Everyday is a snow day

He sat underneath the awning in the park rotunda. The opportunity to move had passed him by. So he sat, waiting for the next moment to move along. Snow was coming down pretty fiercely, and coming in a lot of different directions. He wandered out here to to watch the storm come in. To feel the nostalgia of a morning off. Instead of the radio he checked a website. To check and see if things were closed. Things were closed. City wide, in fact.

Its a little bit different now than it was then. Probably a lot different, actually. He gets mornings off when ever he likes. Not by choice. There wasn’t any one moment that said, “Things will be different now.” They just are. He just is.

But there he was, still sitting in the rotunda. He wandered out of an apartment that was both getting smaller and bigger. The burden was bigger. More to clean, more to to do, more to keep-up. More to pay for. Yet, smaller because there were now days on end when he didn’t leave. Funny, he didn’t feel like a hermit or some sort of social recluse. But, technically he had become one. There wasn’t any one moment that said, “You will be a hermit now.”

He started to draw some figures in the snow. Tracing tracks like a bird. He then imagined a fox chasing that bird. It was a hot pursuit of squiggles and lines in an imaginary game of cat and mouse. The bird won this one. But for how much longer?

There was lot of snow. It was coming faster now, and from every direction.

It had been seven months since she out out grew him. This was an instance when -- like on snow days -- the apartment seemed smaller. It would be another five months before she knew she had out grown him. Outgrown their love. It would be another eight months before he realized she was gone. It would be about another three on the eight on top of the five that she would actually get up and leave. There was nothing that said, “Time to leave now.” She just did.

Suddenly, the urge to stand had grown. A moment to move was fast approaching. He didn’t want to miss this one. In this moment he could go anywhere. Do anything. He’d start with a cup of coffee and a joke with a barista. Who knows what would happen after that? A new lead? A big adventure? This was a big city. The big city! Opportunity was in and around every corner. Just look at him. Outside. On a snow day!

Of course, they were all snow days. Now.

Bike

Bike
8:00 am - Transition is long by most standards. But not nearly long enough for me. The crowd, 10 deep at spots, was roaring. You still feel good at this point in the day and the smile won’t fade. I have complained at length to friends and family about the cost of this event. Suffice to say I won’t be demanding a refund. This is as close as you will ever come to being a celebrity athlete.

At the end of transition you grab your swim to bike bag. You dump it out on the ground of the tent and assemble yourself into a cyclist. I asked the guy next to me if this was his first event. He replied, “Coming out of the water is pretty crazy, huh?” It was his third. He knew exactly what I was feeling right then.

We just leave our belongings on our bags and the volunteers take them away wet suits and all. We run to our bikes. They are fetched for us. Valet for bikes, valet for wet suits. Such is the life of a celebrity athlete.

8:10 am - And now I am on a bike. We go through town. People are yelling. For me. For Brooklyn, which is on my jersey. For the sake of yelling, perhaps. Again, it is 8:10 AM! The energy is unreal. These people are well caffeinated or really inspired.

I have a race plan and it is to enjoy myself. Thoroughly. The hard work is behind me, race day was for the sheer enjoyment of being fit and being alive, and not falling apart. Part of executing on that plan is to allow all manner of folks to pass me on the first loop of the bike. This ended up being easier than I thought.

I am a man of incredible ego. I have always believed I could do just about anything, and believed that I would be the best in the room at it. The problem is persistence and follow through. This is how my wife has changed my life. She has taught me an incredible amount about marking a goal and meeting it. She has also tempered my ego -- it is far more likely that she is going to end up as the best in the room.

The bike is a particular week spot for my ego mania. I have been put in my place on hills many times. And I have always signed up for more. Lake Placid is proof positive of this, as it is well known as one of the hilliest ironman courses in the country and the world. I also have a hard time letting anyone pass me on the bike. So, letting people pass me on hills ... tough. But I try and hang back because, as Robert Frost said, “The woods of Placid are dark and deep, and I have a marathon to go before I sleep. A marathon to go before I sleep”. I may be misquoting, though. It was a long day.

9:00 am - I am through the first bit of hill. It has been all spin and all smiles. I have run into my friends Jonathan and Greg. Jonathan sang, “LIGHTNING MAN!” to me as he passed. It is an homage to a ridiculous bike I own. It has been a long and fun training period with these friends. Inside jokes have grown. We tease and support each other.

I am through the last bit of the hills and before the decent I see my sister-in-law and her fiancée. They are on their bikes in the middle of nowhere. It is amazing to see them. They shouldn’t have come this far for this boring race. But they did.

9:15 am - Descending for 10 miles. I would hit 48 mph on the way down. There is a little rain the first loop but it is mostly dry by the time I get there. I try not to let the inner 10 year old who is shouting, “FASTER, FASTER, FASTER” completely take over.

10:00am - This is the golden part of the bike. It is flat and it is fast. But even if you feel like you are getting speed without much effort, it is best to proceed with caution. The way I see it is thus: speed and time, these things can be made up. Effort once expended cannot. Not without a good night’s sleep anyway. And so, even though this is where ego man wants to say, “I could kill all of you right here”. Reality man says, “But I won’t.”

At this point I have seen just about all my training partners and everyone looks really great.

10:45am - I have been taking on food at regular intervals and doing a good job of hydrating. A. Really. Good. Job. No sir. Hydration, not a problem. So ... where to pee? Starting to become a problem. Peeing on the bike is an art I would say I have not yet quite mastered. It is hard to master, frankly. There is a lot of pressure that develops while sitting for 6+ hours in a bike saddle. And that makes relief a tricky thing. Oh. Yeah. And going 20+ mph on a bike with people behind you and having warm urine spray everywhere, that also makes it pretty tricky, too.

I did it. I did not poop on myself, though. And I did not wear diapers. And this officially concludes the poo-poo and pee-pee conversation. I had to get it out of the way. Immediately after: would you do it again? The most asked question is: did you pee on yourself/poop on yourself/wear diapers?

11:00am - The first real test of the day. We are beginning the climb back to town and if my legs have turned to cinder blocks things will not be looking good. I don’t just climb with ease, I ALSO still have the smile. I am spinning free, easy and clear.

And there is reason to smile. There are some very large dogs laying in some hay with a family ... wait, no ... those are billy goats. This is absurd. Thousands of dollars of bikes, ridden by lycra clad biker gangs and there are billy goats. This a David Lynch film. This is weird. But this is also a lot of fun.

We are approaching town and the final big climb, called Papa Bear, is packed. It is very much like the tour de france. Watching the tour I always think, “I would hate to have all those people in my way.” I was wrong. it. is. awesome. They make way for you and are cheering in your ear. They yell for Brooklyn. I fist pump. They yell for Shaun. I smile.

Just up and over the hill and around the bend is my family. Big colorful signs that say Go Uncle Shaun! and Run Chappy! T-Shirts. I want to put on a good show so I floor it through town. For the first time letting myself really work. I bank through town, the crowds still two or three deep. All yelling. My face is still bent in a smile, on a quick decent through town I even hit a few bumps that turn into “jumps”. I decide that this is probably not the best thing to do in the middle of an ironman. But the ten year old, he’s taken over for now.

I am off to the second loop of the bike.

11:30am - I have been doing a back and forth with my buddy Chipp on the bike. It is great to be out here with a friend. Chipp’s wife is extremely pregnant. I have heard people say that pregnancy is binary, not something that can happen in degrees. Whatever, she is due, like ... today. And her husband is 6 hrs by car away and doing an ironman. That makes her more pregnant. There is a very good chance that she is having a baby right ... freaking ... now. (Spoiler: The baby doesn’t arrive for four more days). Chipp tells me that he is starting to have a little bit of IT Band trouble. I tell him to hang in there. I mean it. I want him to hang in there, it is nice having him ride with me.

2:30pm - The rest of the ride goes shockingly well. There was something to all this prep-work. I am having an insane amount of fun. That is a theme for the whole darn day. I manage to negative split the bike. My first loop was faster than my second loop.

But the moment I am really nervous for is coming. I am about to get off the bike for the first time in over 6 hrs. This is when things tend to go wrong. You feel cramps and pinches in places you aren't expecting. What will happen for me?

I slip out of my shoes and a I feel ... nothing. No pinches. No cramps. No nothing. Not true, I feel something. Relief. I hand my very expensive (to me) and prized (to me) bike to a stranger I have never met who I trust will rack it as if it where his own. It's that kind of day.

And now to turn myself into a marathoner.