Sore today

It was a long drive, but Rand and I made it home. I've been busy clearing away things that had to be done, things put off, and some things to get ready for tomorrow. Finally I am able to sit down and relax for a few minutes. Likely that means I'll soon be asleep, so let me put down today's thoughts before it's too late.

I'm sore. My knee started aching yesterday morning (actually overnight Friday night) and it still does, but I don't believe at this point it's anything serious, or at least anything a few days' rest won't cure. My neck, back, and quads hurt pretty badly too. That tells me I worked hard yesterday.

I'm really not bummed at all, but neither am I excited about what I did. I learned a lot from it though. I could qualify for World's there, but it wouldn't be a cakewalk. I'd have to swim a LOT more so I could get ahead of the pack and stay there, and I'd have to run faster. My bike is good enough, despite my bad day yesterday. That was one bad day on the year, and that's okay. They happen, no sense trying to get too philosophical about it.

I'm glad I made the trip. Spending time with Rand was fun, and Milwaukee was worth the trip all by itself. It is by far my favorite Midwestern city I've been to. I think there could be a whole lot of history and architecture to dig through, and I have the perfect person to do it with - my lovely wife. We'll be going back soon.

The greatest disappointments of the trip were, in no particular order:

• The girl who sang the National Anthem. My lord, it was animal cruelty.
• Not having a chance to make All-American (again).
• The expo. Or is that Expooh?  
• Not getting to any of the lighthouses we saw dotting the shoreline.
• Not seeing more of the city.

Some of the highlights of the trip, in no particular order:

• Being told I was going to get chick'd. Funny stuff.
• Seeing an iMax movie (Elysium). 
• The weather was perfect.
• Just hanging around national caliber athletes for a weekend. 

Now the attention turns back to the regular menu of work and cross-country. I'm ready. Mentally I'm over the race thing for a while. Time to focus on other stuff and recover. I'm sure I'll mull this all over and over for a while, but it won't be with regret. I'm sure I'll get another chance to go again, so long as I'm healthy. After I put some distance on it I'll consider whether or not I will, and if it's worth the time and expense AND increased training to do it.