Snowstorm—Race Cancelled

Last night's scheduled running race was cancelled, due to all the snow and wetness mucking up the Waterton Canyon dirt road. Just as well -- my running shoes are fairly new and are still shiny. I'd hate to get grime and slop all over them.

I really don't mind running in cooler weather or in snow. In fact, a couple of years ago, I did a 10-mile run on a course where it had snowed 10 inches the night before, and was still spitting snow in a fierce wind at racetime. Other than the treacherous footing, it was kinda fun!

The worse race I ever had in terms of temperature control, though, was the Washington Park Triathlon, back in the early 80s. To save transition time, I decided to just stay in my Speedo after the swim...and I probably would've been OK if I had gone directly into the run. But no, the bike leg was first, and there was a pretty good, cool breeze blowing.

I don't need to describe the actual sensations I experienced, but let's just say that they were highly unpleasant. There was actually ice on the front of my Speedo, that is a statement that, trust me, you don't ever want to have to say.

I don't remember where exactly I placed in that race, but due to some, uh, shall we say "stride anomalies" during the run, I wasn't at my best, if you know what I mean. I'm pretty sure I didn't get a trophy.

After my last entry, a friend pointed out that it was unusual (well, she actually used the word "weird") to take photographs of stuff that you're going to throw away. Well, other than trophies, I can think of at least a couple other times when I've done that. As you will learn if you continue to read these postings, I treasure my memories and am liable to recount them at any random moment. Therefore, I also value the things that aid me in maintaining those memories as the ravages of age destroy more and more of my brain cells, of which there were few enough to begin with. Photos help. (So do movies -- just ask my brother about the Great Christmas Stocking wager, and the home movies that resolved it. But that's a story for another time.)

For example, there's the Exer-Genie. An ingenious device, it used friction on a rope to create variable resistance for exercise. It was one of the few pieces of "home" gym equipment that could duplicate the pulldown motions of swimming, and was affordable and portable. Most of my buddies on the Wichita Swim Club bought one of those little beauties. But 20 years later, when my coaching position grants me free access to a gym with every type of high-quality exercise machine I could want...why would I keep a home exercise device that I was too lazy to use in the first place?

Still, I cherish the memories of the times my buddies and I would hook the Exer-Genie strap over a door and huff away at the wooden handles in an effort to pump up our lats. So I wanted a picture of the thing before I gave it to Goodwill. (My guess is that the screener at the dropoff box had NO IDEA what to do with the thing. I can only hope it found its way into the closet of some other young swimmer, and that he'll pass it on in 20 years when he belongs to a nice gym.)

The other things I've photographed before parting company with them include some clothing (for example, my yellow shirt with huge red polka dots) and my huge collection of tourist pennants. No, not sports team pennants...but flags that represented places you could visit.

When my siblings and I were kids, we collected these things. It started when my dad took business trips to exotic locations such as Akron, Ohio and Bloomington, Minnesota. He always tried to bring home some kind of memento from his travels, and since his destinations usually involved only Air Force bases and the like, his best sources of travel-related swag were shops in the airports he passed through. And back then, airport gift shops were, uh, somewhat limited.

But we thought those flags were cool! So we got more of them. And then we began to collect them from vacation site gift shops as well. By the time I graduated high school, there were dozens of brightly-colored felt pennants in the collection -- some with feathers, glitter, and silkscreen photos. I hated to part with that collection, but eventually did.

Unfortunately, I lost my photos of the collection in a hard drive crash. (Remember, always back up your irreplaceable data! And if you've backed it up on a separate hard drive, like I did, make sure you hide that separate drive from any incompetent computer repair technicians who drop by to fix your machine. Long story, but let's not go there.)

Many memories are sparked by thoughts of those flags, though -- some of which I'll share with you through this space over the coming months. There will be tales of vacation gift shop purchases such as pocket knives, bows and arrows (and other projectile weapons), lucky rabbit's feet, and other stuff that today's 10-year-olds would never be allowed to purchase, let alone use to torment and harass his siblings. Hope you'll tune in for those.

Have a great day!