Ramblings

This is going to take a while

As days go, today was a great day.  Some days come and go and don't leave evidence of their passing, other than the calendar is moved ahead one spot.  If you are a fatalist, the earth is one day closer to inevitable destruction on those unremarked days and we humans (paraphrasing a more talented author) little care or note the passing of the day.  Sadly true. Today was not like that.  Today I will remember for a long while.  Stuff happened today.

First, I swam 2.2 miles in Lake Meridian with my training buddy Jim.  That is a PR for me.  As we are training for Ironman, then I guess we could or should compare our ability against other Ironman participants.  Jim is a great swimmer, on par with the better swimmers in Ironman.  I am below average.  Whatever.  I swam 2.2 miles today and that is great for me.  On the downside, with every stroke I took, my wetsuit rubbed on my neck for an hour and now I have neck herpes.  It hurts.  I have a boo boo.

After the swim, my wife and I jumped in the car with Jim and went down to Ft Lewis to cheer on Ryan in the special olympics.  He was competing in the 5k bike race.  Some observations
  1.  Ryan rocks on a bike.
  2.  Ryan's friend Zach charrmed all the girls and rocks in karaoke.
  3.  I have stop feeling sorry for myself.  You get one life and you make the best of what you have.  If you don't, you suck.  These guys in the 5k were happy to be there, happy to participate and they didn't bitch about anything.  Think about that.  Nobody complained.  I haven't been on a bike ride or a run or a swim where I didn't bitch about something.  My neck hurts, my goggles leak, the water is too cold, my bike isn't fast enough, my shoes pinch, I am cramping, I am thirsty/hungry/tired yadda yadda....  I bitch a lot.

While there, I got my pic taken with John, one of my training partners.  He's a great guy.

Then, John and Jim and I went to run 18 miles around Lake Youngs.  The trail around Lake Youngs is 9 miles, so we did 2 loops.  The thing about that trail is that you are either running up or down, no flat spots at all.  It took me a little over 3.5 hours to run 18 miles.  Not fast, but I almost got lost, so it all evens out in the end.  Jim and John finished in front of me and had time to dash over to McDonalds and grab some jumbo cokes and get back before I finished.  I was really happy to get that coke at the end of the run.
I was a little dehydrated during the run.  I stopped to pee like 3 times and I think my pee was thicker than normal.  Is it suppose to do that?  Probably not an optimal outcome to my run.

Jumping subjects slightly here.  I have always believed that there is very little to distinguish the human race from other animals here on Earth.  We eat, we crap, we attempt to procreate as often as possible.  Humans and non-humans, all the same.  One thing that has a potential to differentiate humans from animals is that humans can view themselves from a non-egocentric point of view.  That is, we humans have the ability to view ourselves from a point of view that isn't strictly self-absorbed.  Think about it; a dog sees the world through his own eyes, and he will therefore behave only to optimize his situation, he responds as the world impacts him.  It's all cause and effect with animals.  If the neighbor's dog knows that my wife hands out treats at 4pm, that dog will show up on the porch at 3:59 and produce a puddle of slobber.  Sort of a Pavlovian thing, only in my example, my neighbor's dog is way smarter than Pavlov's since my neighbors dog can tell time.
Anywho, the difference between my neighbor's smart dog and myself is that he views the world from a singular perspective of self, and is therefore a victim, waiting for the world to impact him, be it good or bad.  Humans  have the option to view the world as a dog, or as a human.  If we choose the former, we are victims, like the dog, hoping for a treat, but really just waiting to get hit by a bus.  But, if we choose to view ourselves from the other, unself-absorbed viewpoint, we can stop being victims and impact the world.  We can dodge the bus and steal the treat.

If I look at myself from this non-egocentric point, I have the ability to be self-critical.  I can view myself and critique what I see.  The trick is to be honest.
When I was 15, I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought 'hey, there's a good looking fella.  Any girl would be lucky to go do something naughty with that guy.'  If some gal turned down my advances, I thought she must be a lesbian or had plans to join a convent.  Now, at the advanced age of post 45, I think maybe I was a little naive.  Maybe some of them were married and had a moral constraint against infidelity.

Riding 6 hours tomorrow.  21 days to Ironman.  I lost a toenail.  I mean, a toenail fell off my foot.  I still have the toenail on my nightstand unless the cat ate it.