Fall Winds Always Bring Change

Cars whiz by on 106, just a hundred yards from my doorstep.
Tractor trailers shake the apartment as they rumble by.

I look out the window in my kitchen, with hopes of seeing a vista and beautiful foliage adorning multiple mountainsides. Nope, just more apartments. We went to the Deerfield Fair yesterday. I can't help but think of how we are just like the chickens at the show, all cooped up in our own individual cages. I gotta get out of this town.

The Deca Iron, once a distant dream, now looms just under 3 weeks away.

Like the seasons from Summer to Autumn, things are changing for me. Priorities? It's been an ongoing thing for a year or so. Last year, I crossed the finish line at the Triple Iron and felt....absolutely nothing.
While riding solo at the ADK540 a couple weeks ago, I could feel it come to a head. I was alone and suffering, which is usually a condition I like to be in...but this time I felt lonely.

"Happiness is only real when shared", wrote Chris McCandless in his dying days.

I've spent years chasing this Deca, at the expense of time with friends, jobs, relationships, and money. In training for the Deca, there can be no balance.
People always ask me how I do it. It is simple.

In exchange for fitness, all one needs to do is fall out of touch with friends, have sporadic contact with family, not have a vehicle, and numb your mind to the rigors of physical activity.





"I can't help but think of how we are just like the chickens at the show, all cooped up in our own individual cages. I gotta get out of this town."
I'm here because of me.
It's time to move myself up.

After the Deca, I'll be stepping back from multi-day racing and focusing a lot more on a normal, simple, balanced, full life. I often refer to my life as a bowling ball going down the beginner aisle, bouncing from bumper to bumper. Maybe it's time to take the bumpers down and roll the ball straight.