Groovin Reuban...

Today was a great day. I had a couple of work presentations in the morning, which I nailed, and then I left work early for a "drizzly wet" ride with my new bud Reuban. Afterwards, Reuban and his wife Lindy stayed for dinner and we hung around our downstairs bar talking until 2 am.

Prior to today's ride, I didn't know Reuban. All I knew was that he grew up in Malaysia and is a friend of Simons. I met Simon via twitter and the blog and then personally at Ironman China. Reuban now lives in Ottawa and Simon connected Reuban and I. In a nut shell, we met through six degrees of "Simon-ation".

It's a small world on so many levels. It turns out Reuban's wife "Lindy" is Canadian. She was born and raised in my hometown of Winnipeg. She went to the same high school my sister went to. She even knows the sisters of my brother in-law. I had no idea about any of this before I met her. Heck, with the name Lindy, I was expecting to meet someone Malaysian.

I got to say, I had a most enjoyable night. Both Rueban and Lindy are University professors at the ripe old age of 36. If I was at a "country fair" and they had the "guess the occupation booth" and I had to look at each of them and guess between "student or professor", I would have easily chosen student in both cases.

It was weird, they were the only two people that "teach" that I could have a normal conversation with. Most teachers are a little "whacked" and talk about how over-worked, under-paid and under-appreciated they are and how they hate the "little Johnny F#cker fasters" in their classes. I could put up with the first three things, but don't rag on "Johnny", he's one of my people.

Reuban and Lindy couldn't be any more different. It was great being able to talk and try to understand two people that have accomplished so much at such a young age and aren't standing still. Most people in a similar circumstance would be putting it on cruise control and be comfortable as a professor, pontificating and becoming complacent.

Not these two. In talking to them, they are not sitting still, they still have hopes and dreams of what they want to do and be when they grow up. It was a conversation that I actually enjoyed listening to their answers, I didn't have to fake it. Two amazing people. I'm glad Simon introduced us to each other.

Reuban and I had a good ride. For me, it was one of those 3:45 rides that feel like 2 hours. It's great doing longer rides with someone else. You pretty much talk the entire time. Golf has nothing on cycling when it comes to building friendships. Most non-cyclists don't realize how social cycling is.

One thing I did learn on the ride was that Reuban is a PFG (Previous Fat Guy). He lost 40 lbs through cycling. He used to be the fat guy that every girl wanted to have as a best friend, in a non sexual way. Now he's 40 lbs lighter and every girl now wants him, in a non sexual way.

It was a late night at the "House of Payne", Alice and I continued to hang around at the bar until at least 4 am, then I figured I better get to bed, I'm picking up Doru and driving to Lake Placid for the Epic Man Training Camp tomorrow. Epic Man is basically one day that is 1000 meters of swimming and 13.1 miles of running short of the full Ironman.

Mod Bike - 3:45:03 / 103.4 km / 27.57 kph / 120 avg hr

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