One Month to Go!!!

With exactly 1 month until I land in Narita airport outside of Tokyo everything is falling into place. The good people at Eighth Inch are putting my bike together as we speak so I should have that by sometime next week, I'm expecting. Can't wait to see it and I have been getting used to the handlebars that will come with it.

In another great turn of events the sales rep we deal with at the shop from Chrome (the company who made my bag) donated one of their Hip Pouches to me as well to take with to Tokyo. So thanks to Steven at the shop and the Chrome rep for the help!

I also took 3rd place in the 4th annual Shaggy 815 alley cat this past weekend and due to the coolness of Eric from Cog he traded me his winnings for mine as mine where a pair of swank Chrome Knickers that I would never be able to wear since they were mediums for his prize which was a Dank Bags hairnet 'helmet'. Now, much like the classic leather hair net helmets, this one doesn't actually save my brain from any form of trauma. What it does provide is a very portable 'helmet' that meets the helmet requirements for CMWC and NACCC. So instead of trying to figure out how the hell I am going to fit my Bern helmet into my messenger bag along with some of my clothes I now have a helmet that actually won't save my life but will let me race! I'll have to post a picture sometime for the helmet, because Dank Bags doesn't have a website.

Eric told me that people would be all over me about the helmet, wanting to find out who made it. He said everyone was mobbing him over his 'helmet' at the NACCC's (North American Cycle Courier Championship) earlier this month in Boston.

So, with everything almost in place I am just waiting out the time before I leave to face the world. I want to thank everyone for their support, financially, logistically and personally. It is awesome that so many people have rallied behind me on this event and I don't plan on disappointing. The next target on the list is at the end of the month. On August 28th and 29th at the Times Cinema in Washington Heights will be the Milwaukee installment of the Bicycle Film Festival. After the Friday night showing there will be a race from the theater to Stoenfly Brewery in Riverwest where the after party will take place. There will be Goldsprints at the party, which I'm incredibly excited about and am very happy to be able to test the competition out in a home crowd before I do it in Tokyo. So, I encourage everyone to come out to eh film fest and hand out at Stonefly afterward for good drinks (and if the grill is open awesome burgers).