run this amazing day

Other than describing my incredible meltdown on the side of a mountain in the Alps, I haven't really mentioned my trip to France.  I posted cheese, wine, and gelato selfies all over the Instagram, I spent two days endurance eating in Italy and I lost my shit on a good friend.  But I also decided, somewhere in there and not just because people kept dragging me out of bed after midnight to eat chocolate and drink wine, that I needed change. Ironman Boulder came and went, a bookend on how I've done things the past few years.  It had to be, it was long overdue, I saw that in the bricks the universe zinged at me all spring.   Aim, fire, bullseye .  I had no idea what was going to happen once August 3rd had passed, but I did know that at some point in the days that followed, I would wake up and I would know.  Whether or not I still wanted to chase big ironman goals - and I was convinced that I would not - if I wanted to only participate in the distance, if I wanted triathlon to b

So I spent the week before this race in bed.   Once or perhaps twice I dragged myself to the gym, swam about two hundred yards and then said well that was a terrible idea  and crawled back under the covers.  I rode my bike to make sure I could handle the deep wheels I had borrowed and I jogged with my running group but for the most part I tried to hunker down and let my body heal.   Traveling was a reasonable amount of a pain in the ass, flights got screwed up and I ended up sitting in the back of my parents car alone with my bike box while the poet took a tour of the east coast instead of joining me on the flights he was actually booked to travel on (thanks, United).  We arrived in Mont Tremblant, I checked in by the skin of my teeth, built my bike, and then climbed into the soft squishy quiet hotel room bed and slept for over 13 hours.   When I woke up Saturday morning I felt awful, the worst I had felt all week.  I hopped in the lake for about four minutes to check for lake zom

I did this race last year, a couple of weeks after ironman, and enjoyed a lovely tour of the reservoir on the feet of one of my swimming buddies.  I think I saw someone mention the race on Facebook a day or two before it and, well, I love swimming, that's really all that needs to be said, of course I was going to sign up.   My goal for this race, however, was not to mosey around and sing songs while the sun rose.  Rather, I wanted to race until I was shattered.  Secondarily to triathlon, this year I've been poking about a bit in the world of open water swim racing.  I learned quite early on that I had no idea what it meant to actually race  in the water, so what I wanted from this one was to go hard, every moment. It was lovely, as it always is, to roll out of bed and into the car and arrive at the race all in a twenty-minute window.  I pulled out my most ridiculous swim cap because God forbid I ever do anything that could be accused of taking myself too seriously, plugged

Tell me, what is it you plan to do  with your one WILD and PRECIOUS life?   - Mary Oliver My friend Elizabeth posted this quote the night before ironman and, like random voices and words tend to do in the last few hours before a race, it came along for the ride.  One of the many truths about ironman is that taking a shot at it, that is rare.  It isn't a 5K where I can race another one next weekend if I choke.  Months of preparation and many many dollars go into a single day, and I will be lucky enough to stand on this particular line very few times over the course of my life.   Part of my race plan included wearing my little hydration pack.  I did all my long runs with it, I had the idea that if I could avoid aide stations and be entirely self-sufficient, that would be a contributing factor to my success (despite the fact that I feel like a giant dork with it on; as my friend Scott said, you'll be the giant dork that gets to the finish line the fastest ).  It had everyth