The Bet, the Road, and This Morning

I accompanied my mother 3 hours down the road to the Idaho's beautiful state capital city. A couple weekends ago it hosted the 'Idaho Women's Fitness Celebration' which involved a 5K (3.1 mile) race that you could run/walk/stroll. You could register to compete and wear an electronic timing band, or you could just participate for the 'fun' of it if you'd rather.


We met one of my mother's friends the night before and stayed in a Super 8 close to the starting point. At some point during conversation, I asked my mom what her goal finish time was. She said something around 23 min. Her friend was hoping to run under a 25. Jokingly I said, "I bet I could beat you mom". She laughed, her friend laughed, I laughed. It was a joke. At least, it started as a joke.

She said there was no way. She is conditioned. She runs 3,5,10 miles, and swims down the river and bikes for hours on end, and I...well I don't train. She said there was no way. BUT, she was slightly worried because she refused to bet me anything that I would. She did bet me that I couldn't run it in 21 minutes. That would be three 7 min miles. That would be impossible. Unashamedly confident she put something on the line. If I won, she would pay for my gas to Florida and back (approximately $1,400!) To say the least, she was not worried.

I accepted.

Now the real process of negotiations began. I could register the following morning at the race but I couldn't register as in the competition part so I wouldn't get an electrical timer; which means I would have to keep my own time. I told her I could do that. I know how to push 'start' and 'stop' when i cross the beginning and the end. It is not rocket science. She said no. Obviously she didn't trust me, and I doubt it was my button pushing abilities in question. She figured I would think my way 'around' the rules somehow. Cut a corner somewhere (as if I even knew the race route!) or run backwards or something I have no clue...and honestly neither did she. But she said no. Here she had made a bet, I had accepted, and now she was pulling out. I think I would win if this went to court (let's not forget the eye witness in the hotel room with us!).

The first words out of my mouth in the morning to her were 'I figured out a solution to our dilema'. "Let me wake up first please...did you think about that all night?" Was her not so overly enthusiastic response. We decided I would run when we got home. We live on country roads it will be any easy thing to do. Drop me off three miles out (excuse me - 3.1 - mom made sure to bring that up when it came down to it...somewhere deep down beyond the point of surety that it can't be done...she is afraid :-) )and then you can come out of the house at 21 min. to congratulate me!

"Why are you even going to try?" she asked me. "It's simple Mom. No I haven't trained. No I shouldn't be able to do it. It should be impossible. BUT it's 21 minutes of my life. 21 minutes to TRY! To run as hard and as fast as I can mentally and physically push my out of shape, overweight self. Why not TRY? In fact, it is less than that. If I don't make a mile in 7 minutes then I will be done. It could be just 7 minutes of my life. Let's see - 7 minutes of running for a chance at $1,400? I think over 50% of overweight, under-exercised population in the U.S. would try at an impossible task for that!"

Due to me leaving to California for a few days, and now her flying to Kona, Hawaii for a week, my run has been postponed. "Don't worry" I told her when I left for Cali, "I won't be training. And I'll be on a diet of ice cream and liquor!"

Hummmm, if you are still reading at this point one of two things can be deducted. 1) This is entertain and enjoyable, or at least not quite to the point of being boring OR 2) you are very bored and are willing to read something that is tediously long and boring.

So I went to Cali. One 12 hour drive down, two days hanging with friends, and another 12 hour drive home. 24 hours on the road. It's quite often very interesting to me the 'conversations' you can have with the other motorists.

Like if you are going 77 mph and the guy you're passing is going 76. As you slowly creep past his car do you 1) speed up because it's uncomfortable to be right next to him for 15 seconds or 2) continue at same speed and a)look away / b) look straight ahead / c) smile and wave. Or what about when you are going 76 in the right hand lane, coming up on a semi, and you see someone in the left lane coming faster than you. Unfortunately, if all 3 vehicles remained at the same speed and in the same lanes, you would have to touch your brakes and offset your cruise (terrible inconvenience!). So do you 1) change lanes, speed up and pass the truck 2)slow down and let the other car pass first 3) stay the same speed and change lanes causing the other car to brake (you are going the speed limit after all) or 4) stay at your same speed in your lane until the last possible moment hoping the other guy will speed up? Thousands of possibilities.

Tired and bored I decided to take pictures of people as I passed them.



it's hard to see but the guy in the semi is actually looking down at me. Imagine what he might be thinking. "Is that a camera? Is she taking a picture of me?" Imagine what you would be thinking! I mentioned my lack of self-confidence in my last blog concerning the absent burger joint worker, and here again you will see it. It would've been much easier (although probably a little bit more dangerous) to actually look over at the other car when i took the picture. But not being confident to do that I just held my arm straight out and tried to get the correct angle/timing in order to get the shot. Let's just say that these are the only 2 pictures that were successful. Furthermore, I advise others interested in playing this game to participate in pairs. Having a passenger seat photographer would be incredibly helpful both in photo shooting and in confidence building! I know it is not illegal to take pictures of people (although it would be odd to walk down the sidewalk shooting pics of random ppl) but it might be illegal on an 'inattentive driving' ticket. It was fun none-the-less.

Next I drove through a lot of road construction. There were signs that read 'construction ahead, approaching a 65 mph zone' and then there was '55 mph' and following that there is always 'fines doubled for traffic violations in work areas'. Entering the 55 zone this is what I saw.

Now, orange barrels off the side of the road doesn't seem like construction to me...so I only slowed down to 65. As soon as someone on the same thought pattern as me passed me going 80, I followed. I felt a little bit worried, slightly anxious because technically we were in a work area but...tell the truth, you would've been right there with us!
Sometimes on busy interstates groups of cars will get that 'safety in numbers' mentality and travel at higher speeds than are legal. Once in a while you see this scenario trying to stop that.

it's a bit hard to see but in front of all those cars is a cop...with his lights on haha. If that doesn't say "SLOW DOWN" then...

this was my favorite sign for the trip. Sorry for the poor photo quality

It says 'Pumpernickel Valley'! isn't that on the Princess Bride or something? I swear I've heard it somewhere...

When I turned at Wells, NV and headed up towards Idaho I found myself on a 2 lane highway and all alone. I drove happily at 75 (ish) mph for about half an hour without seeing another car. And then I saw a sign. "Road Construction Ahead." Really? I still have at least 2.5 hours to go, I've been driving for 9 hours already, and I'm in the middle of NO WHERE! Just about the time I had made peace with that sign, I saw the next one "Expect Half Hour Delays." Unfortunately, I was there close to when the last group of cars on my side left. And I sat there for a half hour.

One of the first things i noticed was that it was 36 degrees and 6 o'clock at night. I still haven't come to peace with that. Next i took a picture of the beautiful mountains. The mountain range that surrounds my little Idahoan valley...the majestic peaks that were...covered with snow. Once again, not really ok.

then i took a closer look at the back of the semi that was parked in front of me. I'm open for comments on this one? Any ideas?


in case you're having trouble reading that it says "technical animal fat not for human consumption shipped under permit number A-601 INEDIBLE. Again, not quite sure what to think of that! :-)

Lastly, this is the scene I woke up to this morning.





Beautiful right? I think my Grandpa said it best this morning.
"It's not even pretty when it comes like this this early."
Amen Grandpa. Amen!