Heckle-cation the other months of the year.

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
if you showed up to NJCX champs that year, you and @rsinger814 would have had matching jerseys :p

i can only imagine how fun it would be to bullshit riding bikes for that long of a time...
 

MadisonDan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
How you eat like that and then go ride...... ugh. Wouldn't end well for me....
Awesome two days...
 

The Heckler

You bring new meaning to the term SUCK
if you showed up to NJCX champs that year, you and @rsinger814 would have had matching jerseys :p

i can only imagine how fun it would be to bullshit riding bikes for that long of a time...
WAS CAT 2 - 0% chance of being the 1/2/3 state champ last year!

How you eat like that and then go ride...... ugh. Wouldn't end well for me....
Awesome two days...
I only find issues eating and riding if I'm hitting harder than tempo. I normalized 200 watts both days which is well within my endurance range.

I had a shitty habit of eating popcorn before threshold last year. BAD NEWS.

The real question here is what are you wearing this fall?
details on that later.
 

The Heckler

You bring new meaning to the term SUCK
Standard biking procedure. The fast people invite the slow people to ride with them, not the other way around...
Side note, when I saw y'all hiding in that shade with the big group last week I was on the verge of totally cracked. Then I stopped at magic fountain and got back at it full cracked the rest of the way home.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Side note, when I saw y'all hiding in that shade with the big group last week I was on the verge of totally cracked. Then I stopped at magic fountain and got back at it full cracked the rest of the way home.

You mean the day I saw you wearing your Pisgah jersey? NOT FORESHADOWING AT ALL!
 

The Heckler

You bring new meaning to the term SUCK
You mean the day I saw you wearing your Pisgah jersey? NOT FORESHADOWING AT ALL!

I really like the idea of kit foreshadowing but I own 2 KÜDÜ kits, 3 marty kits and 2 LDBCX kits, with another 2 LDB shop jerseys, and a slew of misc w/e jerseys.

AND I WEAR THEM ALL EQUALLY because #chamoispoor.

actually I'm fairly #chamoisrich right now.

but that tends to be cyclical.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ommegong Brewery is a great place for a concert, I saw the Avett Brothers there 2 yrs ago. I didn't camp, I stayed in Cooperstown on the lake(airbnb) and kayaked the next day with wife.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Will there be a heckler appearance at CR tonight?
 

The Heckler

You bring new meaning to the term SUCK
2017 Lewis Morris Challenge NJ STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!
Favorite. Always.

Sure, I ride for Marty's, and maybe I'm biased, but I'll be damned if the scene at Lewmo isn't the most happening thing in XC-NJ-MTB racing, or at least within the H2H.

Beer.

Okay, it's not even fair for the other events that Lewmo has capacity to host ice cold frothy bevs with ~5% alcohol ready for right after your race at the low cost of your reg fee. Hell, you pay to race, call the brews free.

I ripped out for the pre-ride Wednesday with @rsinger814 and rolled one nice slow lap with @Superfly100guy and friends and then decided to try and kill myself racing Nick Lando, totally for fun. I was puching my comfort up the orange start climb gasping for air while Nick and I chatted about his classes and summer vacay. Nick was full sentence while I was fitting fragments between deep huffing breaths. soooo impressive.

We hit the teal climb a.k.a. the six sisters climb which was an old "hate yourself" effort of mine. I stomp it as hard as I can and 2/3 of the way up Nick decides to turn it on and motors by me like I was standing still. I think I beat my PR by 15 seconds and saw 192BPM on my screen. Homie was just cruising. soooo impessive.

RACE DAY!

Man, I totally didn't do anything the night before to get ready. I found my front tire was mostly flat from Wednesday and pumped it up then shook it around so get the stans to hopefully fill the leak.

MORNING!

and greeted by a mostly flat tire. WOMP. ~guess I'll just pump that back up and hope for the best~

I leave 5 minutes late at 8:35, make it halfway to o-bagel and realize I forgot my jersey as I tick down my mental checklist.

BANGA-EUEY, GUY.

Quick B.M. at home while I'm there, grab jersey, get to obagel, see line out door, leave. Call mom and ask her to scoop Moe coffee and a bagel for the race because I'm a horrible BF and late.

Luckily she is a forgiving GF.

I pull in the main lot circle low to high. NO SPOTS! I see @mbruno pulling towards me and curse him off for reg'ing. ~jokingly of course, I like racing Matty~

I dress, hit the head then rip over to Reg while Moe parked the car in the closest spot to the boat house as it turns out! Guess someone left just then!

Got the number, see some Marty's folk and am offered a bagel from Karen and Grace to which I ever so gratefully jam 1/4 of an egg bagel down my gullet.

WOAH! @seanrunnette on the vox! Always a pleasure to be heckled by my favorite large frame riding audio book reading basement pedaling human.

Ryan and I do a 10 minute patriots path warm up then head back just in time for the 9:46 warning for the 9:45 start.

ER

10:00 start.

we do pay attention Sean!

First row, front and center with the Cat 1 19-39 right behind a solid 14 person pro field. Looks like we had 15 guys of our own! #giantfieldforcat119-39njxcmtb.

Andres, Duber, Ryan and myself
IMG_7508.PNG


1 minute.

15 seconds

15 seconds (read 5 seconds)

GO!!!!

I nail that pedal and launch out second wheel behind Matt Bruno WHO IS GETTING LOOSE!!!! First three corners homie getttssss loose and sidewayysssss!!!

Perry and 2 other guys sprint around me on the yellow start climb like I'm standing still.

Ew, this shit hurts.

The front 3 make some space as I'm tied up behind someone who's not holding the main group but sprinting me every time I try and get around.

We hit the six sister teal climb and I try to start calling a pass.

"Hey, can I get around?"

nothing

~Wide open door on right~

"ey, on your right?!"

door slammed shut as I'm half by.

"
aw, c'mon man.." I say

"I gotta take the line, you're trying to put me into a tree!!" He replies.

I dunno, I was looking ahead, didn't see any tree other then the one I on the right side I was getting pushed into. but we were racing, so who knows.

Finally get by and put in an effort to catch the Matt Bruno pain train up front. Perry falls back and it's three of us. Matt, me and Patrick C (whom I only know from lap times.)

I pull through for the S/F of lap 1 b/c #hometownhero #martysreliablepullservice #photoop and #sucker.

Lap 1 was a prettttty brutal pace. We were rippin pretty hard. I had to chase for 1/3 of a lap which made it a little tougher for me.

I set pace lap 2 and brought it through at a much less aggressive clip. We put a gap on 3rd and started catching the tail of the pro race. It was great having someone tell me, "no dude, slow it up a bit, no one is around us." Without Matt I would have ITT'd myself into a ball of fire.

And then my legs would have popped off.

And I would have died alone in the woods.

We come around for the start of lap 3 and Matty pulls around. We hit the climb and catch Jeff Mandell of the pro class who tells Matt "attack here, now!"

He does.

Jeff tells me "you better go real him in! dont make me do it!"

I laugh out loud.

I pop around Jeff at the start of 6 sisters and muster a leg screaming effort. I start to dig deep into the hate and close back to Matt. I see Andres filming from trail side, homie burped a tiger. :( I see another blue Martys Kit, AND IT'S LEO!

How did I ride up on Leo??

He revs it up the hill to the top of Kurt Vonnegut and tells me to keep it up, slingshotting me around just before the start of the descent.

VROOOM!!!!!!!!

Flybys say we yoyo between 20-40 seconds apart on that last 1/2 lap.

Up the climb before the log down trail I catch Victor who says "He's just ahead!"

I say "Bullshit!"

He laughs.

You Silly? I'm still gonna send it.

I hit the switchback DH, my weak link. I see Matt, 20 feet away a few turns ahead but I'm slow and he's out of sight by the bottom. I smash the final climb, rip downhill, pump the roller coaster, spring the gravel and finish along 27 second back.

Stoke high enough to post up with the classic 6-shooter.

Annnnddd then I found my fam and friends and my dad grabbed me a beer, RIGHT QUICK. my man!

Hung around, heckling in rare form chatted with the peeps, hung more, slugged a couple more brews then got my State podium on.

ssiiiiqqqqqq
IMG_7507.JPG


It's funny (to me at least), at the start line I was stoke vibing with a dude I know I've raced before but don't really know and told the 2014 NJBA CX State Championship story where I chased Matt Bruno and Stephen Spiller for 45 minutes, pulled them into the finish line sprint, let myself have a moment of "what if I can do this?!" only to have that flame stomped out by two really strong dudes who know how to race smart.

Matt B turned and said, "wow, yeah, seriously, that's exactly how it happened."

#2014neverforget

Honestly, losing to Matt is great. I wish he was a jerk so I could get more aggro when I race him but dooder is just a good guy and great competitor. In fact I'm stoked I held the gap to only 27 seconds!

Another big thanks to Marty's and a big congrats to everyone who snagged titles, clawed their way to the podium, and bested personal goals yesterday.

Bike racing is tough, and mountain bike racing is filled with disappointment, but hell, as it turns out you can race for laps without a saddle, finish 5th in the pro/open and still defend your state championship title. Well done Nick.

What's next?

Dude, I don't even know right now.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1053622834
29:18
30:12
29:46
 
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seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
we do pay attention Sean!
That makes one of us :)

Outstanding write-up of an outstanding race, @The Heckler! And good on you guys for hanging around in such a pleasant clump for the rest of the afternoon. Totally agree about the happening-ness of the scene during and apres everyone's races. Really pleasant place to be, despite my insane blathering.
 

mbruno

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'll never forget 2014 either. Spiller was the ultimate pre-pubescent nemesis. I'll start acting like a dick to motivate @The Heckler, b/c I really think you could have hung when I attacked.

Anyways, that was a great day with some great doods. I'll never understand how @seanrunnette manufactures that stream-of-consciousness for the entire day, but it truly does make a local race entertaining.
 
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