Elicit Substance

I received an email from Firm Racing a little over a week ago. Firm Racing runs a series of popular triathlons and other endurance events in New England. Receiving an email isn't unusual as I subscribe to their mailings. What was different was the subject that read, "Sudbury Spring Sprint Triathlon Athlete Packet."

Sudbury... I remember. Sudbury was a triathlon that I signed up for a couple of years ago. It's a straight-forward sprint distance with a 400 yard pool swim. I thought it would be easier than jumping into a lake in New England in May. I bailed on it anyway when I work up on Race Day with a miserable cold.

This was supposed to be a "group" thing that several us would do together and this year, I jumped on the email announcement so that I would secure a spot, only to later discover that none of the other women in my group had any intention of racing this year.

Fabulous. I became so involved with the cycling that I forgot about it.

Until the email which "reminded" me that the triathlon is scheduled for Sunday, May 8th. Oops.

Eh, no matter. While I enjoy training for tris, I really dislike competing in them so I enjoy just participating as an event. It's easier on my schedule and my body. I get a t-shirt, maybe a sandwich, and a chance to get on my bike without worrying about being clipped by too many cars, then I'm home in time for the ball game.

So I figured I would take the first weekend in May and put in some heavy swim and run sessions, letting the cycling take care of itself. This plan was wiped away in one EPIC BRAKE FAILURE and I'm talking about on my crap car, not my bike. I was quite fortunate as I'd been riding around Rhode Island and Massachusetts, running errands, hitting my favorite bike path and bike shop - normal stuff I do on my day off - and my brake lines decided to fail just as I was pulling up to my front door to unload my bike. A brake line failure at 7 mph is unnerving but not terrifying... shift into neutral, hit the emergency brake, repeat to get it into a safe parking space, call the garage and AAA, and (first and last and everywhere in-between,) say as many, "thank yous" to as many different deities as you can think of because someone or something was looking out for you that day and I like to cover all of my bases.

Still, that put an end to training on Friday. Saturday was spent waiting for the station to call with an estimate on the price. Sunday was spent waiting for the thing to get fixed. I got it back at 6:30 PM Sunday evening - just in time to get ready for work on Monday.

The price? Oh, yeah. Well, I would have junked the thing but my husband decided to let them fix it for $1300 which was the price he negotiated down from the original $1800 estimate. I had put over $600 into brake lines, rotors and pads 2 years ago at another garage. All of that was wiped out. It not only needed all of the above again, it also needed a new master cylinder. This from a car that endures a simple 7- mile round-trip commute on a 40 mph road four days a week and I rarely drive over the speed limit these days - a result of smaller paychecks and nasty speed ticket fines in Massachusetts. I mean, what the.... That obstacle was an epic fail on my upbeat attitude.

I did manage to get in another bike ride and treadmill run this week and put in a workable 975 total yards in a swim session yesterday (Friday) morning so we'll see how it all plays out tomorrow.