Today?

I awakened this morning in a state of nostalgia. I think it was the trip to the tooth dentist that did it. Having to do an unpleasant task always sets me to yearning for a pleasant one, or it sets my memory roaming over the back roads of my experience seeking some pleasant vistas of the past.

Not that my tooth dentist is a bad one, mind you. He is my age, we grew up together, and I still let him work on my teeth. Besides being a good tooth dentist, he's very nice to my mother, and that endears me to him. But who likes to keep that appointment? I didn't think so.

So I woke up with a strong desire to do something unusually pleasant. One thing I thought about doing was to get in my truck and ride over some of my old cycling territory. In the years 2009 and 2010, I spent almost every Friday on a quest to ride at least 100 miles on my Trek. That was before marathon swimming took over my life. Much of that riding was done in Tallahatchie County, and I miss some of my stops and the people I met along the way. I wonder about James Grammar in Cascilla, the Corner Store in Pope, Janie's in Tillatoba, and other places where I rode and ate hamburgers and greasy fries, smacking and licking my fingers.

By the way, last week I published an historical cycling piece, "Glendora." That story dates from the time when I spent untold hours rambling my world on a bicycle finding stories, meeting people, petting cats. I have many more tales from that time, and I may periodically publish one on this blog. Maybe.

Speaking of cycling, I miss it terribly and have been trying to figure a way to reincorporate it into my life. I think I found an answer to the problem. The hindrance has been all the swim training I have to do to complete my Big Two. My Big Two are the Chicot Challenge in early June and Swim the Suck in early October. These two swims bookend my athletic year in the water and are a strange snapshot of life. 

The first, the Chicot Challenge, is a personal swim that morphed into a fundraiser for the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi. This year's edition, set for June 6th, is scheduled for nineteen miles. You can't just go out and swim nineteen miles. You have to train. You have to train hard. You have to train for a long time. Oddly, my old nemesis, Randy Beets, actually helps me pull this one off. Last year, he flew in from Morganton, North Carolina, helped crew the swim, swam a few of the later miles with me, and then gave the largest donation I received for the DFM before flying home. 

The second, the Suck, is one of the premier open water events in the country and takes place in the Tennessee River near Chattanooga. In this one, Randy Beets and I are mortal enemies and fight each other with a viciousness and rage that can only be described as maniacal. All the good will between us evaporates like snow in the Mississippi sun, and we result to cyber-bullying and any other kind of bullying we can come up with in a desperate attempt the achieve an edge over each other. Last year my cyber bullying campaign was so effective that Beets, after making the trip to Tennessee for the showdown, chickened out and stayed in bed on race morning. Wussie.

Usually after the Suck, I reduce my swimming to the two regularly scheduled Masters practices with the Mad Swimming Scientist at Delta State. Running and weight lifting take up the remaining energy my body has to consume in order to stay happy and healthy. But an idea! The weather is normally warm and pleasant until about mid-December. That gives me eight to ten weeks I could call Cycling Season. Hot Dog, I'm gunna do it!

So I have a plan for this fall, but what about today? Maybe I can figure it out over another cup of coffee. Maybe.
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