An Experiment in Sleep Deprivation
Spewage
Photos
Sometimes everything converges on the same dates. This past weekend was one of those times.
My first triathlon of the season was Saturday morning, a very dear friend's 40th birthday party was Saturday night, and Sunday was Kids' Day, a major event every year in Indianapolis for which I had volunteered to work.
Each event was in a different city. How to fit it all in?
Well, if you knock out sleep time, that buys a big chunk of the day to work with. The plan became this:
- Drive to Terre Haute Friday evening and have a relaxed night.
- Do the triathlon Saturday morning.
- Drive to Chicago.
- Enjoy the birthday party.
- Drive back to Indianapolis.
- Sleep one hour.
- Volunteer at Kids' Day from 6am-6pm.
- Take a cold shower, drink a very large gin and tonic, and eat a Hardee's burger while lying on the couch.
- Sleep for 12 hours.
| The Tri |
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The tri was the Terre Haute Triathlon. Distances were a bit odd: an 800m swim, 40K bike, and an 8K run.
As usual, when the alarm went off at 6am, I questioned why I do this to myself. Rolled out of bed and sucked down a protein drink, got dressed, made sure I had everything I needed, and got going. Really started questioning my sanity as we passed bodies of water with fog rising off of them.
Outside temp was 50°, and the water temp was a balmy 71°. Thank goodness for wetsuits. The swim was pathetic -- I just couldn't get my body to relax or my breathing to settle down. I finished it in a sluggish 21:37. Oh well, even the pros don't win on the swim, so it's not worth exhausting yourself if it's just not your day. Darned wetsuit is a pain though. Imagine putting on a super-tight pair of pantyhose, over your ENTIRE BODY. Then imagine that you have to be really careful how you grab that full-body pantyhose to try to pull it up, so as not to tear it. More careful than with normal pantyhose. Peeling it off is marginally easier. (I did see someone using PAM to get it on...think I'll try that out!)
Took my sweet time extricating myself from the wetsuit and putting on socks and bike shoes, and had a super-long transition. Sure felt good to get on the bike and start moving a different set of muscles.
Bike segment was fun, and I have fallen in love with the new bike. My bike skills are nonexistent; I pretty much just use brute force and am slowly figuring out how to be more efficient (gears? really?). Am still learning how to drive the new bike, too, as it is still somewhat over my abilities. It sure is nice, though, and it's wonderful to be able to get some decent speed going without feeling like I'm gonna die. I did the bike portion in about 1:30, but they added my outrageously slow T1 transition time to it to come up with 1:37. Whatever.
Next was the run, er, trudge. Changed shoes, felt strong, but started out wondering where I had misplaced my legs. They felt leaden. This is known as the "brick". Eventually I found my legs, then my ankles started complaining. Loudly. Apparently I'm doing something when I pedal a bike that irritates my ankles when I get off. Will have to investigate that issue further. Anyway, it took two miles for my ankles to quit screaming at me. The final three miles were fine, and I finished in a respectable (for me) 55:15.
Total race time was 2:54:10. I'm quite pleased, as it was the first race of the season, I had done NO swimming for at least six months, and done minimal bike training. Much more important than time was how I felt throughout the race: absolutely great. It's very gratifying to finally feel the results of all the training, and feel it dramatically. While the race wasn't easy, it was never really brutal and I never felt like I was about to keel over. Even though the swim was pitiful, I never felt totally worn out, and felt fresh throughout the event. I'll take it.
| The Birthday Party |
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Ah, now the drive to Chicago.
The drive was fine, except for the last hour. Words cannot express how much I don't miss driving there. Chicago has a unique way of dealing with summer: why tear up just one road at a time when you can tear up all the roads that go the same direction? This results in predictably horrid traffic. A nightmare that makes me miss driving in Boston.
We arrived in Oak Park tired and stressed and ready for a beer. Dear Elizabeth let us detox from the commute, and we had a wonderful time playing with her two adorable daughters and chatting with her and her sister. The dog fell in love with both of us, much to the amazement of Andy, Elizabeth's husband. He is a gem, and he and Elizabeth are a joy to be around.
Note: Elizabeth lived across the hall from me in Chicago, back in 1988.
The party was an amazing meal at an Italian restaurant. About 40 of Elizabeth's friends were there, and it was quite the event. Waiters kept bringing dish after dish after dish after dish...everyone rolled out of there a few pounds heavier than when they went in. Andy really outdid himself when he planned this fete.
He also made Elizabeth cry with a wonderful movie that he put together, consisting of all kinds of photos with funny/endearing captions. She cried at the frequent expressions of "feeling like the luckiest man alive." It was very, very sweet and fun to watch the two of them.
Dinner was from 8-12, Central time; Indiana is on Eastern time. We got back on the road sometime around 12:15, or rather, 1:15am. Drove home, narrowly avoiding a small deer (who knew the Subaru could handle like that??), and arrived home around 4:15am. Both of us were in bed by 4:30.
| The Kiddie Party |
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It was a rude interruption when the alarms went off at 5:30am. Paula staggered off to work, and I staggered downtown to work all day at Kids' Day.
As anyone might guess, the Indy 500 is just a little bit of a big deal around here. The entire month of May is given to various celebratory events, all building to race day over Memorial Day Weekend. Kids' Day is a big part of this.
The center of downtown Indianapolis is closed off, and filled with big inflatable games, vendors giving away balloons, clowns painting faces, a "Rookie Run" roadrace of about 2 blocks for really small kids, and other miscellaneous child-driven activities. About 35-40,000 people attend each year. The local paper did a nice story today about this.
I was one of the core group of folks (500Festival employees, other volunteers) who are there from 6am, when the streets are first closed off, to 6pm, after things are almost completely torn down. We each had a radio, and were in constant communication all day, ensuring there were enough volunteers at each point, that each booth/activity had what they needed, etc. The actual festival was from noon-4:00pm.
I was responsible for a large section of activities and vendors, and probably sat for a grand total of about ten minutes. When there are hordes of children and parents in a small space filled with kid-based stuff, things can get quite lively. There were quite a few "lost" children, and the National Guard folks were kept busy looking for kids AND parents. All were found by the time the event ended.
I was cut loose sometime after about 5:30, and was happy to be done.
The gin and tonic tasted wonderful, as did the greasy burger. I managed to stay awake until about 7:45pm, then went to bed and passed out.
| Conclusions |
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- Sleep is a wonderful thing.
- I really love my bed.
- Nothing cures all ills like a cool shower, greasy burger, and very large gin and tonic.
- I'm getting too old for this nonsense.
- I'd do it again in a heartbeat just to see Elizabeth so happy.