A Recommendation

Today is my half-birthday. I am 26 1/2 today. That sounds old to me.

I have been having trouble sleeping on and off lately. I had a good week last week. I had a bad night last night. I got to sleep eventually but those hours of tossing and turning are pretty brutal. I am too exhausted to deal with the frustration and I let myself dissentigrate mentally and emotionally in those moments. Maybe it's necessary to do that sometimes but not in the few hours before bed. Nothing positive can come of it.

Meanwhile, this morning, I discovered a new weblog that seemed to ring out loud and clear to me. (Those obnoxious academics among us might say that it "resonated" with me, but I hate that expression so I won't use it.) It's a blog written by Kristin Armstrong, Lance's ex-wife. I find myself continually fascinated by Lance for a number of reasons. One, because he is such a freak of humanity, really not a human being at all. His physical accomplishments are so immense (beating cancer, winning the Tour de France 7 times) that he can scarcely be believed. He is also a royal asshole, leaving behind him in his wake former-friends-turned-enemies who curse him and rue the day they met him. He is a complete enigma.

Kristin Armstrong could have easily adopted the role of bitter ex-wife, but amazingly she seems to have sort of risen from the ashes of their sudden divorce. She often writes for Runner's World and other magazines, and as I've said, she recently began writing a blog that is posted on the RW website. It's about running, of course, which Kristin took up and obviously fell in love with after the divorce.* Therefore, it might be hard for those who are not under the spell of running to understand the value of this blog. But she also just writes about life, her spirituality, and the daily challenges she faces, especially being a single mother of 3 kids. Her latest entry ends with a pledge, based on a lesson she learned while running a difficult race. She says: "I will give less energy to dread."

Her style is a little much sometimes, but if you get a chance, skim through her posts. There are only four up there now but I will definitely be following closely to see what she has to say in the future. I am already anxious for her next entry.

*Coincidently, Lance himself recently took a foray into the world of running. He ran the New York Marathon and called it the hardest physical task he ever had to complete. If that doesn't confirm the difficulty of the marathon, I don't know what does.