Hell of a Week

I'm sitting in a coffeeshop in Leadville, Colorado.

If you would've been a participant in my week, you'd be surprised to hear that.
I think this is one of those FTO coffeeshops... and they told me the Sumatra and the Colombia were "pretty similar," they land the plane in their 36-ounce steaming pitchers, they fill the doser, and they need to clean their equipment. All the usual stuff that bugs me.

Anyway, tough week for me. Sunday afternoon my girlfriend left for LA, where she's training to work as a tour guide for the next few months. Monday night, while we were roasting, the roaster got a fire in the cyclone and Thursday I had to clean the chimneys, vacuum the char out of the chaff collector, and hope to god that was it for now. Sunday night we installed a PID on the espresso machine and Tuesday it went out and the espresso machine went down. We reinstalled the original thermostat on Tuesday night. Wednesday after closing, the floor drains became clogged and backed up, so I had to call a plumber. Friday I left in my Land Rover for Colorado. It broke down before I got to Wichita, Kansas. Turns out the power steering pump imploded. Power steering went out, engine smoked and died, etc. Couple hours later I managed to get it on a tow truck. They were nice enough to call around and find someone who works on Land Rovers in Wichita. Then I found out for sure it was the power steering pump, but the mechanic didn't have one and wouldn't be able to work on it until Monday. And then the owner of the shop said, why don't we just take one off a Rover in their lot and put it on mine? He was probably just being a creative capitalist, but it was a nice gesture and it got me back on the road.

After that 7 hour delay, I drove into the night and stopped in Flagler, Colorado. Slept in my car (fitfully), then finished the drive to Leadville this morning.

I've checked in with the race and am ready to roll. It starts tomorrow morning at 6a, when hopefully the temps will be in the mid-50s. It got hot this afternoon, so I'm not sure what to expect tomorrow. Rain?
It feels good here. Always feels different in the mountains. Maybe it's just the stress rolling out of my brain. But it seems like the air is more healthy, my vision more vibrant, and I feel... lighter.

I want to keep this on your mind. This is a 50-mile training run for me. Hopefully my time out here will help me get to the finish line of the Leadville 100 on August 16. Pledges are trickling in, and every one of them means a lot to me. Because when the time comes, I'll know that just one more mile will raise more money for Coffee Kids. And that's more important than any race.

One good thing that has come of my tribulations in racing and in business is the ability to take negative sitations and isolate them. It seems overwhelming, but you have to stay positive, even if it's deep down. Fix the problem. Or learn how to live with it. Or, as I had to do with the Rover, take in as much information as you can, try to make good decisions, and hope things play themselves out in your favor. And then re-adjust your schedule and expectations. This race isn't going to go as smoothly as I visualize it going. And the 100 is going to be even worse. At some point I'm going to encounter real problems. I'm going to go into "the tunnel," as I call it, which is a place beyond where most marathon runners talk about "hitting the wall." But I need to figure it out and get through it. And keep running. (Crap is going to happen. It's how you deal with it that is important.)

So anyway, I'm here. And the coffees taste similar because they're both stale, but the Colombia is definitely brighter and a little bit fruity, compared to the earthiness of the Sumatra.