trackies have more fun

During the day last Thursday, I just couldn't picture myself making the weekly trek to the track. I'm not sure what my deal was, but I just didn't feel like racing. Maybe it's because I haven't been racing that well at the track lately or maybe it was because I just didn't want to sit in traffic or maybe it was because work's stressing me out...I don't know, but I just wasn't feeling it. But then a crisis came up at work, and I no longer had the option of track racing...and I suddenly wanted to race worse than ever. Funny how that works. I ended up being stuck at work until 9pm (and feeling a bit sorry for myself) while others were blissfully riding laps at the track.

Here's what I realized. When I miss a weekly race on the road, say Opus for example, I don't really feel like I missed much. But when I miss a night of track racing, I feel like I missed the cycling social event of the year.

On Thursday night after racing, The Roommate came home and described the night's events, and then the local cycling blog community lit up the Internet with stories of the night's trials and tribulations...I felt like I missed really a cool party complete with some racin' action, some trash-talk, and some drama, what with Super-Rookie returning to Blaine and the controversy surrounding his Keirin win, and Bergman's recent return to racing as a Cat 5 on the track.

So it got me thinking about why a night at the track is so much fun as both a racing and a pseudo-social event. I think it's safe to say that the racing's fun because the races are always different, and the crowd gets into it, and we have awesome announcers that get everyone fired up. And for whatever reason, it seems like a much more supportive racing environment - trackies are supportive of other trackies, even when they're the competition (and it's not just the chicks). The Donimator can say what he wants about me being a tree-hugging liberal, but I hear him cheering for me during races.

But what about the social side? Because let's face it, most cyclists really aren't the extroverts of our society - which is probably why we do most of our socializing via blogs. So why is the track more social? Is it because we're forced to, at the very least, look at each other as we mill around on the infield? And then maybe eventually go out on a limb and chat with our fellow racers? Is it because we actually learn each other's names since the announcer introduces riders and gives the play-by-play during races? Is it just the personality of a trackie (or the Blaine trackies in particular) that promotes the fun environment? Is it because we're forced to dress and undress in front of each other (if we don't want to be in our chama-lama-ding-dong all night), therefore showing some vulnerability? Okay, that might be pushing it. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that track racing seems like it's become some sort of pseudo-social club for fit people that manifests itself via Blogland...and I'm not afraid to admit that I like it. And the truth is, I'll understand the week's bloggins' much better if I've been at the track to witness everything first-hand.

I don't want to get too schmoopy about it, but I feel track racing brings people together from all sorts of different backgrounds, plops us in to a little oval, tells us to play nicely (but have fun doing it), and then begs us to go home and get on the Internet and let everyone know how much fun we had, even if the racing made us puke.

I guess track racing is just great blog fodder. And I know I'm biased since I love racing at the track and I love reading about other's racing at the track, but ever notice that most of the local cycling blogs are from trackies? Coincidence? I think not. Trackies just have more fun.