average salary: $657,000,000
nevermind that i don't even know what those jobs would entail.
probably a lot of golf.
after thoughtful consideration, i've determined that i'm down with that.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/28/news/economy/ceo_pay_workers/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories
so that was the bad part. by late morning on saturday, things started to
turn around. poor rebecca, who had never been camping, was (rightly so)
not loving the whole wet/tired/crappy experience so far. once the sun
started to come out, things improved. we had lunch on the campfire,
managed to get some of our stuff to start drying out, and everybody's
mood improved. we hiked around a bit, and climbed the big dune near the
campground. after that, we decided to drive over to the beach and hang
out there (since we were all still sort of tired and worn out from the
challening 12 hours previous). we got to the beach and the waves were
HUGE! huge as in they would literally knock us down, great for
bodysurfing and inadvertently removing swimsuit tops and bottoms if one
failed to be diligent. it was a lot of fun, even though we got knocked
around a bit too much from time to time. after the beach, we went back
to shower and eat. unfortunately, heath had to be on his phone and
laptop for several hours dealing with a work issue. once that was over,
we sat by the fire a bit longer and hung out before going to bed. sunday
was pleasant, too, we slept in and got to picking up the site to get
ready to go home.
overall, it ended up being a really nice time. we had a lot of fun with
luke and rebecca and laughed a ton despite the horrendous beginning of
the trip. we're hoping to go camping again before winter comes, possibly
in two weeks out near where heath grew up. hopefully it won't be
immediately following torrential downpours!
http://radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2007/08/100_reasons_youre_single_1.php
Why are you still single? Possibly because you...
1. Call Grey's Anatomy simply "Grey's"
2. Have entertained the notion that "the Axe Effect" is real
3. Own tie-dyed gym clothes
4. Purchased your dining room set with Marlboro Miles
5. Are only gay when you're drunk
6. Have written poetry inside a Starbucks
7. Wink in a rakish manner each time you tell a joke
8. Have a ferret on your shoulder
9. Call sex "the squishy squish"
10. Are Courtney Love
11. Hug amusement park mascots
12. Address acquaintances as "guy"
13. Use emoticons in handwritten letters
14. Own a "It's Not Going to Suck Itself" T-shirt
15. Initiate line dances
16. Have only one pickup line: "Why the long face?"
17. Posed shirtless for your MySpace page
18. Can't stop missing Anna Nicole
19. Scream out Wheel of Fortune answers
20. Call your therapist from work on speakerphone
21. Won't travel anywhere out of "blading distance"
22. Sleep on WWF sheets
23. Begin stories with, "I'm not a stalker, but ..."
24. Snack on Bac-Os
25. Know someone who knows someone who knows the Geico caveman
26. Flash devil horns in wedding photos
27. Eat with one arm guarding your plate
28. Refer to your PDA as a "Crackberry"
29. Have a dartboard in your kitchen
30. Own a calendar featuring babies dressed as cowboys
31. Call October "Rocktober"
32. Keep a dream journal
33. Own slot-machine gloves
34. Are the president of a fan club
35. Weave and distribute friendship bracelets
36. Have a "lucky" garter hanging from your rearview mirror
37. Prefer the "fist bump" when meeting strangers and always insist they "lock it in"
38. Refuse to remove your Bluetooth earpiece during sex
39. Take off work each year to celebrate Cinco de Mayo; are Irish
40. Have a disturbingly high thetan count
41. Display your framed degree from bartending school
42. Have been edited out of several Girls Gone Wild videos
43. Converse with angels
44. Refer to Target as "Tar-Jay"
45. Have ever said: "That's sooo Sagittarius"
46. Feel most comfortable in Tevas and jorts
47. Have a five o'clock shadow, on your ass
48. Wear a "No Spin Zone" windbreaker
49. Cry when you listen to Belle and Sebastian, then, still tearful, blog about it
50. Use an electronic device to smoke pot
51. Call underwear "panties"
52. Have more than zero stuffed animals on your bed
53. Live by two sartorial rules: pleated, stonewashed
54. Display samurai swords in your office
55. Think the energy crisis can be solved with crystals
56. Have ever dressed up as a penis or tampon for Halloween
57. Own a 60-inch flat-screen plasma television but sleep on a broken futon
58. Have taken more than one cell phone picture of your genitals
59. Close all correspondence with "Prayerfully Yours"
60. Consider Maroon 5 sort of "your group"
61. TiVo'd the entire run of Criss Angel Mindfreak
62. Use the word "scrumptious"
63. Have a Tasmanian Devil "tramp stamp"
64. List "Dungeon Master" on your business card
65. Carry an All Things Considered tote bag
66. Wouldn't be the person you are today without Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie
67. Subscribe to any massive multiplayer online gaming experience
68. Take advantage of the eight-at-a-time Netflix option
69. Have a rhyming nickname
70. Sold your forehead to goldenpalace.com
71. Have a "LaRouche '08" bumper sticker
72. Have taken a course on improving your oral sex technique
73. Will do anything for "shits and giggles"
74. Collect throwing stars
75. Have a bedside stack of Sudoku books
76. Can only make love to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
77. Are infamous among your coworkers for your dead-on Baba Booey impression
78. Own all 24 volumes of Now That's What I Call Music!
79. Are O.J. Simpson
80. Have a screensaver of you posing with your Frisbee golf bros
81. Refuse to drink any beer that hasn't been "beechwood aged"
82. Have cellulite on your face
83. Refer to yourself as a "vagitarian"
84. Have a Web shrine devoted to a long-deceased pet
85. Consider riddles a great way to break the ice
86. Purchase meals solely for their tie-in products
87. Get visibly angry during Apple vs. PC debates
88. Are known among your girlfriends as "Heavy Flow"
89. Feel you've found the deeper meaning behind Meatloaf's "
90. Own all the Matrix novelizations
91. Raise iguanas
92. Posted your profile on Sean Hannity's "Hannidate"; are black
93. Have a "Peeing Calvin" decal on your hatchback
94. Work at Radar
95. Are learning to play the bagpipes
96. Don't like Insane Clown Posse's music per se, but think their philosophy is sound
97. Phone in long-distance radio dedications
98. Posted a Craigslist "Missed Connections" ad to find the kid who groped you on the subway
99. Believe the mouth is self-cleaning
100. Have had something on your face since the late '90s
on an unrelated note, but one i wanted to blog about nonetheless. i received some sad news about a family member earlier today. sometimes things like this happen, but i think it hit a lot of us extra hard because of what a happy time everybody had last weekend at my cousin, Jason's wedding. it's hard to live this far away from the rest of my family at times like this. i feel like i want to be there to give support, despite not really knowing what i would do to be supportive in this situation. i hope that everybody in my family knows that even though i don't live right there, i am thinking about them, and am (usually) kept in the loop with any big news. thank goodness for the internet. it certainly has the ability to shorten the miles. i know that if we didn't have blogs and picture sites, i'd be missing out on a lot of what happens with my sister, ron, and lucy. i know that mindy and i are a lot better about emailing each other and keeping in touch now that we have the blogs.
new feature: i'm going to try to be good about sticking to this, and it should be easier if this mobile blogging thing works. i'm going to try to post a positive thing every day. something i'm thankful for or that made me smile. i find that sometimes i focus too much on the negative and forget to appreciate the positive as much as i should. i'm sure we've all been there, and know that when we take time to consciously acknowledge goodness and happiness around us, things improve across the board. so, going back to my last paragraph, today's happy thing is that the internet allows me to keep in closer contact with my friends and family who live far away. my hope is that my parents get some high speed internet someday so that they can be more in the loop with our blogging etc.
update: it worked!
Okay, I think keeping everybody waiting for over a week is long enough. Just a warning, this is going to be a long post…extremely long…
Overall, this race went better than I could’ve ever imagined. I’d be lying if I said I was anywhere near 100% compliant with my training regimen, but I still managed to make it through the race without too much difficulty. Yes, I walked good portions of the run, but I’m okay with that, since the most important thing to me was just to finish the race, and I did that with plenty of time to spare.
The 1.2 Mile Swim:
I was running a little late getting to the swim start (whoops!), but managed to line up and get my wetsuit on and zipped up with a few minutes to spare before they called my wave: Wave #5, red swimcaps, leaving at 7:15. It was probably best that I didn’t have a ton of time to stand there and stew and get nervous. I walked up to the edge of the water and waited for the horn. We all splashed our way in, some girls diving in when it was still too shallow, then getting up and running some more before re-diving in. Once it got to about thigh deep, I started doing the dolphin dives, where you dive in to go forward, then stand up and dive in again. Once it got deep enough, I started to actually swim. This was the ONLY time during the race that I felt like quitting. I don’t know if it was the wetsuit, or my nerves finally catching up with me, but I felt like I couldn’t breathe. No matter how much I tried to calm myself down, I felt like I was gasping for air. I unzipped the top of my wetsuit a couple inches, and did the breast stroke for a bit. I looked for a kayak or sea-doo or somebody to rescue me. It’s probably good there were none around, or I might have quit. Instead I just kept going. I abandoned the dual-sided breathing technique I had worked so hard for, and breathed every other stroke, always breathing to the right, where I could sight the buoys and the shoreline (which seemed forever away). The swim went South to North, with the sun in our eyes as it rose above the treeline. I got into a rhythm and noticed I started passing some of the people in my wave (red caps). I was being passed, too, but that was okay, since I knew stronger groups were behind me and that was inevitable. I ended up losing track of time in the water. I just went buoy to buoy until I got to the end. It could’ve been 10 minutes or 2 hours, I had no idea how long I’d been swimming. I figured though, that due to my problems at the beginning, I was probably way off my pace. I was okay with that, and just wanted to get through the swim. After massaging out a calf cramp after the last buoy on the last stretch into shore (ouch!), I made my way onto the beach, walking up toward transition. I glanced at my watch, and it was somewhere around 50 minutes, which is not as far off my pace as I feared. It gave me a boost for getting on the bike. I didn’t let myself think about how much I had yet to go ahead of me.
Transition 1
I got into transition, and managed to yank my wetsuit off. I took my time to make sure I had everything. Put on my cycling shoes (after rinsing my feet a bit), put on my helmet and sunglasses, changed my mind and decided to proceed sans gloves. They didn’t want to go on over my wet hand anyhow. I made sure I had enough food and unracked my bike. I failed to notice that I had my cleat covers still on my shoes (doh!), so that made clipping in a bit of a challenge, but I yanked them off and was on my way.
The 56 Mile Bike Ride:
It was shady and smooth for the first portion of the bike section. I settled in right away and felt good. I was in my small chainring (= harder, faster gears) for most of the race (save for some of the hills), and felt great. I got to the 10 mile marker before I knew it and still felt really strong. I lost my chain on a hill between 10 and 15, but got it back on and kept going. At the mile 15 marker, it hit me that I was really going to be able to finish the race. I kind of got a little emotional, and was really excited. Even though I had been telling myself, especially in the week leading up to the race, that I was going to be able to finish, there was that lingering doubt in my mind and it disappeared right then. I felt like I was flying along. I managed to eat enough and hydrate enough, though Gatorade did not taste good at all to me. I was getting passed by lots and lots of guys, who had made up the time gap from their later swim starts. So many people were so friendly as they passed, having brief conversations, telling me I was doing great. That type of support and sportsmanship does wonders. You don’t feel so alone out there, despite it being an individual sport. I tried to remember to take in the scenery. Through the rolling hills, there were lots of fruit farms, and it was such a pleasant day. There were stretches of rougher pavement, which were painful, but then there were stretches that felt like I was just flying on. I was cruising over 20mph without even feeling it. Before I knew it, I was at the halfway point, and still felt great. By the time I got to mile 40, though, my legs started burning. My thighs were getting tired. I ate some more to get some more fast carbs in me, and dealt with the headwind I was suddenly facing. Ugh! And more hills. I got a little discouraged for a stretch. Then I reminded myself: “You are biking 56 miles. It’s SUPPOSED to hurt.” I changed my perspective and realized I should be grateful that I didn’t start hurting until the 40s, when I could have been hurting at mile 20! At this point in the race, I was so close to being done, that I just had to push through. Some of the hills at the end were toughies, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I just kept pedaling. I saw my family cheering for me as I made my way to the bike dismount in front of transition. I had made it through the longest portion in under my goal time of 3 and a half hours.
Transition 2
I took my time in transition 2 so that my legs would feel good on the run. I had stretched on the bike from time to time, keeping the hamstrings and calves as loose as I could. I racked my bike, yanked off the helmet and shades, changed into my running shoes, grabbed some food, and my visor and started the brisk walk to the run exit. I saw my family again as I left for the run.
The 13.1 Mile Run:
I still felt as if I had a ton of energy as I took off on the run. I think part of that is due to not allowing myself to think ahead to how much was left. I just wanted to take one mile at a time. I started out at an easy pace and quickly came to the bottom of a large-ish hill that was quite steep. Knowing that my calves would probably seize up if I tried to run it (which happened in my last triathlon and was horrible!), I decided to walk up it as a warm up. When I got to the top, we were already almost at one mile. I started to jog again and got a sip of water and Gatorade at the first aid station. I just kept going along, trying to enjoy the experience. I would now say that running is my weakest sport of the three. I walked a lot more than I wanted to. The one nice thing about walking was getting to chat with other people that were also walking. I met a number of people out there and everyone I talked to was very friendly. The course winded up some roads and into the Whirlpool corporation campus. The paved path turned through the woods and around and through a marshland type area. It was really pretty and pleasant. I still felt pretty good as I got to the 6.5 mile mark (halfway!) and began my 2nd loop. I liked that it was looped since then it meant that I knew exactly what to expect for the second half and how much was left. I wound through the paths again. The ice cold sponges at the aid stations were wonderful. The day was slightly overcast, which was great, since I could feel myself really heat up when the sun would come out. My stomach started to give me a little bit of an issue around mile 8, but I had some banana, which seemed to help, and felt a 2nd (3rd? 4th?) wind around mile 9.5. There were some kids with water guns out on the course, which was a lot of fun. They loved squirting us and we appreciated the cool down. By the end of the race, my tri top was soaked, but I think it was as much water as it was sweat. The last couple miles were long. Around mile 11, my legs came to a stop without my permission. It was a weird sensation. I literally felt like they just disobeyed me, “I didn’t tell you you could stop!” It just became a bit more effortful to keep them moving. But I was so close, and I knew we got to run DOWN that big hill (the one I walked up at the beginning). As I turned the corner at the bottom of the hill, I could hear the music and the announcer and it felt so amazing to know how close to the end I was!
The Finish:
One last left turn, and there it all was. Kind of a dune valley, lined on both sides with people cheering, waiting for their friends and loved ones to finally turn that corner. I saw my family as I approached the finish line. 7 hours, 10 minutes, and 32 seconds. It was such a great feeling to get to the end. I had actually finished this race that had been looming since February. This race that a month ago I was terrified of. I got my finisher’s medal, and my towel. They had a bucket of ice cold
After the race:
I found my family after I left that tent, and they all gave me hugs, despite me being so gross and wet. I was still flying high on my adrenaline and endorphins, so I felt really good. We sat in the pavilion and waited for my turn at a massage, which took too long so didn’t happen. I stretched a bit and talked with my family, who had sat there all day waiting for me and being there to see me at every opportunity they could. I got some food, but wasn’t very hungry. Then I started to get tired. You can see in some of the pictures Mindy took how tired my eyes look. I also started to get cold. After a little while, we gathered up, and went back to transition so I could pick up my bike and gear. We walked the mile or so back to the cars, and said our goodbyes. Heath and I headed back to Dan and Sarah’s so I could shower and we could get back on the road to head to
In the end I raised $2360 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Being part of Team in Training is really special, and I recommend it to anybody who is thinking about it. There are a wide variety of races that you can train and raise money for. Wearing that uniform made me feel really good about the cause I was doing this for. You are definitely part of a larger community as part of Team, and you have that much more support and fans on the course and cheering from the sidelines. It was great!
