Zero to Sixty

Today was a day where I did nothing and everything. You might say it was a Tale of Two Garbonzos.

The day started at 4 am. With the alarm going off to wake me for the parade. Today is the Grand Floral Parade of the Portland Rose Festival. It is THE big event in the city, and something I look forward to every year. Since Emmy and I have been living in Portland, we have gone to the parade almost every year. And, almost every year I camp out for a spot along the parade route. Yes, you read that right, I sleep out on the sidewalk to stake my claim to a spot along the route. It is a Portland tradition.

This year it was cold and rainy (as it often is in Portland in June) and I decided I was not going to sleep out on the sidewalk. I would make a lousy homeless person. So, I opted to stay home, have hot sex with Emmy, and then get up early and go get our spot.

We have the same spot each year, and our friends come and join us to watch the parade. I took along my laptop and entertained myself by watching sci-fi movies that Emmy (and anybody else with two cents worth of sense) has no interest in seeing.

I sat for the rest of the morning and in to the afternoon. The parade was wonderful (even though the recession took its toll in the form of fewer floats and entries) and it was good to continue the tradition. I ate crepes and doughnuts, and drank my body weight in coffee. I made it home a little after two and promptly took a nap.

When I woke up, Mexi and I went for a run. Mexi and I have run before, but usually it was towards large men who wanted to knock us over. Mexi is much faster than I and I figured it was just a matter of time before he left me in the proverbial dust. Luckily (for me, not for him) my crepe settled better than his and long about the time he caught me, his crepe decided it was tired of running and wanted to stop.

I logged a time of 27:58 for a distance of 3.38 miles (thank you Run Keeper!). It was better than I expected to do. I figured somewhere in the 29 minute range would be more like it. I have been running 9 minute miles lately, so this was a pleasant surprise.

I rode the wave of success, and Emmy's credit card, to the registration pages for two races this summer. I registered for the Reach the Bridge race as well as the Portland Freshwater Trust Triathlon. Yes, that’s right…I registered for a triathlon. I had been toying with the idea of registering for the Olympic length, but, after the run I had today, I think that the sprint length is more my level. 750 m swim, 16.4 mile bike ride, 3.3 mile run. While I could do the longer, Olympic length, in any one event, doing all three might just kill me!

I have never done anything like this, so I bought a book and figure that I have all summer to train (the triathlon is August 23rd).

So, there you go. A day where I did nothing but sit and eat, and run and register.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring!