Do I Deserve These Angels?

I'd like to thank one of my readers, who is also a cousin of mine, for donating to Against Malaria today! Thank you so much, Carey, you are awesome! We have now bought 45 nets! Less than 100 to go to reach my goal of 140 (the distance of the Ironman)! Go to http://againstmalaria.com/colleensironman if you'd like to help out! 

I am really feeling all these long hours. Last night, after my awesome long swim, I just could not sleep. I was exhausted. At least my body was, I guess my mind wasn't because it didn't want to stop thinking. What was I thinking about? I have no idea. Something dumb, I'm sure. I was also feeling pretty allergic so that didn't help me sleep either. It wasn't a fun night, and I really could have used some good rest. 

I was planning on waking up a little early to do my quick run before taking Mindy to school, but Elle came and got in bed with me just a little before I wanted to wake up and I didn't want to wake her so I had to go back to sleep for an hour. Right?

Luckily Pete didn't have to be at work too early so I was still able to run. I was thinking we were done with being cold for the year, but it was a little cold today! Mindy rode her bike and she insisted on wearing her big coat and snow gloves. I just wore a light jacket and that was fine. I ran with her then ran some more to get 45 minutes with strides as my plan says:

R: 45 minutes at RPE 3 wth strides every 5 minutes.
B: 90 minutes with hills

When I got home, I did a TON of laundry after taking Pete to work, then proceeded to vaccum the basement. Of course, while I was doing this, Elle peed her pants (a food away from the toilet, don't you love that!?) so I put her and Ethan into the tub. Once they had just enough water, I turned it off and told them to be careful and not hurt each other for a few mintues while I finished vacuuming. (Sign of a negligent mother #1) I've left them in the tub before a lot, and it's always been fine. Well, when I turn the vaccume off, I hear Ethan crying and saying that he got hurt. My first response is to get mad. "Didn't I tell you to be careful!?" This isn't really what a hurt little 5-year-old needs, though, so I tried to be more understanding and asked what happened. I guess he had stood up to get Elle a toy (what a good brother right?) and slipped, landing right on the corner of the tile shelf by the tub.

Poor boy was scraped on his arm, armpit, and down his side. He said it hurt so bad it made his legs shake. I gave him two of our giant band-aids and some kid pain killers then helped him get dressed and lie down for a little while. When it came time for school, he said he didn't want to go, but I told him he wasn't hurt bad enough to skip school. Plus I needed to get my ride in, and he makes the bike trailer too heavy (sign #2).

I dropped Ethan off, and he seemed happy enough, playing outside with his class, then Elle and I headed out for our ride. She fell asleep almost immediately, I've got her trained pretty well in the bike trailer!

We rode for about 40 minutes, and I was just having an especially hard time getting up the overpass that was going to really be my only hill before turning around, when I looked down and saw that I had a flat tire! No wonder it was so hard! I pulled over and had the bike trailer unhooked and my bike upside-down before I thought, "Maybe I should get off this bridge." But it had a pretty wide shoulder, and Elle was just content in the bike trailer so I commenced trying to get my tire off. And trying, and trying. I called Pete and asked him if there was some trick to getting it off, and he told me to kind of roll it off, but he was heading into a meeting so I couldn't talk to him long. I was trying this when I guy pulled up on a motorcycle and asked if I had everything I needed. I told him I did, but I that I couldn't get my tire off. He came over and worked with it for a little while before finally getting it off. 

I pulled the old tire out, put the new one in and popped my CO2 cartridge into it's little gun to fill the tire up. Well, I haven't done this very much, and I did something wrong because all the air just rushed out, freezing my hands, before I had a chance to even get it close to the tire. I was like, "No, no, no, no!" I had that nice man standing there watching me and I felt like such an idiot!  I didn't know what to do now, but this guy says he'll go get his truck and just give me a ride home. As he was leaving, he reminded me that we didn't check the tire for any thorns before we blew it up. It was probably a good thing that cartridge backfired because, after he left, I found the little offending thorn still stuck in my tire. I had to pull it out with my teeth.

A few minutes later, another cyclist stopped by to see if I was alright. She was this cute red-head with a cool cycling club outfit on. She said she was done, and offered me one of her cartridges. I didn't know if I should take it since I had that guy coming back anyway, but she said that she had two so it would be alright so I figured I could try it. We got to talking, and she's training for The Little Red Riding Hood ride that I'm also doing in a few weeks, and had just finished 70 miles! I was like, "No wonder you're tired!" I'm just so amazed that after riding 70 miles, she still stopped to help someone she doesn't even know! What a great girl. 

We used her CO2 head instead of mine because hers was a lot simpler. After calling her husband for advice, and playing with it for a little while, we got my tire filled up! Yeah! She was telling me that she's never done it before either, so hopefully it will be easier for her now if she ever gets a flat. I felt so much like Chrissy Wellington because the same thing happened to her at Kona. Something went wrong with her CO2 cartridge, then another racer gave her hers. Read about it on Chrissy's blog: http://www.chrissiewellington.org/blog/?p=42 We just have so much in common, it's crazy! Same shorts (well almost), same CO2 story (well, almost). . .

I think this cycling angel's name was Natalie, but I could be wrong. She had a cute, very slight Canadian accent. I didn't notice it until I talked to her husband, and his was more noticeable. I hope she comes on here to say hi, and so I can say thank you again!! Thank you! You were a life-saver, and I hope to see you in Logan. Good luck with your training! From now on I'm going to cary at least two cartridges with me in case I mess up with the first one, or in case I see someone else in a similar situation. I never stop to help people, and I always feel bad about that. I need to "pay it forward" as they say.

By the time we got my bike all fixed, Elle was getting a little sick of sitting in the bike trailer, but she had been really good for a long time! She was also freaking out because little bugs were getting in with her, so I had to catch them and get them out before we started going. I also had to call Ethan's teacher because there was no way I was going to be back in time to pick him up. I told her to just have him go with Mindy and have them wait for me together. It was already 2:30, Ethan gets out at 2:40 and Mindy gets out at 2:50, and I was still half an hour away! 

I was just about to leave, wondering about my first angel, they guy with the motorcycle, when he pulled up in his truck. I just told him thank you again, and headed back on my bike. I wasn't sure how comfortable I would have been riding home with a strange man with Elle and no car seat anyway. He was very nice, and took a lot of time out of his day for me. I doubt he'll ever see this, but thank you!

I was also glad to get to finish my ride, and finish it I did. I rode as fast as I could to the school, worrying about my little kids the whole way. When I got there, they were just being so good and sitting on the bench in front of the school, waiting for me. They were happy to see me, but they said it was ok that I was late. What little sweethearts! 

I had told Elle we could play on the park when we picked them up, but now I noticed that either I hadn't filled my tire up as much as I should have, or it was leaking again so I wanted to hurry home before it went flat again. I told her we could drive to a different park later. Now I was in a riding fast mode, so I kept leaving Mindy behind as we rode home. She is just so varying in her speed too, so one minute she'd be going the same speed as me, but the next she'd be way behind me. 

It was one of these times when she got behind me, when I was slowing down for her to catch up, and we were also approaching our turn. There was a car coming, but Min wasn't to me yet so I just slowed way down and expected her to come to me, then we'd turn. She thought I was missing our turn, though, and just started turning without looking. Well, there was a car right there! It seemed to go in slow motion and all I could do was scream her name. Luckily the car didn't hit her, and she was fine, but I don't ever want to feel that way again! I just felt so helpless, it was awful! I'm so glad she didn't get hurt! (sign #3) I ran over and hugged her, and she was crying, but I think she was more mad at me for yelling at her than scared. At least she said she wasn't scared, who knows. I told her I wasn't mad at her, that I was just glad she was ok.

When we got home, I finally got in the shower, and I did not want to get out. I thought, what else could go wrong today? And I was so tired. I just felt like such a bad mother today, but I was blessed with so many angels. My 3 wonderful children, my awesome husband, all the people who have donated to my cause, and 2 more today that I didn't even know who stopped to help a stranger. Do I even deserve all this? I have been so selfish lately, I really need to follow the example of these people, and try to make the world a better place for the people around me.

I did get out of the shower (you could have probably guessed that), then I dropped my bike off at the bike shop for a tune up. I asked him 3 times if it would be ready before Saturday and he said it would be so hopefully my bike will be running beautifully for my loooong ride on Saturday. 

After we picked Pete up, I made some PB&J sandwiches and we went to the park by our house for dinner. It is such a fun park with a lot of really fun things so we had a lot of fun! 

We were really worried about Ethan because he's been keeping his arm to his body in a way someone would do if something was broken. But he played just fine on the park, and it didn't seem to be bothering him too much. But then we got home, and he was acting helpless again. I don't know. I really hope nothing is broken, but if he's still acting like this tomorrow, I'll probably have to take him in to get an X-ray.

Whew, and that's it. I'm sorry this post was so long, but this was just one of those days! It's after 10 now, and I really need to get to bed early. I think I'm going to take Friday off because I am just feeling exhausted! I need to do my long run tomorrow, though. Then I'll rest really good.