I had lots of people approach me at the races last Sunday
complimenting me on my Pirate gear.
Lots of pictures were taken, and I particularly got popular
after I beat a current national champion in two events!
I told everyone that I wear Pirate gear because like genuine
Pirates, I am here to take all of the gold!
It's a shame I didn't have the stuff a week earlier because
I was involved in a professional photo shoot for a magazine
article because of winning the Masters Athlete Comeback of
the Year Award for coming back from a broken neck (C1 cervical
vertebrae) just two years ago, and then taking 4 Florida state
championships.
On a quickly resume, I was a three event national running
champion in my youth (5K track, 10K cross country, and member
of national championship winning relay team). I came to cycling
very late in life at the age of 64, but as you can see from
the picture "winner20K" I'm not exactly the typical 67 year
old.
With just 11 months of cycling total, I broke the Florida
State 5K time trial record. I have notched victories against
4 national champions and one world champion, and I am the
current USCF state road race and time trial champion here
in Florida and also the current Florida Senior Games state
time trial and road race champion.
I broke my neck with just a little over a year of riding when
during a time trial in which I had passed everyone that started
in front of me, I unexpectedly arrived at the finish line
at a high rate of speed and an official stepped in my path.
When I swerved my time trial bike running a rear disk wheel
and very narrow 19 mm front wheel pumped up to 150 psi, witnesses
tell me I went flying over the handlebars and speared the
ground head first at a high rate of speed leading to a serious
neck fracture and 5 months in a stiff cast.
I started riding my trainer 70 minutes a day just three days
after breaking my neck, and much to the dismay of my physician
started lifting weights a week later.
It took 9 months for the fracture to heal, and just a few
months later I won my first two Florida titles. That led to
my winning the Masters Comeback of the Year Award, and that
will be announced and in the December issue of GeezerJock
magazine in which I will be featured.
I am well known around Florida - my specialty is beating up
on the young studs in the faster club rides, and I have defeated
two triathlon professionals (one in his 20s and the other
one age 31) in sprints.
This also all led to me getting a sponsorship from Guru bikes
out of Canada who supplied me with a custom made $8000 Guru
Geneo.
I am a retired airline pilot and I train at least 22 hours
every week, and rarely have less than 300 miles of training
per week. I have missed only 5 days of training the entire
year.
As you can see from some of the pictures, I like "different"
kinds of outfits, but I am really taken with the Pirate stuff
in that I have a collection of skull stuff, and I made the
cover of Tattoo magazine with a skull tattoo on my right shoulder,
and in that I have 657 skydives (a sport I did not take up
until the age of 55), I have a skull with parachute tattooed
on my right leg.
As soon as I found your skull jerseys on eBay some months
ago, I immediately had to have a black and white one! The
skin suit was really a find for me! :)
I take drum lessons, and plan to be the first 70 year old
rock and roll drummer.
I hope to gig for the stones when their current drummer goes
- he looks like he is on his last leg! :) I was heavily into
martial arts and fought Gary Alexander who was the first United
States Karate Champion.
I am a member of Mensa, and played in chess tournaments for
years. It goes on and on, and I don't want to bore you to
tears.
I am a California boy BTW, who grew up in Stockton and attended
UCAL Berkeley.
Sandy
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