Hello All--
It's been an "interesting" couple of days for me. I go for a ride Tuesday at NorthStar, riding the 24-hour course Granny Gear used in '03, and at about 1/2 way, I just stop and start crying, thinking about when I was riding it for Alaina. I wanted to ride for 3-4 hours, and it ended up being about 1 1/2 hours. Then, I do a road ride up Kingsbury, and had no heart, only going about 2 3/4 miles up. Guess I was thinking about the Mammoth marathon coming up, how I'd like to be able to finish it this year (the official stopped me last year), and started thinking "why bother?". Yesterday, the 4th, was Alaina's 2 1/2-year Heaven date, so that was causing all sorts of stress with my wife and me (mentioned-- "maybe we should split up"). Work was very busy, with all sorts of slot-player demands (if they only knew). But on my way to work, I spoke with Gerard at USA Cycling, and was assured by him that I would be allowed to finish this year's marathon (barring anything catastrophic) and received his "guaranteed" email this morning. And then the topper-- one of my ex-co-workers (he was released a couple of weeks ago) just lost his 21-year-old daughter to an auto wreck (I got the call this morning). And August 14th isn't a really good day coming up, because that's would've been Alaina's 7th birthday.
I know, I know, "welcome to life". I just feel better being able to share with all of you. Guess it's time to get some serious stress out with a couple-hour ride. Thanks for reading and allowing me to vent.
It's been an "interesting" couple of days for me. I go for a ride Tuesday at NorthStar, riding the 24-hour course Granny Gear used in '03, and at about 1/2 way, I just stop and start crying, thinking about when I was riding it for Alaina. I wanted to ride for 3-4 hours, and it ended up being about 1 1/2 hours. Then, I do a road ride up Kingsbury, and had no heart, only going about 2 3/4 miles up. Guess I was thinking about the Mammoth marathon coming up, how I'd like to be able to finish it this year (the official stopped me last year), and started thinking "why bother?". Yesterday, the 4th, was Alaina's 2 1/2-year Heaven date, so that was causing all sorts of stress with my wife and me (mentioned-- "maybe we should split up"). Work was very busy, with all sorts of slot-player demands (if they only knew). But on my way to work, I spoke with Gerard at USA Cycling, and was assured by him that I would be allowed to finish this year's marathon (barring anything catastrophic) and received his "guaranteed" email this morning. And then the topper-- one of my ex-co-workers (he was released a couple of weeks ago) just lost his 21-year-old daughter to an auto wreck (I got the call this morning). And August 14th isn't a really good day coming up, because that's would've been Alaina's 7th birthday.
I know, I know, "welcome to life". I just feel better being able to share with all of you. Guess it's time to get some serious stress out with a couple-hour ride. Thanks for reading and allowing me to vent.
