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. 

Spring Break or Bust

One of the things that I quickly learned after I got out of college and entered the professional world  is that spring break doesn’t really mean anything anymore.  It really came as a shock to me.  I guess I was expecting the same rules of the universe that applied in school to apply in real life.  I mean, why wouldn’t every business or agency shut down for a week to allow their employees to go spend time at a beach or ski resort? 

Since it is spring break right now and I will be spending my days sitting through legal depositions and looking at utility rates and debt service payments, I thought I would reflect on some of my favorite spring break memories so that I can relive the glory days of freedom and low responsibility.   I thought about trying to rank these in some kind of countdown, but I don’t know that I can put them in any kind of order since they all have some kind of special meaning. 

1995 - I went to Breckenridge, Colorado with my parents.  We piled in the family mini-van and made the long trip.  My sister flew into Denver and then met us there.  We had a really neat condo for the week.  I remember listening to a lot of Pearl Jam, Van Halen and playing my guitar for hours on end.  I took my effects pedal and plugged my headphones into it so that I could rock out without keeping everyone up.  This was also the first time that I ever tried snowboarding.  Breckenridge was an awesome place and somewhere I really would like to go again.  It had a really cool vibe with good restaurants, ice cream parlors cafes, and record stores. 

1996 - I went with a group of friends from high school to Taos, New Mexico on a ski trip.  At dinner one night, I sat between two pillars of art that had a price tag of 2 or 3 thousand bucks a piece.  Anytime I would move my chair during the meal, the pillars would sway; I wonder how I would have paid for that?  One of the attendees was the Romanian foreign exchange student – I think that she had beaten up every one of the guys by the time the trip was over.  She was really mean!

1997 –We went to Red River this year.  I had a girlfriend, but there was another girl that I was trying to date.   I was really encouraging the other girl to go but to make a long story short – my girlfriend and the other girl went both went.  Strange week J

1998 – This was kind of a last minute decision by my best pal and me to load up and drive to Colorado and stay with my cousin.  No one really had plans that year, but we felt we needed to do something since it was our senior year.  Like many of the adventures that he and I shared, the road trip was the best part of the trip.  We listened to a ton of AC/DC and the Refreshments and drove all night to get there.  He had a blue Chevrolet step side pickup and we would take that thing everywhere.  I don’t know how, but that regular cab truck could comfortably seat six. 

1999 – Ah, my first college spring break!  I was a college freshman and fraternity pledge at this point.  My big brother in the fraternity organized a group trip to Panama City Beach, Florida.  There were about 25 that went and we all crowded into one house.  I secured myself a nice area in the back bedroom with just enough space between four other guys to layout my sleeping bag and keep a watch on my suitcase.  21 of us packed into an 18 person passenger van and took off for the 20 hour drive with a luggage trailer in tow.  This trip was the first time that I ever went to a club and it didn’t take me long to realize that clubs are not the place for me.  I hate to dance, I am not tall, and I don’t like paying cover charges.  A small group of us found other things to do for the week.  On the strip, there was a shaved ice stand located right next to one of those slingshot reverse bungee jump rides.  We had a pretty sweet deal going – we made friends with the ride operator, so when there was no one on the ride, he would let us ride it over and over to garner interest from the passersby.  I think we rode that thing at least 15 times that night.  As the week started drawing to an end, we started to dread the ride back in the van from hell.  Fortunately, we met some girls from Muskogee who had driven their car from Oklahoma and we convinced them to give us a ride back to avoid the van. 

2000 – I learned my lesson from the year before with van, so this year I was insistent on taking my own car.  This year, the trip was to South Padre Island.  It was another trip where there were many more people than there were comfortable accommodations.  We reserved a block of rooms at a hotel, but it still meant about five or six people per room.   I was on a strict budget this week.  Unfortunately, my first stop was at a surf shop and a cool white surfboard caught my eye.  I ended up spending 90% of my money on the first day buying that board.  The good thing was that it kept me out f trouble as I spent all day every day surfing rather than causing mischief, but the bad thing was that I was afraid I was going to starve.  Fortunately, we were just a few miles away from Matamoros, Mexico and we found a place called Bigatones where we went and ate every night.  We were able to feast on fajitas for about five dollars per night.  It was a great week – the crisp feeling of the water in the early morning surf was great! 

2001 – This was my first spring break with Rachel, and it was an epic one.  It really seems like it was three trips in one.    We started off the week by driving to Durango, Colorado to stay the night because I was going ice climbing in Ouray the next morning.  Ouray has a really cool ice park and it was a beautiful experience. After a day of climbing, we went to my cousin’s house near Wolf Creek and went skiing.  It was Rachel’s first time to ski and she had a few temper tantrums after getting stuck in snow drifts before she really got the hang of it.  After a few days of skiing, we came back to Oklahoma, stayed one night, then re-packed and went to Austin.  This was really the first time I got to experience Austin.    My favorite memory of the Austin portion of the trip was seeing Junior Brown at a free concert in the park. 

2002 – This was a big family trip to Florida.  We started off the trip at Disney World and then went to Coco Beach.  The house on the beach was awesome.  My sister has always had access to remarkable vacation housing because of her Air Force career.  If I had to rank spring break experiences, this one would probably be at the top.  We really had an amazing time.  We surfed, played in the ocean, ate lots of great food and spent quality time with family.  I think this was the last trip that we went on where almost everyone was there.  One of the most significant events in my life took place on this trip as it was when I asked Rachel to marry me. 

I had been planning the event for months.  I had discretely bought the ring and I had secretly asked both her Dad and Mom for her hand in marriage.  Rachel had no idea that I was going to pop the question, so the whole thing was a big secret.  Fortunately, I had my parents to help conspire with me with regard to how we were going to sneak the ring through airport security and all that good stuff.  My original plan was to set up something elaborate on the beach and ask her there but I quickly figured out that the beach at night would not be the ideal setting for her.  Rachel was deathly afraid of the little crabs that ran around and wouldn’t relax a bit.  I improvised and came up with a new plan that I hoped would seal the deal. 

At Disney World, I noticed that she was really excited about all the princess stuff and  she was really fascinated with the throne in Cinderella’s castle.  I again enlisted the help of my mom to help me. She went and made arrangements with the Cinderella’s Castle staff so that Rachel and I might have the room where the throne was located alone for a few minutes.  At the time, Rachel was also collecting snow globes.  I found a snow globe with the Castle in it and bought it before we got to the restaurant.  I put the plan in action as soon as we were finished with dinner.  Rachel went to the rest room and when she came back, everyone had cleared out of the room.  I told her that I had arranged for her to be able to sit in the throne, which she did.  When she sat down I got the snow globe out and gave it to her.  She was appreciative and said something like ‘ah, you didn’t have to do that.”  Then I nervously (more like scared out of my mind) said something like “I wanted to get it for you because you are my princess and I always want you to remember where you were when I asked you to be my queen.”  I then got down on my knee, pulled out the ring and ask her to marry me.  It seemed like an uncomfortably long time before she finally said yes, but fortunately, she did say yes.  As soon as I got her answer and gave her a kiss, I heard a commotion behind me.  Turns out the entire staff of the Castle and my family had been eavesdropping and peaking around the corner.  Thank goodness I didn’t know that I had an audience, or I would have been really afraid. 

So that’s pretty much it! It was hard to top that last one, so I haven’t had a spring break adventure ever since.  I assume that spring break will mean something once again if I ever have a kid, but until then, it will just be the week that half of my staff is out of the office.  Who knows, maybe I can talk Rachel into reliving the memories later this week.  We could sit around the house in our swimming suits and eat Mexican food or something!

There is No Basement in the Alamo

It is that time of year when the temperatures start to warm up a little bit, the first brave plants of the year start to peek out from the ground and the smell in the air lets you know that spring is near.  Although it is technically still winter – there is an end in sight to all of the desolate days when darkness follows you to work and greets you when you get home.  It is hard not to get a little bit of the winter blues during January and February.  All of the excitement of the Holiday season has come and gone and it is when Oklahoma truly gets to experience its most barren time of year.  But now there are hints that the grass will grow, the trees will bud once again and that we will no longer exist in a perennial state of night.  Most importantly, what it means to me, is that it is time to get into triathlon mode. 

I love running – it is a huge part of my life, but by this time of year, I am ready to mix it up a little bit.  I tend to focus on running much more during the winter months, because it is a lot more flexible than cycling or swimming.  Running is easy to do in the rain, sleet, snow, cold, dark, etc. etc.  You just have to throw on some clothes and go.  Swimming and cycling take a lot more planning and coordination.  On the heels of the marathon, I am really ready to mix it up this year because I put in so many running miles in November through February.  Adding more cycling into my routine is something that I am really looking forward to. 

I have tried to keep cycling a little bit over the winter so that I didn’t have to start from scratch this year.  I even tried to make amends with my arch nemesis, the bike trainer, and rode indoors a few times.  I have been better about it than in previous years, but the outings have still been few and far between.  Well it is all changing now -  the days are getting longer and I am pumped up about the upcoming triathlon season. 

This first and most important item of the season was to get my bike cleaned.  It was covered with so much road grime, dirt, and grease that I am surprised that it would even accept me as a rider.  I am ashamed to say that I have neglected the cleaning of my trusty steed and allowed the chain and gears to get nasty. 

My bike is quiet the specimen.  It is an 18lb bike with an all carbon frame, Shimano Ultegra components and Mavic Ksyrium Elite Wheels.    It is red, black, and silver.  I have tricked it out even more by adding aero bars, red handlebar tape, and tires with red stripes in them.  My wife’s bike is similar to mine except it is purple, black, and silver.  If you throw in the matching helmets, spandex tights, and other gear that goes along with a ride – we really look MUCH faster than we truly are. 

We bought our bikes about two years ago when the government was kind enough to let us have some of our own money back in the form of a tax return.  I remember the first ride on the bike – it was so smooth and pleasant.  My previous bike was an entry level model that was much heavier, but since we had really gotten into cycling and triathlon, we felt it was time to upgrade (ok, ok, it may have had a little bit to do our buddy Andrew’s awesome new bike). 

Although my bike had gotten dirty, I had no doubt that I could return it to its former glory with just a few hours of cleaning.  I scrubbed and I washed and the grease came off.  I took her out for a spin just yesterday and found, to my delight, that a clean bike is a faster bike.  Biking prowess apparently has absolutely nothing to do with leg strength, physical fitness, or cardio level – it is all about how you look! 

I think I have found my ace in the hole for this tri season.  Each night before a race, I am going to clean my bike (while at the same time put some mud on my wife’s – that may seem low, but it sucks when she beats me).  Much like my ninja running wear propelled my through the Austin Marathon – my sparkling stallion of a bike and my matching tri suit will give me an unmatched advantage among my fellow mediocre triathletes.  I can see it now – my bike and I will be the best team since Pee Wee and Big Red.  

Who needs heroes?

Over the past year, my wife and I have become huge fans of Lance Armstrong.  I think it is a combination of experiences and interests that started the admiration.  As a cyclist and triathlete (I use those terms loosely) I respect what he is as an athlete and he is a celebrity that we hear a lot about since my wife and I like to spend time in Austin which is where he lives.  Although I have always respected and admired him, prior to this year, I was never on the bandwagon as a fan.  I didn’t buy a trendy LIVESTRONG bracelet when they first came out and I didn’t pay that much attention to the movement that he was part of.  That is different now – I do have the bracelet and plenty of other Nike apparel that is colored in yellow and black with that simple statement written on it.    I think what has really changed my outlook and drawn me in to be a huge fan is some of personal experiences that we have had with cancer this year and some of the paths that those experiences have caused us to travel down in our lives.  Earlier this year, Rachel and I lost a dear family member to the disease and one of our best friends’ parents had to go through a battle with cancer of his own.   There have also been scares in the past few years with people that we know and we have learned of old acquaintances that are either battling or have lost their battle with the disease.  

Our friend whose father was battling cancer told us about the LIVESTRONG challenge series and let us know that she was going to raise money for it.  We learned that there was an event in Austin, which is where many of Rachel’s relatives live and as a tribute to our lost family member, we rounded up a team to participate in the event.   There were two events to choose from, a 5k race, and a bike ride.  We choose to do them both and as a result, had to raise $250 apiece.  

 I LOATH raising money!  I am not comfortable asking for it and I feel guilty putting people in a position where they feel they have to donate.  Also, because of my job, the pool of people that it is appropriate for me to ask is extremely small.  I can’t ask anyone in my organization because they work for me and I don’t want them to feel that they have to give because I am their boss and I can’t ask anyone I deal with in the community because I don’t want anyone to feel like I owe them something.  That pretty much limits it to my friends and family.  I know my parents dread any type of fundraising event that I get involved with because I always hit them up for at least half of what I am tasked with raising.  However, the LIVESTRONG fundraising webpage that came along with my registration was really cool.  I decided to post it on Facebook a couple of times to see what happened.   I was amazed by the number of people who responded.  I was humbled at the generosity that people, some of whom barely knew me, had in their hearts to support a noble cause. 

This was something that really motivated me.  From then on, the fundraising became fun.  It felt like I was a part of something important and something that would make good things happen for others.  The event that we participated in raised nearly $4 million and the overall series raised over $8 million.  Being at the event and seeing the impact of what we were a part of was very moving.  It is something that now excites me and I look forward to the experience next year.  It was at that point that I became a huge Lance Armstrong fan. 

I have recently finished his book It’s not about the Bike, and would recommend it to anyone.  He doesn’t sugar coat anything and gives a very stark  look at his upbringing, character flaws,  and most notably, his battle through cancer to become one of the world’s greatest athletes.  He has a fighter’s spirit that we can all learn from to push ourselves to the limits and not let any person, any obstacle, or anything beat us down.  He fought through what would have killed most people, went on to become a champion, and now works to make the world a better place so that people don’t have to go through what he has gone through.    Clearly, Lance is not perfect and he shares many of the traits and imperfections that make us all human.  But he is, in my opinion, a person to be admired and looked at as a hero.

Lance Armstrong is someone that can give others hope, inspire us to succeed, and serve as a role model to people who are battling through hopeless situations.  Why then is it so important to tear him down? For that matter, why is it so important to tear others like him down?  It seems that we live in a society that takes much more satisfaction in tarnishing someone and finding ways to vilify them than to focus on the positive and the good that they do.  Don’t get me wrong – if it turns out that he was doping to gain an unfair advantage, then it will be a tremendous let down.  I am not saying that we should look the other way let the ends justify the means, but I am saying that we should focus on the good rather than the witch hunt. 

He is not the only one who this applies to.  It seems that we get some sort of wicked satisfaction from getting the dirt or revealing the dark secrets that are buried away in the closet of anyone who is successful.  It seems to apply to athletes, politicians, movies stars, and other celebrities.  Many of these people have given us reason to be distrustful and I am not saying that we should condone inappropriate behavior, but I don’t know why the focus is always on the negative.   I only know one person who has lived a perfect existence and I tend to think that no one else in the history of civilization has a background that would come out squeaky clean if someone really went after them with a malicious intent.   Is it because we are jealous?  Do we really need to ruin people in order to feel better about ourselves?  Are we that insecure with our beliefs that if someone disagrees with us, they become the villain?  We have become a nation full of critics and Monday morning quarterbacks.  We are taught as young children that it is wrong to spread rumors, yet that is what we love and that is what we do.  We love to see people embarrassed, we love to see them squirm and we relish in failure more than we respect success. 

We can blame the mass media, the 24 hour news cycle, or the ever piercing eyes of social networking.    We can put the responsibility on the shoulders of the pundits, the sportscasters, or the blogosphere, but really the problem lies with the individual.  We are all guilty of it.  We are all guilty of wanting to get the “dirt.”  We have to be careful how we tear people down because the world needs heroes, the world needs role models, and the world needs hope.  We need people who have overcome adversity and triumphed in the face of certain defeat that we can look to when we face our own adverse circumstances.  We need to foster future generations of leaders who are not afraid to succeed.  We cannot discourage excellence and achievement with the fear that critics will pick it apart like buzzards picking clean the bones of their meal.  Even Lance Armstrong himself stated “A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.” People should certainly be held accountable for their decisions and their actions, but we should also spend less time trying to find the dirty little secrets and more time encouraging the positive. 

I’ll quit preaching and go back to writing funny stories about dogs, shoes and mustaches now!