Jan 15 2009
Carpe Dementia
You don’t have to be crazy to be here, but it helps!
Usually, stories about guys that set off on some sort of major undertaking begin with, “Well, we were just sitting around having a couple of beers and then…” The reason for suggesting to the guys that we embark on this mission still is pretty unclear to me. It seemed like a good idea at the time though. We definitely have some athleticism in the group: I was a college athlete, sort of, and have been involved recently in cyclng; Jett has run multiple marathons; Colin was an excellent competitive swimmer and started cycling last summer with me; Schuyler has always had athletic ability beyond his willingness to exhibit it (unless marching to the beat of a different drummer counts). So, the idea that we might be able to perform the events in a triathlon wasn’t all that far-fetched. The idea that we might all converge on a single, competitive Ironman-length organized event is where it began to get interesting. No alcohol was consumed until after we realized what we had agreed to do.
Colin says that laughter ensued when I mentioned it. He might have said that “derisive laughter ensued”. The fact that Jett almost automatically agreed to do it, even if his brothers didn’t, may say more about the effects of Chicago winters on a person’s brain than it does about anything else.
Enough history for now, though. With only 103 days until my 56th birthday, we’ve wasted the better part of a year talking about this mission, but doing little more than routine training and living. Agreed, Jett has started swimming and is on a schedule as his marathon training continues. I’ve continued my cycling regimen and am happy with it. I’ll let the other guys speak for themselves about their activities. The only other comment I have is that I’m at the beginning of Week 2 in a running program.
Running is my weakness. (I almost wrote Achilles heel, but that would have been very poor, don’t you think? My self-editing will probably never be that tight again.) Hopefully, using Hal Higdon’s book “Masters Running” will help get me through this discipline. So far, so good.
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