Score One for Pessimism (or How I Had the Ride of My Life)

So I have this philosophy sort of thing that kind of guides my life.  It's really more of a thought process.  Or maybe a type of motto.  See, I'm a pessimist.  The glass is always half empty.  Truth be told, if the glass is completely full then it probably belongs to someone else...  But the upside of all of this is that I am never disappointed.  

It's true.  If I figure that only the worst can happen, then I can only be pleasantly surprised.  I refuse to be one of those happy, excited people who believes that all the good things will actually happen and then get all down and sad when things go wrong.  Who does that?? 

And that brings us to today.  Tuesday, April 22, 2014.  A day which will go down in the annals (that's TWO n's...) of pessimism history.  

The day dawned bright and clear.  And cold.  Freezing, actually.  But, hey, at least it was windy.  From the north.  Great.  First Tuesday Night Ride of the season happening at the shop.  I love these rides.  Great friends, good exercise, I get paid to ride my bike...  But cold and below 50 degrees with a north wind?  No thanks.  This ride is going to suck.  I'm tired of being cold.

I told no fewer than four people how bad this ride was going to be.  "This ride is going to suck," I said, in no uncertain terms, beginning to sort of sense a theme here.

But it didn't.  Rode to the shop (freezing), and hung out for a while waiting for the crowd.  Which was sparse, as expected.  Except it wasn't.  When we walked outside to get started there were probably 20 riders waiting in the parking lot.  Hey, there's Dan, and Brian, and Tim.  And a few new folks.  And Aaron, Alex, Brad, Jenny, and Sandy, and I were there for the shop.  

So off we went.  Still freezing.  But I felt pretty good.  We always start out heading south, which tonight was with the wind.  "The turnaround is going to suck."  (<-- guess who said that??)

But it didn't!  No way!  As we turned up Beeline for a slow, annoying climb up the hill, I was still  feeling good.  I hate that hill.  But I started passing some folks (which is OK here; we all wait at the top when we finish, because everyone has to do their own pace), and though we were not racing or even really trying hard, I made it to the front of the pack.  So I was accelerating up the hill*.  On the way up, Ross, a former student from back in the day, said, "hey, Mr. Walker, where's the rest of you?"  Felt pretty good to hear that.
      *it should be noted here that I passed professional bike racer Brad White while climbing this hill.  It matters not one ounce that Brad was idly chatting with the guy he was riding next to, or that he was not aware that anyone was going to pass him.  I passed a pro rider.  On a hill. UP hill...

When we made the turn to head back to town, my "open country" lap (I reset my computer when we get away from the stop-and-go corners, etc., in town) showed an average speed of 19.5.  For 18 miles or so.  Cool.  A few minutes later Brad rode up next to me.  If "passing" a pro rider wasn't the highlight of the ride, I can tell you that having one tell you how good and relaxed you look on the bike can certainly make your night.  "You don't just look strong, you look relaxed.  I can see that you have, like, good emotions or whatever on the bike."  Wow.  Pretty sure I never heard anything resembling that before.

And we zipped back into town and ended where we'd begun.  And it was still cold.  But hey, at least the north wind was still blowing like crazy.  And I'd just finished one of the best rides ever.  And I felt good.  Hell, I felt GREAT.  Can't believe anyone could think this ride could suck.  What a great ride that was!  Dude.  Awesome.

And I'm already prepared for the next one: I'll certainly remember this night for a long time.  I'll need to refer to it when I have a crappy one that should be better.  (<--- See?  I plan ahead for my disappointments...)