first attempt

It's been over a week since my first scheduled triathlon of the summer. So much and so little has happened in that time.

We woke up around 4:00 a.m. Sunday May 6th. It had been raining overnight but showed signs of clearing as we headed 70 miles to the east for the triathlon. It was cloudy at 6:00 a.m., but no rain.

We show up at Lake Olathe and I start to feel a bit panicky. First, I noticed that a lot of the athletes were ripped.  Square jaws, the bulging muscles and the flat stomach.

I show up looking like a pudgy marshmallow.  

Then, while putting my Trek 920 mountain bike (the single most expensive purchase I made when I was 21 at $600) in racks with bikes that cost $4000. 
I started seriously questioning why I was there.

But, nonetheless, I had worked my butt off to get to this point and I was doing it.

They started the half-ironman first. (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run)

I was NOT in that group. I had to wait until 8:00 to start my sprint.

Now, I'm not sure who coined that term "sprint," but I don't think it applies to a race that takes, on average, 2 hours. It's as wrong a term for this race as is "reception" for the army. I show up at Fort Jackson for "reception" and expect hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. Oh no. Just lots of push-ups.

I digress.

It's 7:45. We're on the shore waiting to start. Next thing we know, we're being told to head for cover.

We head back to the car and around 7:30, someone comes around telling us the race had been cancelled.

I can't even begin to describe the huge disappointment this was. I don't mean to compare, but it was like loosing a baby you've been expecting and anticipating for months. It hurt in my gut that I couldn't do this. Don't mind the nearly $200 I had put into this race alone with fees and renting a wetsuit.


We drive home and I have nervous energy all day. I clean.

Then I discover, after nearly 10 inches of rain, why there is a levee behind our house.

There is a TINY stream in the woods behind our house. I realized, that cute little stream can do some pretty mean flooding. That levee kept our house from flooding .

I let a couple days go by to see if megaphone man (the race director) would send out an apology.

Instead, what we got was an e-mail with LOTS OF SENTENCES YELLING AT US. Apparently he had already taken some flack. He kept saying, "WE SAVED LIVES BY CANCELLING."

Well, I don't argue with that. The lighting was striking all around us. And I wasn't about to get on a lighting rod with two wheels.

And I knew we wouldn't get refunds. As he said, "It was clearly stated in the race agreement that there would be NO REFUNDS!"

But I was a little shocked that this big organization called KLM, which runs a LOT of races, couldn't even offer a simple, "This sucks for all of us. Sorry about that folks. Here's a little 10% on the registration fee for another race this summer."

So I e-mailed him and told him thusly. I also mentioned that I was a bit offended that they never responded to an e-mail I had sent another e-mail in April asking about wetsuits and mentioned that I was a tri-newbie.

He replied that *he* was offended that *I* was offended. How dare I question him? Again, no apology. No, "I'm so sorry we didn't respond. That's our bad. We'll try better next time."

This man needs some SERIOUS PR help.

But I tried to tri. And mother nature said "nope."

Tri again on June 3.

they like me

They really, really like me!

I had a program last Thursday. It was the 1st and 2nd graders singing songs from "Seussical the Musical." It rocked. The gym was packed with camcorder wielding parents. And apprently some community members.

This schools been getting a little press lately because the building turned 75 this school year. But there's been an elementary school on this site since 1871.

I don't personally know the woman who wrote this, and I'm not personally mentioned, but it made me smile nonetheless.

By the way, I'm doing my first Triathlon this Sunday. I'll have pictures next week.

AND, I'm working on gokevgo.com. I'm running a Triathlon in June to help raise money for a camp for kids with cancer and their siblings. It's called camp HIS KIDS. I'll let ya'll know when it's fully functional.