Swimming on Christmas and Fair and Balanced Shirt Rotation

My 36-week training plan for Ironman Louisville begins on Christmas Day. When I first noticed that, panic set in as the X-man wondered where in the world I would swim. But Desirai has promised to sneak me in to the Jewish Community Center, so life is good. I've asked my family to celebrate Christmas on December 23, as on December 24 I'll need to stay off my feet and rest up for the upcoming 36 weeks. Champions don't celebrate holidays.

I now own about 400 race shirts. Just as I ensure that each number button on my microwave gets equal use when heating up food — one day I'll re-heat my burrito for 61 seconds, the next maybe 58 seconds — one of my strong convictions is that each race T-shirt deserves its own day in the limelight. Why would one receive preferential treatment over another when each race was special in its own way? That's like asking a father to name his favorite child (after his first-born son, who everyone knows is his favorite). So in my condo's extra bedroom are 20 stacks of 20 shirts, lined up in chronological order. I wear each shirt one time and then return it to the back of the line.

Today my Scranton Daze 5K race T-shirt came up in the rotation. Wow — memories! I had forgotten that I even ran that race back in 2004. Funny story: I was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to interview for a salesman position at a company called Dunder-Mifflin, but overslept and missed my interview with the assistant to the regional manager. So I made lemons out of lemonade by jumping into a local 5K and taking home 5th-place hardware in my age group. More proof that if you follow God's plan — and say your prayers while swimming 20 x 100 repeats on 1:45 at the JCC on Jesus's birthday — miracles can happen.

Later,
Racer X