A Thorn in my Tire"

Literally. But I'll tell you all about that in a minute. It's lucky that I made my commitment to a more positive attitude yesterday or I'd be whining right now.

First a quick response to Old John who as usual makes a very good point. You either have a positive attitude or you don't. You can't just turn it on and off in relation to one aspect of your life. Thanks John. Also as usual John is full of shit in other regards. Yes this mans farts were poisonous! I am 100% sure that if concentrated enough you could have died from them! And secondly, if it did not come off as such I apologize but as I "chronicled" the whole day (not cronographed you idiot) it was a very positive experience. I had a lot of fun with it. But your forgiven for misunderstanding that just because you're Old John and your'e the only one I got!

Now back to my thorn.

I headed out at about 9 am under worrisome skies, but determined to get my workout in regardless, since tomorrow I had plans with Colby. I did indeed get quite wet at about 25 kms but it didn't last long. At 49 kms I crossed the railroad tracks kind of clumsily and knew right away that I had a flat. It's not uncommon that a hard impact like that is the moment of failure. But not to worry. I had a spare and within 10 minutes I was on my way again....for about 10 seconds...flat again! Either I had pinched the tube putting it on(but I didn't think so) or more likely there was something in the tire. You're supposed to check for but I never thought to because I blamed it on the tracks. No more spares so I tried calling everyone I know to no avail. Fortunately I was only about 2.5 kms from home so I just walked back. This time I checked inside the tire I found this little 5 mm baby poking staright through. I think it's a thorn of some kind but it is hard to tell.



Anyway, with the 2 flats and the walk combined I lost about an hour, but I headed back out and finished my 180 kms in a total travelling time of 5 hours 54 minutes. Not bad really. A quick change of gear and I headed out for my 10 k run. I started walking at 5 kms and considered cutting it short, but I hung tough and managed to finish the rest in a walk/jog mode. I still did it in less than an hour and as such am pretty happy with my effort, especially considering that by then it was getting very warm and very humid.

I wish to dedicate day 297 to my friend Rick Gibson who somehow maintains a positve spirit and a sense of humour in uncertain times.

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative"---W. Clement Stone

love
peter