paid. And so uh I've done a few of those trail days and um just thought these guys are they're organized, they're spending their Saturdays. Yep, they're uh I see Jim Clark out at Arcadia like a third of the time I'm out there. I see him out there with his dog doing something. And so I just wanted to throw some throw some love to those guys and uh just help show them that as a community we really appreciate their work. And so as I was uh just thinking through, I thought, well, I started bouncing around with a couple of buddies and uh said, well, let's just like meet at a local brewery and just give us a reason to get together, eat some pizza, have a beer, hang out, tell stories, be silly, and maybe give out some awards to some not only trail uh trail volunteers, trail bosses, but also some exceptional writers in one way or another in our community, whether it's good or bad. There'll be a couple that are people be like, really, thanks for that award. So we got uh we come up with uh we were just looking at the list, like 25 awards um that are gonna be hopefully a lot of fun. I'm gonna let the trail bosses come out and give them each uh a couple minutes with their team for us to, you know, give give a round of applause to, and then they'll uh give us the name of their volunteer of the year. Now, some of that's you know, the trailboss is probably the most deserving and would be the volunteer of the year, but uh I decided to structure it that way this year. Try not to make it too formal or too I don't want the program to get to get dull or or uh cause us to have to stop talking and pay attention because nobody likes those events. And so we're gonna have um each of the I've got nine trail bosses that are that are coming. They're gonna name their their um Volunteer of the Year, and then we've got uh what is that, 16 other awards uh to give out. And you're looking at the list, some of those are gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_00:And then and when we have just to give I people an idea of some of the awards, we have real ones like hey, best new trails, send it features, you know, fun things like that. But then there's some other ones that are some of these might happen, some of these might not happen. Yeah, still in still in the works, uh-huh. So based on a variety of things. So you have some really good volunteer ones, like you know, the golden shovel award, the most dirt moves. So that's a that's a good one. But then we also have some most broken derailers, are you still alive? Uh send it and regret it later award. Uh those are ideas. Those are liability waiver MVP. You know, so so there's gonna be fun and serious, but it is a way to bring the community together as fun. It's a fun night.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I my goal is even if the even if the program didn't happen, hopefully we'd all still have a good time hanging out and just enjoying each other's company. I think we enjoy doing that at races, but we all kind of have that yeah, we're we got all this other thing on our mind. And afterwards, that's fun before the podiums. Uh that's the time when everybody can relax and lick their wounds and and tell stories. But uh Ethan's calling. Interesting. But the um yeah, the idea was just to show some love to these guys, uh, give us as a community a reason to uh to get together and hang out. It's gonna be at the Angry Scotsman on February 26th. It's a Thursday night. I I I got on Chat GPT and said, is there any other event, Olympics or Oscars or anything else, uh, any concert or a thunder game? And so hopefully that'll be a good night. Hopefully the weather will work out. Um but yeah, uh the Angry Scotsman's got like 85 seats. I can went in their counter them. Should be a great venue. Uh, you and I are gonna MC this thing. So if if you're tired of listening to us right now, get over.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. You're gonna come drink more. Exactly. Yeah, just have another beer. And and they're kind of think about if you ever watch The Office, think of the Dundees, which how that was like super lighthearted and fun, and then the just like goofy and random fun. Yeah. This is the same thing, and it's called the Dirties. The dirties, yeah. D-I-R-T, hyphen e easy. Ethan, why is Ethan stalking us? Is he feel left out?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. Maybe he's he's his spighty sense says we're talking cycling without him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it's the dirties, an unsanctioned and irrelevant awards event. Irreverent. Oh, yeah. It's also a little uh irrelevant. Yeah, same thing. Same thing. So it's free, free pizza, cash bar at the Angry Scotsman. You that you're gonna see this posted everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I did another uh big two-week out post last night. And so my apologies if you're getting it in your feet a lot. Uh I was a little worried at first we weren't gonna have enough people there, and now I think we may have too many. I hope so. I hope we have too many.
SPEAKER_00:We have a patio, they have fire on the table. That's great, yeah. It'll be the thing that I think about with this event that's so freaking cool is looking at the sponsors Wheeler Dealer, Fat Tire, OMBA.org, Buchanan, Celestial, Capital Co-op.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so one thing that made me feel a little better about the idea is every shop owner I talk to, they're like, This is a cool idea. This is a great idea. Yeah. Uh Sharidon over at Celestial, he said, we used to have a banquet after the Tour de Dirt. He said it was at Applewoods. And if the viewer know old enough to know or have lived here long enough to know in Oklahoma City, I would do Applewoods. Yeah. They had it going on, but they were uh they've been gone for like 20 years or something. A long time. Yeah. So I guess this is uh this isn't an original idea, but yeah, it's gonna be kind of a recap of 2025 mainly, and uh just really uh an excuse, hopefully, for us all to get together and hang out. And uh the the the one fear I have a little bit is the lens that I'm looking at these things through because it's Dave Ortloff and a few of his friends like how we see things. So uh if you don't get an award and you deserve it, I'm sorry. Get over it. Yeah, get it. It's fine. And it's a it's like a tell us what award you want to win next year.
SPEAKER_00:It's like a nine dollar trophy from Amazon. It's you're it's fine. But if you feel left out and you feel like you got slided, you can be on the committee next year, or somebody that you know got slided, then you make up the award for next year and we'll give it to you. Exactly. Yes, exactly. So let us know what you think you need, and we'll make you feel better. And you can put it on your top of your fridge so you're next to your kids' colorings.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so it's from six to nine. I got uh an amazing level of sponsorship from local uh the local cycling shops. And so we're gonna have uh I'm kind of I'm kind of a foodie, so we're gonna have Hall's Pizza Kitchen. I mean, we could I could have gotten a lot of little Caesars, but we're gonna have some really good stuff. Hall's Pizza Kitchen, and then we've got uh about five hundred dollars in gift cards. We're gonna raffle off. So if you show up, you'll get a raffle ticket. Um, and then uh you got a chance to go home with a gift card. And um yeah, I hope it's a good time. Um we're just gonna come have fun. It's fun. It's gonna be low-key. It is not gonna be formal. We there might be a curse word or two. I apologize if so. If you uh I've had some somebody express a concern about you know at a brewery, but they've got they've got non-alcoholic beer, they've got they've got water and soft drinks and all that. So and Angry Scotsman, if you haven't been there, it's uh off of Oklahoma City Boulevard and near Reno, kind of that little corner there. Um easy to get to. I didn't want to do it up in Edmund or down in Norman. I wanted it to feel central so that no nobody thought it was just gonna be for these trails or these folks. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:This isn't this isn't segregated at all. It's not for one certain no trail system, it's not for one certain uh race organization. It is it is a true community, central Oklahoma mountain biking community event. That's it. There is no drama here. Yeah, and I had there is no politics here. Nope. It's about riding your bicycle. Exactly. It's about being an old dude or woman wearing a spandex in a helmet and riding your bicycle. Exactly. That's it. Chasing your friends through the woods. That's it. Like, don't make drama out of something that ain't drama, and don't create false narratives because it's about making fun of ourselves.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, anybody from up in the Tulsa area is welcome to come, you know, with a lot of memory. You got you got a long drive ahead of you, uh pace yourself. Uh and so uh yeah, it should be cool. I I had to kind of cut it off at different trails. I mean, there's so many around the state. Um, you know, central Oklahoma, Lake Murray, a little further south. Right. Uh so that was interesting. And I'm sure I didn't get it perfect. So if if we do it again next year, if we have a good success and I get some um some positive vibes from it, um hopefully this can be an annual event and make it bigger. And maybe we'll do it one day at Applebee's. Oh, wouldn't that be fantastic?
SPEAKER_00:I mean fantastic. We will never do it at Applebee's. I promise. As a foodie, we'll never do it at Applebee's. And honestly, there we can do we can do some announcements of the races coming up, maybe do a quick recap of the endurance series that's that's wrapping up there and just kind of say, hey man, we're all riding bikes, let's go have fun together.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so Pete's will be there at six. The awards, uh, the presentation of Swords will start at seven. We're hoping to be done, I don't know, half an hour.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And we'll do the you know, do the raffle tickets. Come and go. Um come and go to hang out. And uh we got the venue private uh from six to nine, and I'm sure they'll hang out if we're still if we're still buying beer, I'm sure they'll uh keep it open for us. But yeah, they've been great to work with. It's a really cool venue. It's uh I I I checked out all the local top rooms, and for me for this event, hang our scotsman's it's really nice inside.
SPEAKER_00:If you've never been there, they have a fantastic facility. And their beer is good too. Yeah, which helps. They have a lot of options, so you can't you can't make that an excuse.
SPEAKER_01:So join us. Uh it should be a great time if you want pizza. I got 25 large pizzas coming from hulls. So but hopefully a lot of people show up with a lot of pizza. If the uh if we don't get a huge crowd, then the trail buses are gonna go home with some some free pizza for their crew.
SPEAKER_00:There may be some people that are sleeping on the street that night with some good food. Exactly. We'll we'll we'll make sure it goes to good. Yeah, it'll go to good use. Yes. Um cool. Well, let's get into some uh fun fun stuff. Let's do uh let's do yard sale and I'm gonna make this up as we go. Um because you change the rules on there, right? Yeah, I kind of change them at every time, hence the ADD brain.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So what's the rule today? Today, let's go. Favorite piece of bike equipment, period. No price. It can't be your bike though.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I l music helps me with uh with that zone and uh little sugar, the shocks over the earheadphones people had um they had a the display, and they asked me, like, why don't you you know do you use these? And I said, No, I tried them and they they rattle on my helmet. They said, We have a new version that's the mini and the little because I'm I'm a skinny guy, so I don't have a big big wide neck, and so I tried that on with my helmet. Doesn't rattle at all with any of that uh plastic apparatus in the back. So those are my new favorite. Uh the for little sugar, it was perfect because my I used to ride with AirPods, yep, and that battery lasts three hours at best, and that was a that was a man. I think the battery on the the shocks lasts 12 hours. Yeah, I've never had it run out on me. I've had them for years. Same pair for years, never had an issue with it. Absolutely. So the uh that's for me, that's my favorite. But yeah, I've got it's amazing. Um, when I I I was riding with that guy uh that hasn't been in the sport for the last you know 15 years, and I open up my truck and I've got all this stuff and I've got my drone over there. He's like, Oh my gosh, what are you? I was like, hey, every birthday and Christmas and Father's Day, it's all this is mountain biking phase.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you can't just go ride your bike, you gotta have stuff. I'm all in. You gotta have toys. Um place you haven't ridden yet that you would like to go.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, probably the Pacific Northwest, although those skinnies scare me. But yeah, some beautiful stuff up there. Is there a race up there or just a trail or just want to ride in that area? Just ride in that area, yeah. Um I'm uh you're obviously good at researching races and having that kind of be your motivator and going up there and doing that. I just I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I guess if I fell in love with a place like that, I would love to uh there's a really cool one in um the well, there's a handful in BC, cool little stage races. Some of them are significantly harder than others. Uh but the group that puts on the Moab race that I did, they put on one called uh single track six that's in BC. Okay. That one, because that one, because you have the what's the one that's up there? Um, there is one a big one in BC that's not quite like a Kate, but it's got it's got more like a break epic kind of situation. Okay. But the single track six is kind of a little bit lower version of that, where your days are three to four hours, they're not five, six hours. And so if I ever was gonna go up there and do one, single track six would be a good one to do. How many days is that? It's six days. Okay, but but each day is like uh 30-ish miles, more manageable, yeah. It's not like I mean you have a lot of elevation, but you know, if you're out there for three or four hours at a time, it's it's a rough week, but it's it's a livable week if you're fit. Okay. And it's not at altitude, which makes a huge difference. Yeah. Yeah, you're still not selling me, but maybe. Have you ever done a stage race? Uh I have not. Oh, you gotta do one. Even if it's a three-day version, you gotta do one. Yeah. Uh favorite placed ride in Colorado. Uh Cressy Butte by far.
SPEAKER_01:Why is that? Um, I just know the trails. I know I mean 401, I don't know. You can you can argue with me all day. Um there was a guy that did the 50 state shred where he went uh a YouTuber uh that would film his rides, um, and he he's been all over the world, but he did a 50 state shred and uh several years ago, and I watched one of his videos uh a couple years ago and he was riding the 401, and when he got done, he said, I've been all over the world, and I think this might be my favorite, most beautiful bike trail. Um it is it is a slog to get up there. So much climbing. The downhill's what where the beauty is and where it's all worth it, but it's uh I can't say that every time I go out there, I'm I'm actually up for that. Because especially if you ride from town, it's just it's just talk about a death marsh. And then you get up to the you think what's the the entrance of that trail, you ride the the gravel road uh all the way up several thousand feet, and then you think you're done, and then it gets really punchy. But yeah, uh when I go out there, there's just you can just get on your bike and ride from town, a lot of great trails, and then there's Medicine Park and Teakali Ridge and all these other trails that um for me, I get really frustrated, and Tim will tell you, the guy that doesn't like rules, and he's just like, let's just go and we'll figure it out. But I like to know where I'm going, and so if I can be on a trail that's epic and just know where I'm going and not worry about am I there's a fork here, where do I go? Am I am I gonna be lost? Am I gonna is it's because in Colorado, as you know, weather rolls in or can't get back by dark, it gets cold. Yeah. And so um, it's there's some there's some danger out there. But no, crush if you I love the vibe of the town. Uh it also helps that I have a couple of friends with places out there that let me, me and my family use them. Uh-huh. And then it happens to also be my my my kids and my wife's favorite place to go in the summer. So yeah, that helps and and I can go do my thing and they know that dad's gonna be doing his thing, but they can chill out and go do their thing as well and just relax. So uh yeah. Yes, do you have uh a dream bike? I'm kinda on it. Um I guess not on S Works and it doesn't have the flight attendant, but um I feel like if you roll up to the start line on S Works with flight attendant, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:It's not gonna get better than that.
SPEAKER_01:It does gonna get different. But I also would rather I've always as the as the guy that was pulling up to the uh start line at uh 12 miles of hell on my jorts in my jorts and hiking boots with the toe toe cages. Yeah, hiking boots, toe cages, yeah. I boy, you were there. I didn't know I was a college kid. Dude, I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00:I'd maxed out my credit card with bike purchase. You that is the outfit and setup for the vintage category at the ACX races. Sadly, I don't have any of that stuff. Too bad. I don't know. I bet you could I bet you could purchase all of that for not very good money. Yeah, agreed. Agreed.
SPEAKER_01:Probably way less than you paid for it back then. And just to paint the picture a little bit more, they were certainly acid watched. Oh, well that's not even a choice. It's not an option, of course. What else would it be? Of course. I thought you were gonna say Dream Bike. I think uh I read a uh one of the new uh specialized epics, and it's the uh it's the the the highest uh build of the specialized. From there you go up to S Works, and so it's all I need, man. Yeah, it's got the locking suspension, you just flip the wrist and you go from either full squish to magic middle or uh or locked out, which is great for like a little sugar anytime I had a chance to uh on the pavement, I just lock it out and get every efficient if every efficiency I could to get every every foot out of every pedal stroke just to get to the end. What's your favorite trail in Bentonville? Oh, that's a good one. Uh I really like tunnel vision. Um but then I also uh I like to jump, and so I also will take the Yeti. That's the the that you can preload. And I love uh Fireline, which is just their jump trail down from Kohler. Oh, you go up to the Kohler connector and Fireline. So but interestingly enough, on my Epic, it doesn't let you preload enough. Like on the Epic, I can't clear most of the jumps. Whereas if I'm the I'm on the Yeti, it's got more travel and you can preload it more and actually get all the air you need. So it's I have learned, and for those of you that are haven't been convinced of this, I used to think it was a marketing thing. Um you need the right bike for the right trail, but it it it really matters as far as especially when you can consider like a I mean you don't need a downhill bike for Bentonville, but a trail bike versus an XC bike, if you're gonna go do some jumps and you're wondering why you're not enjoying the jumps in Bentonville and you're on an XC bike with a hundred millimeters of travel and you can't really preload it to get that spring you need, it's a huge difference maker. And I kind of learned that over the years of bringing different bikes and wondering like, why is this so different? And then the all the geometry and all that, yeah, it it does make a big difference on how a bikes handle and all that. And so uh the last thing you want to do is on an XC bike, your first big jump, you don't realize the nose inherently wants to go down, and you're in the middle in the air going, Oh wow, how am I gonna pull this off?
SPEAKER_00:That's usually how my jumps go in Bentonville is I end up riding out on the front wheel and it's Feels like I ride on the front wheel for a good quarter mile, but it's probably about six inches. But it feels like in that moment it's very touchy. I was indoing and uh then I pulled it off and then rode this most of the trail and then I saved it. But if it by video, I probably got an inch and a half off the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Barely touched the front wheel first, but it locks me up real quick. Yeah, that's not a good feeler. Where did you learn to jump so well? Because you your hand your bike handling skills are not typical for a guy that's didn't like grow up racing and BMXing and your handling skills are significantly better than you would think for someone who just like did this for fun. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Um was it just a They guys kind of figured it out. I mean, we uh I lived in a cul-de-sac, believe it or not, in Medil. We were kind of bougie. And uh they would bougie in Medilla. It's all relative, right? We were one of the first families in the neighborhood, and so they would uh inherently just these lots would fill up, and then they would be these crews that would come out, and then they would they would drop the bricks off. And uh a pile of bricks is probably what four feet tall. Perfect, right? And you get a four you grab a four by eight piece of plywood, and so as a young dude on my street, you didn't have street cred if you couldn't jump the brick pile. Gotcha. And my family business, we had a um uh a welding shop as part of that to that we could fix our own equipment. And uh that yellow frame of that Western Flyer, by the time uh it went in the dumpster, every joint on that had been welded. Uh had been rewelded. So you learned early. Yeah, yeah, I guess. And if you can jump a Western Flyer with a banana seat um and and live to tell the tale, I guess, uh full suspension mountain bike. It's not so you you were jumping early. Yeah, and I I watched, you know, I watch a lot of uh we we call it bike porn. I watch a lot of bike porn. Rich Drew, a lot of those other guys that I that that will show you how to, you know, when you're in the middle of the air, uh to use your pit your your clipped in your pedals, use those as the pivot point to raise the bike, lower the bike, and all that. So through some trial and error, um had some pretty good wipeouts, but hence not remembering it.
SPEAKER_00:Kind of figured it out, yeah. What's uh what's your number one tip that you would say give to a new rider? Say that somebody that's like a cat three racer, not they're like completely new, but they're racing cat threes this year, they have some experience, they can, you know, they can ride, but they don't know what they're getting themselves into. Oh man, so many, so many things are floating.
SPEAKER_01:Uh you need more than water. Although a cat three, if you're only gonna be if it's a 40-minute lap, you could probably get by on adrenaline. Um try when you're practicing, just try to wait later and later into the turn before you break. You want to break before the turn, not during the turn, but just see, give your bike just this incrementally ride it a little bit faster. You'd be amazed at what that bike can actually do if you and then um one of the best pieces of advice I got was on your turns, especially on flat turns, uh, you should be using those side knobs. Lay that bike over. Um, otherwise, I remember um cat two was so cool because in cat three, if I ever kind of crashed or whatever and had to kind of catch back up to the front, getting the behind these guys that would just lock it up in the turns and all these, you know, or they they'd have the the slightest little obstacle and they couldn't couldn't couldn't pull it off, and you'd have a big uh big conga line behind the by behind the little ridge that nobody could get up. And so uh I would encourage people to just incrementally trust the bike a little bit, make sure that you're uh that you're on the right bike. And then uh I think the other thing would be invest in some, if you can, tubeless where you can run much lower pressures, it's much more forgiving, your tires are that much grippier, you're not bouncing around, your tires can actually do some of the shop of shock absorption. Uh and then once you go tubeless, don't forget to put more sealant in, especially in the summer, more than you think you need. For sure. I don't know how many times I've gotten a flat and thought, I just filled this up two months ago. Well, it was July, and I kept it in my garage. Yep, and I opened the tire up, and there's just a big ball of ball of heart stuff.
SPEAKER_00:That is something that I would say m people do not do enough is open up their tire and take out all the debuggers in there. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:This guy that I rode with on his bike that was not not too old uh last week. Uh he's the new CEO of Goodwill. Great guy. I think he's gonna I kind of lit the fire uh under him to get back into cycling. But I I we were riding on the trail from the parking lot onto outer space, and I looked down, I was like, all right, you got tubeless tires? No. What PSI you got? Uh I think like 35 or 40. Oh, he said, what's what's what's set on the side of the tire? I was like, uh no, no, no, no, no, no. So uh next time we go out, I'm gonna let him borrow my my uh full squish. Not even gonna be at the same sport yet. And I'm gonna really get him addicted. It's gonna cost he doesn't know, but it's gonna cost him some. Yeah, but you're you just became an expensive friend. But I gotta help the local bike shops. They're supporting my FNA back to the M. I'm gonna send him send him to some new uh new folks that need some some new technology.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um I can I got three three final questions. First one, music that you listen to while you ride.
SPEAKER_01:I've got a playlist. It's uh it varies. I'm I'm I'm a music snob, but I I tend to uh it goes all over the place. Uh Spoon lately has been yeah, they got some they got some harder stuff that I put on there. Um Foo Fighters. I I I listened to Foo Fighters exclusively for years with just a playlist of all their like harder driving stuff. Um to your rock guy. Yeah, rock guy. It's it's I guess it's the testosterone. Um but if but to your point, I also have a playlist if I'm just out enjoying it. Um yeah, I've got I don't know. I have to have a search function for my playlists on my my Apple music because I've probably got 150. I don't know. I'll I've got a lot.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um but yeah, I'm the same. I when I'm cruising, it's more like the Eddie Vetter that vibe. I'm just like just one day just to kind of check things out. But then when I'm racing, it's oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I have a race playlist as well. And I always start off with the same song, and it just kind of my my brain just okay, what's that song? Do you want to tell us what that is? Um Mammoth, uh the Eddie Van Halen son Wolfgang, it's his band, and uh it just kind of started out as the first song and it's got a good drive. I don't even know the name of it, uh, but it's got a good hard rock. Yeah, good uh start line just as soon as my brain hears that, it's like, okay, it's go tank red line, let's do this.
SPEAKER_00:What's uh your favorite snack while writing? Do you have like a little random treat? Because me, like I like taking Pop Tarts. I don't care what flavor. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Saxby turned me onto that, and those are great. And as far as the I I don't think they're very good for us, but the cost per carb incredible. You can't fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and like Jerry Seinfeld said, uh, they can never go stale because they were never fresh in the first place. Exactly. A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_00:They always taste the same. You can get them anywhere. Yeah, I had some pure sugar. I had some last night.
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic. I found some at Target, I found some uh the the kind of pineapple we used to do as kids that are it's it's freeze-dry, but then they just infuse them with sugar. And that's another fun treatment uh when we were riding uh White Rim and we were I don't know, seven hours in. I just and and I'd heard this would happen. My I my mouth was just the sweetness. I just wanted something other than sweet. Um I wanted real food because it was just gel pack after gel pack. And uh the lately, so I've I've bought a few of those. You only need a like a handful of those pineapples for 30, 40 grams uh of carbs. And so that's been that's been good. Um that's a good one. And then yeah, um pistachios. But you gotta have some carbs in there too. But if you need some protein, uh I did pistachios and dates for a while, and uh, but I ran out of dates and I haven't been back to Sam's.
SPEAKER_00:So I get dates and put almond butter in the middle and close them back up. Yeah, yeah. You can put wrap them in just like little foil packs. Man, that's pretty fantastic. Because you get a little bit of everything in that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They're fantastic. A little, I need to get some pistachio butter and do the same thing. Yeah, and and it's great just to have a snack at the house. Yeah, I'll I haven't done that in a while. You need to do that again. Um, all right, we'll wrap up with this one. Favorite beer. Or what do you are you a seasonal kind of beer drinker, or do you have like this is always my go-to beer? You know, or it could be another best. I've got two.
SPEAKER_01:I've got two if you'll allow it. Yeah, uh more seasonal. Um Fat Tire has been a favorite for the last decade. There's a bicycle in a can. And they they give free beer.
SPEAKER_00:Have you been to the brewery? They give out free beer at at Tulsa Tuff. That's true. It's amazing. And at Rule of Three, they give out free beer. He stands down in the river with a backpack of beer on my goodness. And everybody hangs out in the river watching people come through and crash right before the finish line. And the dude just he'll throw them to you. You don't have to come get them. So that's amazing. You just raise your hand and he tosses fat tires to you. Brilliant marketing.
SPEAKER_01:Brilliant marketing. So fat tires probably my overall the last year or so. I've been really a yinling guy. Oh, okay. Uh new, fairly new to Oklahoma. Um, I find these 16-ounce aluminum cans. Aluminum bottles, excuse me. Aluminum can. And they've got the screw top. And so uh those are nice. And that way you can just say I only had two. It's true.
SPEAKER_00:So you're more of an amber kind of guy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. Do not like the hoppy stuff. That the IPAs, nope. My uh my taste buds do not like the hops. Yeah. So I I learned that it was a big day when I learned that, so I could just tell people whatever your whatever local brew you're trying to sell me, is it hoppy? Because if if so, no thanks. Uh-huh. Exactly. Um, is there anything you want to wrap up with? Uh no, just I I'd encourage everybody, let's let's make this a fun event. Come out and just uh lower your expectations. Have none. Yeah, just start with none. Yeah, it's just gonna be you and I, like we don't know what we're doing. I may try to put some sort of program together for you and I to try to follow, but I'm sure we won't. Uh-huh. And then uh yeah, just come out and have a good time. There's no ulterior motive. Um, not even gonna promote my business. Um, just want to come out, have a good night, and and hang out with our with our tribe and maybe show some love to these guys that spend their their free time out in the trails uh building us the playground that we can go play bikes with.
SPEAKER_00:I agree. I think it's gonna be a good time. Again, it's the dirties, it's at Angry Scotsman, uh, which is down right by downtown. It's on West Reno. You can't miss it. Um just put it in your in your search. You'll find it. Uh so Thursday, February 26th, 6 p.m. Pizza's there at 6. Program starts at 7. Yep. Drink for get there early if you want, whatever. It doesn't matter. Go ride the river trail beforehand, whatever. Just be there. It's gonna be a good time. Um and and have a plan if you have a really good time.
SPEAKER_01:Uh just Uber. Have a yeah, have a plan to get home. I I would be really, really sad if somebody got a DUI or had an accident on the way home. So yeah, well, these obviously drink responsibly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, but yeah, hopefully it'll be a great time. And uh again, low-key. It is we're not gonna have uh, you know, there's not gonna be a PowerPoint. No uh yeah, just lower expectations. Uh I I did get a banner made. Oh uh and by the way, uh just a little plug for Chat GPT, man. Uh the the poster you can build with chat GPT, just tell it what you want. I mean, it took three or four times, but man, I was like, wow, people are gonna think this is gonna be like social. The the the event versus the poster, just again lower expectations. Uh huh. And uh let's go out and have a good time. Hopefully, uh hopefully we'll all just get another chance to hang out and uh tell stories and get to know each other better. I love it. Thank you. Thanks.