The Austin 70.3

Well everyone else is doing it so I guess I will too!  I have found the race reports written by  friends so interesting, I figured I would share my thoughts as well.  

 

Signing up for this race itself is a little bit of an interesting story.  In 2009, this was going to be the first half Ironman that my wife and I attempted, but we got burned out on training so we did the half Redman in Oklahoma City instead because it was a month earlier in the season.  Fast forward to this year, I wanted to do the half Redman for the 3^rd time and my wife wanted to do the half Redman aqua bike (she is sidelined from running due to an injury).  However, the aqua bike was sold out.  This caused us to switch our attention to Longhorn since it was the closest race that worked for us on the calendar.  There was no aqua bike, but there was a relay and we recruited my sister-in-law to run.  This would be a great challenge to her since it would be her first half marathon.  

During the early stages of training for this race, I felt great.  Although I wasn’t following any type of formal plan, I kept up with a running schedule that had allowed me to PR in my last half marathon and I began riding with the Frisco Triathlon Club which proved very beneficial in pushing my pace and distance beyond what I would do myself.  

I had to push myself for motivation after Labor Day.  I had some travel obligations, my wife had a time consuming teaching schedule this semester, and the weather for the weeks leading up to the event did not cooperate with riding a bike outside.  Regardless of the challenges, taper week arrived and I felt ready for the race.  

Race weekend arrived and it was time to travel.  It was nasty and rainy so I did not want to put our nicely tuned and cleaned bikes on the bike rack just to get covered with road gunk. I crammed two bikes, luggage, triathlon gear, three women and myself into my wife’s Nissan Pathfinder.  It was a bit cramped and unorganized, but we made it!  

We rolled into Town and went straight to the Expo.  This was my first Ironman branded event, so I was excited to see how it compared to other events.  The process was efficient and the swag was good.  We made our way through the process of getting bibs, shirts, swag, and timing chips and into the merchandise area where we bought t-shirts and a cookie cutter.  It was a cold dreary day and it made us very nervous about what the temperature would be during the race.  Also, I was in shorts so that wasn’t the smartest wardrobe decision on my part.  

We attended the athlete briefing which provided some clarity about the transitions.  This was the first race in which I have participated with two transitions.  This and the weather were probably my biggest points of stress going into the race.  After the race meeting, we took our bikes to T-1 and found our spots.  We then went to have a nice pasta dinner, buy some throw away hoodies, and settle in back at the hotel where we packed our various bags and got ready to wake up at 3:45 am.  

The night was restless and the morning came too soon.  We got up, got our coffee, checked our bags and left the hotel at 4:30.  We arrived to drop off our running gear in T-1 and boarded the shuttle bus to the swim area.  Once we got to T-1, we got body marked, off loaded our bike bags and made sure everything was set up the way it should be.  I had a sinking feeling that I had left my run bag at 2082 rather than 2782, which was my number so I hopped a shuttle bus back to T-2 to double check.  It turned out that all was well, but the line for the shuttle buses back to T-1 now wrapped all the way through transition.  It moved faster than I thought it would and I made it back to the swim start area in plenty of time to meet back up with my wife and wish her good luck as she began her swim.  

I then had about an hour to kill because I was in the last wave.  This was nice because I got to watch my wife emerge from the swim and cheer her on.  At 8:25, it was time for my wave to get in the water.  I had been dreading this moment because of how cold I thought the water would be.  To my surprise, it was pretty nice.  Maybe it was warmer than expected because I was in the final wave and the other thousands of participants warmed up the water for me….. Yuck. 

The gun went off and my event had begun.  Despite the numerous swim waves, the swim felt very crowded and there were many elbows thrown and kicks to avoid.  I had some side cramping during the first 500 meters, but they subsided.  At the first turn, the sun was very bright and in my eyes which made me have to pick my head up several times to find the buoys.  I got off course pretty badly when the buoys changed from yellow to orange, so I had to get back in line.  I made the final turn and began the final third of the swim.  I always have to back myself off at this point because the excitement of being on the way in always makes me underestimate that there is still a good chunk of the swim left to accomplish.  I swam in until my elbows touched the lake bottom and then ran out into T-1.  

The wetsuit peelers did a great job and I made it to my bike without issue.  The cooler temperatures made me want a few more cloths than normal, so I took a little more time than I wanted to getting dry, changing, and getting out to the bike course.   Clocking in at over 9:00, it wasn’t my finest transition.  

The first few miles on the bike seemed pretty difficult and it took me a while to settle in to the ride.  Once I settled in, the ride seemed pretty nice and non-eventful for a period of time.  I was making decent time, but nothing spectacular.  The course was very congested I don’t think anyone really followed the rule of always having five bike lengths between you and the athlete in front of you.  The course seemed to get a bit more challenging after the half-way point and my anticipation of a tail wind for the second half was wrong.  Outside of a wonderful three mile stretch around mile 40, the wind seemed to be in my face at every turn.  It also seemed that every turn greeted me with another hill to climb.  I am not a strong climber and my training routes did not have this type of elevation so I was discouraged to see my average pace slowly dropping.  I started to lose my positive attitude around mile 50 after completing a series of three killer hills.  At this point, it just seemed that the ride would never end.  It seemed that I was so close, but also so far.  Finally, I turned onto the road leading to transition signaling the end of the ride.  Of course, there was another hill; it may have been minor, but at this point even the slightest incline seemed like climbing a mountain.  

From the dismount line, my rack was all the way on the other side of transition.  As I ran through, I couldn’t shake the grumpiness that took hold of me on the last few miles of the bike.  I was very disappointed in my bike time and that was an area where I felt I had improved from my last 70.3.  I racked my bike and put my run gear on.  My wife had completed her portions of the relay and she stood at the fence to cheer me on.  She asked how I was.  In true positive fashion, I said “this sucks, I suck.”  I then scowled at her family and headed out on the run.  

The run started out fine.  Despite my rough end to the bike, I felt good.  I had to continue to slow myself down because every time I looked at my watch, I was running a pace that I knew I could not sustain. The run was a three loop course and on the way out of the first loop, I felt pretty good.  I knew that I would eventually walk so I wanted to make up as much time as I could within the first loop.  I made it almost to the end of the first loop before I had to start walking up one of the hills.  The run certainly got harder after that point.  I decided that I would run through the populated areas with lots of energy and also the downhill portions.  I had conceded to myself that I would walk up the hills.  I was already very tired at this point, so thinking about running nine more miles was very tough mentally. 

 Even though it hurt, I felt that I was running strong for the first portion of the second lap, but I hit the wall around mile six.  It was all that I could do to pick up my feet and run down the hills.  I was very frustrated that I couldn’t dig deeper and run more.  I was able to finish the second lap strong.  I saw my family at this point and expressed my displeasure with how I was feeling.  But here it was – the final lap.  At one point, I think I was making grunt noises and having an outward conversation with myself of how I would never do another 70.3.  I got through the hills and into the park at the other end of the course and finally started to feel that the end was near.  I didn’t finish the last lap as strong as I had hoped, but I made it to the expo hall and ran hard across the finish line.  

Upon crossing the finish line, I sat by the wall and thought to myself “Should I go to the Medical Area?” “Am I going to die?” "Will I ever Stand Again?" I had never felt so tired after an athletic event and I truly think that this was the most challenging event I have ever done.  My wife found me and took me over to the food area where she got me pasta. On the way there, I shared with her my desire for this to be my last 70.3.  However, after eating my food and sitting around for about 10 minutes, I had already forgotten the pain and started thinking about the next one.  

It wasn’t my best, it wasn’t my worst.  Looking back on the race, there are portions that I am proud of and portions where I failed to meet goals.    I am going to introduce more structure in my training and in my nutrition for the next one.   Ultimately, I am happy with my race experience, but wish that I would have had a better attitude coming off of the bike and throughout the run. After all, this is what I do for fun!

A Run to Remember

The 11^th annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon was certainly a run to remember.  I have participated in this event in some shape or form since I ran OKC as my first full marathon in 2008.  In 2009 we had a relay team and I have run the half marathon the past two years.   I participate in this race for several reasons.  The race is local, it is for a good cause, and it is one, if not the best race that I have participated in from an organization standpoint. 

There is also a little bit of nostalgia involved for me and it keeps me coming back.  Since it was the site of my first marathon, I have a lot of good memories training for that event in 2008.  It seemed like such an impossible task during the training.  It was such a monumental endeavor in my life that my memories and reflections about everything that went on during that 20 week training program, including what I ate, what I listened to, who I hung out with, and where I trained seem amplified and almost larger than life.  The event itself taught me that the grind is in the training and the race is the celebration of all the hard work.  I feel a few of those old feeling each time I participate. 

I was really excited this year for the race.  Not only was I excited to run, but I was excited for the participation that we were getting from the Guthrie.  In January, we started a “Get Fit Guthrie” push and there were a lot of individuals and teams that signed up to do one of the events at the Memorial Marathon in order to support the community.  There was a Guthrie Police Department Team, a City of Guthrie Team, and a Guthrie YMCA team that all included people who only got into running to be a part of this event.

I was focused on a goal this year.  While my run last year wasn’t my worst, it was not under the two hour mark that I use to determine if I had a good race or not.  It took me 2:02:30 last year and this year I was determined to beat it.  After the run last year, I was convinced that the reason I was slower than I used to be was because I was over 30.  The half-marathons I had run since turning 30 had both been over two hours with one of them being over 10 minutes slower than my PR (personal record).  I got excited and motivated after I ran the Tulsa Route 66 Half Marathon in November in 1:59:29.  After that, I decided that I was not going to reduce my weekly mileage and was going to run a long run of 10 miles or more at least once a week.  This led me to train and do the full Austin Marathon in February. 

After the Austin Marathon, I decided that rather than do another full, I would train hard for the OKC half.  This would allow me to diversify my training a little bit to incorporate swimming and biking so that I could start getting ready for some summer triathlons and keep me from getting burned out. 

I felt really good about the training.  I had to adjust my schedule a little bit and incorporate my long runs during the week rather than on Saturdays because I got busy, but I found a great running partner that really pushed me because he is faster than I am.  It is also a lot easier to get out of bed at 5:00 am when you know someone is going to be ringing your door bell, ready to run!

I used to dread the day before a race and I would be really nervous with anticipation, but now it has become something that I really love and look forward to.  The events leading up to the race are all part of the celebration and much of it has become a ritual to me that I really enjoy.  I love going to the pre-race expo to pick up my packet and I really enjoy having a pasta dinner on the eve of a race.

 We went to Café 7 last weekend for the pasta meal and it was really good.  I know that I probably carb load WAY more than is necessary, but hey, it is a good excuse to eat a lot!  After dinner, we went back home so that I could lay out all of my race gear and go to bed so that I could get a good night’s sleep.   

As much as I love the night before, I can’t say that I am thrilled with the morning of.  It seems that no matter what race I am going to do, it requires that I wake up at 4:00 am.  Then there is the mad dash to eat breakfast and drink a cup of coffee with the perfect timing so that I am  still full of energy for the start of the race, but everything has digested so I don’t’ get sick.  After the morning routine, we hopped in the car and went downtown. 

After we fought through traffic, Rachel dropped me off at a stop light about a half of a mile away from the starting line and went to find a good place to spectate.  I had a throwaway sweatshirt on and my umbrella in tow.  It was a good thing that I had those items because it was really starting to rain as I walked to the starting line.  When I got close enough to hear the P.A. system, I learned that the race had been delayed 30 minutes because of lightning.  The rain didn’t bother me; in fact, I was kind of looking forward to it.  I have always enjoyed running in the rain, however, I didn’t want my socks and shoes to get completely soaked before we began, so I huddled up in a parking garage to wait out the delay. 

I made my way to the starting corral and had to fight my way through the crowd to get the spot I wanted.  There were 25,000 people involved in doing some type of event and I think they were all trying to get through an area the size of a door way all at one time.  I made it through and settled in comfortably between the 8 ½ and 9 minute per mile pace groups.  I wanted to start with runners who would be traveling a speed that was aggressive for me so that I could establish my pace early on so that I would not have to make significant adjustments mid race. 

I put in my ear buds and started the special playlist I made for the event as I waited for the final minutes to tick away before the start of the race.  The moments before a race are strange because it is like a wave of calm and quiet sweeps over the crowd as the anticipation builds toward the starting gun.  Being in a crowd with thousands of people each with their own story, each with their own reason for running and each with their own journey that they had to go through to be standing at that starring line is really cool.   

After moments of calm, the start is finally here, and all energy is unleashed as the streets are flooded with runners.  Ok, that may be what it is like at the front of the pack, but back there where I stand, you kind of shuffle your feet and ever slowly get pushed forward until you finally cross the starting line and are able to start running.   One I crossed that line and started moving my legs, I felt great.  The mist was coming down, the music was in my ears and months of dedication were finally coming to fruition. 

I ran the first mile very conservatively so that I could get a chance to warm up my joints and muscles which were in for a couple hours of hard work.  We ran through Bricktown and then onto Lincoln.   With the State Capital in my sights I started to feel really good and picked up my pace.  I was weaving in and out of the crowd and having a great time overtaking runners that were in front of me.  I was really excited that I wasn’t getting tired!  The rain was spitting down on my face and I felt like a warrior battling the elements.  I ran past the church on 36^th and Walker and Gave my wife a high five and then it was on to the dreaded “Gorilla Hill.” 

You see it when you turn the corner.  A long sloping hill looms in the distance.  A giant inflatable gorilla stands at the top of the hill and a group of spectators dressed as bananas dance as runners pass by.  With all of its legend and intimidation, this hill had nothing on me.  You see Gorilla ill had not realized that I had been training the back roads of Logan County, the trails at Mitch Park, and had recently faced the Hill Country of Austin.  I smirked at the Gorilla as I passed him by knowing that on this day, he would not win. 

I ate a quick snack of Accel Gel and turned onto Western where we would soon split away from the full marathon participants.  I knew that this was the point of the race where it would start to get tough.  Not only had I pushed myself pretty hard during the first eight miles, but the two mile southern run up Classen is both boring and gradually up hill.   With five miles to go, I had to stay focused.  I worked to maintain an even pace and get into a groove.  Finally, I turned away from Classen and into Heritage Hills. 

Heritage Hills is a beautiful neighborhood that has a lot of excitement from spectators.  I needed the support at this point.  With a little less than three miles to go, I was starting to feel that I had spent too much energy early.  I developed a cramp in my back that was so strong I had to stop and walk for a minute so that it would go away.  I felt defeated.  I was so upset that I had run so well, but now I was fading away.  I turned a corner and saw a downhill portion of the course.  This seemed like a great opportunity to start running again, pick up my pace and finish strong.  By this point, I was all but assured that I would beat my time from the previous year and come in under the two hour mark, but now I wanted to beat 1:57:00. 

I picked up the pace and grunted out another mile or so before leaving the neighborhood.  Before long, I turned right onto Broadway and knew that the finish line was near.  At 12^th and Broadway, I knew that I only had 7 blocks to go.  It was a short distance, but I was so tired that it seemed very far away.  Finally the finish line was in my sites.  As I entered the final stretch, I gave all of the energy I had to sprint to the finish line and pass as many people as I could before I reached the final destination.  I crossed the finish line in 1:56:10.  Not only did I reach my goal, but ran the second best half marathon of my life.  I was only 41 seconds off of my personal best. 

I was so thrilled that I ate six Carl’s Jr. Burgers throughout the day and went to Starbucks twice!  Carl’s Jr. was cooking burgers at the finish line and they were kind enough to keep giving me burgers every time I asked.  This is one of the things that make OKC an elite marathon – Carl’s Jr. is always making burgers and there is also a lot of other good food. 

Despite the cold, wind and rain, it was a great event.  Everyone that works to put this race together does a great job and it is an awesome thing for Oklahoma.   Since there are not too many marathon events close to Oklahoma during the summer, I will have to wait until the fall to experience this thrill again, and that is a little bit depressing.   The good thing is that triathlon season is right around the corner and there is one of those to do almost every weekend in Oklahoma! 

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

I get excited about Holidays.  The excitement probably comes from my mom.  When I was a kid, she would always fully decorate the house to celebrate and to this day I still get an Easter Basket and care packages for Halloween and Valentine’s Day.  I am already anticipating the Easter Basket that awaits me this weekend because it will probably mean lots of candy.  There are different things I like about different Holidays and while Halloween is by far my favorite overall holiday, Easter is my favorite Candy holiday.  Yes – I have categories and by the way, Valentine’s Day is my least favorite candy holiday.  Why would anyone want to waste all of that time eating chocolate?  At least the conversation hearts redeem the Holiday a little bit. 

I am a huge fan of Easter Candy.  I love jellybeans, Cadbury Eggs (yes they are chocolate, but filled with sweet goodness), coconut bird nests, and marshmallow goodies.  Ok, side note, why have Peeps had to cheapen themselves by expanding to other Holidays.  No one wants your stupid snowman peeps and red heart peeps just look ridiculous.  Anyway, by far the greatest Easter Candy is the Bunny Basket Marshmallow Eggs.  If you are not familiar, these are the colorful little egg shaped candies that are about an inch long and have a firm marshmallow center.  These candies are the greatest and they do not get the respect they deserve.  Anytime I talk about them with people, they always say “yuck.”  I don’t get it.  Why do so many people have such poor taste? 

I have already had my share of these candies this year, but I have also sampled almost every jell bean that I could get my hands on.  In fact, Rachel and I decided to get one or two bags of jellybeans each weekend for about the past five weeks so that we could sample them all.  Here is the list we have tried: 

-          Sweet Tart

-           Starburst Tropical

-          Sour Patch Kids

-          Brach’s Traditional

-          Jolly Rancher

-          Lemonhead and Friends

-          Brach’s Speckled Egg

-          LifeSavers

-          Hawaiian Punch

We are still on the hunt for the elusive Nerds Jellybean.  We saw them once at Gordman’s, but didn’t buy them because we were not aware at the time how rare they were.  I think that all of them were pretty good, but the Sweet Tart Jellybeans probably take the top spot.  As boring as it sounds I think the runners up were the two Brach’s variety. 

So hopfully  (ha ha, that is a pun not a misspelling) the Easter Bunny will be bringing a basket of goodies so that I can eat myself into a sugar induced coma this Sunday.  Easter comes but once a year and the really good candy (that’s right Peeps, I am calling you out) only shows up on this glorious occasion. 

Crashes, Cycles, and Coop

Last weekend started off with a bang….. literally.  Rachel called me on Friday afternoon and said, “Some guy rear ended me.” She was calm and I told her to call the police, so that they could come out and do an accident report.  Since she was just outside of our neighborhood, I decided to drive over and take a look.  She completely understated what had happened!  I pulled up to find traffic backed up and saw that her Pathfinder had been nailed by a big F350.  I saw that she was fine and walked around to the back of the vehicle and assessed the damage.  The back of the vehicle was TRASHED and it ended up having to be towed away.  Fortunately, everyone was fine and Rachel didn’t have to go to the hospital.  Now we just have to mess the with guy’s insurance company to make sure we get everything taken care of.  The only funny thing that came out of it is that Rachel has no choice but to ride around with me in my Jeep because it is our only vehicle.  I have had the top off all week and she hates it J

We woke up Saturday morning to assess how Rachel felt as we had signed up to ride the 33 mile Red Bud Classic Cycle tour.  She was a trooper and demanded that we go and do the ride despite the wreck on the previous day.  The ride was really cool.  We had never done one of the Red Bud Classic events, so the route was new to us.  It was a great ride with the wind at our side most of the time.   The best part of the event was that Big Truck Tacos was out there with the mobile truck, so I got to enjoy a breakfast taco after the ride.  It was a really nice morning, so we took our time on the way back to Guthrie, driving on the back roads all the way home so that we could enjoy the ride.  Along the way we stopped at Starbucks (big surprise) and Cup Cakes a Go Go so we could have some treats for our weekend guests. Finally we had to get home and clean up because a group of ten of us had a tour scheduled at the Coop Brewery. 

The tour of Coop was great.  They are one of only nine breweries in the state and the brew master really knew his stuff.  He used to be a teacher and it showed because he was very good at explaining the production process of their business.  As part of the tour, we got to taste all of Coop’s beer.  By far the best beer was the Farmhouse Ale.  This was a beer that actually came out of a batch that had some mistakes, but rather than throw it away, they added some tart cherries and reworked the flavor.  Unfortunately it is limited in supply since it was an off the cuff creation, but it was amazing.  Most beers that have fruit involved are a little bit sweet and really get annoying after a few drinks.  This ale was really different because it didn’t have any sweetness to it, just a nice tart taste. 

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with our friends and relaxing.  It was a jam packed day of leisure and fun so to make up for all the fun, I worked in the yard all day Sunday to balance it out. 

Toys in the Attic

I have fully repaid my debt to my parents for their assistance a couple of weeks ago cleaning out my Tahoe.  I made a trip back to Fairview last weekend  to help them.  The task at hand…… cleaning out the attic.  My parents have been going through a major spring cleaning at their house.  My mom even convinced my dad to clean out and organize the garage.  Ultimately, the goal is to have a giant garage sale.  With nearly 30 years’ worth of goods building up, a garage sale is a great idea. 

The attic was one of the last areas to get organized.  I am not quite sure how I got myself volunteered into this chore, but when I went up the attic stairs for the first time, I knew I was in for much more than I bargained for.  At the top of the stairs was an entire civilization of cardboard boxes with very little room to get around.  I started handing boxes down the stairs to my wife, dad, and mom.  This lasted a good five minutes before my mom and Rachel started to get preoccupied with what was in each box rather than taking the other boxes from me. 

The boxes were divided into piles of my mom’s stuff, dad’s stuff, my stuff, house stuff, and garage sale stuff.  The folks were willing to discard a lot of the old things which was good.  I know it was hard to part ways with the old orange blinds from 1983, but it was time.  Once we got all the boxes down, it was time to sort and organize.  I was tasked with going through all of my old toys and keep sakes. 

This was a lot of fun.  We went and bought several plastic containers so that once the goodies were sorted, I could store them safely and hopefully preserve their condition.  My full intention was to go through all of my stuff, organize it and then put it safely back into my parents  attic rather than having to take possession myself.  There was something that I was hoping to come across and take with me, and that was all of my old concert ticket stubs.

 To my excitement, I found them in the first box I went through.  There they were in all of their glory – the mix of all of the glorious late 80s and 90s bands that I went to see in high school.  Everyone from Poison, Metallica, Bush, No Doubt, Smashing Pumpkins, Prince, Aerosmith, and many, many others were represented.  Now the question is, “what do I do with them?” I don’t think Rachel will let me hang them on the wall in my bedroom like I used to do. 

After my victorious find, I began to go through my boxes of toys.  I was really into action figures when I was a kid and the ones that I liked were He-Man, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Heroes.  I was hoping to find toys in a condition that might be worth something to collectors, but all of mine were definitely played with.  The He-Man Figures were in pretty good shape and so were the Ninja Turtles.  The transformers could probably be alright if I wanted to go through all the parts and put them back together, but the G.I. Joes were in terrible shape. 

If you remember back to when you were a kid, the G.I. Joes were put together buy a rubber band that connected their legs to their torso.  This made for a fun toy that twisted around and was great at doing battle with other toys, but 20 years later, it makes for a toy that snaps in two because the rubber band rots. 

I spent a lot of time looking through the Star Wars figures.  Aside from a little mold that has grown on the Millennium Falcon, the Star Wars collection was in good shape.  All of the action figures were safely stored in the giant C3PO and Darth Vader shaped containers and I was able to finally add the Hammerhead figure from the house.  You see, the Hammerhead figure was lost in the dirt many, many years ago and we just found him a few years ago while building in the backyard.  I really got a kick out of finding the  Rancor monster and shaking him to hear all of the stuff that was stuck inside his stomach because I had put the arms and legs of many an unlucky action figure into his mouth.  In fact, to try to replicate the scene where he was trying to eat Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi and Luke thwarted his efforts with a giant stick that held his mouth open, I used to steal branches from my mom’s decorative plant and use them to hold his mouth open. 

The toys are now all safely resting in clean, sealed plastic containers.  They definitely served their purpose and they were all very used.  I used to love to use my imagination when I was a kid and come up with different adventures for my toys.  At the end of the day, most of them ended up in the belly of a large plastic shark because what I loved to play more than anything was Jaws!

The Best Part of Waking Up.........

Man I have been dedicated this week!  Summertime is just around the corner which means it is time to trim off that winter weight so that I can strut around proudly at the pool and lake.  I pre-made all of my lunches and breakfasts for the week and I have amped up my weight lifting routine.  My goal is to get my cardio workout complete before work, hit the gym for weights at lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then do Body Pump classes on Tuesday and Thursday.  The weekend is still reserved for my long run and bike.    

Ok, ok, ok – maybe I got a little inspiration after I reviewed some old spring break pictures when I was writing my blog last week.  Now I know what you’re thinking; “The Spring Break pictures didn’t make it into the blog because they were not safe for public viewing.”  Actually, it is that all my college pictures are pre-digital camera and I had no desire to scan them in.  Anyway – I found that I no longer have the abs of a 20 year old and I refuse to admit that I am a complete grown up. 

Monday morning was a swim; Tuesday morning was a run and today was a bike ride.  The ride was awesome.  I bought some lights for our bikes last fall so we could safely ride in the dark and it has really paid off because it lets us leave earlier or stay out later.  We hit the road around 6 am and rode out of town heading west.  I am not much for the traditional on your knees hands together type prayer so a lot of times, I spend my time with God when I am running or biking.  It also adds another dimension to it for me when I am in nature with the feeling of wind on my face and the air on my skin.  This morning was a great time for it. 

There was a tranquil serenity about the ride this morning.  When we began, it was still pitch black and we chased the moon in the western sky for the first half of the ride.  Once my eyes adjusted to the blackness, my light served as more of a tool for cars to see me rather than for me to see.  I was riding to the light of the early morning moon, just basking in the gentle white light and feeling the cold air on my face.  When we turned around, we got to see the slow transition of the sky from pitch black, to a soft pink, until it was finally red like a nuclear ray and the sun began to peek over the horizon.  We pulled into our driveway to finish the ride just as the darkness completely slipped away and the new day was born. 

People often wonder why we do what we do.  Why do we get up so early and up our bodies through such misery when we could be sleeping in?  Sure, there is a little vanity involved and the weight control is certainly welcome.  However, the truth is that it is mornings like this that keep me coming back and make running, biking, swimming , whatever , an obsession.  Feeling the endorphins brought on by physical exertion while being close to God, next to family or friends, and one with nature is something that words can’t do justice explaining.  The feeling of cold sweat in winter or the dried residue of salt on my face on a hot morning is the best fuel to get through any day. 

Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains

Sometimes it is fun to go home.  There is always a sense of nostalgia when I get to go back to my roots and experience the sights, sounds, and places that were there during my childhood.  I am a sucker for reliving old memories and sometimes going home during certain times of year really causes those memories to come flooding back. 

I grew up in Fairview, Oklahoma which is a small town of about 2,500 people.   Fairview is a mix of the town from Footloose and Pleasantville.  There is not a lot to do there; people love to gossip, and acceptance of anything out of the norm is low.  Being a rock n’ roll loving kid with a rebellious spirit made it challenging to grow up there at times, but I don’t think I would choose to have grown up anywhere else.  It is a quaint place that has a charm which makes it seem like it is frozen in time. 

I had many motives for going home last weekend.  My wife will call me sneaky for this, but one of the reasons was so that I could use all of my dad’s tools and cleaning supplies to give my Tahoe a good cleaning.  I also planned on and succeeded in getting my parents and Rachel to help me do the cleaning.  Rachel was surprised and had no idea that this was our task until we got there, but my mom sniffed out my motives a week earlier and knew exactly what I was up to.  I guess she has been a part of way to many of my schemes and plans to be fooled.  Hopefully Rachel never gets wise to my ways of manipulation! 

Getting the car clean wasn’t the only motive though.  I was just as excited about the act of cleaning the car as I was the result.  I have a lot of good memories as a teenager spending hours cleaning my car so that I would have the sleekest machine in town.  Many times my mom and dad would help me and it was always fun to spend that time with them.  There is something about working together to get a project complete that brings about good conversation and good times.  It really was nice and I enjoyed stirring up the old memories. 

Any time I go home, I love to take the time to walk around the yard remembering events from days gone by.  I look at the tree that we planted when my Grandpa died, the pipe I used to have to balance on to walk across the creek, the bridge where built forts and the graves of so many four legged childhood friends with whom I grew up.  I like to walk over the hill where I used to ramp my three wheeler and dirt bikes and gaze with amazement at how much smaller it seems now than when I was 12.   It is always fun and it is always a nice reminder that no matter how much we grow or how much we change, some things always stay the same. 

Something that has not changed is the wind.  It is always really bad! Yes, the wind can be rough anywhere in Oklahoma, but it is always blowing in Fairview.  The area is very flat, and there are not a lot of trees.  We got to experience the joys of the wind first hand on Sunday when we went on our weekly bike ride.  We knew we would be facing wind (we always do when we ride there) so we thought we would get a move on the ride earlier than normal. 

It did not matter; I don’t think I have ever ridden in wind like that.  It felt like I was peddling in pudding and it was completely demoralizing to work and work yet not feel like you are making any progress.  Much like running a marathon, there was a significant amount of mental anguish that outweighed the physical difficulty.  Getting started is always the worst.  There seems to be this bleak feeling that you will never reach the desired destination.  Fortunately, Rachel had insisted that we fight against the wind on the way out so that we would have the wind at our backs on the way back to the house.  That was an awesome call.  The thing that kept me going through the brow beating violence of the head wind was knowing that a sweet reward of speed and easy peddling awaited me on the way back.  As we approached the final mile of the ride, my attitude completely changed and I wanted to fight the wind just a little bit more so that I could have that extra time with the wind at my back. 

As soon as I turned around, the ride changed.  It felt like I was shot out of a sling shot and propelled back into Fairview with a rocket on my back.  When I got back into downtown, I was thrilled to learn that I was actually breaking the speed limit.  I wonder if you can get a ticket on a bike. My average pace more than doubled on the way back.  I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere about the rewards of hard work, but I am not smart enough to figure it out.