THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Just for the record Ironman training and family heartache do not play well together.  I have been on auto-pilot as far as workouts go.  After getting the call about David last Weds I cancelled a personal training session and a swim lesson for that evening.  I knew I would be busy making travel arrangements and frankly had no interest in doing anything but crying anyhow.  Knowing I had a 90 mile bike ride looming on Saturday, I made the decision to not fly home until late afternoon on Saturday.  From Thurs until then I felt like a robot.  Must wake up...must go swim...must go to work...must go for a run...must ride bike...and so on and so on.  All I really wanted to do was be home. I left work early on Thursday because I was a basket case.  When I got home I really didn't know what to do with myself so I figured I would get my 8 mile run in and think about something else for a bit.  I checked out the weather forecast for the afternoon and it said sunny and 70ish well into the evening.  Off I went.  With 3 miles left to go the wind picked up and the sky turned black.  You're kidding right...it really isn't going to rain on me again is it...no...it won't rain...it's not supposed to...WTF...it is raining...oh no it is torrential downpouring now...really God this isn't funny...cut me a break here...I just dried out from the weekend rain debacle...oh crap what is that...thunder...fabulous...oh look lightening too...excellent...I am running on a tree lined dirt path 3 freakin miles from home in a violent thunderstorm.  All I need now is a damn golf club to hold up in the air.  I had no choice but to keep running.  There really was nowhere to take shelter until I got home. What to do..what to do?  YELL.  Yep that's what I did.  It went something like this...Really God? Really? You are NOT going to let me get struck by lightening and take another member of the family off this earth are you?  No I don't think so.  I am going to keep on running till I get home and hope the odds are in my favor.  I made it home and the second I stepped foot in the house the rain stopped and the sun came out.  Unbelieveable.  Thankfully it did not rain Saturday and at 4:50AM Kerry and I were off on the bikes.  I was a bad biking partner to Kerry. I just wanted to be done and I rode angry which means faster than I should and somewhere within the 2nd hour of the ride I lost her and we never crossed paths again.  5.5 hrs later my 90 miles were done.  I put my bike in the house and took off for my 1 mile run..er shuffle. Back home in the shower and then off to the airport. Since I had no time to stretch I put on my compression socks hoping they would help my legs feel better.  They did BUT it was about a hundred degrees on the plane so I was pretty sure my calves were going to spontaneously combust any minute.  I told Tracie this several times but she did not share my concern.  She has no idea how close I came to this

Now that is gonna leave a mark!!!

Despite the fact that there were stupid people at the airport and on our plane the flight was uneventful.  We picked up the rental car and headed out.  Thanks to a stupid Pirates game we got stuck in major traffic going through Pittsburgh but finally got to Aunt Lorrie's around 7:30.  We walked into a house full of people, sarcasm, crying, laughing and inappropriateness.  AHHHH..so good to be home.  Since this is my family's blog and you were all there I will forego the details of the next few days.  So many laughs and so many tears.  I will say it was wonderful to see everyone especially these girls.

Sunday and Monday were a blur but with the help of each other we got through it and as Bill Harris said "Your family really knows how to throw a funeral!!!!"  Yep we do.  I had to run 14 miles Tues morning which isn't easy in Windber since the damn town is only 2 miles long end to end.  Aside from my usual thoughts such as...am I done yet....why does my Garmin only say 10 miles...feels like 50....are you kidding me....is it raining...yes it did a little by the way...I came up with the perfect send off for David but since the blog is already like a gazillion words long I will make it it's own post so get some tissues and read on.