That's a young picture of Elvis before we was The King. Just another kid from round the neigbourhood. I delivered newspapers on my BMX as a kid. These were the days of the Walkman and I had my favourite songs like King Creole and Viva Las Vegas on my TDK cassette. It was the mid-Eighties and I recall quite clearly thinking, please don't let me bump into any of my U2 and Depeche Mode listening friends and risk them asking me what I'm listening to. Elvis, if I recall correctly, wasn't that fashionable in my circles. It was always the inebriated ladies, with blood red lipstick and cigarettes perched between their fingers, who would lose their nut when the DJ put Elvis on. That intrigued me to no end. While my friends were jumping like kangaroos to Sunday Bloody Sunday, I was humming the tune of Jail House Rock.
Time moves on and it was recently at Jake's sports day, while hobbling along after having ripped my hamstring in the dad's 100 metre race (always a sadistic race to host during the Olympics), that I thought of how very few of us get to live our dreams as adults. Most people get out of high school, have their lives handed to them on a TV dinner tray with a warm beer, and settle down in their couches to watch a replay of what their lives could have been. And some of us just won't lie down.
My latest venture is the design of 30 x Elvis cycling outfits for the Apocalypse Cows. There's a bit of Evel Knievel flare in there, some high speed biking leather bell bottoms and of course some flames. Applications to join are pouring in. This is the drill:
• Raise R15k by end of November - all money to CHOC.
• Ride first loop of the 94.7 Cycle Challenge in sub-3 hours.
• Second loop we help the rest of the herd.
To be considered as an Apocalypse Cow (numbers limited) for 2012’s 94.7 Cycle Challenge on 18th November, here are the rules:
1. De Wet is our leader. All hail De Wet!
2. Email me your full name, ID number, cell number.
3. Motivate in 140 characters or less (the length of a Tweet) why you should be considered as an AC.
4. This year, we will be riding in specifically designed, aerodynamic, one-of-a-kind, rider-specific Elvis jumpsuits.
5. Elvis side burns (aka Wiggo chops) are mandatory.
6. Elvis hairstyles are optional but encouraged. Best start growing out your rockabilly hairdo’s now.
And now that I am adapting my childhood dreams into reality, mixing Elvis and bicycles, I was humbled that my friend Howard Houston asked to interview me on his podcast at TRICYCLIST.NET.
Here's the link: - http://www.tricyclist.net/race-tips-for-ironman-south-africa/
The interview is about an hour long and is on Ironman South Africa, The Comrades and The Cows.
Before we were famous,
~RobbyRicc
