Wordless Wednesday – the Button I Did NOT Want to Click

Proving once again that I totally can’t manage the concept of ‘wordless’ … let me explain this image a bit.

I have been talking since last year about wanting to run an Ultra – and frankly with the mileage I do, it shouldn’t be an insurmountable challenge. Last year washed out because of too much work travel … so I looked to this year, and found the Finger Lake Fifties.

On one of my Facebook groups I saw the sign-up date, looked at the Finger Lake Fifties page when the date came – and took a couple of days to see if the schedule would allow. At the time we were looking at a vacation a bit later in the month and what is fast becoming an annual weekend with some friends who have a place in the Poconos was also later in the month.

So I signed up … or rather I TRIED to sign up, and ended up on the wait list.

Ugh. OK, so I contacted the race coordinator – who was on the same Finger Lakes Running mailing list as me – and he said that there are two drop points in February and March, so by the beginning of April I would know if I had a shot.

Yeah, and so February and March and April came and went without me hearing anything, and while I kept the race in my head, I had given up actual hope and started looking elsewhere.

Also between February and March one set of friends needed to shift the date of the meet-up, and because one of the primary reasons for our vacation destination of New York City was some college visits in the area … we ended up having to shift our vacation a week earlier to match with other schedules and be back for the start of Marching Band camp.

So OF COURSE this week I got an email saying that I had made it from the wait list onto the sign-ups for the Finger Lake 50s! That elation lasted for about 5 nanoseconds until I realized that the race is the day we go on vacation … and also when the second rescheduling of the Poconos weekend had landed things.

So I was suddenly triple-booked, and since running a 10+ hour, 50-mile race would likely mean spending half of our vacation recovering … it was an ‘easy’ and very clear decision – but incredibly difficult to actually DO it.

I actually waited more than 12 hours to click the button … because I REALLY want to do it, I really know I CAN do it – and do it well. So I was more than a little disappointed – but on the other hand I am a very patient person, and once I allowed myself a bit of time to be sad, I clicked (ok, tapped) ‘Decline’ and thought – next year I will sign up immediately. And I let my family know. So like my various marathons and half marathons … it is something on the calendar that we will do together – just in 2015 rather than 2014.

Also, there are other Ultras – I am on the wait list for a couple of others including the ‘Can Lake 50’.

OK, enough of that – how about some happy music?

First, I have always talked about my love of the music of Miles Davis, and I am reminded of an interview from Musician Magazine in 1988, where he said:

The only real music lover I knew was Gil Evans. “He would call me up and say, ‘Miles, if you’re ever depressed listen to Springsville on Miles Ahead.’”

Oh, and you can blame Cori for this earworm … ‘Wishery’ by Pogo, which I think can help shake any bad mood 🙂