Last weekend I did my slowest ride ever. Good thing too because I was pulling two princesses on our custom made float.

Long story short: Abby got aced out of being in the River Days Parade with her dance troupe (the troupe decided to skip the parade this year) so when I got an invitation from the neighborhood program I jumped at the chance…on one condition. I had to ride my bike in it.
This allowed me to pull the girls in the bike trailer (Ang’s condition was that Emma be strapped in so she wouldn’t just stand up and walk off the back of the thing). This meant we had to get creative with the trailer, running it in “flat” mode and with some tulle and Ang’s deft hand it became a pretty decent little float at about 23:00 the night before. For that matter Ang did most of the hard work as I had to be on site 2 hours before the parade started to get queued up with the group. She got the mermaids dressed in their (current) favorite princess outfits and they sat atop the float waving their hearts out.

In a couple of these shots you can see Abby’s hand near her face. She was plugging her ears because the SeaFair Pirate Cannon was only 10 floats back. The report from that thing is, let’s just say, convincing.

I thought it was funny to watch the crowd react to the thundering cannon everytime it went off. You could almost see the speed of sound in the wave of reactions of the onlookers down the parade route.

Maybe this is a reaction to missing the STP. nah
Maybe this is the start of a mid-life crisis. nah nah
Maybe this is some kind of reverse-dare where I dare myself without provocation. no comment

If you know me…and I am pretty sure that you do otherwise you would be all like

Woops, I spelled ‘belief’ wrong.

and be gone before you ever got this far.

So, as a knower of me, you are at least familiar with my relationship with dare. Not just any ‘ol Tom, Dick, or Harry-dare (or would that be Tom, Jack, or Derriere…never-mind) but a dare that speaks to me…you know. A dare that has legs, one that comes from the heart, means something, and has (all important characteristic) a reason behind it.

I don’t jump off buildings into swimming pools or ride shopping carts down hills for TV, that’s just stupid, save that lunacy for Jack Derriere.

* But I will swat at a honey bee to prove to my younger brother that I am faster than a bee-sting: reverse-dare style.
* Or accompany friends to a 35 foot overpass to watch them jump into the lake and then show them how it’s done…alone: reverse-dare style.
* Or convince a friend that she was Princess Leia and I was Luke and I could easily hold on to the rope with my strong hand, hold her with the other, and swing into the river: revers – well that wasn’t reverse-dare style but it had reasoning.
There is always reasoning; maybe some tongue-hanging “didja see that” glory, a little bit of wacky-ness. I am playing this up too much, get to the point, Okay?
Ok, so it didn’t take much this time but there was reasoning, that’s all. One call to Bastelyon and we had it worked out. Ya see, he has been trying to make me run his first marathon with him…in November.
HA! a marathon? Hey, I said REASONING c’mon!

So here’s what I reverse-dare styled him to get me to do with him, with me:
I will run 3 miles with him if he will bike 12 miles with me and we both try to keep from drowning swim in the lake for a quarter mile, in succession. I think we can do it, and…well, we’re gonna Tri.

http://www.racecenter.com/kirklandtri/