Eternity Plus Two Laps

Listen everybody, Im almost 45 years old. I know I am slow...and getting slower and I do not care.
I suppose I have reached that point that we all feared when we were 16. I have become that guy that I swore I would never become. I am a good 20 pounds overweight ( I mean a GOOD 20 pounds). I putt around the track a full gear lower than I should. When I know people are watching me, trying to figure out if I am really that slow, I look down at my bike like there is something wrong with it. Yep, you know the guy, that is me!
Still, I do not care. I simply love being on the bike. I guess I have outlived (in moto terms) the desire to be the fastest, farthest jumping, shit hottest dude at the track. There is no shame in this at all. None. Due to the fact that I am only that slow to you, the observer.
In my mind, I am just as fast as I always was or always wanted to be. That is what counts man! The stoke. Can motocross still get you stoked? That is the issue.
When I was a young kid, before I even had a bike, I would ride my BMX bike around my house like I was at Unadilla or Carlsbad. I remember being the sports announcer for myself and how I would dream of beating Marty Smith (my big brother's all time hero). In my mind I was the fastest dude on the planet. Back then, that was all I needed.
Now we have come full circle. That is all I need now. The never ending moto in my mind. I am still banging bars with my heroes. Still blasting the berms and bombing into the flats full throttle.
Marty Smith will never catch me. It never ends. Moto #1-Eternity plus 2 laps.

The Wonderful Youth

Kids these days. Exactly! Kids these days are really something else. I would also have to say, in retrospect, that they always have been. I get tired of the Bill Gates stuff as I am sure you do, but as an example, he was in his 20's when he founded Microsoft. In motocross terms, Bob Hannah was 19 when Yamaha signed him in 1976. He won three straight AMA Supercross titles. In Moto GP terms, Valentino Rossi was barely legal when he signed to Aprilia in the 125cc class. He has won 9 Grand Prix World Championships! Kids, at the time. All of them kids. Wonderful achievements. Boldness and bravery beyond compare. How about President George Senior? 19 years of age when he flew his first combat mission in WW II. Amazing. When I was 19, I was struggling with making a car payment and trying to to perfect my mullet.
What is my point? Kids are good. Youth is good. It is a time to go and forge new ground and to make daring moves. On the race track, in the boardroom, on the world stage. That's only the half of it though. If youth is a physical condition, you know what I mean, no wrinkles, strong bones, livers that still work, then why cant that boldness continue into later life? Boldness is not a physical condition. Courage is not either. These are mental states. So, if your body is still in good shape, why can't people continue to win races at 30?
Ill tell you why. Because many of us let youth drive us to old age. Yes, we allow youth to be squandered on the pressure to be successful and the pressure to build a life.
Let's take racers for instance. Young riders have nothing at stake and everything to prove. So, the ride like mad men. Pin the throttle and hold on right? Then come some victories. Then some sponsorships and then some endorsements and then some money and that is ALWAYS followed by wife and kids. Now the picture looks very different indeed. Now while sitting in the paddock, our once wreck less, ass hauling, hero is concerned with just finishing the race in one piece. Forget winning. He is worried about making his child an orphan. This isn't a bad thing. Its just life. Youth drives us to a place where we are suddenly much, much older.
So we will not be seeing 40 somethings on the podium any time soon. I say this because riders don't slow down because their bodies are older. They slow down because the cost of going fast is too high for them at some point. This is a reasonable thing. Kids need their dads. I get it. But what of the boldness of Gill Gates? Is he still as bold today? I suppose so. He is so freakin' rich I suppose he does not worry about his next big idea failing. What does that mean to you and me though? Hell, I don't know. I suppose I want to still go fast in some area of my life.  Still hold on to some boldness, some courage.
Maybe there is still a race to be raced. A place in life where we can still "pin it and hold on".
If you are like me, you are hungry to find it. The wonderful youth. Is it still out there for us older boys? Lets hope so.