Parks

This picture was taken in a park, hence its relevance. Maya had nice shorter hair and Ever looked like a beach bum.

Here is the thing. I hate parks.
I do not like going, I find them very boring. The kids do not need me to play with them, thus I am left just being. This time of year I am left being cold and bored. I usually bring a book or phone, but overall I am bored. I want to move forward and by far would rather take the kids for a ride or a walk but they always want to stop at a park, but then what can I do?
 I go through the garbage looking for beer bottles but that only takes so long. Which brings me to a really cool thing we saw in Emerald Isle NC.

I saw at first what I thought was a large area with gravel in it. Obviously it was not gravel that you would see around here, but costal type dirt. I assumed another play structure would be going in that spot soon. However,  I saw another woman at the park, and while her son played she was sitting and playing in the dirt. After I had surfed the internet for a while, and the kids played, and I was silently dying of boredom I went over to her and just started talking.
Turns out the dirt pile actually was to be a archeology feature. It was full of fossils and neat rocks and even sharks teeth. That would make parks around here more entertaining for me, the person who pays for the parks with my taxes.

Redo

My birthday is in April, more often than not it is a cold, rainy day. Not worth celebrating, not worth going outside. I want to do cool stuff on my birthday, but that involves there not being snow on the ground. Thus I think I deserve a redo in a few months.

Next year I am travelling.

Luck ran out- ATB 2015

2015- 2:48:04- WTF??

2014-2:34:40- Whatever

2013-2:38:42- Ran with a friend and sang songs.
2012- 2:54:51- Paced a friend to sub three.
2011- 2:25:20- Raced.
2010- 2:37:04- Tried to race- crashed.
2009- 2:31:27- First timers luck.

 

To be honest this is the worst result, and one I wish I could be erased from the record books. The sad thing, I think it was the year I was most prepared..

 

I have been doing exactly as I have been told by my triathlon coach, felt like I could lay down a good race, I missed one long run but other that, I have done everything,  but I have two possible reasons for my shame.

1. There was a gastro bug that hit the town of Chesley. I work in the emergency department for the town of Chesley. I started feeling nauseous the Tuesday night prior. Low level, figured it was just shift work. Wednesday, tired but managed a good swim. Thursday, it was a struggle to get out of bed. I figured it was just post nights residual tiredness, or cold depression. Attempted my bike workout of the day, but when I had only gone 7km in 30min I realized that perhaps I was not doing well. I called in sick to work on Friday, which I have done only three other times in 14 years of employment. By the eve I felt well enough to go with the family to the pool. Saturday, did my run, but just felt tired and uninterested in food. There are some other details but this is not a medical chart. Ate some of dinner on Saturday but really had to force to food down.

2.  This was my 7th straight year. I enjoy having a reason to train in the winter, I enjoy the trip with my friends. However,  I am sick to death of Hamilton and this race course, and the pavement/ concrete. I need a mental break, next year I can still go but ride my bike or volunteer.

 

My pre race instructions were to ' pick a solid effort that feels easy at the start and the effort to maintain builds throughout the run'. So I started at the front of the open corral, which seems right. Plan was to start out with Matt, and go from there. I did feel like we started out to fast, but not to bad- reasonable comfortable. Was hot soon, had to fuss and tie my jacket around was waist I was so hot, I usually never overdress. Had a moment when Matt yelled to run like hell to beat the train, which I had no idea what he was talking about until I clued in the dinging was the train coming and we crossed the tracks. Took a while to recover. Lost Matt around 10k when I had to walk to fix my jacket. Told him I would catch up... and I just was not recovering. Made a deal that I work hard until 15k, then realized I could go another 5k working hard, but at 20k I was done. I had been taking a gel every 5k until that point. Drinking well at every water station, but I was done. My fatigue level was high and my hamstrings/ calves were killing me. I was 1:42 into the race and  I realized that if I ran a 60min 10k I could make it sub 2:45, and quite frankly I found that seriously depressing, so I kinda gave up. Just didn't care anymore. Cause I feel I am better than that, and I figured out that my luck that I mostly have for this race, just didn't show up this time. I also realized that I was sick, still was. As I write this a week later and note the difference between how I feel today vs. last week is night and day. I never quite realize how sick I am until it is gone.

 

I am left here wanting a do over, but you can never redo a race day.