Hello friends!
Sidney Crosby has a hat each and every year that he wears before and after games. He never washes it. As the season goes on, the hat gets nastier and nastier, riped, torn, and sweat stained. I heard that equipment managers try to convince Sid to wash his hat every now and again, but to no avail. This is his game day tradition, and it will not be broken.
Tomorrow, I will take part in my first ever official ride. (I've been waffling back and forth between calling it a race, which sounds more official, but truth is no one will win and there are no prizes, so we'll go with "official ride.") It's called Pedal Pittsburgh, and it's a 50 mile route through a lot of places downtown. I circled it on my calendar a few months ago, knowing that it will be a good indicator of my preparation for the MS 150. Plus, it will help me sort out what I need to do to prepare for an official ride, like the 150, like what to remember to bring and how to prepare for all the weather situations that might come my way (it's Pittsburgh, so literally every weather scenario is on the table for tomorrow!) I think it's gonna be a great warm up ride.
Now I've been a hockey fan all my life, and I've even dabbled in playing hockey every now and again, so I'm quite used to the superstitious nature of the hockey world. Every hockey player has a little game day tradition (or seven) that they take part in before the big game. As I'm sitting down after finishing my last training ride of the week, I'm starting to wonder if there are any quarky little traditions I should adopt for the ride tomorrow. Some sort of good luck charm, some sort of comforting ritual. So far some thoughts have included:
1. Washing and lubricating my bike, in a particular order, with a particular rag just before bed time.
2. Some sort of pasta dinner, to be consumed before every major event.
3. Chocolate milk before and after race day (ok, this isn't a tradition so much as a reality, it's what happens before and after every ride)
4. Like Sid, wearing my LIVESTRONG hat before and after the ride.
5. Traditionally having no traditions.
If you're a cyclist, or really athlete of any kind, what are some of your game day quarks? And would you mind if I stole some of them?
Godspeed,
Jason
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