Tripleshot Cycling

A year ago today I enjoyed my first group ride with TripleShot, a Lister-led B ride with other newbies Katie, Geoff W., and Greg G.

At risk of setting off Alan's smarm-o-meter, I just wanted to say Thanks! to each and every TripleShotter for making this club such an awesome part of my life. Thanks for making me a healthier person with more cool friends, thanks for letting me hang around despite my ancient, filthy bicycle, and thanks for putting up with my egregiously verbose and often pointless posts on this forum.

Here's my first post-ride entry on the forum. It still accurately sums up how I feel:

Rolf, on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 9:23 am, wrote:To all who did the B-ride this morning: thank you!

My first experience riding with a group was extremely enjoyable. Satisfaction flowed from the psychological and physical benefit of exertion alongside others, but also from the welcoming and supportive social environment. I never once felt judged for riding a filthy, 24 year-old, commuter bike with a clunky drive-train!

Some interesting reading from Wikipedia:

Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during strenuous exercise, excitement, pain and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a sense of well-being. [Endorphins] allow humans to feel a sense of power and control over themselves that allows them to persist with activity for an extended time.

So I guess for me this morning was akin to an orgy or an opium den: enjoying endorphins with people I hardly know -- only minus the STDs and life-destroying addiction.

Thanks again. See you Friday.

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Bling, bling. my "Smarm-0-meter just went off, again! You are one silver tongued dude, Rolf. Thanking us for making you healthier? Like, gag me with a spoon, man. Reminds me of the full meal deal at officer training boot camp where the Sargent used to make us 'thank' him for improving our "slack and idle bodies" as he drove us into the ground and called us all sorts of vile appellations such as maggots, wimps and scumbags.... That which didn't kill us made us more spiteful.
Anyways, should government lawyering ever go sour on you, I've got some work for you as my personal spin doctor. With a smarm-o-matic brain like yours, you'll go far.

Consider yourself spoon-gagged, my friend. You guys only joined the Navy so you could tell bullshit stories, didn't you? (I'm just jealous.)

Yeah, when I express gratitude for things in life, a lot of people cringe. Not sure why. Maybe too many years in PR and law have weakened my ability to come across as genuine or sincere.

But I mean it all.

Finely and emotively wordsmithed, Rolf, if somewhat verbose to the threshold of prolixity. (Lawyer responding to question at cocktail party: "Can I express that in layman's terms? I don't know any layman's terms." )

I would second that emotion, and simply say that TS has been for me one of the coolest developments to come along in many moons. I only wish the law hadn't intervened - Murphy's Law, that is - to sideline me just when I was starting to get the hang of the group ride/social circle/affectionately-insulting-banter thing. I even acquired the obligatory rite of passage road rash! But as a real Tripleshotter - meaning I have the full unblemished argyle kit in my dresser - I shall not admit defeat! Knees, you have not had the last word on this...

So, yeah, in a world where genuine expressions of gratitude send smarmometers clanging, there is still room for the collegial "attaboy" (and "attagirl") to all those who make the group ride an experience to look forward to - and to those elder states-cyclists who carry the torch of inclusivity and defend the no-drop policy, an additional round of applause...

Gosh, Mike. I don't know what makes me happier: your validation of my touchy-feely gratitude (and fending off of the cynical, weirdy-beardy, manly-man), or your comforting ability to surpass me in the torturing of parentheses, dashes, slashes and sentence construction generally. Good luck with the knees...

<Bump>

One more year. Same crappy bike, same smarmy gratitude...