Send all your thoughts & prayers to Schilling

gtluke

The Moped
I did my laps today. Then schilling's
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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I know Chris well, we've spent time in the winter on trails, raced SS together and was with him at the Bearscat 50 in June where he completed that race on his SS.

There are 2 kinds of people in the world, those that would throw a drowning man a rope...these are the majority and then there are those that would jump in the ocean to swim a drowning man to saftey...Chris is this rare person. Also I love this guy because he gets my politically incorrect 70's references.
Yayyyyy...BIKES!

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njmark

Professional Cyclist
Chris is just a genuinely nice person. He is always positive with beginners (and not-so-beginners) and can ride as fast or as slow as he needs to. Chris and I worked a few trail maintenances together and he works as hard as he rides. Chris said I could make it over that root and I did. See you soon!

This is what I think of most about Chris, even when the question or tip I asked for was something, which in hindsight seemed like something I should have been able to figure out on my own, Chris never made you feel like an idiot or a noob for asking it. Not many people are genuinely good dudes these days. Chris is one of them.
 

mike_243

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
Chris is always in for helping out with the beginner rides at Allaire and always giving tips or just encouragement and support to the riders. he also has been to a boat load of TM sessions. this year because of scheduling he was hitting sessions at other parks to help out. one of the better quotes was from a group ride that we did a few years back some how he and I ended up leading and dropped the group.. it was then that we decided " this is what happens when you let the SS guys in front " Get better quick Dude we need to ride some more..
 
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Arwen's Mom

Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains
This is what I think of most about Chris, even when the question or tip I asked for was something, which in hindsight seemed like something I should have been able to figure out on my own, Chris never made you feel like an idiot or a noob for asking it. Not many people are genuinely good dudes these days. Chris is one of them.
I whole heartedly second this!
As someone who isnt a beginner, but sure feels like it sometimes, Chris never made me feel like I was doing something wrong. Instead he always encouraged me and helped me to see and build on my strengths. I always enjoyed seeing him on the beginner rides and tried to position myself near him on those rides just to be encouraged by him as well as watch him ride hoping I would learn something by trying to copy his riding. What I REALLY love is seeing him riding quite slow with a beginner in the woods. Too many bikers when they are not beginners any more act like they just dont have time to help someone along. I have seen too many "beginner" rides zipping along at 12 mph. Thats not beginner people. Chris would ride along at 4mph if you needed it, but would encourage you to try more when you were ready. He really gets it and wants to grow the sport. I love that about him. Well.... he has a nice butt too ;)
 

rocknrollgirl

Well-Known Member
I remember last year at Cathedral Pines, it was cold and drismall and his back was hurting if I remember correctly. I had a foam roller with me in our truck so I busted that out to try and get him to roll. We also shared a cup or two of hot chocolate together between laps. It made the wait more bearable not standing there shivering alone.

Sending some karma your way this morning and to your family too.
 

fdr_us

Active Member
Hey Chris,
First time we rode together was at Chimney Rock in Woody's Pain Train a couple of years ago. I was massively impressed by how you rode so strong and smooth without all the shifting stuff over those rocky trails. I was still covered from head to toe in protective gear like a storm trooper, trying to fight of the demons that got to me after breaking my collar bone in Wawayanda. After 2 hours of hard riding you and Woody asked me if I wanted to ride some more until dark... Sure I said and we did another lap on blue. One of the best and fun MTB rides I ever did. Anyway, I still want you to come out for that extra lap in Chimney Rock, Allaire or wherever! The ride is not over yet! My thoughts are with you and your family every day. Please pull through!
Fedor
 

RNG1

Well-Known Member
Really sad to read about this. Sending good thoughts and prayers to you and your family.
Be strong...
 

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
When I was in high school, my younger brother was hit by a car while crossing a street on his bike. We didn't wear helmets when we rode then, and it was bad. He was in a coma for weeks with a head injury, lots of broken bones, and all kinds of serious cuts and lacerations. And he made it through. I remember coming home from school one day and my father was home from work already (which was really rare) and when I walked inside, he was smiling (which was also rare!) and said that my brother had woken up. I don't even recall how long it was since the accident, but it was quite a while. All along, the doctors has been telling us that we should look at his coma for what it was: his brain had suffered an injury and was now focusing all-hands-on-deck for recovery. Rather than waste energy maintaining other systems, it shut the body down for a while to go into full repair mode. That always made sense to me.

I bring all that up because I'm sure a lot of people know that these things can take a while, but at the same time we are all hoping Chris comes out of this really quickly. The reality is that he may be down for a while, but that' not necessarily a bad thing. He's an extremely fit and strong guy, and his body is working as hard as we all hope it is. It just needs to focus all its attention there right now. As a singlespeeder, I think he'd appreciate that perspective. Riding one gear forces you to be efficient: use momentum when you can and power only when you have to. That's what his body is doing - it's being efficient - just like he's trained it to do!

When I saw Norm's post from last night, it occurred to me that I actually have a lot of things that come to mind from riding with Chris. I've ridden with him quite a bit over the last few years -- from stop-and-go casual group rides in Philly to winter frozen hammerfests at Wharton. And I've raced against him many more. He's been a marker for me for a while - we've gone back and forth in placing at races for a while now. But he's much more well-rounded than I am because, simply put, he's faster. On "normal distances", he will always destroy me. If I want to have a chance of beating him, I need a race to be really, really long and maybe I'll outlast him. But not always - one race where he showed his knack for endurance in particular would be the second Stewart Six Pack (I think it was 2012 maybe?) It was a brutally hot day. I pitted with Chris and Mitch along the roadway. I remember before the race, we were giving Chris shit because he was carrying like five bottles and had one of those triathlete food boxes on his bike. I asked him why he didn't just strap a picnic basket to his back. But Chris said that he was intent on making the podium, so he didn't want to stop at all to swap bottles or grab food. So the race goes off and it was basically a battle of attrition from the start. I sat down after four or five laps because I felt like someone had lit in a fire inside my head. When they came through, I told Chris and Mitch that I was done for the day so I'd pit for them if they wanted. A little while before the six hour mark hit, it was probably 95 degrees with like 98% humidity and I'm feeling like I'm getting heat exhaustion just sitting there. And then Chris came through and stopped at the pit. He looked like ass. Every vein in the dude's body was popping out and his eyes were sunken in and he basically looked like a zombie on meth. He had one lap left but mentioned that he was really hurting. So I popped the top off my cooler, which was filled with ice brine and told him to dunk his arms in, thinking that might cool him off a bit. He did and as soon as that water hit his wrists and elbows, it was like a switch turned on him. He snapped out of his meth-zombie thing and looked turbo-charged. I told him to stay there for a minute but he said that he was chasing a podium spot and hopped back on his bike and took off. I thought he might go nuclear somewhere out on the course, but in the end, he got his podium and he freaking murdered that last lap. It was one of the toughest performances I've ever seen. For all intent and purposes, he was done when he stopped at the cooler, but he found that little extra to push one more lap and nail down a top three for the day. That's a level of tough you don't see too often.
 

Juggernaut

Master of the Metaphor
So, there was this one time, at "Band Camp".... What? Not "THAT" kind of story? Whew, that could have been embarrassing.:oops:

I'll save the deeply insightful stories to the inner circle as they know Chris "@Schilling" best, but I would like to share a thought or two. The first is the odd way our forum personas spill over into our decidedly more awkward in the flesh/personal interactions.

Let's take this thread for example, I'm pretty confident that the number of people (just checking the forum for updates and reading the posts) who know Chris only as @Schilling out number those that have ridden with him by a wide margin. I'd also venture to say that for some, this is one of the first times they've seen or used his first name. Yet, this in no way diminishes his impact on all the members of our little community. If you ever read one of Chris's posts, you know him, he's that real. Post up or stay in the shadows, it doesn't make your concern any less genuine, your prayers ably less helpful. Hell, I took me like 2 years to post anything... Now you wish I'd stop. :rolleyes:

So, I'll leave you with what will most likely be the first mental image that most of us have of @Schilling.

Chris, in a parking lot, sitting on his top tube in his patented chill'n like Schill'n pose. Salt'n pepper beard, cross-fit like athletic build and a smile that can disarm any situation.

Looking forward to seeing it again.....real soon.
 

2Julianas

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Being a good guy is just what Chris does naturally. For him it's effortless! Here's an example from recently: late in the day, Taconic 909 race, Cat2 race over (we went last), I'm at my car miles away from the start area when @Schilling rides up to me on his SS yelling that I'm going to miss my podium if I don't hurry. He throws me his bike, takes my car keys and I ride up just in time. After a tough race of his own that went down so much earlier in the day, he still came all the way down that road to get me so I wouldn't miss my podium. It's that, and a million other little things. I don't know him well, but I know enough to know that this world is better with him in it.
Huge hugs too for his amazing family as they spend all their time making sure Chris knows he's loved and never alone on this road.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I was thinking of the last MTBNJ picnic we had at Lewis Morris. I was still on antibiotics recovering from lymes disease so I was tooling around before the picnic. On my singlespeed.

I came up on Woody, Schilling, and Mitch but they didn't see me. So I got up a ton of speed and just as I caught up to them I locked up my brakes and yelled. I scared the shit out of Schilling and he was legit pissed for about 30 seconds. Then he said something like "ok, fine... you got me".

I'm still waiting for some form of retaliation.
 
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