Got A Great Surprise This Week

Last week @blackbottoms ran a contest on Twitter. After he announced the winners (I wasn’t one) I tweeted, “I suck at these Twitter contests.” Then @weiland proceeded to tell me about the contests he had won on Twitter. I thanked him for rubbing it in. A short while later I got a direct message from @blackbottoms (Matt) letting me know that they had a tshirt for me and to send them an email with my address. Way cool! I exchanged a couple of emails with Matt and he wasn’t sure he had one in my size (we all know I’m girth challenged) but he would see what he could do.

Tour of Utah Leader's Jersey

On Wednesday I received a package from Blackbottoms. I immediately ripped it open and didn’t find a tshirt. I found a yellow leaders jersey from the Tour of Utah! I was totally blown away! How cool is that? I was shocked. Blackbottoms has been the designer of the leaders jersey for the Tour of Utah for a few years now and it looks sweet.

I tried it on and it didn’t fit. I was bummed, but not surprised, because I’m really hard to fit in cycling jerseys. That left me with a dilemma….what to do with the jersey. I came up with a few ideas:

1. I could offer it up as a giveaway to my Twitter followers but I didn’t like that idea (I liked it too much).
2. Maybe I could go the Fat Cyclist route and auction it off to help pay for a new bike since mine is broken and out of commission. While I think the jersey is awesome I just don’t think I’d get the frenzy that Eldon does because, let’s face it, it’s not a trip to the Tour de France or a $7,000 bicycle. But it’s a Tour of Utah Yellow Jersey!
3. What if I gave it away by raising money for LiveStrong? I think that would be a good cause.
4. Lastly, what if I just kept it and used it as a goal for the upcoming new year to be able to fit into it by the end of the year? I think that would be a great physical challenge and it wouldn’t be easy. A great motivator.

I’m leaning very heavily towards #4 because I need a physical challenge like that. I’m hoping to be able to get a new bike in the next few weeks (I now I keep saying that but life keeps getting in the way of funds) so that’ll be taken care of.

For Matt at Blackbottoms – thanks. You totally shocked me (which is hard to do) and I sincerely appreciate it.