Free Fall...

It’s been six months since I updated this blog.  I started this blog to capture the craziness of what had, at the time, seemed like a unique journey of attempting to live the life an international sales guy while also trying to live the double life of a competitive endurance athlete.  I say “at the time”, because at that time, it did seem frantic and chaotic, but I have come to see over the past three years, that I hadn’t seen anything yet. 

Here’s a bullet-point list of the activities/events that that have occurred since my last blog post:

•           Flower city duathlon – had OK race, then got a flat about ¾ of way through race, then Nancy saved the day with a spare so I was able to at least finish.
•           Work trip to Netherlands, Belgium and Germany
•           ½ marathon in Brooklyn – awesome race all around, ran with Jamie and Andy Schild, set PR by three minutes, then hung out with Nancy and brother-in-law Doug in Brooklyn.
•           Memorial day trip to Ocean City, MD with Nancy’s extended family where we laid Nancy’s Grandfather to rest in the dunes near the beach house that he owned there.
•           Corp. Challenge in Rochester – really good race for the people that ran, lack of my companies involvement was a huge letdown, team finished 2^nd, missing a trip to Germany by 3 minutes
•           3-week work trip to Netherlands, France and Georgia – Nancy met me in Paris which was awesome all around – we celebrated our 2^nd anniversary there, not too bad at all!; Trip home from Georgia took a bit of a left turn as they say and ended up taking 35 hours
•           Eight hours after getting home from that trip, drove to Buffalo for my buddy Drew’s bachelor party
•           Went to Adirondaks the week of July 4^th with Nancy’s family, rode up whiteface, ran up marcy, drank a bunch of scotch with Doug, Mitch and a few other friends
•           Went to Colin’s bachelor party in ADK’s – went white water rafting…that was interesting…we also found an interesting way to utilize a wheelbarough…
•           Went to Chicago with friends - went to Wrigley Field for first time, great city, great DEEP DISH pizza!!
•           Our friend Mitch’s wedding in Canandaigua and my niece Megan’s 1^st birthday.
•           Colin’s wedding and associated events 
•           Work trip to Netherlands, Belgium and Georgia
•           Drew’s wedding in Buffalo, then chicken wing fest, then LL Cool J – you read that right – all in one weekend
•           Foot injury – again, but a different area of same foot
•           Work trip to Netherlands and France
•           My buddy Berger’s bachelor party in Syracuse
•           Bourbon Chase relay running race – 12 person, 200 mile running race through Kentucky-  Foot injury made for a little more stress than I would’ve hoped, but overall, it was an amazing experience.

All of these events are worthy of their own blog post, but given the quick succession of all of them, and given that throughout this entire period, there was the matter of going to work on the few normal days I had and trying to keep my head above water , there wasn’t much time to reflect.  After spending last weekend in Rochester at home, dog-sitting for a friend and spending an actual weekend afternoon doing nothing, no obligation other than watching football, I came to a realization – I can push myself beyond what I ever thought possible in terms of lack of sleep, insane work trips, ski/bike/running-type stuff, making it to important events with friends, etc - but the pace I’ve been on is unsustainable and just isn’t making me happy or healthy in the long run or really good at anything. 

I’m not sure where the next few months will lead, but I’m proactively trying for for a few less stamps in my passport and a lot more days in one timezone.  Hopefully I’ll be updating this more frequently and hopefully I can re-cap some of the events above in more detail, because a lot of that stuff (LL Cool J withstanding) was pretty awesome and extremely memorable experiences.