so I was reading the COMMENTS on SOOZ's Blog Page we had a little back and forth about encounters with other commuters....

many years ago
many many years ago
before "back in the day" as I was too young to even know or care what statements could possibly mean
as I was a child and everyday was "the day" especially if there was no school
I was hanging with Kevin Fitzpatrick. We shared a love for bicycles and a hate for the 'cool' kids at school. Our friendship and bond may have been based off the fact that we were not accepted by the 'in' crowd. Thus creating a deep bond and lunch every day for 7 years with Kevin Fitzpatrick, Bobby Portwood, and Helder Perrera. Outside of school Kevin and I had few other friends, but we had each other. We used to go for long bike rides with our fishing poles strapped to our bikes. Although we did not know it then, but we had a great Zen understanding of "the journey is the destination." Each day that we rode our bikes and went fishing was as good as the last, with no great measure or comparision for how many fish were caught or how many miles were ridden. One day Kevin proposed that rather than heading along the C&O Canal to go fishing that we ride downtown to visit his dad and have lunch. Without giving it much thought or even passing this idea by my parents, I accepted and the next day we rode downtown. It was a blast! We rode through traffic cutting lanes, taking all sorts of risks. Finally we got downtown to his dad's office. We got a tour around the whole CBS New offices at 20th and M (where I now work) During the tour Kevin pointed out the motorcycles and said that he wanted to be a motorcycle courier when he grew up (when I was in college I bounced back and forth between freelance bicycle messenger and motorcycle courier for CBS News) After the tour and a quick lunch we headed back to the streets. We pointed our bikes in all sorts of different directions, just following the flow of traffic. As we raced through the downtown streets we kept encountering all these guys on bikes. As we passed each of these cyclists they got frustrated and picked up the pace, which only caused us to go faster. (later I would learn that these guys were bicycle messengers) It amused me that they would go slow and then speed up when passed. It seemed to me that having been caught, had it been a race, they had already lost.....

this continues today
I ride my bike
I pass a cyclist on the road or the trail
and they wake up
the step up the pace
and try to race
I try to let my competitiveness to let them go
and work on my own thing
after all
they do not know how far I have gone and how much further I need to go
racing me for two blocks
and pulling over
well
that is hardly a race

back to work
want to finish my day
and see if there are any JOKERS out there that want to race me and my 32X17 single
(just like the goober on the road bike yesterday after work...I did my own thing...he tried to hang....and looked like a geek in a peacock outfit on a 4,000 dollar bike)