It's Not Easy Being Green

Found this on skinnyski.com: the epic battle of GrandStay's very own Swanson brothers at the Orono CX. It might be sibling rivalry, but I bet I can tell who lead most of it (hint: his face actually has skin visible). Turns out it was all brotherly love at the end, with a lot of soft pedaling and "after you," "no, after you," "no, I really must insist," etc. Score 1-2 for the brothers Swanson and for the green team. DOC'S ADVICE: Maybe it really is easy to be green.

Which reminds me, I saw a clip on one of the network stations last Sunday morning while I was at the hospital making rounds. I wish I could find it, but I've looked all over the networks' websites as well as Google and YouTube and haven't located it. It was during an NFL pre-game show featuring a game between the lowly Jets and Eagles with 2 wins between them this season. It featured Kermit the Frog singing an altered version of "It's not Easy Being Green."

Since I couldn't find that version, I got the original 1969 version off of YouTube (one of my all-time favorite time-waster sites ever invented). I forgot most of the words, not having actually heard the song in, like, 35 years. I can't seem to embed a YouTube player into this blog (anybody less video impared than me, please help me out here), so Kermit is in a separate window above.

I got all pensive and thoughtful after seeing Kermit again. For me, it's not that easy being green, training with all these strong riders on the GrandStay team. Don't get me wrong, I had a fantanstic year, my second on the team, and it's entirely because they pushed me harder than I've ever trained before (I'm basically fairly lazy and content with easy ridin'). Right now I'm pretty happy to not be lining up for the Flanders CX, which starts in a couple of hours, because I feel like I've raced enough for one year. Besides, CX is just behind time trials as my worst cycling discipline (OK, MTB is right up there too). DOC'S ADVICE: stick to what you're good at as much as possible if you don't want to look like a dork.

Oh, but when Kermit sings: "but green's the color of spring," I get a little zap of energy thinking about next spring and training weekends and all the road races and crits. Then I think about all the great guys on GrandStay, and the friendships that I have made with cool people I would never have met otherwise. I remember last year's winter party (watch for it some time in January, green boys), and all the trash talkin' with Doug and Matt and Mean Dawg, and I realize that Kermit sums it all up at the end: "I'm green, and it'll do fine, and it's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be." DOC'S ADVICE: it may not be easy being green, but nothing good is ever easy.