Saturday, July 21, 2007

MIA

Well, I've been MIA since the FireCracker 50, partially because of how the day went and partially just damn busy. Raced twice since then, once a couple of days later just to mentally get the stress of a DNF off my mind. Today I raced to race. Didn't do great, as it seems the field at the Winter Park races is deep and fast, my neighbor/friend/Seamus's girlfriend's dad/carpool partner won the race (he actually won the one right after the 50 too). Even if I have a bad day racing, or just race as well as I can (like today) it is always cool when someone you hang out with has a great day (or in Kelly's case season) and wins. Makes all the racing seem more successful.

So on the global warming front the little fund raising scoreboard at the top is a little off. A good number of people have sent me money directly or donated because of me just through the mail. Tax reasons I guess, but it is all good. At this point I'm above $600, and people keep telling me more is coming. In my mind it is all good.

A question I've asked a couple times in posts is how to measure success? Well I didn't finish the race, at this point I haven't raised $1000.00 but even with those two factors I think I've had some level of success in this effort. Why? People I know have made choices to change their lifestyles and actions because of what I've done (Patti and Rob), I've talked to school groups, I've written to elected officials, and I've talked to congressional representatives. None of these in and of themselves, or maybe even collectively will end global warming; however, they provide a starting point. They let people know this is a real issue. Talking to Rob today (plus some email), a guy I've raced against for a few years (but don't know well) provided me a feeling that the effort has been worth while. It made me feel I am in some ways accomplishing the goals I set early this year.

The only bad thing about Rob, he beat me by 1 second in the race today (for 24th spot). We fought each other for 3-4 miles at the end. In the end he was faster, maybe his commute is longer, but like I said, success of a friend always feels good. Rob I hope you're reading this post. Great job out there today.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for being out there. It made that first Expert race more fun than I thought it would be. Hope to see you at WP this weekend.

-RC