Nothing to see here…

Just spent a weekend at NYC Tri volunteering and being….gasp…..a spectator. It was difficult, but I survived.

I have absolutely nothing useful to say about racing right now as I’m bitter that I have to wait until Timberman for my next race.

I did write an email to the parents of Jon Blais to see how I could help raise awareness for ALS and they responded pretty quickly. No mention of money or anything else, they asked me to call them so we could talk by phone. I REALLY like them. I really hope there is a way I can help them and raise awareness for ALS (still no cure).

I have been playing around with different shoes but everything just re-enforces my love for Zoot Shoes. The TT 3.0′s are awesome.

All that said, I have never really talked about my family, and they have been weighing heavily on my mind. I am VERY fortunate to have a beautiful wife and 4 children, 2 boys, 2 girls, and a LARGE white german shepherd. I love them all very much, even when I feel like swimming into chum filled waters in Great White territory sometimes with the yelling and the messes and the fighting. But when I see my daughter Taylor help my youngest son William by reading to him at night, it makes me very happy. When I see my son Alexander make a sandwich for his sister Emma, I feel very proud. When Emma comes to me at night to say she is scared and I have the rightful duty of telling her that “everything is going to be okay, daddy’s here to protect you”, she kisses me on the cheek, looks at me with big doe eyes, and prances off to bed, I want to cry.

That’s the thing….is everything going to be okay? The world seems to be crumbling around us. The economy is as sea-worthy as the Titanic. People aren’t helping each other out like the Amish, instead we are turning on each other to make sure “I got mine first”. New electronics are making us weaker and lazier. Hell, I get strange looks when I mention anything about exercising more than an hour a day. “A run, in this heat? 8 miles? Are you crazy? Why, do you want to lose more weight?”. Nope, just want to clear my mind.

When I get nutty, which is a daily occurence, I use to grab a cigarette and a Dr. Pepper. That was 208 pounder grande royale with cheese fat-ass me back a few years ago. The funny part was that I tried to continue to run while smoking. It didn’t work too well. So now when I get insane, I put on my shoes and go for a run or swim or bike ride to drain my energy and get the thoughts sorted out. When I get back home, I’m calm again and it seems “everything is going to be okay”.

Maybe everyone should put down the bad habits and go for a run or swim or bike ride. Maybe everything would be okay if everyone shook out the cob-webs and drained their energy out and nothing left to argue or fight with.

I don’t know, I just hope for all of our sakes that life does get better and the economy straightens out and our children grow up happy.

So the next few times I write in this blog, it will be pretty much the same mind-numbing crap until I get to race again.

Good luck to all the athletes doing Ironman Lake Placid this weekend, I’m skipping out on it as I am not competitive enough at the Ironman distance. Maybe next year…I think I’ll try my luck in Arizona!!!