As you may have noticed, my race reports tend to be fairly high level. I leave out things like riding into the ditch on willow springs road during the APC, falling in the one puddle on the entire course during the singleswizzle, and an incredibly long, somewhat bizarre stream of thoughts (and songs) that were running through my head during the wee hours of the night at Old Pueblo.

I think that I forget some of these on purpose. Fortunately (or unfortunately), they usually come back to me over time.

One of these choice events from Old Pueblo came back to me in all its glory when I was looking for my sunglasses yesterday.

Our story begins at around 2:15 in the morning. I was working up the motivation to go out for another lap by the campfire, and had just got to the point where I had adjusted my layers for the temperature, and was getting my food together for the next lap.

I threw a couple choice items into my jersey pocket just in case, when these thoughts started running through my head:

“Damn. I kinda have to take a dump.”
“Screw it, I can wait until next lap, I’ve got 2 jerseys, a jacket, and tights on over my bibs, that’s way too much effort. . .”
“Oh boy, never mind the waiting. GOTTA GO NOW!!”

This internal conversation was followed by my immediate and hasty exit from the campsite to the nearby port-o-johns.

I immediately dropped my bike, threw down my camelbak, and jetted for the nearest blue thing I could find.

Once inside, I began hastily removing everything I was wearing.

Gloves, helmet, jacket, jerseys, bibs and tights.

Relief.

I slowly put everything back on in the reverse order, and stepped out into the cold night air. . . . only to realize my glasses, which were previously on my helmet, were no longer there.

A quick re-entry into the port-o-john revealed what I feared: they weren’t on the floor, around the hole, on top of the TP, or anywhere else that I was willing to retrieve them from.

I returned to the bike to ride the next 3 laps sans-glasses.

I’m sure they have been pumped into a sewage treatment plant in tucson somewhere by now. Goodbye glasses, it was a good run

They lasted me almost 2 years, which isn’t bad, so I don’t feel too horrible buying a new pair. The ones I lost were a pair of Smith Reactors and they were one of the better pairs of glasses I’ve had.

They did well, but I’m putting out a call for suggestions if anyone has any input for another pair to try out. I’m willing to spend a bit of money, because I wear sunglasses pretty much non-stop, but at the same time something unreasonably priced will put them out of the running pretty quick.

Here are my fairly basic criteria for sunglasses:

1. Multiple Lenses – I like replaceable lenses. They save me from buying multiple pairs of glasses, and I can just replace lenses if when I scratch them.


2. Good coverage – I hate glasses that when I’m not looking straight ahead I’m either looking outside the lenses or at a huge chunk of frame. Doesn’t really make much sense.


3. Good ventilation – It’s not too much of a problem out here in arizona, but I hate glasses that fog. They’re worse than not wearing glasses at that point, and unfortunately, when they tend to fog the worst, there is usually a good chance that you’re flinging mud as well.

So with that very basic list of criteria, have at it, and let me know if you have any suggestions for a new pair of shades for me.