Epic Day …

There was no rest for the wicked today. And for the past two days, I’ve been wicked.

I got to bed around 4 am yesterday and was up by 10 am today. I was then blogging from bed as sweat was running down my face. Alice couldn't believe it. My body must have been trying to discharge all the toxins.

I took the day off to drive with Doru to Lake Placid for Epic Man training camp. I had to pick him up by 1 pm, which only gave me 30 minutes to shower, get all my gear and put on the bike rack.

I got to Doru’s around 1 pm, put his bike on the rack beside mine and we were gone. It’s just less than 500 km’s from Doru’s house to Lake Placid. Around 6 pm, we stopped in a bar & restaurant across from Clarkson University.

It was a cool, divvy place. They had monster beer glasses lining the wall with personalized students for those that drink there regularly. It was funny; they had a sign on the wall, limit 3 big beers per day, per customer. Of course Doru and I need to have some big beers with dinner.

We got to Lake Placid and by 9pm were across the street in the nightclub. It was dead, at least for the first hour, and then it picked up. A group of young girls celebrating a bachelorette party showed up with their inflatable “Ken Doll” in hand.

Doru made 11 pm his “bedtime” and I set no limits on myself, other than to have fun. Within an hour the bar was starting to liven up. A group of people attending an insurance conference showed up and then another group of firefighters at a different conference showed up.

The place was now fairly full and lots of booze was flowing and everyone was letting loose. Doru finally separated himself from the debauchery before midnight and told me I was “the little red devil on his shoulder”. I stayed right until the bouncer literally had to kick me out.

The highlight was talking to a 50 something women who’s been in the insurance business for 30 years and is still single. Never married, no major relationships, no nothing. We had a great talk, I think I opened with “Why aren’t you married or divorced by your age, you must be a Psycho or something”. From there a friendship grew.

It evolved to more drinking and her telling me that I’m the best and how come the best are all taken. She said I was “good looking and funny”. If I’ve heard that line once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. She couldn’t stop laughing and I was abusing her terribly. She asked were she could find someone like me?

I first told her she’d not be able to find good ones her own age unless they have been widowed. If they haven’t, they are probably damaged goods. I told her she needs to start young, get them “out of the draft” and she needed to start hanging out at schoolyards. I gave her a tip and told her my son Reid would be a fine catch. By the end of the night we were buds.

At one point, near closing, a guy in his 30’s that looked like big and fat skinhead was sitting across from me at the corner edge of the bar. He saw my Ironman tattoo and asked me to arm-wrestle. Without hesitation I beat him with my right arm in less than 3 seconds. He then wanted to do the left arm.

I had NO leverage and it was hard not to lose. I did everything I could without giving up. In fact, I told my self, no surrender, I’m an Ironman. After about 3 minutes, I wore him down and beat him. He was a good sport about it and it seemed he “upped” his respect level for me and we did a fist pump and tapped our beer bottles together.

As the bar was closing, the skinhead said something to an ex-marine and the ex-marine wanted to beat up the skinhead. The “normal” people of Lake Placid are a little “tough” looking as a rule. I tried to cool it all down and vouch for the skinhead. It didn’t work, the skinhead ended up telling the ex-marine to go F-yourself.

The ex-marine had long hair and a long beard. He was a cross between Tom Cruise in the movie “The Forth of July” and a Rabbi. The ex-marine was unflappable, he wanted that skin head. He also told me that my left arm wrestling match was amazing. There was no way I should have won it, I had no leverage and was at a complete disadvantage. He also fist pumped me as I left the bar after abusing him with a funny comment or three.

I left with what I thought was a good idea. I asked my insurance friend to come with me to my hotel room and pretend I just brought her to the room for some fun. I wanted to see the “shock” factor from Doru when he saw I was with a “wild cougar”. The plan backfired a little.

When I opened the door, Doru was fast asleep. I was banging the door and turning on lights, no wakie, wakie. I started yelling his name, “Doru, Doru, wake up, I have someone I want you to meet. No go. I finally had to start kicking his bed and calling his name until he woke up.

When he finally did come to, I told him he’s going to have to leave; I’ve got “business to attend to”, wink, wink. He didn’t know if I was serious or not at first. I was telling him, “Doru, grab your pillow and blanket and you’re going to have to sleep in the hallway”.

He finally caught on that I was joking and I said my good nights to my partner in crime. It was fun visualizing Doru leaning up against the door in the hallway with hill pillow, blanket and thumb in his mouth.

I only got about 3 hours of sleep before our 5 am wake up call. I really didn’t want to wake up, I was hurting bad, but this is Epic Man and the two key phrases that come to mind are, “suck it up” and “if you want to play, you’ve got to pay”.

Travel Day – No training.

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