Sweat.

I have a lot of cycling friends locally who are usually much faster than me when we go out and ride.  Tonight there’s an informal 20k time trial in Sedalia and I ask these fast friends of mine to go and they, to a man, hem and haw and say, “Oh I dunno maybe” and generally make excuses.  Man, it’s free.  Why is everyone so scared to throw their ego down on the line?  I guess the difference is my ego isn’t fragile.  I know I’m not the fastest guy out there but that doesn’t stop me. I suppose if you are afraid of finding out you can’t keep up, you shouldn’t go race.  But you better stay inside, away from windows.  Avoid loud noises. Be sure to put padding on everything.  Must be rough to go through life that way.