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Cascade Locks

Cross Crusade - PNW Cyclocross

By Starr Walker

October 18^th, 2016

No promises

I try not to make promises that I can’t keep.

I can’t promise you that the words in this post will be interesting (to you) or that they’ll even have anything to do with bike racing (relevancy?), but at least there are pictures to look at…

I can promise you that I love cycling, my community & whiskey, so there is always the chance that it’ll get weird.

So please, keep scrolling.

currently playing: "fix my brain" by the marked men

… “little time away is good for the mind”… “I gotta fix my brain” …

Getting out of the city is wonderful. Sometimes the weight of it all is just so heavy that I just don’t want to bother with basic human functions or even the things that I enjoy, like cyclocross. The bare minimum can be exhausting any given day.

At the end of the day, I never regret the adventure.

The experience.

The interactions.

Or the memories.

Especially if there are dogs to pet.

Thank you for being a part of it & my humanity.

We all have our struggles and I have mine. Sometimes making it out of the house is my biggest struggle of the day. Sometimes it’s showing up to the start line.

I have no delusions of granger.

…or so I tell myself.

The idea of participating in a race does not bother me, or upset me, or keep me from toeing the line.

It’s trying to “human” amongst a mass of humans, who are flawlessly humaning, which is most difficult for me.

I am what is most difficult.

I am not sure what is expected of me. And then I remember something magical that my friend Chip, back in Boston who is an EX-CrossCrusader, said once…

“We race cross because we love it. The only reason we race cross is to get better at cross. And the only expectation is you do your best … Fight hard but do it with style and class.”

A lot of "sappy" songs are shuffling on as I string this concious thought together.

I am drinking Bully Boy whiskey from Boston and “The Story, Rewritten” by Good Luck has shuffled on & it always feels perfect and I never skip over it when it shuffles on.

But when I play it on purpose…

That is a whole other story.

"In Circles", Sunny day real estate

Shuffle strikes again. This song. The lyrics only comprise a paragraph, but auditory wise, it’s an amazing work of art for 5 minutes … “meet me there, in the blue where words are not.”