Dustin's Road to Nowhere: AB Cup Provincials

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

AB Cup Provincials

Well the end of the race season has passed with the provincials in Blairmore, AB. I was looking forward to the weekend for a couple of reasons. First and foremost it was the start of my summer holidays which I'll wright about in a couple more post over the week, and secondly I hope the longer, more traditional DH course would provide me with a chance to get another top 10 and end the season on a high note since I've managed to fall in 3 of the 4 last races. Practice had me feeling goo

d on the course and I felt a top 10 in the large field was an attainable goal but after a fun day of practice the skies opened up over night with rain, lightning and hail and we knew a new element was just added to race day where staying on two wheels was going to be a big part of placing well.

After the mornings practice I still felt good having survived the tech sections on every run and felt good on the rest. However come to my race run I tried pushing a little past my limit on the top sections and lost it on some roots bending my brake lever. Trying to salvage my run, knowing the conditions would slow a lot of racers down I pushed hard but lost it on the rock face locking my rear brake not being able to undulate the braking power properly with the bent brake lever leaving my hopes of a good finish out the window. I'll leave you with a few pics and hopes that next season I manage to keep the bike rubber side down.

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Where to start: THE ROAD TO NOWHERE

So I've been looking back at my life and looking forward to where I want to go and find things are often a blur. So I thought why not do as every other person who seems to have access to the Internet and start a blog so I can one day look back and at everything that happened, and if want to, share with others the fun things I've done, allow those who are far away to see what's happened and if I feel insightful one day maybe even share some thoughts with you.

Why Dustin's Road to Nowhere - Many of you will see this title and immediatly expect this to be sad, dark, or negative but I don't see the analogy Road to Nowhere as negative, actually it's quite the opposite. I believe the Road to Nowhere is where I want to be. It's that place or state of mind you reach when you are exactly where you want to be and you are traveling forward in time but you aren't trying to go anywhere. OK for those you that are going what hell is he talking about here's an example:

It's late January or early February, it's been a stressful week (I can't remember why?) and I'm out Nordic skiing at Duntroon Highlands, it's about -5, fresh fluffy snowflakes are falling, I haven't seen anyone in over a half hour. I'm seemingly alone in the wilderness, I've skied about 7 or 8 Km's nonstop, I have a smile, the stress from the week is a distant memory, my thoughts are void (Similar to the state of mediation that the Buddhist monks try and achieve through mediation and stay in that state for hours, days, months or longer.). All that can be heard are my deep breaths border lining on breathless and the gliding sound of my skis, I still have another 7 or 8 Km's till I get back to the chalet But I'm not trying to get anywhere, I'm exactly where I want to be and would carry on like this forever. I may be moving forward, covering distance, you could say I'm travelling, but I've already reached my destination, my goal. At this point I'm travelling A Road to Nowhere.

These moments can be found anywhere and are found in different places and at different times for different people, it can be when you are surrounded with laughter and the people you love, holding that special someone in the middle of the night, beeing isolated in the wilderness away from reality, tying together curves on a motorcycle down a deserted twisty highway, or scaring the shit out of yourself riding off an unexpected rock drop on a gnarly mountain bike trail. However, I think there's a lucky a few that follow their dreams, whatever they maybe and reach a point where every moment of their life they are travelling that Road to Nowhere.