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Zen MBB Master
- Things were looking precarious at Chick headquarters. Otto was not optimistic about our position in the lineup for our weekly chase race. Coyotes had an 8-minute lead, Roadrunners a 5-minute lead, and the Gorillaz a 1-minute lead. In addition to that we would have Badgers and Crashtest Dummies right behind us breathing down our collective necks. It was the Faithful Four signed up to tackle this week’s outing on the California Roll course. Otto Walter, Emily Royer, Rick Mueller, and Connie Swinson ate their Wheaties, meditated for inspiration, and took naps to prepare to give it their best shot. What they couldn’t do was magically double their numbers — or could they?
There was a knock on the door and four big burly Gorillaz made their entrance. Bill Ragatz, the leader of the Gorillaz pack, spoke first. “We only have four riders. Would you like to join forces this week?” Jody Widener added, “We promise we will be nice.” Loren O’Brien chimed in, “And we brought snacks.” Rob Lloyd held up a bunch of eight bananas. Emily was so excited, “I love bananas!” All four Chicks looked at each other in disbelief at their good fortune. “Absolutely!” They replied in unison. Now to sort out the details.
Bill and Otto got their heads together and came up with the plan. Otto would do his tugboat duties and the Gorillaz would report to the front to give him a break as needed. Sweeping duties would be shared to keep all eight racers in line. Connie had consulted her crystal ball and came up with a goal time with four Chicks in mind. “I think we can finish in 58:13 minutes.” Now that we had 8 racers, Bill suggested a much loftier goal. I think we can do much better than that. I say 51 to 52 minutes is a reachable ETA.” That seemed quite ambitious to the Chicks, but our motto is “Give it a go and see what happens.”
It was time to put the plan into action. Fire socks were on fire as the Chickrillaz flew out of the pen. Speeds were at or near 40 kph for most of the race. Bill made a video of our troupe flying in almost perfect formation. The video made us looked even faster. Thanks Bill. We were on target to overtake the Roadrunners and Coyotes. It was a long race and we planned to take advantage of that extra time. At the 19 km marker Connie had given all she had and dropped. Despite offers from her teammates to pull her back, she called out, “go on and win me a trophy!” That’s when the Chickrillaz kicked up the watts a notch or two and headed off to catch Roadrunners and Coyotes (and Yaks).
Rick kept an eye on the sidebar, “We’re gaining ground on the Roadrunners. Can we kick it up another notch?” Yes, we could! It was a nice clean pass through our fellow bird friends, followed by another equally clean pass through the Yaks. Coyotes were the next targets. We were getting closer to them, but could we catch them before the finish banner? We did, but not without kicking up yet another notch in the watts department. Papa Yote and crew exchanged our usual pleasantries and he commented, “Gee, those were some big burly Chicks.” Not Chicks today Papa; we’re the Chickrillaz!
Final time — 51:07. Way to smash that goal time Chickrillaz! Once the dust settled and all racers were in, our hybrid team was ready to celebrate. We shared bananas and s’mores by the campfire as we recounted our successful venture. Someone suggested we sing Kumbaya or 99 bicycle tires on the wall. No, that may be a bit too much. Will we combine forces again? You bet! Until then it’s back to being chasers and chasees.
( bills video) https://youtu.be/Ke3PvtZIRDE
