I CAN'T WIN.....ANYWHERE!!!

so i'm about to take off for Honolulu tomorrow morning. check out the weather forecast:

yep, it's gonna rain up until the day i leave.

SHIT.

oh and imagine my overwhelming joy when i encountered this informative sign at the gym the other night:

OH. HELL. NO.

SHIT. DOUBLE SHIT. SHIT.

now i know what they're thinkin' over there at the good ol' YMCA. they're thinkin' December would be a great time to close the pool for maintenance because it's a slow time, it's cold, and no one will miss the pool. so just where in the hell am i supposed to swim???

oh and this was the best discovery just as i returned from the NYC marathon:




now this, ladies and gents, is what we call
A DOUBLE SCOOP SHIT SUNDAE
TOPPED WITH HOT SHIT SAUCE AND SHIT CREAM
(NO CHERRY ON TOP)

when i read this, my heart sank. this was to be my only shot at a warm up half IM before IM Brasil. that's it. there's no other half IMs this early in the year!!! last year i signed up in December with no problem. guess it goes to show how popular our little sport of triathlon is becoming. so i frantically went online to research whether there were any other possibilities. oh joy!!! i can go to Australia, Saipan, or Irving Texas!!! NOT OPTIONS. neither is Wildflower. just too much of a production with camping not to mention The Kahuna swears it's tougher than an Ironman. then i found this little race on may 3rd just 3 weeks before IM Brasil. a little too close to "the A race" for my taste, but coach said it'd work and i'd probably still do a 4 hour ride the day after . and I ALMOST SIGNED UP, but wanted to survey other peeps who'd done it. then, the night before Thanksgiving i got an email. it was a newsletter email from a race director who's race i did once and have now apparently landed on their mailing list for life. i usually trash them right away without even opening them, but as The Tri Gods are looking over me, i opened it to discover that the Rage in the Sage race out at Lake Mead, NV is NOW ADDING A HALF IM DISTANCE RACE TO THE ROSTER FOR '08!!!! and it's April 19th, just two weeks after Oceanside 70.3. registration opened Thanksgiving day at 12:00am, so i stayed awake to be sure i didn't get shit out (i mean shut out) yet once again:

cheaper than Oceanside 70.3, closer drive than Napa, and i have family i can stay with. guess it all works out the way it's supposed to.....

and that, ladies and gents, is a happy ending to an otherwise shitty story. it's still gonna rain in Honolulu, and i've got to figure out where to swim until the end of the year, but i now have a warm up race to look forward to....