Sidetracked...

Well, as of late...I've been sidetracked. Between my 8 day trip to Europe, over a week spent in the hospital w/ my GF and her family (her Grandmother fell ill), and just overall laziness...my training sked and diet have been obliterarted lately.

I missed my last race (Plymouth, MA - CX race) of the season, have eaten like a complete gluton, and have only been able to get in a handfull of workouts. Worse yet, my allergies and asthma have been driving me nuts!! I hear that every few years you're allergies go through cycles. Recently my pet dander/dust allergies have been unstoppable...itchy/watery eyes, itchy/sneezy/stuffy/runny nose, dry mouth and just general irititation of my sinuses. Even more frustrating has been a couple of recent asthma bouts that have made it pretty difficult to breath. As you can imagine, both of these recent health dilemmas can severly restrict one's training goals. I've been back and forth to the clinic and through 3 different allergy pills. Hopefully, I've got it under zoned in now...if not, the next step is allergy shots, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

So besides these distractions (mostly unavoidable), tomorrow I try to get back on track...

Inspiration during rough training sessions...

I got an email from my cousin (who's a marathoner in GA) today. It's an article by Rick Reilly and published in Sports Illustrated. The story below provides me with inspiration that I call on when I have a bad run, bike or swim session. If Dick and Ricky can do it, so can I.
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[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass. 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

And the video is below....


SIDENOTE - Dick and Ricky Hoyt are triathlon legends. Because I live in their neck of the woods, I've actually raced in two triathlons with them...the Mattapoisett, MA Sprint Tri in July, and the Narragansett FIRMMAN in Sept. They give me daily inspiration!!

Europe Trip Summary

Most of you know that my GF and I recently (Nov 1-8) went on our first Europe trip. We visited London and Paris for three days each. The trip was amazing and the company even better :) This was just to wet our international travel appetite. We definitely want to go back to each place for longer. At any rate, here's the summary of our trip.
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Day 1 - Boston to Newark to London-Gatwick Airports. Train into London. Taxi to Bayswater-Somerset Hotel; traveled from 2pm EST to 1pm London time (18 hrs total). Check in, freshen up, head out. Underground/Tube (London subway) to Tourism office, picked up London Pass (entry to all sked tourist sites, and bus/underground transport), headed to London Eye (world’s largest ferries wheel). Rode to top, saw the whole city. Walked down past Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abby. Had Indian food for dinner. Asleep early.
Day 2 - Slept in, Bfast in hotel, Tube to Buckingham Palace. Witnessed the changing of the guard (w/ 5000 other tourists). Walked to Westminster Abby, very cool. All monarchs from the 6th-19th century are buried there in huge sarcophagus’s. Beautiful church. Tube to London Tower Bridge and London Tower (used to be a prison for political prisoners, now the home of the crown jewels). Arrived 20 min’s late (misled by guide book ;) Headed back to hotel to get ready for night at the theater. Headed to the ‘West End’ (London’s ‘Broadway’) to catch SPAMALOT. Enjoyed show, had a Moroccan food dinner. Excellent day, out late, slept well.
Day 3 - Bfast at hotel, Tube to British Museum. Saw Rosetta Stone, Egyptian/Roman/Greek ruins. Then on to St. Paul’s Cathedral where ADM Horatio Nelson (he defeated Napoleon’s fleet at Trafalgar) is buried. Headed to Tower of London where the Crown Jewels are kept. My favorite site in London. Stopped by ‘Harrods’, London’s version of Sachs 5th Ave. Dinner at an English pub…fish, chips, and a pint. Back to hotel to rest up for transit to Paris on day 4.
Day 4 - Bfast at hotel. Fast train from London to Paris (via the Chunnel under the English Channel). Taxi to hotel, then to pick up Paris Museum Pass, transport tickets, and Open Bus Tour booked. Caught the Open Bus halfway around the city (there was commentary in Englais about all the history along the route)…passed through Place del Concorde (the sight of beheadings during the French Revolution). Then off to Eiffel Tower. Went to second level (350’ up) and saw the whole city lit up. Headed back to hotel to call it a night.
Day 5 - Bfast at hotel. Subway to the Louvre. Biggest art museum in world, used to be a palace but was replaced by Versailles in Louis XIV's reign. Did the “Da Vinci Code” Tour. Saw “Mona Lisa” and lots of other amazing paintings.

Day 5 (cont)- Headed on the open bus tou4 on to Notre Dame (of “Hunchback of Notre Dame" fame). Amazing stained glass windows. Lunch at a café, then picked up hat and scarf (it was below 40 degrees that day). Climbed 200 steps up a spiral staircase to the towers above Notre Dame...saw Quasimodo’s belfry. Back on bus on to Champs de Ely’see (where the allies paraded up at the end of WWII), and the Arc de Triumphe (that Napoleon built, and where the tomb of their unknown soldier lies). Back to hotel to sleep…
Day 6 - Bfast at hotel. Train to Chateaux du Versailles (Louis the XIV’s palace). Amazing sight. It took up 5 city blocks! And the inside…there’s more wealth and decadence there to pay for half the worlds debt (no wonder the peasants revolted against Marie Antoinette). Favorite site in Paris. Headed back to Paris and stopped at Hotel des Invalides (veterans hospital built by Napoleon)…also the site of Napoleon’s grave. Had many relics (guns, swords, coat and hat) that Napoleon owned. Shopped for souvenirs and called it a night…
Day 7 - Up at 5am…taxi to airport, delayed flight due to weather back in Newark…8 hr flight back to US. Delayed for another 7 hours in Newark…flight to Boston. 1.5 hr ride home…finally to bed after 26hrs of traveling.