It's Race Time or Daddy's Taking the Kids to the Pool

Ragnar is finally upon us. It's early Friday morning. Time to pack. Time to eat. No need for a shower. Time to meditate. Get in a quick 5 miler. Still no shower. Time to eat again. What to wear. Since I am the Captain, I decided I should at least wear a dress shirt and tie. The Captain has to be presentable in case there are any press conferences, photo ops, TV appearances or a good ol' fashioned ass chewing is needed before we get started.




C-Steve drove me to Tampa Airport to get Van 2. Steve said we could use his GPS to get us to the front door of Budget rental cars. I should have realized when Steve said "his GPS" I should have known there was going to be issues. Those of you that know Steve realize he is a little behind in the age of technology. I mean he does have OPCP. That is Other People's Cell Phones. He refuses to get a cell phone. He gives me his GPS and I type the address in. First off, I know there are more than eight streets in Tampa. Secondly, since when did GPS's come with fold out maps. I can tell you that Budget is not at Raymond James Stadium, International Mall or IHOP on Kennedy. A few phone calls were made, using my phone of course, to get better directions. We finally got the van. A mini-van of course. Still following my plan. I know you ladies are saying, "See, told you. Guys always get lost." That is not true. We were not lost. We knew exactly where we were the whole time.



Today is the day when you find out who on your team has been reading their e-mails and or paying attention at team meetings. Specific instructions were given to everyone about where to meet, what time to be there and how to get there. So I am in Walgreens buying a gallon of Fabreeze to spray in the smoke smelling luxury cruiser, can't have my runners with breathing conditions before we leave Tampa, when my cell phone rings. Now I was running a few minutes behind so I expected a little bit of razzing on the Captain. I did not expect one of my runners asking me what time I was coming to get him. I reminded him that we were all meeting at Mike's house by 8 am. It was already after 8 and this runner was still home. Now who did not listen at the meeting or read his team e-mails. "I just skim through my e-mails. I don't read all of them," he says. I say, "did you read the one about I ain't coming to get you." Hopefully he will just skim through this blog. He was our fastest runner.

I show up to the meet location in the mini-van. I am being looked at by the Van 2 runners like I just stole all their Christmas presents from under the tree. Hey, are you driving your own van. Is that your mom's car. No really, are you hiding the big van. Captain says, "daddy ain't taking you to the pool if you don't shut-up. Just then Kalani and Stacey show up in their super huge 20 passenger van. Again all of my Van 2 runners look at me with the sad puppy look. It didn't help that Van 1 was all bragging and laughing and dancing and pointing and ....well you get the point.

Let's load up and head to Tarpon Springs.

Next: Go Get Em' Kalani or Not New Moon