Trying to do the unthinkable!

This morning, I'm scheming, coniving, working my tail off, trying hard-----to be cheap!  You see, in my year's I've become cynical in "deals."  I've tried the get the free bottle of champage for looking at our seaside property and walked out after writing a down payment on a condo (luckily, I stopped payment on the check after i drank the bottle of champage AND that was a long time ago when I was young and naive) this time I'm holding the coupon in my hand thinking hmmmmm.....

Kids get in free to the circus and it's buy one, get one free for adult tickets.  What a deal!  My champage experienced minds stops immediately and says, "What a minute, how do they make any money?"  I go and start trying to get my BOGO adult tickets and figure one way.  The computer won't let me get the GO ticket (get one) it keeps telling me that I owe it 36 dollars for two tickets.  I politely inform it that it doesn't understand BOGO but with what is the equivalent of a finger back, it tells me to just shut up and put my credit card number in and just buy it.  Now I'm picturing kids standing behind a parent crying about the circus and can see said parent getting to the,"screw it, it's only 36 dollar" phase and just buying the tickets.

The computer also then displays some very nice Circus T-shirts and Cups and crap and I find another way they'll make money.  I sit my boys down and prepare them,
"Do you want to go to the circus today?"

"YEAH!"  One is now dancing around the house.
"If we go, there's no buying stuff, no souveniers, nothing."
"What?"  little one stops dancing, "No swirling lights?"
"No"
"No elephant head snow cone cup?"
"No"
"No cotton candy?"
"well....."
They both dance that they are going to the circus.

So here we go, trying to get something for nothing.  I'm going to buy my tickets there and bringing my coupons for free kids tickets, if I can keep them on bread and water rations at the coliseum then maybe we can do the impossible........

Seeking Journey Athletes!

Do you obsess? Do you pour over information? No, this is not a late night infomercial, but something I have recently decided to quit doing. Why? Because obsessing and races do not go hand in hand when getting older! I remember my coach saying to us gym rats (yes, you can be old and be a gym rat) “You’ll not be as fast as you were when you were younger!” And I thought, “What? When did that happen?”

I finished a race with some friends recently and went back to the times, pouring over everyone’s splits and finishing times, then I went and complained to my husband, “Man, they really did well. I can’t believe they beat me.” He sipped his coffee and looked at me and simply said, “Well, they are 15 years younger than you. Give yourself a break.”

Hmmm, maybe that is a point. As I started to go back to the times, I tried to think about why type of athlete I am, not armchair, not elite, then what am I? I think about all the races I’ve done (never add up what you’ve spent on races and cheerfully tell the other half who doesn’t race) and find that now as I approach that starting line, I’m there for the experience, there for enjoying being fit and showing it off when I can finish a race, there because others talked me into it (believe me, there were a few times I WASN’T happy someone talked me into a race) there because I want to do it to prove to myself that I can do it, not to anyone else.

What type of athlete are you? Do you pour over times wondering where you could shave off a few minutes? Do you obsess about the length of your workouts (yes, I am guilty of that but being a businessperson and Mom and wife means I’ve got to carve the time and sometimes it may not be the time I want) Or are you a journey athlete, enjoying the journey and getting to the point of “doing well” and “being competitive” without freaking out about it?

OK, so my OCD came back again and I had to go back to the numbers one more time. This time rather than looking at my friends times compared to mine (I mean, they are, afterall, 15 years younger than me) I went to my place in history – where I land in my age group (old farts) and 75th in a race that’s got over 6K people wasn’t that damn bad. Going to lace up the shoes.

Wait for me! A race report from Virginia Beach....

Remember when you were a child, with your friends and there was that younger sibling running after you as fast as their little legs could carry you yelling, "Wait for me!"  As a child what did you do, I know what I did....

This weekend I got to spend with my sister as a "girl's weekend" we've moved out of those weekends of doing nothing and drinking beer to this weekend of adding in a half marathon to make something of it.  So this morning we got up to windy weather in our Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. 

I'm a competitive person, but at 45 know that most of my competitiveness is left to the cerebal activities but I was working out with a friend  and I remember saying, "I'd like to be compeitive in this race, I mean I am training for a marathon."  I wasn't really saying I'd leave someone behind, OK, I was saying I'd leave someone behind but when the gun sounded and we followed out waves out I was just as exited as my sister competing her second half marathon!

We ran a familiar route talking along the way, me surprised at her great pace wondering if she can keep it up the entire way.  I mean she came up for the weekend saying, "I am SO not ready for this...."  (quick memory trip back to a time when I said this)  We carry along talking about people we are passing, wondering if we should wear tututs the next time (we were already talking about the next time) trying to look under kilts , pacing with two wounded warrior men that ran the race with gas masks on!  (sure, we wondered at the beginning of the race if there was something we didn't know but after 10 miles we finally couldn't stand it and asked them why there were running with gas masks)  We came to the last five miles and she said, "my legs are cramping" so I told her to high knee for a while (thanks yoga) and turned the last mile and ran the boardwalk together crossing the finish line at the same time, (OK, I was SLIGHTLY ahead of her).

When we came to to the last mile I turned to her and thought, I should improve my time but was pleasantly surprised at a 2 hour half marathon and the smile on her face at cutting 15 minutes from her time was joy enough to finish together!  I told her the race time and celebrated all those times I hit a PR with her as she celebrated this milestone (it was a PR for me because it was the first half marathon I'd run in 5 years!)  As a big sister, I remember all those times I left when hearing, "Wait for me" and now watching her take a nap with a smile on her ace was worth it, and that extra 5 minutes I could have bought for myself so not worth it when it comes to actually WINNING a race.

So here's to all the sisters out there, or friends that realize winning the race is about enjoying the journey and being there for the people you love.  Why did we run this race?  Some will say it's because of the free beer at the end (we got our money's worth) but I'll say it's the free time I got to spend with my sister!  Now, of course if it was a 5K that probably would be a DIFFERENT story!  What's your story of sibling rivalry and the real world!