Heellllooooo all you beautiful Tsururadio listeners!! AdventurerNeil checking in here, from sunny/snowy/schizophrenic Colorado.
“Who the freak is AdventurerNeil?!?” You may be asking yourself, while quizzically furrowing your brow in consternation. Well, I’m the newest contributor to TSURURADIO! You may know me from such mixes as Quarterlife Recession and/or Bring Out Your Dead! (heart).
I must say, I’m honored Tsuru has invited me here… and also quite intimidated to walk these sacred halls! I honestly feel like this is one of the best, most open, friendly, no-BS, uber-epic-quality music communities out there. And I’m so thankful to be a part of that! (Speaking of which, didja download walzac’s new mixtape yet? Pretty amazing! My iPod is gonna be so over-sexed after this mixtape week has its way with it! Hawtsauce!)
Enough with fanfare – this post has music! And video! And pics! And my experience of Tsuru’s Super Awesome No-Frills Ride For Breast Cancer! WOOOT!
Let’s get you rocking with some music that has lodged itself WAY inside my head over the last week…
Apples In Stereo – Told You Once (from the freakin’ amazing Eileen mixtape!)
Generationals – When They Fight, They Fight
…RIDICULOUSLY SICKENINGLY CUTE MUSIC!! I can’t wait to buy the new Apples In Stereo album when it comes out on the 20th of this month!
Also, a co-worker shared this with me, and I thought I should post it for the community’s enjoyment. Please enjoy a live performance of the much enjoyed and bally-hooed Excuses by The Morning Benders! My favorite parts of this video include watching the lead singer, and hearing his thoughts on the meaning of the song before and after they play.
Hm. Well, WordPress somehow keeps eating my embeds and disliking anything other than youtube, so we’ll see if that actually ends up posting. If not, you can still watch it here! while I iron out the kinks.
…
So, after being a fairly fervent follower (yay alliterations!) of TSURURADIO for the last 6ish months, I decided to hop in my car, and then hop on my bike for TSURURADIO’S Super Awesome No-Frills Bike Ride For Breast Cancer this last Saturday. Huzzah! It was a fairly epic adventure, just getting out to Ohio, but I gotta say, the Midwest charmed my pants off in a way I had not expected. Columbus’ short north immediately felt like home, what with all the college kids, old victorian homes, bikes, etc. The people (aka Tsuru and Baby) were extremely nice! And hawt damn, if it wasn’t in the 70s, humid, and NOTHING LIKE COLORADO. Yay!
After arriving, meeting my hero, and eating some fantastic local foods, we made a toast to the following day’s ride: a toast TO NO FLATS!!! Well, the gods of riding must have heard us, because I don’t think a single person got a flat tire, which is pretty great!
The next morning, we were all giddy. When we got to Park of Roses, there was an impressive crowd, and I had the pleasure of blasting some Tsuru tunes via boombox. I wanted to go around, meet peeps, maybe casually sip a beer, but there just was not time – I had to take pictures and cram myself full of calories and liquids! Here’s Tsuru and baby, all suited-up and registering the crowds:
When we took off, I felt pretty badass, I must say. I was in the company of many clearly veteran riders, and I was the newcomer! On the Olentangy bikepath, we were an elite little group, a disciplined unit, like a dog pack racing across the Iditarod. Then, we found “the hill”. I hit it kind of unexpectedly, and in a much higher gear than I should have been, so I lagged behind and barely made it to the top without dismounting. My lungs were racing for the next 10 minutes… good thing Ohio is lower than Colorado! From there, we started heading north on some smaller highways. With plenty of energy and the desire to keep up with the big dogs, I was pedaling hard in my highest gear, zooming along at a zippy ~25mph! I felt much more comfy around the vehicle traffic than I’d imagined. When we neared Delaware, the northern point on our loop, we all stopped at a gas station to food and water up. Aaron mentioned what a nice tailwind we’d had (I didn’t even NOTICE it!), and noted that going back might be hell.
Well, if you read Aaron’s write-up of the ride Monday, then you heard about the wind. OH-MY-FREAKING-GOD THE WIND. It slammed into us at 40, even 50mph gusts and made us ache, long for a simple 10mph speed into the howling headwinds. At times, it felt like a gust could’ve easily blown me into a car trying to pass me. But then, I’d put my head real low, switch into a lower gear, and grit my teeth. Actually, if you must know, Told You Once by Apples In Stereo was in my head most of the ride back, and I was found myself laughing into the wind, “I told you once, I told you twice… I’m gonna treat your baby nice!!”
By the time we got back on the the Olentangy, my body was hurtin’ for certain. The wind, 4 hours of hard pedaling, a vague exhaustion from traveling, and the tail-end of a small cold completely overwhelmed me. Whatever energy I’d gained from my 4 downed energy bars was long gone. After what seemed forever, I finally cruised back into the park of roses, completely starved, but also completely happy. TIMBER!!!!
I would like to take this time to admit that I was definitely the last of the 50 mile riders to finish the route. I think Aaron and Tucker probably smoked me by a solid 30-45 minute window. But, but BUT. I ran with the big dogs! And I finished! And raised $200+ for the cause from myself and pledges from my family! Not bad for a first timer new to road bikes and races! I grew up a casual rider, mostly riding low-end mountain bikes, so I feel glad to have broken into a new scene. And honestly, I couldn’t have done it with any cooler people, or at any better time!!
Big thanks to Aaron and Baby for creating the whole sch-bang, being willing to host my roving ass for a few nights, and for being pretty awesome in general!
This is AdventurerNeil signing off for now!
