cheers, jeers and miscellania

• Lance Armstrong was staying at the hotel we stayed at. He was walking out with a couple of friends as we were walking in. Nobody even realized it was him ...except for us. I immediately turned to the J-man and said, "that's Lance." Then I said, "his calves are a lot smaller than i thought they'd be." Some people notice nice butts, i notice calves. i guess in his case, size doesn't matter. 

• Some of you know from my blog that i was adopted at birth. i don't know a whole heck of a lot about my biological roots but i do know that i was born in Winter Haven. Winter Haven and Haines City (where the race was at), are pretty much almost one in the same as they are so close to each other. As we were driving through Winter Haven, I looked over at the J-man and said, "thank god i didn't have to grow up here." there is pretty much nothing there to make note of. at one time, it was the home of circus world and the boardwalk and baseball theme parks. both parks have since met their demise. once you exit off of I-4, it looks like a place where time has stood still for ages.  it appeared very run down and economically poor. I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have had such a great childhood (in Tampa), yet it made me sad too because I couldn't help thinking about my Mom and Dad, the one's who raised me. i miss them so much. 

• On race morning, I had some time to kill after getting body marked and setting up transition so J-man and I found a place to sit and people watch, which is always a hoot. As I was sitting there lathering on the sunscreen, I overheard this chic as she is walking by, talking about the HUGE alligator she saw yesterday in the lake we’re about to swim in. I look over at J-man with eyes wide open and said, “why did I have to just hear that?” I did my best to get that visual out of my head of the alligator swimming underneath me. I won’t lie though, I did think about the alligator for like 5 seconds, then I was fighting for space the rest of the time so my mind was preoccupied thank goodness. 

• I forgot to mention in my race report how awesome the residents along the run course were. there were a few on the first mile of the run loop (aka: the big climb) who came out with their water hoses and sprayed us down. it was so awesome. i made sure to run by them every loop. i didn't care that my shoes were all wet and squishy inside. maybe that's what saved me from getting any hot spots or burns on the bottom of my feet. some people really did have burns on their feet ...true story. 

• I only pee'd one time the entire race and that was on the run IN A PORT-O-POTTY, not in my shorts, ok?

• Speaking of pee’ing, you know how sometimes a world record time in a running race has an asterisk to note that it was wind aided? Does it matter that when I pee’d on the bike, it was rain aided? Does it still count? I feel like maybe I cheated. Did I? 

• Leg hugs were in order on Saturday at the race expo. The leg hug thing is something that The Discombobulated Runner came up with last year and it was a hit so we decided to make it a ritual. Where she came up with this is still a mystery to me but I loved the idea. Here is how it works, when you meet a blogger buddy for the first time, you have to hug their leg and take a picture to prove it. They in turn have to hug your leg back with picture evidence. As crazy as it sounds, it became a hit so we continue the tradition. Here is my evidence:

• I hope everyone has a lovely memorial day weekend. I am doing 2 back to back centuries, one on Saturday and a completely different 100 mile route on Sunday. I will be well over 300+ miles for the week …yee-haw! 

• Have you noticed all the frozen yogurt places popping up? I do ♥ me some good frozen yogurt every now and then and my favorite flavor is ooey, gooey cinnamon bun. don’t judge me!

• Part of me is sad that florida 70.3 is over but the other part of me that needed a break from the hard core training is very happy. I like waking up and doing whatever I feel like doing. I'm sure I'll be itching to ramp it up again soon but for now, i shall enjoy the no structure schedule. 

oh crap, it's time to ride ...much love and peace out!