Could I Be Anymore Random?

Quote That Made Me Pause
“It’s great to love people this much.” – Tony Snow, emotional and holding back tears while talking about his family during his cancer treatments.

Yeah, Tony, it is. I love that feeling.

And when I feel it, I cry too.

In a good way.


And on the Other End of the Spectrum
You know what’s kind of annoying?

When people say, “Hey, remind me later that I have to……” or “Don’t let me forget that I need to….”

Yeah, because YOUR list of tasks is what I keep at the forefront of my mind on a daily basis. For crying out loud, I consider myself lucky if I can remember there are two C’s in my last name on any given day. My daily treat is when I wake up and actually know what day it is upon opening my eyes (which is really only important on street cleaning day when I need to remember to move my car – again, remembering even this is something I can barely manage, given the bottomless hole of parking tickets).

And inevitably, it’s always women making these demands in grocery/Target stores while standing in checkouts lines (or at least this is where I always overhear this), as if the conveyor belt unconsciously triggers them to recite their To Do lists. And the person chosen to “remember” or “remind” is usually a kid or friend staring blankly into thin air, nodding dumbly and mumbling, “Uh huh.” I am going to say that the odds of Person B remembering anything out of the mouth of Person A is slim to none.

So why even ask?

Sigh.

People are ridiculous.


So, Yeahhhhh…I’m Doing It
I have offhandedly mentioned a few times that I am doing the Spirit of Racine Half Ironman this weekend. This will be my third half distance – the first two were in 2006, before the back injury. In fact, I hadn't raced since Steelhead 2006 before going into IM AZ 08.

I haven’t talked much about it mostly because I don’t feel there is much to say – I don’t feel totally prepared, struggled with motivation here and there, and haven’t really felt quite my badass self since IM. Every discipline has taken tons of physical effort, which is surprising, given my fitness level as recent as April. Runs are crapshoots, swims have been sporadic, and rides are mediocre. I just feel, like.....eh.

So I am basically going into it as a long training day. I have no time expectations, and am pretty much going to show up and see what the day brings. I did this for Ironman, and it seemed to work out well for me.

But for shits and giggles, I decided to pull up my 2006 Steelhead times, just to see. Here is what I found:

6:32 – Final time
41:39 - Swim
3:05 - Bike
2:33 – Run
(transitions were in the 5:00 range - good lord)

I remember Steelhead vividly – I went into it really sick, just about quit at mile 1 on the run, and literally gutted it out for the next 12 miles. Of all the races – tri or running – I have done, this might have been the worst.

So I figure if I get somewhere around these times, then great. If not – oh well.

After all – it’s just a race. And given that my brother is really sick and back in the hospital to have a biopsy on his (my?) kidney, I consider myself fortunate just to be out there, spending my summer Sunday doing what I love.

So to all those racing this weekend - Racine, Ironman LP, and others - best of luck and happy racing!