I still don't do much for my birthdays since I was born I've gotten over it but I'm excited about November 5, 2017. It's funny for being born 8/8/80 my age for the 1st 10 years of Life Part I was the last digit of the year. When you get cancer on November 5, 2010, it's turned out to be true for Life Part II as well. I think some good things will come if I make it to 007... A few years ago I wouldn't have bet it on but less than 2 weeks out, I'm recklessly optimistic. What celebration plans do I have? My mom is coming into town to cheer on a race I've looked forward to and planned since this summer where Kiana will cover her longest distance yet, 10 miles at 10 years of age. Even with a damaged memory, remembering this upcoming 5th of November I think is likely.
But that's something I planned and trained for, the chess player in me thinking a few moves in advances trying to keep things in check. How we got here was team work and reacting correctly and that has absolutely showed for the last few weeks. The day after the last time I blogged I raced the 80's 8k and while I had talked a lot of smack to my bromance Chris about beating him, he actually would win the race outright a PR for him and his first overall win (and a faster PR than I have in that distance), something he credited my talking trash to (in an interview, in a podcast cause that's when you want your trash talk exposed when you're on the losing end). He did say it got him to check out the course more but I still had the cooler outfit and I mean that's what really counts in races right :)? Obviously I wish I'd beaten him but as I tried to catch up to him in the last mile I did finish with a 5:30 mile but so did he so I ended up in 3rd place overall. I actually wasn't signed up for that race till after the Philly Half went rough. I was wondering if it was a mental collapse and I'm not the type to make excuses but we were trying a new medication to try to fix my piss poor problems which apparently can bring on exhaustion and lower blood pressure. Let's just say that's now in the trash and while we prescribed another medication to try... I have not. I like to think I'm alive due to moving so much so let me keep doing that and taking medications for side effects of the seizure one that have other side effects is not a price I'm willing to pay. I almost bought it when my doctor said look the side effects of the brain medication you're on are way more than this one but life comes with pain so accepting that will make it easier from here on out.
There was certainly an individual who put that in perspective. Last few years, a couple of UT professors have invited me multiple times to speak to their students. I used to think of it as flattering but it's probably like when I let Kiana help with the cooking or the librarian at school uses her as a librarian's assistant where you're going yeah I'm helping the overall situation and helping an individual by making my load lighter. But one of the students in there was a young man who was in a wheelchair, Archer. It was a political history class and after I spoke the professor did his lecture and then let students opt out of the end of class where they engaged in political conversations. Archer and the Professor were on opposite ends of the political spectrum and clearly thought the other one was wrong about their views on the role of government (despite that they somehow could think that without thinking the other was evil). Shortly after that, Archer asked to be pushed for the race that the professor and I had encouraged the student to run, 10 miles and we pulled it off in a solid time, the 1st time I'd been behind a stroller in about a year and Archer was a little tougher to take up hills than Kiana. This year Archer asked us to step up for more than a mile in his shoes in an event called, Archer's challenge. People had to do their regular tasks from a workday to a workout in a wheelchair. We put together a group of runners who did a relay, A RELAY!, of a little over 3 miles and it took 4 us more time to do that loop on a trail we all regularly run than it had taken 2 of us to run 10 miles behind Archer the year before. We appreciated Archer spending sometime in the middle talking to us in order to get the job done. It was not a timed event but someone on our team might have noticed we took 3rd place. 
I'd go from there to an ultimate tournament where we won or lost every game by one point so they were long drawn out games (on the plus side there was an ice cream break in the middle of the tournament where I defended my title as the ice cream eating champion!). I got home to join Kiana for her longest training run yet, an 8 miler. The next day I got to pace a half marathon, 1st time doing so trying to keep 1:40 pace and I ended up with a 1:39.57, thinking I got my job done. But between the two days, my hamstring was cramping up bad at dinner. I went and laid out on the bean bag. Somehow life has been kind enough to give me some great family and my mom got me a drink while Elaine and Kiana came and just chatted with me as I tried to roll it out. My mom caught a picture of us all on the beanbag. That smile is nothing but thankfulness.
Unsurprisingly, the guy whose not sure whether or not he'll make 40, doesn't want to miss any chances. Last year we had a Ragnar relay team of 8 and we won the coed division and took the 2nd fastest overall time. Somehow a few days before the event, we collapsed and were down to 3. So I asked those who remained if we could just turn into an ultra team (so instead of 15.5 miles we'd all have to do 31 and find a 4th). Everyone agreed and we actually would end up with 2 people saying yes so Elaine whose been coming back from an injury bowed out and we turned into a men's ultra team. During the race, one the guys had a recurring injury come up and in order to fulfill our commitment we had to rebalance the rest of the over remaining 100 miles between 3 of us. Phil had never even done a half marathon, Mike was 2 weeks removed from a marathon, and I'd never done an ultra and this is the 1st year since I started that I haven't done a full... Low energy, high heat and humidity and Elaine turned into team manager/babysitter keeping track of where we were and needed to be. During my longest one time stint of 15.5 miles that started at 3 AM, I kept it going. We kept moving up in the rankings from 7th to 5th to 2nd but then back to 5th and then to 4th... I might be a bit competitive and I saw the rankings in the middle of my longest leg we were in second place. A song inspired from Hamilton was playing and I shouted it in transition to some cheering and then I went and lived it out knowing how far we'd come. I'd get about 3 hours till my next leg but when it was done, we'd won the Ultra Division and we'd gotten the job done.
But there were still promises to keep after a night of no sleep so we went home and went to bed at 5 PM to get up the next morning for the Livestrong Challenge. The first one I did was my fastest 5k at the time, not even owning a bike. The next 5 were all Centuries, 100 mile rides and I would even say that I have ridden 500 miles and I would ride 500 miles for Livestrong. Perhaps I will but you gotta ask why did I do those all by myself? For a guy who was in a video 5 years ago where I said the smartest thing I've ever said is, 'you have to work on the relationships you want to keep' it's a little bit odd that it wasn't till my 7th one where I rode with Kiana on her longest ride, 20 miles for the 20th anniversary. This year I rode with Elaine where she rode her furthest ever, 45 miles. I know we like individualism and I'm certainly proud of many individual successes but it's the team ones that are closest to my heart. Life is better with good teamwork. Relationships is my favorite why and how to get the job done.
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