Slow Adrenaline

 



Of course waiting for the start of the race is hard. When I used to run track in high school, I always used the time to let the adrenaline in my body slowly build up until just the precise moment I needed it in order to win a sprint. But what about when the sprint is 4200 miles plus? 

The racers are starting to come into town. As an early arrival I got to be one of the first in fact I got to be the first person interviewed for a film that is being created concerning the deaf writer sonny Rasmussen. I have not yet met sunny but feel that I know him because I have ridden short distances and talked several times with Tom Graham from Honolulu, who is also a deaf cyclist.

After a while, you forget that you cannot give a heads up of about oncoming traffic or other traffic conditions unless you are looking at the deaf writer directly in the face. No facemasks, no hand signals unless you are in front of the writer, and no banter to pass the time.

Anyway my interview this morning took about 45 minutes and it was conducted by Annalisa Vanden Berg. Annalisa reminded me very much of my Honolulu bicycle friend Ninke van DeMurrell. She was nearly the same size she had the same accent and she had the Dutch bearing about her. I told her after the interview that my friend Minka was now in line and Anna Lise said she was also going to go to Leiden later this summer interesting coincidence.

. I told her after the interview that my friend Minka was now in line and Anna Lise said she was also going to go to Leiden later this summer interesting coincidence.

The interview talked about why I was doing the Transamerica bike race what the bike race was about to me , what experiences I had that were similar, and miscellaneous questions about gear that I was taking, about my expectations, and so forth. After the interview I met Ed Willis who is another cyclist who may end up to be about the same speed as me.  He was the next interviewee, but had to wait until the videographer had done close-ups of my bicycle set up. Anna Lise said she had written in the Transamerica bike race before and getting the bike set up correct was an art, not a science. I have experimented so much I can’t even remember where I started. 

I think I have everything pretty much packed where it will go on Sunday morning, except for filling my water bottles. Here is a lazy picture taken from where I am sitting on a couch in Pats garage in Gearhart with my bicycle ready to roll.





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