Yesterday was “Day 1” on the “Amazing Adventure.”
After I did the Ironman in 2010, I promised “The Great Is” that if s/he got me over the line in time (you must finish in less than 17 hours – I was 16:58:51), I would volunteer now and again. I volunteered the next year, because my running “partner” Pukin’ Steve (see previous posts!)’s wife Kathy was doing the race. I had a BLAST. I volunteered again this past Sunday, because she was doing it again – and she got a personal best, though she had broken her big toe in three places, 4 weeks before the event!
(She’s amazing.)
There’s nothing quite like watching first-hand the whole “thrill of victory, agony of defeat” thing to get you going again.
I have gained A LOT of weight in the past while – likely meno-you-know-what (hey, I like to keep thinking I’m 29 years old…so I don’t like to use that word), “good livin'” and all that. I am in the middle of a “diet bet” right now, in fact, and am 14 pounds down from when I started, but I have about 23 to go. Yes, I gave up alcohol, except for the week I was just in Kentucky, and that has helped – but in actuality I gotta get back exercising.
I have done a number of marathons in the past year – Nike, California International, TInkerbell, Vienna (Austria), and am signed up for another one in October – but I’m really pretty much out of shape. I am not fast, I’m just steady. And I haven’t done anything else, so I have pretty good legs, but that’s about it.
For the Amazing Race, that’s gotta change.
However, since I have pretty much been sandbagging on working out since my last marathon a few months ago, I had to get started again. So yesterday, I went to the gym, and walked on the treadmill at 3.5 for 1/2 hour (so about a mile and a half), then did a 750 yard swim (about 1/2 hour). Yes, I told you I was slow.
I walked on the treadmill because I managed to pull a muscle on the inside of my leg when I was in KY, and I wanted to take it slow. No, I didn’t pull it when I was helping out at Ironman – I pulled it when out on the Bourbon Trail. As a friend said, you know how it goes on the Bourbon Trail, as you get farther along it, the floors just seem to get wavier and wavier. Yeah, what he said.
So that’s what I did on Day 1. I did it, I feel good. Today (Day 2) I plan to get the rules of the Amazing Race and post them here. But I gotta split now and get to work.
For Days 1 and 2, I told my friend R – who was fighting this idea – that she could just get us some phrases in two different languages that we might need. So that’s what she’s done. I’ve posted them below. So that’s Day 1 (Swahili) and Day 2 (French) for R.
I will get more creative with pictures, fonts, and all that jazz at some point. But I wanted to get this party started.
Here’s R’s stuff:
DAY ONE: Swahili (50 million speakers in Africa) – phrases we might need:
How do I get to: Je, ninkwenda
+The bus station: kytuo/steshen cha basi
+The train station: kytuo/steshen cha treni
+The airport: Unwanja wa ndeji
Thank you: Asante – Asante sana (sgl) Asanteni (pl)
**A is pronounced “ah” as in father.
**E is pronounced “eh” as in “say” (or like the Canadians exclaiming eh)
**I is pronounced like “ee” as in “see”
**O is “oh” as in “so”
**U is “oo” as in doom
**nd is “en d” both n and d are pronounced. Endayjee
DAY TWO: FRENCH – Approx 29 countries in Africa speak French officially. Phrases we might need:
How do I get to: Comment puis-je obtenir de
+The bus station la station de bus
+The train station la gare
+The airport la aeroport
Thank you Merci