Special Place

Down the pavement, I come. Wow. Seems a lot warmer than when we kicked this one off about five hours ago. Lookit. There's a mile mark on the road. Thank you crazy cyclists for those permanent lines. OK. "4." That's miles to the top. Quick math ... 2.7 miles away from done. Don't check your watch and there will be no ... need ... to ... 4:50:20 ... ack ... 19:39 final 2.7 cracks 5:10:00. What the hell. Here we go. Third gear. Fourth. And over to fifth. Nice and smooth. Hot feet. Quick steps. Relax the dots on left shoulder, right shoulder, bottom lip. There. Good. Loose arms. Soft hands. Floppy cheeks. Floppy, floppy cheeks. California Highway Patrol, baby. Chest up. Hips forward. Push off. (Wait. Whoa. Been forever since that came around. As in the college days.) Rhythm. Rhythm. Find the sound. Squish squish squish of the worn-down Vomeros. Yes. Good. Little more forward lean. Not too much. Yes. Nice. Drop the shoulders just a bit. Find the notch. Oh. Right there. Hell yeah to pullups, baby! Is that another mark? Wait. Whoa. "6." 6? I blew past 5? Holy ... Here it is. Watch check. 5:04-something a little fuzzy. Go. GO. GOGOGOGO. Now. CHP. CHP. Every step. Relaxrelaxrelax. Man, this hurts. Not even a race. Why doing this? Everything hurts. Not sure how much more I ... can ... NO! Shut it. You got this. It may have been 500 years ago since the last time, but it's still the same. YOUR choice! YOUR. CHOICE. C'mon. NOW. Go. GO. GOOOOOO. Annnnnd ... woosh ... no. more. hurt. There's Vince. "Hey Vince." I think I just scared him a little with that grunt or whatever that noise was. Slowing some now, but still no pain. Daggone. I did it. No. more. pain. Haven't been here in what seems like forever. Remember why? Yeah, I sure do. The next couple hours are gonna suck. Maybe the next day. Or two. Know what? Worth. it. My truck. The line. 5:09:48. Sweet Jesus, I'm finished.