If I'm wrong I am right, no need to look no further.

After 3 trips back and forth form the East coast to the West coast, I am happy to announce the entire Farrooney clan is finally in CA. Bea was the last one to make the trip after 6 weeks at Nanny's. I knew the whole trip back for be exhausting: running the Brooklyn half, trying to see as many people as I could, sleeping on the floor of my former apartment (don't ask), going to Philly, and finally, shoving my 20lb dog into a bag and under the seat in front of me on the plane. It didn't help that the flight was delayed and we had turbulence for the duration. Bea was high so she didn't care so much. By hour 4 of the flight, my ass was killing me.
That's pretty much when I decided to change the course of my summer.
I'm not going to do the Ironman in July.
There are several reasons for this decision, which because I'm me, took me a while to finalize.
First, I can not deal with flying across the country again (I've done it 3 times since mid march). On top of the flying, there's then the driving to Lake Placid, which is close to no where. Dealing with getting my bike there, covering the 140.2 mile race, then doing all that traveling again.
Ugh.
I was really looking forward to doing this as a celebration of doing my first one with 2 very long time and dear friends of mine but the reality is, my heart isn't in it. I've done 3 other Ironmans, I know what it takes. When I told my friend Claudia who I was going to do this with, she understood and said "your heart needs to be in it or it's just a long painfu day without much of a silver lining".
Yup. It's a long painful day even if you're heart is in it. No getting around that. I have nothing to prove. This is the right decision for me now.
When I talked to Loren about this, she was a little relieved. We live in a new place with new adventures. While she would be totally supportive of me in this, she did say in the back of her mind she wasn't really looking forward to weekends where I couldn't do something because I have to go ride 80 miles. After that, all I kept hearing was "ride 80 miles...ride 80 miles..." who the hell wants to go ride 80 miles? Ok, I love cycling. I'd love to ride 80 miles. If that's all it was. I'm sure there's be a 15 mile run the day before or a 10 mile run right after. No thanks.
With that, I withdrew. And I am relieved.
This of course does not mean I will be totally sitting on my ass. Oh no.
We're planning on going up Rainier this summer (we were planning that anyway) and my focus has shifted to what I need to do to get ready for that.
Oh yea, and there's that sub 1:40 half I'm chasing. I'm looking for a race in the fall/winter. A race that does not require flying! So I'm taking suggestions.

mad world, mad world

Taper madness. It's real. Really. Someone should study it. I thought I was going to escape it this time around since I was coming off an injury and wasn't sure how my running was going to go. Also, my last few races have been trying to GET to Boston. This one IS Boston.
Well I was wrong. I came down with TAPER MADNESS.
To keep the voices at at least a whisper, I went on a planning spree.
Loren and I planned 2 high point trips. First one is a early summer road trip hitting PA, MD, and WV. Bea gets to come on this one too! The next one is in early Sept, hitting NM and CO. I also hope to hit VT and NY since Loren has both of those already and they're easy enough to get from here.
I've also been thinking about another ironman. It's been 6 years since my last one. And I fully admit the sport has changed and gotten douchy. I try to ignore all of that because I'm a pretty good triathlete and I like it. I just ignore all the dick measuring. I'm also curious to see how I'd do after years of just focused running. I was trying to decide which race to do. Do I do something new? Do I go for a course I know? These things are crazy, you have to sign up A YEAR a head of time. As I was looking things over, I had an idea:
Next year marks 10 years since my first IM in Lake Placid. I got to thinking that might be the thing to do, return to the scene of the crime. Not only should I return to the scene, I should take the people with me who got me there in the first place. I shot off an email to my pals Les and Claudia. We all did LP together and it was a first for all of us. I shot off an email to them saying let's get the band back together and do a 10 year Lake Placid reunion. With in the hour, I got 2 replies, both saying yes.
I have insane friends.
Of course I'm getting ahead of myself, I still have to run this little race on Monday, but it is fun to plan.