Saturday night, we were two workouts away from the end of peak week and what better way to celebrate than dinner out. Or, in our case, dinner out and quickly in our mouths as fast as possible because we hadn’t eaten any “real” food (unless you count sports bars, gels, and coffee) since 8 am.
It was 8 pm.
Dinner in mouths, stomachs promptly full which made way for plenty of conversation. Tonight’s topic – what will we do after Ironman. We made a list, a list out loud of all the things we’d like to do in no particular order. Each sharing a little piece of what we missed most about life since all the training has begun. Not that we’ve given a lot up or not enjoyed our lives – no, on the contrary, I think we’re enjoying life and each other more than ever. It’s just that with all the time and focus with training you let a few things go.
Consider this like a Christmas wish list. Except it doesn’t have to wait until Christmas. It can start on October 14th.
First on the list of things to do – spend Monday in Kona enjoying beverages near the beach. If you see me on Monday you can be sure of two things – I will be wearing a cowboy hat and I will have a beverage in my hand. Maybe in both hands. If you approach me on Monday understand I will probably say yee-haw and try to get you to enjoy beverages with me by the beach. If you are smart you will reply with giddy up and ok.
Next up, I would like to eat donuts once a week for breakfast. No oatmeal, no worries about fueling for the day’s workout. Just a donut. Maybe two. Three if I really feel like it.
I want to clean my house. It has gotten to the point where I have asked permission to pay another woman to clean our house. Chris says ok but I haven’t been able to muster up the courage to call another woman and cry “help”.
I want to drink wine once a week. Maybe more but let’s take it in baby steps. Once a week go wine tasting and take it from there. Might turn into a whole night of wine tasting straight from the bottle. Who knows. But I’m willing to take the risk to find out.
I want to go to cupcake buffet on Saturday night in Chicago. There is a hotel in the city that has a CUPCAKE BUFFET. I want that to be the same night I drink wine so if you hear of a small woman covered in frosting and found passed out on the cupcake buffet table you might tell them you know that woman’s name.
I want to do the Cross Country Challenge with Chris. I want to duct tape my shoes to my feet, show up in shorts and a balaclava and shout to all of the high school hotties LET’S GO. Chris will wear his Elmo hat and tell me he wears it because “chicks dig Elmo”. He tried that line on my years ago and I still don’t buy it. My only goal in this event is to chase my husband fast enough to push him face first into the mud. And then he will chase me. I will outrun him up the hills but he will probably catch me on the downhill. He is also strong enough to pick me up and will probably throw me into a freezing cold creek. I say bring it on.
I want to do 24 hours in Vegas this time with no training to worry about the next day. I want to go to the D. Cabaret and stick dollar bills to my husband’s forehead just to see how Sparkles picks them up. I want to watch the fountains at Bellagio, drink cheap at Circus Circus, feed nickels into the Cash Crop machine, then collect all the call-me-now-cards from the men on the strip to make a full deck.
My list could go on – I want to go to bed early in the morning and sleep in late, spend more time in the hot tub than in the pool, sit for 5 hours watching mindless cable tv shows like Dr. 90210, make a meal out of ice cream, go shopping for shoes and purses, read cooking magazines, paint my toenails, ride my cyclocross bike, play the piano, drink more coffee, clean the basement, paint the basement….there are so many things I can’t wait to do only one thing is certain – I will probably run out of time.
As for Chris – his wish list is simple. When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said one thing. He wants to buy an Xbox 360 and play Halo 3 until his eyeballs bleed.
To each his own, and luckily less than two weeks away.
