Off to the North!

I had already decided that I was going to go up to NC for thanksgiving in the summer, because I had skipped it for at least 18years. What I did not consider was how was I going to work out the logistics of doing the race. My legs were hurting enough for me to take off Monday, but got a great workout in on Tuesday morning because I would be hitting the road at 6pm to drive the 800 miles straight up to my hometown, Wilson, NC.

I got off at 5:45, and Mrs. P and I hit the road as soon as I got home. The problem was it happened to be rush hour if you were going north. So we took the turnpike up to Ft. Pierce and crossed over to 95, then things calmed down. We were averaging about 78mph, so we could pull off the trip in about 11hrs if we keep it moving. It was a challenge having Lance in the car, because he starts moaning when need to hit up a tree or two. In the meantime we play this game on my ipod where they quiz you on your music, artist featured on the song, the year the song was released, and if you can match the album cover with the song. Man, we played that song from Ft. Pierce all the way to GA.

In GA Mrs. P took a nap to secure that she could bring in the last leg if I were to get sleepy. I was doing great with being alert courtesy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the ipod, but I started to get sleepy. So I put in Eddie Murphy, still sleepy. Then I tried Dave Chapelle, still sleepy. Then I changed to music videos, but I was still sleepy. Then I just turned the ipod off and waited for my second wind to come around. Nope, that 2 hours timetrial at 150bpm did me end from the morning, so I woke up Mrs. P with 220 miles to go and she brought it in.

My hometown of Wilson has about 43,000 people and is one of the biggest cities East of Raleigh. Wilson is the “Tobacco Capital” of the world, and that is why the city has a major influx of income every year. It's not a good thing, because the tobacco market is seasonal so most of the city is out of work after that. In the middle of the city are this huge warehouses, and they have tobacco sitting in them. The smell is just as strong with tobacco just like the smell of trash when you pass by a landfill. We have a 24-hr Walmart, and a Target in Wilson. In addition, we have 17 high level hotels. Damn, with only 43,000 people, that is a lot of late night booty calls to fill up those rooms.

I get to my mother’s house and it’s almost 6am. My mother is off on Wednesday so she spends the morning with us and we catch up on things. My mother has 1 acre beside her house and Lance goes absolutely nuts with marking every tree he can find. I know that my only challenge this weekend would be finding food that was worth a damn. I already knew I was going to sell my soul on 2 places I normally eat breakfast at when I visit home. The first one did not disappoint as I made my trip over to Bojangles. This place is Popeye’s meets Waffle House. They have chicken and breakfast food 24hrs. a day. They have a steak and cheese biscuit that I can’t resist, and I have 2 just to make sure I fulfilled my quota. Mrs. P. has even become a fan of it, but she could only get down one.

After my belly would was full, I took a trip over Butterfly, the table tennis company that has sponsored me since 1986. This is a picture of the new building


This is a picture of my office when I worked here in 2006 for 6 months. You can see my laptop, computer, vitamins are still waiting for me.

I go into back of the building to make sure the Brian Pace racket still exist, and it does. Here’s is picture right out of the box

Here is another picture of all the rackets on the display. If you ever go to Sports Authority or Dick’s Sporting Good, go to the indoor recreation area and look for a playa.

After that I talk with the President of the Company, who was also my first coach, and he tries to convince me to come back and work for the company. I’m going out to Las Vegas next month to do all the web updates and sports writing for National Table Tennis Championship, and then Mrs. P and I are going to spend Xmas out there. I may take this job if he lets me do what I want. And what is that? I want to do the same thing that Dave does with Gone Riding. I want to organize table tennis competitions around the country. I’m connected with people in all the major cities in the US so getting a venue would be minor. But I only want to run 5 International Events per year. If we can agree on that in the long run, then I’m going to have to say bye-bye to Broward. We catch up a little bit more, and he is still competitive ass hell. Actually, both of his son’s are number one in the world in golf. They are 11 and 13 years old, and they have been number one in their age groups for the last 3 years. Damn, I wish he would have got me into golf back in 1986.

We say good bye, and then I start seeing how I can get away from the family to hit up the mtn bike trail at the School of the Deaf about 1 mile from my mom's house. Across from the school of the deaf is this trail that they built. It is only about 3.1 miles, but it is really a blast to ride. It’s like going up and down the Cadillac Trail in Tallahassee. The last time I came in 2004 when I was a sport rider, a deaf dude on a old school Klein Attitude put the hammer on me for 5 laps. He didn’t drop me, but he had me wishing he would slow down. After that I found out he built the trail, and has been riding it for 5 years. I was just happy to get out of there without getting dropped, and my ego halfway in tact.

It was around 11am, and everybody was at work. My older brother Reggie is 4 hours a way in Charlotte. He is a truck driver when living in the US, and in between tours in Iraq. When he is not in the US or Iraq, he is in Thailand and calls himself, “ The International Booty Slayer”, as he spends his entire trip out there hunting for women. Man, that dude is shallow. My other brother Phillip is just recently back from Iraq also, and now lives in Columbia S.C., and he is leaving at noon for the 3 hour trip to Wilson. Great! I have a window to get to the trail and hope my boy is out there to put it on me again. I start getting my things ready and my mom gets all snotty. I explain that Reggie and Phil are on the way, so I’m going to work off the steak and cheese biscuits. She calms down and I get my things ready and hit the trail

The trail is so close that I don't bother driving, I just ride over. When I get there I was reminded that it was autumn when I saw all the leaves. The leaves were everywhere, and it was thick at about 4-5 inches. It was so much that I was not sure if I could correctly follow the singletrack. That meant I couldn’t see the roots at all, and they had a bunch of them. Not enough to go over the bars, but surely enough to seriously through you off the trail. I decided to go in and do an easy lap to find any lines and my mode. If you have ever really rode in the autumn, then colorful leaves are good if you have to ride on any. They are leaves that won’t move. Brown leaves are bad, as they have completely died and they turn into “Brown Ice”. You don’t want to round a bend if there is brown ice down, as you can easily be picking yourself out of the dirt.

The leaves are colorful and safe and I’m able to find the lines. Surprisingly, the course was in very good shape. I’m sure not a lot of people ride mtn bike in this city, so I won’t have to worry about traffic but I was looking for my boy from 2004.

A great thing about NC, is when it rain, the trails are closed for 24-48 hrs. That is a great way to keep the erosion from happening so fast. I can see the singletrack, but I’m reluctant to let it rip until I know the entire lap. The first lap was a 23 minute lap, and that around the same speed as my best lap in 2004. I know I’m gonna smash that time when I get the lap down cold. “Where you at playa”, I say aloud, referring to dude that put me in the pain locker in 2004. The second lap I decided to just ride, and ended up with a 21 minute lap, and the third was 20 minute lap. Because it’s 65 degrees I’m not thirsty, and it made it easy to do the first 3 laps back to back. I got back to the trailhead, and drank from one of the bottle I dropped there. I went back in and did 2 more 20 minute laps, and called it a day. I felt good about the workout, and had already decided that I was going to really hit it hard tomorrow. I think I need about one ride to get used to riding to aggressively on those leaves.

Rode one leaf infested singletrack, rode them all.


I get back home, shower up, take a nap, and everyone starts getting off of work or into town. My sister is first with her loud mouth, and quickly reminds my wife that she married a many with a huge right ear. I say, “Damn, it’s nice to be home”, as I gave her a hug. Then Reggie calls my mom and lets her know he parked about 1 block away, and we all go over to meet him. He has lost 30lbs since I saw him in September when he dropped off a load in Miame before the 6-hrs of Santos. About 1 hour later, Phillip comes in with his wife Sabrian, two kids Sabonia and Messiah, and 7 month old pit bull that is 60lbs. His name is King, and he can eat Lance. He is strong, and equally as friendly. I’m not a fan of a dog that is capable of doing such harm, but this is the 3rd pit bull that my brother has owned that is friendly. My mom cooks a southern playalistic fatty dinner, but Mrs. P and I settle for salad at chick-fil-a. With all the siblings home the only thing we have in common at this point is debating. We first argue about the War, and of course I’m anti-war and one brother is for, and one brother is against. Then next was “Who created life”, and if that person does exist, who created him”. We stayed on that for about 1 hour, and it started out on the scientific “Big Bang Theory”, then it went biblical, then back to scientific. When we were burnt out on that, we went in the backyard to my mother's barn to play some pool, and I watched everyone get there drink on.


I convinced the non-drinkers to do something more productive, so we packed up the Jetta, and went to see Beowulf which was just out of sight. I read the book when I lived in Romania, and they strayed from it big time. It was good, and had potential to be a smash hit like Lord of the Rings, but that can only happen with Peter Jackson at the helm. From there we all turn in for the night.

The next morning I’m pumped about riding, because I’m gonna smash that course today, and my mother is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. The last couple of years my mom couldn’t get off from the hospital, and my sisters’s cooking is well below subpar. In fact, Mrs. P. would only consider the trip if my mother was cooking. At 8:30 it was 52 degree, frost on the ground, and cold. I decide to wait until it gets closer to 60 degree, so I surf the internet,check mail, and watch music videos. I keep looking at the weatherbug showing the temperature, and it slowly ticks up, 53, 53, 54, 55, and then 56. At 10am I decided to ride as I think that I won’t see 60 degrees until it’s time to eat Thanksgiving dinner.

I get back to the trail, and I pick up right where I left off. I do 3 laps and they were all 20 minutes, give or take a few seconds. I felt more comfortable riding in the leaves, and I also started to get a real feel for where the hot and cold spots where in the trail. I soon started taken advantage of all the place where I could steal a couple of extra pedal strokes here, or a couple of second there. I stopped at the trailhead and topped off the stomach with fluids and decide to let it rip for the last 3 three laps. I had the trail down packed, I felt inspired, and the legs were primed and feeling good. The 4th lap I came in around 19:21, which was over 1 min 10 second faster the other 20 mins laps, so I really hit it hard going into the 5th lap, and I knew it was going to be much faster because I was way ahead on all check points. I came in at 18:54, and I tried to keep that same speed up, but the legs were not having it. I had went a little too far into the lactic acid account and got hit with a NSF as I was slower on every check point, but came out with a 19:10. I can’t remember the last time I had rode such a short course, and enjoyed it so much. The thrill of riding a new course was just too much resist trying to conquer it.

I had ridden for over 2 hours and the workout was a perfect effort considering I had Santos in a couple of days. I know the real place that you can drop someone at Santos is in John Brown, because that place is anaerobic, and technical. I had just did 12 laps in 2 days, and all of it was like John Brown, so I really started to get some confidence in another good performance. I still had no real agenda in the race, but after Markham’s bold move to try to shake things up by riding off the front, I decided to go back and, “Fit in, where I get in”. I ride around and try to time the ride to get to 2hrs and 30 mins, and I come in at 2:28. By the time I get home the yard is flooding with cars and I got the 2 older brothers challenging me to a race on somebody’s piece of crap $250.00 Trek that is in the yard. Reggie is explaining that if I not crawling up to the house, then I haven’t had a real workout. Then Phillip starts asking about the special shoes, and all this fancy equipment I use, and that real athletes like the Greek Gods didn’t need special equipment. I sigh, then walk up to the Trek, hold the front tire with my knees, and turn the handle bar 90 degrees. I look at both of my brothers and say, “You have a kickstand on that shit”, and walk in the house. Everyone on the porch exploded into laughter.

Thanksgiving dinner was good and I was forbidden to take pics as it was starting to annoy. The family conversation was equally as entertaining as the night before. I ate really lean in having turkey breast, stuffing, mac and cheese, and homemade sweet potato pie. Here some pics of the fam.

Here is a pic of my mom's house, which is where Mrs. P. practically demands we stay everytime we visit

Here is a pick of my brother wife Sabrina, my niece Messiah, and you know the other 2

This a picture of my sister's house. She has lived within a 2 mile radius of my mother for 25 years. Whenever one moves, the other one soon follow. I have not idea what it is about.

This is my sister's boyfriend, whom I like to call "Frederick Douglas". You know based on that hairstyle, he was one of the leaders of the underground railroad.

This is a picture of me and my favorite niece, Lyric.

The family movie tonight was “Hitman”, and it was straight out of the video game. If you have every played the video, then he had the walk, talk, facial expressions down to a tee. We came back home and I had more turkey and stuffing. Mrs. P. and I couldn’t sleep so we watched “Cheaters”, and that show never gets boring. We hit the sack, and I got a special ride planned for Friday.

I wake up with a smile on my face as I have practically had a great workout every single day in the month of November and the races performances to prove it. I decide to take a trip 45 minutes West out to Raleigh to go and ride at main trail I rode when I lived here in 2006. There are a lot of places to ride in Raleigh, and the only place I got a real good feel for was the course in Garner. Most of the courses have so many section and they all run forward and and backwards and make is challenge to ride out and back.

It's really a very unassuming place

This pretty much assures that I won't see much dirt.

The problem was is it was 32 degrees when I got there, and it was going to be really tough to put in a promising effort. I got to the course, and I was the only person out there. I knew this course would have more leaves than the course at home because there were way more trees.

I get into the course and the leaves are twice as much as I have been riding on, and this course is much more aggressive since it has a lot of off camber section. I lose a bunch of drive to ride because I truly can't find the singletrack. I ride for about 10 minutes, then decided to pack it up after riding on this.



As soon as I got back to the car, someone drives up in a jeep. I start looking in the back, and I see that he has a bike. It always weird when you are waiting for a person to get out of the car to chat with them about getting a ride in. I introduce myself, and ask if I can tag along because I haven't rode the course in a while and I can't find the lines. His name is Gabe, and he said, "Sure, if you don't mind the slow pace". I was just happy to be getting in a workout. He pulls out a Marin hardtail, and a has a old school Manitou fork. "Wow", that shit is vintage.

We go into the course and he knows the lines very well. He is actually very uncomfortable with the leaves. He is riding in and out of sections totally different than how I did it, and after about 12mins he needs to take a break. I look down and my heartrate and it was 112bpm. Damn, I'm not even getting a fat burning effort in. Well, better than sitting at home watching everybody sleep. We get going after about 5 minutes, and we finish out he entire lap without stopping.

We go in for the second lap, and about half way through the lap it feel like my shock is bottoming out everytime I hit a bump. Gabe needs to take another break, and I see oil on the left tube and I know that the shock is blown. I finish out the lap, and decide that it's time to pack it up. I get back in the car and it's still cold. Look

I get back home and everyone is still sleep, so I take trip over to my other guilty pleasure. I know I haven't deserve this or burnt enough calories to do eat it, but I'm not in Broward. I'll worry getting back on track when I get home.

I have eaten at this place since I was a child, and decided to take it back to the old school.

I know it's greasy and fatty, but I'm not in the mood to search out buying salad stuff this early in the morning. Man, this shit can clog an artery.

I quickly realize that my chance to race on Sunday are none. I have a busted shock, and I do have a Reba at home. But I was planning on driving straight to Santos on Saturday, then doing the race Sunday. Driving all the way back home to try to pick it up, get it put on, adjusted, etc, would just be too much. So before I get home I know that my I won't do the race. I was a little bit bummed because I really want to see how I would perform at Santos. Now, I'll never know.

When Mrs. P. woke up she asked how the ride was, and I said really cold and slow. Then I told her about my bike, and that we would just stay in Wilson another day and enjoy the family.

And that is what we did. We spent Saturday relaxing, and at night my sister had a cookout a her house. On Sunday we packed up the car and left at 10am, and got in at 10:30pm because of some serious traffic jams in South Carolina, and Georgia.

This week has been a average week of training on the road bike, but no mtn biking yet. I"m getting my fork looked at, and if my mechanic can get it tuned up, then I'm gonna hit the race this weekend with the intent of staying close to from group of Experts. What is not for certain is if the 19-29 class will be combined with the 30+ class. My guess is that the 19-29 class won't show because they don't get anything out of it, as Markham was the make-up race. If that is the case, then Bob is probably going to go right off the front. He hasn't had a day when he rode off the front since the spring of 06, so I'm sure he won't be taking any prisoners or wanting anyone on his wheel if it's just the locals racing. I'm doing a race because there is race in town, and I'd like to take advantage of this good form. I'm pulling the plug on my season as I have final exams too close to the race and really need to be in the books. Congrats to all the top finishers, and special mention Tom and Eli who really did it big this season and were the heavy hitters that kept us in contention of the Team Standing. One more menttion to B&J for leaping to the front of the Team Classification, as noone saw that coming.

If I don't get a chance to see you on the trials or road, have a great Xmas and happy New Year

Pacer Out!