A NEW TRADITION

After many many years of being parade watchers it has become apparent that Ariel and I will now become permanent parade crashers.  We had an absolute blast Thursday night and all of you blog peeps will be happy to know that we did not throw one piece of candy towards anyone's head.  In fact...brace yourself....we had so much fun no one even got on our nerves.  UMM WHAT???!!!!  Yep it's true.  First off let's talk about the costumes.  Once again Quinn outdid herself and with $20 of material and 45 minutes made us look like this.


I like your taste in clothing!!!!

Pretty cool huh?!  I would expect nothing less from someone who looks like this

Clearly she looks brilliant

Thankfully the rain ended around 5 Thursday and we headed downtown for dinner.  After eating my weight in chips, salsa and a burrito we went back to the car and Quinn dressed us.  We weren't 200 feet from the car when a young college kid and his girlfriend stopped and asked to take a picture with us.  Since we looked like penguins we decided we should walk like them

We stopped at our usual parade viewing spot and waited for Kerry and the penguins from the Carlton School to come by.  They were towards the beginning of the parade so we were in the parade in no time.  We marched along handing out candy and waving to the crowds.  We marched the whole way to the end at the Salem Common and got kudos from the assistant principal and a kindergarden teacher at the school.  Nothing liked getting thanked for crashing a parade.  A women at the Common asked to video us and a guy from England asked to take our picture to show to his "mates" back home.  As usual Ariel and I spent the whole night cracking each other up with our warped sense of humor.  As the bagpipers went by I declared "I love men in skirts".  When the cop on the segway went by she looked at me and said "Paul Blart..mall cop".  Some other random things we said or were said to us in my favorite run-on sentence style of writing are ...Hoooooooo. He is totally rocking that dress. Attention attention we have two penguins busting a move at the common. Don't worry I just removed a layer of skin. Are you two related?.  What a fun night so looks like it is a go from now on.  More candy next year and new costumes.  Not going to commit to not pelting someone with candy though.  It is bound to happen eventually.  For me Thursday was simply awesome.  After work I talked to my nephew Josh for 25 minutes on the phone and then spent the next few hours with Ariel.  Those two mean the world to me.
I am by the way still working out despite not blogging about it much.  I am sort of kind of training for my marathon in November.  I am running 4 days a week and over 30 miles a week but don't really have the long runs in that I should.  Oh well.  On Saturday Kerry, Patty, Cindy, Bonnie, Steve and I did a run on the marathon course.  It is a 12.5 mile loop and I did 4 miles before.  Overall I felt ok and managed to not face plant.  There were two parts of the course that had puddles you simply had to run through.  Nothing like submerging your feet in ankle deep water 4 miles into a run.  That is the fun of trail running though and it didn't bother me one bit.  The race is all about fun so I am not getting worked up about it.  I miss my bike believe it or not.  The weekend weather hasn't really been cooperating so my biking outside has been minimal.  As far as swimming goes.......still hate it and it is even harder now to go because I don't really have to.  Who cares.  I still manage to get there twice a week..usually. BTW only 30 days till vacation.  BAHAMAS baby!!!  That is how you recover from a marathon.  Sun, sand and frozen beverages.

DOOBY DOOBY DO

BEWARE THE PENGUIN......anyone remember that Bud Light commercial?  If not you can watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVWtq-_VYk8.  Ok but why am I bringing it up you ask.  Well every year since she was knee high, on the first Thursday night in October I have been bringing Ariel to the Salem Halloween parade.  We go to dinner with Quinn and her friend and then they leave us to head to the first of many bars while Ariel and I find a spot to plop down and watch the lamest Halloween parade ever in the Halloween Capital of the World.  There is a theme every year for this parade but it seems like everyone does their own thing and people just pop in anywhere along the way and join.  We simply love this parade and decided last year we were going to crash it and join the fun this year.  The theme for 2012 is animals and when I told Kerry we were going to crash the parade she said Jack's school was dressing up like penguins.  Perfect.  Easy costume to put together and you are all aware of my affinity for the Penguins of Madagascar.  Just for the record...Kerry told me about this while we were out riding bikes and oh yeah...it was raining.  WTF!!  No it wasn't supposed to.  Whatever.  Apparently Mother Nature still has issues with us. But I digress.  So Ariel, Quinn and I hit the craft store for costume supplies yesterday and then loaded up on candy.  We don't think anywhere near enough people throw candy during the parade so we are going to do our part.  Of course I needed Quinn for the craft store part because that kind of stuff isn't my forte...oh crap Tray...I just remembered we forgot your craft sticks...oops.  Anyhow if you put me and a glue gun and glitter and scissors together in one room something bad is bound to happen and I will be permantly glued to some inanimate object although I will be really sparkly.  So next weekend we will make our costumes for the Oct 4th parade.  For those of you who don't live in these parts, Halloween is a month long celebration in Salem so the parade is early and kicks off the madness.  By the time the last two weekends of October roll around I don't even attempt to take my car anywhere.  Sheer madness.  After the costumes are made there is one final detail to work out.  Apparently certain members of my family are a bit concerned about the throwing candy part.  They are afraid that my anger management issues could possible result in me bouncing a roll of Smarties off someone's head at warp speed.  Ariel doesn't really tolerate the general public's stupidity all that well either so the two of us together might just be problematic.  But hey...here's a thought....if you get beamed off the head by a Tootsie Roll or a piece of Super Bubble.......A.  For whatever reason you clearly had it coming, B. You did, said or thought about saying something that annoyed us C. You stole candy from someone younger than you or D. We just totally felt like clocking you upside the head with a piece of candy.  Stay tuned for the parade recap in a few weeks and remember........BEWARE THE PENGUINS!!

UMM YEAH....THAT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK

Hello my blog-following peeps... big news on the blog front.  Despite bonding all summer over Ironman training, spending umpteem hours together sweating and enduring grueling conditions and accomplishing together the biggest challenge we have ever undertaken, I have finally found Kerry's threshhold for our friendship.  She simply refused to allow me to use her ass to cushion my fall while running yesterday.  Sad I know.....I was a bit choked up myself. Anyhow this is how it all came about.  Cindy, Kerry and I went to Lynn Woods yesterday to get in a two hour run.  Now I love running in the woods but the one bad thing about it is when you get tired running you start dragging your feet a bit.  This isn't so bad on the roads but the kiss of death in the woods where the trails are full of rocks and tree branches.  About an hr and 25 mins in I was dragging ass and my feet when boom.....my foot hit a rock and I started that slow motion "oh crap I am going down" dance.  There was pretty much nothing I could do to stop it.  Now Kerry was running in front of me and upon hearing that unmistakeable sound of someone hitting a rock and then the cascade of dragging feet she said and I quote "I felt something coming and I wasn't sure exactly what it was but I knew I didn't want to get caught in it so I took off."  So there you have it peeps.  I could have landed softly on Kerry's ass but instead hit the ground and executed a stunning slide depositing tons of dirt and gravel into both hands.  Whatever Kerry!!!!  Seriously though thank God she sped off because given the fact that I easily have 20+ lbs on her I would have taken her down like a bowling ball meeting a bowling pin.  Once I got back on my feet we surveyed the damage.  Both palms were bloody and both knees were already sprouting bruises.  Kerry squirted water from her bottle onto my hands to try and wash away some dirt and gravel from the cuts.  Cindy offered up the back of her shorts for me to wipe the blood off but I used my own shorts instead.  She kept pointing to her ass saying "right here" "right here".  Now I knew what she was talking about but Kerry thought she was asking her to squirt water there and could not figure out why the hell Cindy wanted her ass squirted with water.  What a crew we are.  Like any self-respecting runner I walked a few minutes to make sure everything worked and nothing I needed for running hurt and said "Let's go finish this run!"  And so off I went dripping blood for 35 more minutes.  When I got home I had Quinn help me clean up the wounds as much as I could tolerate without crying like a girl.  OMG that hurt. Once again Quinn had to break out multiple first-aid products to put me back together again.  Talk about high maintenance!!! They look pretty good today but my hands are very sore.  Unfortunately you can't appreciate the bruising in the pictures.

In retrospect it could have been worse........this could have happened



Now that would really leave a mark!!!!

I think that might truly be the last straw for my friends.  I have traumatized them enough without breaking out my pasty white ass for them to see!!!!  Cindy, Kerry and I reunited this morning for a bike ride and spent an enjoyable 40 some miles together.  It rained but we kept on riding.  It was like wild kingdom out there. I am pretty sure the animals are planning a takeover because they were in groups today...4 deer, 6 turkeys, a gaggle of geese (no kidding...there were at least 50 of them), 3 horses and squirrels galore.  I did see a few horses asses also but they were in cars trying to see how close they could come to me on the bike.  Idiots. Just how many geese do you need to qualify for a gaggle anyhow?  Anyone out there know?  Anyhow..other notable weekend stuff..went out to dinner last night with Tracie, Ariel and Quinn and had an awesome time.  The only drawback was the little shit sitting at the table behind us who felt the need to scream frequently throughout dinner at the top of his lungs in an ear-piercing tone pissing off just about the entire restaurant.  Now I would never harm a child but I truly wanted to choke the life out of this kids parents.  Idiots.  One more note before I sign-off...a special shout out to Mef (my Aunt Beth for non-family readers) who is in the hospital after a set-back from her hip surgery.  Keep strong Mef and be positive.  I love you!!!!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

For someone who doesn't exactly have a booming social life I had a very busy weekend.  Quinn and I decided to play tourist on Saturday and went into Boston to see the Constitution.  We walked from North Station over to the Charlestown Navy Yard and waited in line to see the boat.  This was right up there with trying to get on a plane.  Belts, cellphones, camera, etc and body all through metal detector and xray.  Thankfully it took much less time and we were on the boat.  If you live in these parts and have never seen it you really should go.  It is a beautiful ship full of history and it's FREE!!!  I found something I really wanted to take off the boat but but it was a bit big to carry.  I can assure you if I had one of these

I have a million reasons for needing one of these

those lawn-mowing idiots from next door would manage to get it done much quicker!!!  Nothing like a canonball across your lawnmower/weedwacker/leafblower to get your ass moving.  And yes that is an Ironman finisher shirt I have on.  Have I mentioned I am an Ironman??  After touring around the Constitution we visited the USS Caisson Young which is a destroyer.  Quinn found a little something there she wanted to take home.  This might just shutup the white trash f bomb dropping neighbors on the other


Depth charge anyone?

side of our apartment who scream at each other at least three times a day or more.  IDIOTS.  We left the Navy Yard peacefully without procuring any weapons and walked over to the North End into the madness of St. Anthony's feast.  After splitting a softball-sized aranchini we sat over by the fountains and cooled our feet.  It was a great day.  Sunday was raceday.  Kerry and I were doing the Cranberry Olympic Tri.  We were both signed up to do this last year but some beyotch named Hurricane Irene blew threw causing the race to be cancelled.  The weather yesterday was beautiful although heavy fog caused the race start to be delayed 15 mins because you could not see the buoys on the pond.  It was great to

As Quinn says...same picture, different numbers



 do a race with absolutely no pressure.  As stated I had one goal and that was to ride the wheels off my bike and I did.  That must have been Kerry's goal too because she had a blistering fast ride also.  We both averaged just under 19MPH.  We both agreed that our legs were burning and hurting but we didn't care.  Kerry followed that up with a damn good run and I thought mine was pretty good considering I have a toe that hurts like a bastard and can only be fixed with surgery.  Both of our swims were good.  We started in different waves.  I was in the 45 and up wave since I am old.  These women were brutal.  Worse than Lake Placid.  I got hit, pushed and swum over more than in the IM.  Nasty old biddies!!!  Kerry said her wave was very aggressive also.  The water was pretty shallow in some parts but all in all a nice swim.  It took me a few minutes longer in transition than planned since my damn wetsuit got stuck on my foot.  I think every race should have wetsuit strippers!!!  Great day, great race.  After I crossed the finish line I heard someone calling my name.  I looked up but didn't recognize said person but she was carrying flowers so she can't be too bad right?!  Turns out it was Melanie, loyal blog reader and Kerry's friend who came to watch us.  She had flowers for both of us which was awesome of her.  Thank you Melanie and good to finally meet you!!  Thanks to all of Kerry's friends for coming out to watch and cheer us on.  Thanks again to Quinn, sherpa extraordinaire who not only comes to these races but makes sure she sees us as many times as possible.  You rock Lynda.  Onto marathon training.


Me and Kerry on our way to check out the water



Asking Quinn if my legs are still attached



Bonnie did this race after doing a marathon in ICELAND a week ago!!!!!



A DAY TO GIVE THANKS

No you have not missed a few months...it is not Thanksgiving.  I think everyone has days that are special to them for whatever reason....birthdays, anniversaries etc.  I know that ever since losing all that weight years ago I have made it a point to do some type of workout on my birthday every year since 2002.  This year I really whooped it up by riding my bike 85 miles thanks to Ironman training.  So what is so special about August 20th...besides the fact that it is my Ironbuddy Kerry's birthday?  HAPPY  BIRTHDAY KERRY!!!!!!  One year ago today on August 20, 2011 is when I crashed my bike and injured my brain and a few other parts of me.  So very much has happened in the past year.  I have to admit I still get very unnerved thinking about that day and I know those of you who were there and have full recall of that day will also never forget it. There is actually not a day that goes by that I don't think about that day mostly due to a few scars that I see every day when I look in the mirror and one on the back of my hand.  But today I choose to be positive about August 20th because the outcome could have been far different and despite taking a full three months to recover from that dreadful day I did and I am fine.  I have decided that from now on every August 20th I will swim bike and run.  Not any crazy distances..just a little of each.  I wasn't sure I would ever do any of those things again so I will celebrate my ability to do so.  I will also spend the day thinking of everything I have to be thankful for.  Again it is only by the grace of God that I am here and I am so lucky to have a wonderful family, friends and my health.  Those are the things that really matter in life.  So my blog peeps I invite you to give thanks today for whatever you choose and be happy today for what you have and not what you wish you had.
ADDENDUM:  WTF..WTF...WTF...WTF!!!!  About 5 seconds after I posted this freakin blog I started hysterically crying.  Where in the hell did that come from?  I was seriously at peace and in a good place when I wrote the damn thing and then BAM..I get blind-sided with all this emotional crap.  The worst part was that I couldn't get over this feeling of being very restless and needing to go do something with myself.  Thankfully being a Monday it was my paperwork day at work so if I left I wouldn't be short-staffing the floor. I attempted to go talk to my supervisor about leaving no less than 4 times but while I was trying to figure out what to say I would start crying again.  Since I only cry in front of people under dire circumstances I turned around and went right back to my office.  I tried to get some work done and take my mind off of it but that wasn't working so I finally had to ask to leave in an email.  Since I have an awesome supervisor she understood and was ok with it.  I am home now and a bit better but still shocked at the effect this had on me.  I wanted this to be nothing but a thankful, positive day but I guess I am not quite there yet.  You know of course this pisses me off to no end.  I am still thankful for everything I have and have accomplished two of my three workout goals for the day.  Swim and run done.  Bike up next.  To me going out for a ride a year to the day you crashed on the same bike is like giving the incident the finger and if you know anything about me you know I am a fan of giving things the finger!!!!!!

TESTING TESTING 1, 2, 3

Ok loyal blog followers......time to discuss the future of this blog.  First however,  let's talk about what I have been up to since IMLP and what the future holds.  My recovery has been good.  I am still surprised at how little pain I had in the days following the race...relatively speaking of course.  My back was the worst and felt like it was going to snap in half at any moment.  I did have to walk down the stairs sideways for a day or two after the race but honestly I have felt worse after just running a marathon.  Weds after the race I went out for a 45 min bike ride.  Friday I went for a 4.5 mile run and Saturday I went for a 34 mile bike ride.  Shortly after uploading that workout I got an email from Jeff essentially asking "What the hell is wrong wrong with you???? You need to rest and recover.  You need to understand that although you feel "okay" your body is dealing with a very deep-seated fatigue leaving you vulnerable to sickness and injury!!!"  Umm OOPS.  My bad.  So I listened and rested and didn't run for the next week and stuck to swimming.  He actually wrote in my training plan to go for a walk to the ice cream shop...like 5 days in a row.  Good thing I am really not a big ice cream fan or I would have gained 10 lbs that week.  So finally after 3 weeks I am getting back into a structured training schedule again.  In 2 weeks Kerry and I are doing an Olympic distance tri which consists of a .9 mi swim, 26 mi bike and 6.2 mi run.  I have no expectations or stress over this race and only one goal....I am going to ride my bike like I stole it....as fast as I can and I hope the tires are smoking when I get back into transition.  I haven't been able to do that all summer.  Of course it will make for a painful run but hey..I am an Ironman...I can take it.  After that I will transition into trail running because I am doing a trail marathon in November.  Again no pressure here...just a leisurely 26.2 miles in the woods.  Whatever happens happens.

Onto the blog....I am still not convinced my life is entertaining enough to keep it going so here is a preview of what to expect.  I will be forced to blog about sheer randomness starting with the IDIOTS who mow my neighbor's lawn.  While I really like the little old lady who lives next door I could do without her son and grandson who come to mow the lawn.  First off the lawn is the size of a postage stamp and I could cut it with a pair of scissors in half the time it takes these two IDIOTS to get it done. They pull up with their big boy power tools.....mower, weedwacker, leaf blower.  Really dudes. I am sure this is their next purchase.



Another big boy toy

Grandson gets started on the mower.  Of course it takes him 25 pulls of the cord to get it started and I am surprised he doesn't dislocate his shoulder in the process.  In the meantime Son has fired up the weedwacker to trim around the fence and judging by the excruciately high-pitched metal sound I hear the most he is using it as a paint stripper for the fence posts also.  It seems that Son takes issue with the way Grandson is cutting the lawn so he proceeds to yell at him over top of both machines adding to the symphony outside my window.  After what feels like an eternity they finally shut off the mower/weedwacker/paint stripper and there is beautiful silence and I can once again hear the television and myself think.  That lasts for 3 secs as they fire up the leaf blower to .....well honestly I have no freakin idea why they use the damn thing.  IDIOTS.  By the time they finally pack up their toys and leave I could strangle them with my bare hands.  I think from now on when they pull up I am going to have to jump in my car and go for a ride for an hour to get away from the noise. 

SO followers...I can't do this alone.  If you want me to continue you must comment.  I mean why bother with all this typing if I don't know anyone is reading!!!!  Let's see how it goes.  The ball is in your court.

FINAL IRONMAN LAKE PLACID THOUGHTS

Now don't think for one minute just because this blog title has the word final in it that I will never talk about the race again.....if I continue blogging.  We'll discuss that in the next post.  I mean let's face it I get bragging rights forever.  Speaking of forever...a mere 7 days and 4 hours after beginning my quest I FINALLY got my tattoo!!!!

I will spare you the long version of my third attempt Thursday that fell through because the tattoo artist went to his other job where he bakes cakes.  WTF!!!  I thought maybe I was on Candid Camera.  Anyhow. I will probably find a way to work the fact that I am an Ironman into a plethora of conversations.  "Congratulations on your engagement.   You should honeymoon in Lake Placid where I became an Ironman"  "Sorry you lost your job.  With your free time let's get coffee and talk about my Ironman race."  "Wow your broken leg looks painful.  So glad that didn't happen to me during my Ironman race" and so on and so on.  I have a few more random thoughts to share about the race.  Of the over 2700 people registered for the race only 25% were female.  The average age of an Ironman is 37 and 95% have a post-secondary education.  I am sure that is because you need a good job to pay for all the insanity that accompanies this endeavor.  If you count my bike purchase 2 years ago in preparation for eventually signing up for this race I spent over $10,000 between bike, coaching, lodging, registration, gear, clothes etc.  I lost two important items during race week.  The cross I wore on my necklace got caught in my wetsuit during a practice swim and got ripped off the chain.  During the race I wore my watch for the swim then took it off in transition to put on my Garmin.  I never saw the watch again.  Kind of ironic to loose an Ironman watch doing an Ironman.  I have replaced that because I hate being without a watch but the cross will have to wait until my bank account heals a bit.  I can't believe how calm I felt as Kerry and I floated in Mirror Lake waiting for the cannon to go off.  Despite how hard the race was I never NOT ONCE thought about or wanted to quit.  I truly enjoyed race day and all my smiles were real.  I was thankful to have the ability to do it. As stated my main goal was always to finish but I told a very select few people that I thought I could do it in around 15 hours.  I am amazed at how spot-on I was.  I procured 7 cowbells for my cheering squad yet I have none now.  What did you people do with them???  Kerry, Dan, Quinn and I went out while we were still in Lake Placid to celebrate and talk about our races.

Beers and margaritas all around

Kerry and I were both surprised at how so many people said they were amazed at what we did, called us their idols and heroes.  We decided that we don't have any superpowers unless you count dedication and perserverance as a superpower.  We were simply two people who had a dream and a goal and decided we were going to do whatever it took to make it a reality.  So this is my challenge to you my loyal blog followers.  Life is short and that has been proven to me several times the past year.  I want you all to go after what you want.  Whatever it is.  Big or small.  Make a plan and stick with it.  Keep the faith through the hard times and enjoy the good.  You will get what you want and if for some reason you don't......dust yourself off, wipe away your tears and try again.  And with that I will leave you with a few more photos.

LOVE this pic of me and Kerry...like lambs off to the slaughter

I look totally badass on my bike

This is when I looked at the clock and saw my time

I am an Ironman