Thursday, January 8, 2009

A very troubling dream about a missed TT start

I just awoke from a dream that was real enough that it caused me to wake up at 6:57am this morning and be very thankful it was just a dream and nothing more. Here it is...

It's a nice warm spring morning in Northern California as I'm heading to a small town somewhere in the Central Valley for a Velopromo individual time trial (ITT) event. Having never done this ITT in the past I didn't know what I was in for, but I was excited nonetheless.

Upon getting closer to the town it became evident that a rather large new office park was receiving its finishing touches a few miles down the road. This office park was the jewel of the community. So much so it was easy to see as you got closer to the outskirts of town. As I got closer my directions to the start led me into this office park.

Hmm, not your typical location for a Velopromo event, but hey, I'm always game for something new. However, something didn't feel right about this event. I pulled up to the registration tent and the normal hustle and bustle that I normally see at races was absent. In fact the only people around were a few of the guys setting up barriers and tables.

I asked what was going on, but I never got an explanation. Was I here on the wrong day? Did I miss the start? Were they tearing down the course because the race was over? I was puzzled at the lack of information they shared with me. But they did point me to a dirt parking lot about a quarter mile away where I could park.

It seemed bizarre that nobody was there to race, but they didn't say that I wouldn't get to race, so I continued to unload the bike. I realized that I hadn't picked up my number from registration so I casually rolled over to the start in my street clothes and flip-flops. Upon getting back to registration I see two other riders at the start receiving their countdowns and rolling out on the course.

The race officials and Velopromo people see me and immediately begin telling me, ok, yelling at me, that I have 15 seconds before I have to start. WTF?!? When did my start time move up two hours? All alarms in my head went off and I immediately went into panic mode. No shoes, no skinsuit, no warm up...nothing!

My panic led to some crazy behavior. I started to yell at all the people near the start as I stripped down my clothing. Yes, I was going to race this ITT in my boxers and flip-flops, but only after turning the air blue with my immense displeasure of all things leading up to this situation. Rarely do I ever get this enraged and pissed off, but I was in fine form. I even began talking about myself and how irate I was in the third person ("Don't piss off this big guy any more or he'll....").

Right before starting the race I woke up.

I don't think having a cup of coffee will wake me up any more than I already am at this point. Getting jacked up in the morning off crazy dreams is not my idea of fun, but at least it reinforced one fear of mine. Show up on the right day for an ITT and give yourself plenty of time to warm up.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this is your version of having a nightmare, you live a charmed life!

I still have the what have I been doing all semester dreams, with finals the next week and not attending class.

Manley Man said...

I get those dreams too and I'm almost 5 years removed from grad school. Man, I hate those dreams.