Life is One Big Adventure if You Just Say Yes

Where was I? Ah, rejoining the Road to Discovery in Salt Lake City after getting great, though disturbingly and familiarly last-minute good news about my Neutrophils showing up to the party. After a quick couple of days of reintroducing myself to Emmitt Smith and Lucy, we headed off to very very hot Nevada. We average just over 100 miles a day, which is why we mostly start at 4 in the morning, trying to avoid both heat and traffic. Some days, we weren’t able to do either, but not for lack of trying.

Since I got good news about staying in the trial, I thought I’d ride a bit more. I think it might have been my first day back when I decided I’d ride Six Mile Canyon and on into Reno. Good move, Einstein. Six Mile Canyon is really TEN miles and hits grades of 14%. Dean Crawford, being a Big Brain, did some quick math in his head and announced that the climb averaged 6 or 7 percent for ten miles. Sigh. Anyway, the reward was a beautiful, speedy decent into the outskirts of Reno, where wild horses couldn’t keep us away. Seriously. Wild horses were roaming around the neighborhoods and streets. Here’s proof:

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Reno, we climbed to South Lake Tahoe, where we actually got some time off and jumped in the lake, which was freezing.

For several reasons, I missed the descent from Tahoe into Sacramento. The profile read 4400 feet of climbing, 10,700 feet of descending, and I am sad I had to drive it instead of ride it on a bike. Now that, too, is on the list of things to do. California was uneventful, besides Patrick getting tagged by a truck (unhurt) and me riding 101 miles (all at once) for the first time in a year. We dropped the Dean off at Pebble Beach in one piece with more than a million dollars in the bank for the Boler-Parseghian Foundation for Rare and Neglected Diseases. I’d never been to Pebble Beach before, but we didn’t stay long.

The next day, we flew to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. You remember Coeur d’Alene. Site of my massive Ironman meltdown last year. I was so happy to be back as a spectator. Except for this:

Even being a spectator in heat like this is challenging. But for I’d say most of the athletes and volunteers, despite the blazing sun, it was a dark day. Carnage.

Martha and I flew back to Park City so we could see a couple of my favorite 90s bands at Deer Valley, Tonic and Toad the Wet Sprocket (I saw Toad on their farewell tour in Vail. Go figure.). Smashmouth played, too, and the whole evening was a ton of fun with lots of great friends.

Which leads to July 3, my debut as a race car driver. Patrick got me a day of Ford Performance driving school at Miller Motor Speedway. It’s pretty far out of my comfort zone, but I preach saying “Yes” to adventures, so here I was. The only female. The day started in the classroom, which was friendly, but pretty intimidating. The instructor gave us more and more information, then more and some more. By the time we were heading to the van to go to the track, I was nearly hyperventilating (on the inside). But I figured it would be just like a triathlon (kind of). When you got in the water, the nerves go away. That pretty much happened. I had a ball. I drove 110 miles an hour on the back straightaway by the end of the session. It was for sure a highlight in a summer of highlights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when our Park City Triathlon Club put together a float for the Best July Fourth Parade on Earth, I just said yes. The July 4th parade in Park City is one of the biggest events in town all year. Literally thousands of people line the streets. And in Park City, in past years, anyway, half the town is in the parade, the other half watches and cheers. Now, lots of out-of-towners are in on the secret. I’ve watched the parade for 6 (!) years, but never had been in it, so OF COURSE I said yes, when Sebe asked, if I wanted to run, bike, or swim on the float. I didn’t even flinch at the question. I said I’d ride or swim because I figured once you started running, you couldn’t take a break (and I was right). Here’s the float. We won most original. There is a swimmer, Holly, in the tank that Sebe and Scott built. Its sides are calibrated for the pitch of going down Main Street, but not so much for going up Swede Alley to get to Main Street. Every time we inched forward, a tsunami soaked the folks right behind us. Live and learn.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when someone said there’s a first-ever mud run down Snowbird Mountain this weekend, we weren’t about to miss that. The tram takes you up to 11,000 feet and you run mostly downhill for 3,000 feet, master a few obstacles and a couple of slip and slides. It was tougher than I’d expected and i froze most of the morning, but holy cow, it was fun. It’s called the DirtyBird, which I also loved.

 

I’ve also been back to the NCI for another blood test. Remember, I need a 1000 Neutrophil count. I came in at 1050. Which is better than 950. That means I’m in for at least another three weeks. And THAT means I am off to my first ever Ragbrai, bike ride across Iowa with my Livestrong loves next week. (Shameless appeal for a donation directly to my Livestrong fundraising account here) I’ve wanted to do this ride for years, and when out of the blue, my Livestrong pal, Jeff, asked, I was saying yes before I finished reading his email. And after Ragbrai, I go to Columbus to ride my first Pelotonia ride with my friend, Pelotonia CEO Doug Ulman. And I’ll stack up more adventures after that.

I usually feel like I should have some kind of point when I write a post and not just use this blog as a personal diary (although I’m not above that). And reading back over what I’ve done in the last month tells me this: I try very hard to do what I tell other people to do, and that is to say YES. I have always opened my heart and mind to possibilities, but have not always said yes to what presented itself. Saying yes has rarely led me to anything but reward, be it new friends or new experiences or, most often, a new adventure of varying degrees of greatness. (Saying yes doesn’t ALWAYS work. Last night, my friend’s son told me to just say yes, so I did. I had just agreed to drive him to the store in the middle of the night to get ingredients for Smores. Then I just said No.) The next time an opportunity to do something presents itself, don’t just throw out reasons it won’t work (it drives me MAD when people do that). Climb that mountain. Drive that race car. Visit Iowa twice in one summer. I hear it’s sublime in July.