Epic, by definition, or not

Not much going on lately, so no updates.
Tommorow is Rocktober Marathon mtb race. This should be pretty nuts. Seventyish miles of mtb fun. With today's rain, and a chance of rain tommorow, that could make the course even harder.
That brings me to today's soapbox. The word EPIC.
Epic, that is a word that is very much overused in cycling. Like some kind of pissing contest, ooooohhhhh my race was so epic. I did this, that, and the other thing. Like so many things in life this term, at least in cycling parlance, has been dumbed down. In twenty-one years of racing I may have done ONE event that I considered EPIC. Maybe I cherrypick easy stuff? Maybe I have a higher standard as to what is a physical challenge? Maybe I am just going off half-cocked yet again? OK, back to EPIC races. My EPIC race was Cross Nats in 2005 in Providence, when the Nor'easter hit at the start and during the 35+ race. When a Cross Nats race get cancelled, that is EPIC. When you are so cold and hypothermic you do not know where you are, or fall off of your bike on a straight road, that is EPIC in my book. If you finished the 35+ race you can suffer more than me, at least on that day.
That being said, the Rocktober Challenge will be friggin' hard. However, the race will prolly not be EPIC. If it were 35 degrees, snow laying and snowing during the race, then it would be EPIC.
You want to know what is EPIC, go here.
So if you read this and race MTB, you should be embarassed the Muur Conqueror did what he did, and you could not drive to RB Winter State Park to challenge yourself. Seriously 31 ELITE guys?
Look for a race report on Monday, or not. My guess is the race will be a personal challenge where we are getting the most out of ourselves in our own personal battles. That is EPIC. Nah, prolly not, just looong.