Storytelling

Yes, I did it. I clicked the big mouse, sent the big bucks to RAAM.

So. I'm in. Really...in. I show up on the website and everything, so it must be real, right? I remember the very first qualifier I did - Furnace Creek - I started telling people in, like, November that I was going to do it. It's in October. That's a lot of time spent explaining..."it's a five hundred mile bike race. In Death Valley. Without stopping. Except I'll get off the bike to pee..." - but every time I did, I got a positive vibe, even if it was a "gosh, you're some kind of nuts!" positive vibe.

It's a good reminder. We all have stories to tell. Tell the people around you, tell the people you WISH were around you (like my folks, who are finally too far away now that I'm grown up enough to figure that out). Tell your story. Here's mine:

In June of 2010, I'm going to race RAAM. It's a 3000 mile bicycle race. It starts in Oceanside, California. It ends in Annapolis, Maryland. I'll race around the clock, without stopping. Except to pee. And to sleep, a little (but not very much). I'm going to ride a recumbent bike. No woman has finished on a recumbent before. I'll be almost 47 years old.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

It feels like its a million miles away, but it's really just 10 short months.