The Final Countdown

"I guess there is no-one to blame

We're leaving ground (leaving ground)

Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown"

Memories of Friday evenings spent at Blue Light Discos (oh! How I envied Sally Bell's blue eyeshadow) with 80s music blaring, trying to pretend I was cool occasionally make me giggle. How some things have changed (I no longer have an irrational desire for blue eye-shadow) and how much I have remained unchanged (pretending to be cool remains a skill I am yet to perfect).

In the present-day and on a slight tangent, there is one thing I am glad that I had changed. I am so thankful that I had taken up the advice to convert the old roadie wheels to tubeless. And thankful for Stan and Joel at Monkey Wrench for making it happen a couple of weeks ago. An enormous nail puncturing my rear tyre on Saturday morning highlighted this for me. After yanking the nail out and letting the stans do its thing all over Northbourne Ave, I was off and rolling again in less than 2 minutes. I would highly recommend converting any road training wheels to tubeless. If I wasn't sold before, I most certainly am now. It made my day. Just brilliant.

Nailed? Not if you're running tubeless.
No more sad, upside-down bikes by the side of the road.
Happy rubber-side down riding only!

Looking to the future and I suppose some things will never change. Such as a bizarre and somewhat frightening habit of entering an event, where on the day I find myself thinking: 'Roh-oh. What have I done!?' followed by a lame attempt at self-comfort: 'It's ok. You're ok...'. With less than 1 week to WEMBO I am hoping that I have done enough to stimulate some change within my physiology to somehow get through 24 hours of Stromlo. The enormity of the race stirs an emotion that is equal parts fear : excitement at the prospect of what may come. 

Too late to change my mind?