I Failed to Take the High Road

Before I go into details about the title of the post, I thought I would start with something more positive. Charisa and Steven stopped and stayed the night on their way to Vineman 70.3. Besides sharing some awesome meals of deep dish Chicago style pizza (in honor of Charisa's home town), and some soul food with a twist (gotta give them a taste of Oakland), we shared some great conversation. Charisa and I went for a short run this morning through my hood, and it really made me appreciate where I live seeing it through her eyes. Most of you know Charisa is one smart cookie when it comes to racing, but Steven equally impressed me with his thoughts on racing. I leave you with two quotes from Steven that really hit home:

"It doesn't matter how many times you nail it in training, it only matters that you nail it on race day."

"That Kevin, when it comes to racing, he is low expectations and high performance."

And speaking of racing, my friend sent me this great article on winning. I've got a lot of people looking out for me.

And now, the reason for the title of the post. During my ride today, I was climbing and approaching a right hair-pin turn when all of a sudden, this guy on a skateboard was coming right at me. He was hugging the inside of the turn, on my side of the road, and I had to swerve far right almost into the guard rail to avoid being hit by him. As he passed me, he laughed and shouted, "Suckaaaa!" At first, I told myself to take the high road and carry on. But something in me snapped when I recounted that he shouted suckaaaa as he went by. I decided that this skate punk needed to learn a lesson the hard way. I turned my bike around, sprinted down the hill, almost crashing when I hit a pothole because I was so determined to catch him. I caught the punk and I began blocking him to slow him down, and I eventually got him to stop in his tracks. I was so pissed off that I didn't care he was about six feet tall, as I pushed him off his board. I grabbed his board and said something like, "If you want to be extreme, go extreme down the hill after your board", and I chucked his board down the hill. Ironically, during the remainder of the ride, I was quite jovial and happy, making small talk as I came upon other riders. I'm not a pugilist but sometimes, you just gotta. I have to admit, I was a bit fearful that he and his buds would hop in their car, and drive up the hill to get payback. Needless to say, I climbed the hill quite fast.