Every day that you wake up and are breathing, you are given another opportunity for an adventure.\u00a0 Some days the adventures are hidden and you have to search for them among the mundane.\u00a0 However, sometimes the adventures jump out at you from behind every corner.\u00a0 We never really know what the day has in store for us when we roll out of bed in the morning.\u00a0 Or in my case, as I drag myself out of bed in the morning.\u00a0 I am not exactly a morning person.\u00a0 Until I\u2019ve had coffee, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m actually capable of a coherent conversation, at least not a very pleasant one, just ask my kids.\u00a0 Trust me, I don\u2019t jump out of bed everyday, throw on my explorer\u2019s cap and head out in search of an adventure, but sometimes adventure just has a way of finding me.\u00a0 Today was that kind of day.<\/p>\n
I got up today thinking I would head to the pool for a swim, but for some reason I showed up at the completely wrong time.\u00a0 Oh well, I went home, ordered a Bridesmaids dress for Farrell\u2019s wedding and went about my day.<\/p>\n
Last night I was over at Farrell\u2019s house for a bit, before I met Steve to see the movie The Internship. I found it hilarious, I\u2019m pretty sure Steve went just to humor me. Anyway, while I watched Linds cut up brussel sprouts (yes, really) she was telling me that this is the week to sign up to volunteer for Ironman Arizona 2013 in order to earn a \u201cspeedpass\u201d which ensures registration into Ironman Arizona 2014.\u00a0 Why in the world would I want to do that?\u00a0 Nope, not happening.<\/p>\n
Well, something happened between last night and this morning.\u00a0 At approximately 7:17am, I got the following text from Teri regarding IMAZ: Leave your options open\u2014sign up and get a volunteer spot and cancel if that\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
At 7:38am, I sent the following text to Farrell: Ok, I\u2019ll sign up to volunteer.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a clue how this is going to work.\u00a0 Going on faith\u2026<\/p>\n
Volunteer registration didn\u2019t open until 2pm our time, so I went off to Big Shark to join the Monday morning women\u2019s ride.\u00a0 Ok, so that might have had the tiniest bit to do with the fact that there is a boy who works at Big Shark that I kind of enjoy looking at\u2026I mean talking to\u2026alright, both.\u00a0 But, seriously, it was mostly for the ride. \u00a0(And the boy, let\u2019s just be real here)\u00a0 Anyway, I needed to get a solid ride in, so after a quick stop at the post office, I was parked in front of Big Shark waiting for the others to show.\u00a0 There was only one other person who showed.\u00a0 He was not a woman.\u00a0 So, my ladies ride of 18ish miles, turned into a 46 mile ride, through some crazy intense hills with my new friend, Greg.\u00a0 Side note, when Greg said his name, I thought he said, \u201cGrey\u201d, so that will become his new nickname from me since I spent our entire ride thinking he was named after a color.\u00a0 Why I thought he said this, is beyond me, maybe I\u2019ve been reading too much 50 shades. (Shrug) \u00a0Greg started to take off solo, so I asked if he minded me tagging along since I\u2019m still a rookie.\u00a0 He said sure.\u00a0 We made a quick stop at Mobile on the Run and then we were off into the hills of Wildwood.\u00a0 And Oh my goodness, he definitely did not take it easy on the newbie!\u00a0 Those hills are ridiculous.\u00a0 On some of those climbs, I seriously wondered if I was going to fall over from lack of forward motion.\u00a0 And I think I need new brakes from trying to spare myself a wipeout of catastrophic proportions on the way down.\u00a0 Of course, by the end, I wasn\u2019t riding the brakes quite so hard, I was almost starting to enjoy the rapid decent. \u00a0It kind of started to feel like I was flying.\u00a0 Or maybe I was just really happy to not have to use my legs to propel me uphill anymore.\u00a0 Climbing hills makes me feel powerful, but after that long, they just made me feel tired.<\/p>\n
For about 3 hours, Greg and I rode and talked about all kinds of stuff\u2026our families, my kids, school, work, etc.\u00a0 At times all I could hear was him encouraging me up a hill along with the sound of my lungs about to explode from my heavy breathing. \u00a0Greg kept saying he didn\u2019t really think I was a rookie.\u00a0 My response, as usual, was, \u201cWhat I lack in speed and ability, I make up for it with determination\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019m all heart, I know this about me.\u00a0 He called me \u201cSupermom\u201d, I said I must have left my cape at the dry-cleaners.\u00a0 \u00a0I made it 46 miles.\u00a0 Now, I know I have a half Ironman in 3 weeks so I should have been up to at least that many miles on the bike already, but here\u2019s the thing\u2026that was my longest ride to date.\u00a0 Victory! (Don\u2019t judge me.\u00a0 I\u2019m a working, single mom.\u00a0 Who has the time to spend 3-4 hours on a bike multiple times a week?!) And that longest ride ever, did I go flat?\u00a0 Oh, no.\u00a0It was flipping hard with those hills mixed in.\u00a0 So, how do I feel about a 56 mile bike ride in Racine sandwiched between a 1.2 miles swim and a half marathon?\u00a0 I feel like I\u2019m gonna crush it!\u00a0 Today\u2019s ride was a huge boost to my confidence and I needed it. \u00a0I got in a great ride, and I made a new friend.\u00a0 And the scenery was absolutely fantastic.\u00a0 At one point, we were on a ridge up high, looking down into a valley of trees and I said it felt a little like being on top of the world.\u00a0 (Cue the Carpenter\u2019s song\u2026sorry, it\u2019s stuck in my head too)\u00a0 So, my day went in a completely different direction from what I expected.\u00a0 But, that\u2019s not unusual. \u00a0Just like Forrest said, Ya never really know what you\u2019re gonna get.<\/p>\n
When I got home, Farrell and Nicole were texting me about what aid station to sign up for in Arizona so we can all work together.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what supernatural force took over to temporarily eliminate my excessive fear at the thought of a full Ironman, but somehow I managed to sign up.\u00a0 Nicole and I agreed that as scary as this is, it just feels right.<\/p>\n
Like I told Farrell this morning, I don\u2019t have a clue how any of this is going to come together.\u00a0 But when do we ever know how things are going to come together?\u00a0 Even the stuff we think we have figured out doesn\u2019t always go the way we plan, but ultimately things just have a way of working out.\u00a0 And here\u2019s what I do know\u2026I know that I love an adventure.\u00a0 I know that I can tackle a challenge.\u00a0 And I know that I\u2019ve got a story to tell in all this.\u00a0 My life is my story.\u00a0 And I\u2019m gonna keep telling it by living out loud. After all, when has anyone ever known me to be quiet?<\/p>\n
Let the adventure begin\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every day that you wake up and are breathing, you are given another opportunity for an adventure.\u00a0 Some days the adventures are hidden and you have to search for them among the mundane.\u00a0 However, sometimes the adventures jump out at you from behind every corner.\u00a0 We never really know what the day has in store […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-conquering-fears","category-randomthoughts","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-5z","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}