525,600 minutes

There are approximately 525,600 minutes in a year. I remember this number mainly because it was a song in the musical rent. While the song refers to how you measure the value of a life, I prefer to think what I was doing this time last year. More importantly, to be very thankful it isn’t last year.
On July 5th 2008, I crashed and broke my jaw in three places and my elbow in one. This year, I managed to survive several long rides over the July 4th weekend and even the week after. This weekend was great. I am racing vineman next weekend so it is time to start taking it easy. The group I run with, BSK, was hosting a cross country run to raise money for the Vista track/cc team.
I packed a backpack with some shoes and clothes and left my house just before dawn. I road my bike up the coast to Oceanside and along the way tossed in a couple tempo intervals. I made it to the race in time to toss my bike in Molly’s car and pick-up my registration. I ran the event as a solid tempo run in just over 18 minutes. More importantly I felt relaxed and comfortable the entire time. After a little cooldown, I watched the women’s race and then several of the BSK kids and myself went out made breakfast at a friend’s apartment. This was a way better weekend then last year when I couldn’t chew.
On Sun, it was Carlsbad triathlon and Steven was completing his second triathlon. Steven is always at the races supporting Charisa and myself so it was a must see event. I got a nice run in before the triathlon started and managed to make it back just in time to see the leaders coming out of the ocean. While Steven was the leader, he did have an amazing race. He sattered his time from last year and looked great all day. Once again, post race it was a nice breakfast and tour watching event so that makes for the perfect weekend. A little bit of training, a couple races and pancakes/waffles in back to back days. July 2009 is way better than 2008.