Monday, March 28, 2022. The day was here that many of us dream of: retirement, or more specifically, setting retirement in motion. After planning for about a year, and consulting with professionals, I nervously reviewed my prepared remarks a few more times before meeting with my manager and her manager. I announced my retirement with my desire to have it effective June 30th to give plenty of time for any transition, and politely and respectfully tendered my resignation.
I was very upfront that my decision was entirely due to the desire to have more time to enjoy life, that my own father died from cancer at almost exactly the same age I am now, and when I was going through my cancer surgeries last year and five months of weekly hospital treatments, it truly gave me a different perspective on life. Yes, my father had a very different kind of cancer, and yes, I'm recovered, but we truly never know how long we have. As my father's brother said to me, no one ever sat on their death bed and wished they had spent more time in the office. While my brother's suicide this year didn't influence my decision, it did remind me of the fragility of life.
I didn't know how the conversation would go, but in typical form, my management team was congratulatory and very supportive, as they have always been. They even left open the possibility of me working part time and/or coming out of retirement in the future. Such a class act and great company that I'm proud to be associated with.
So now what? In three months, I will join the ranks of the 2.4 million baby boomers who since the advent of the pandemic have opted for an early retirement. At a high level, the next stage will include swapping out corporate work for more volunteerism, and swapping time in the office for more time in the great outdoors. Stay tuned as I continue my life journey!
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Monday: 1 walk
Westerly, RI. As for running, this was a planned day off after yesterday's Eastern States 20-mile race, but I did sneak out to Wahaneeta late afternoon for a 1-mile easy walk on the trails with Brady.
Tuesday: 3 walk, 2 run
AM: Westerly, RI. Weekly CCC volunteering. I opted for working with a team of four to monitor the Grills Preserve section north of Bowling Lane. I am enjoying using the new WLT apps to show current position against all WLT borders, and an app to monitor issues. Unfortunately, there is a perennial issue with dumping in this area, especially from several abutters.
PM: Westerly, RI. With Brady, late afternoon on local roads. I intended to run 4 miles easy, but my legs told me they weren't ready after the 20-mile race. Cut it back; try again tomorrow.
Wednesday: 6
Hopkinton, RI. Trail run with Brady at Canonchet Preserves. Zero human sightings. Since when has the Narragansett Trail been extended south from Stubtown to Lawton Foster North, via Table Rock Trail? This was all new (and exciting!) to me.
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| Now this is a big blowdown! On the Canonchet Trail. |
Today is Happy New Bike today. It's been a long time in coming. I had been looking to replace my 2006 Giant OCR for the past few years, but it never came to fruition. Part of the delay was due to supply chain issues from COVID, as just last year when I inquired about a new bike, my local bike shop was pretty much empty of inventory and I was told that bikes that were coming in then were ones that customers ordered ONE YEAR prior! And to be fully truthful, part of the delay was my hemming and hawing over spending the money. I finally rationalized the cost in my overly analytical head by thinking of the bike not as a one-time cost, but amortizing it over a ten year period. OK, now I can accept spending a few hundred dollars per year on the bike.
Fast forward to spring 2022, when I got a call from the local bike shop owner asking me to come in and talk to him if I was still interested, as while there were still inventory and supply chain issues, there were limited bikes available at Giant USA distribution in California, and I could order direct from them. Choices, sizes, and colors were pretty limited, but it all came to together.
We had previously narrowed down to two specific models: TCR Advanced and Defy Advanced 2. The TCR is more of a pure race bike, and after comparing the two, and discussing realistically how many races I expect to do (pure bike races - zero, triathlons - two to three per year at most), I went with the Defy, with a slightly wider tire and more comfortable ride.
It took less than two weeks to order and get the bike delivered to the bike shop, put together, and have my existing accessories (aero bar, water bottle cages, SPD pedals, computer, etc.) transferred over, as I traded in my old bike.
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| Traded in my 16-year old Giant OCR 2. |
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| The new ride: Giant Defy Advanced 2 - carbon. Even with all the accessories installed, comes in 25% lighter versus the OCR 2 (23 lbs vs 29 lbs). |
I'm already loving many new (to me) features, such as internal cabling, while other newfangled features (such as disc brakes and tubeless tires) I'll have to figure out and get used to.
Thursday: 9
Westerly, RI. Late afternoon trail run with Brady, at Wahaneeta / Woody Hill.
Friday: 10 run, 15 ride
AM: Stonington, CT. Solo run to/from Mystic Y. Ran the same route I did last week incorporating much of the Mystic 10K route, except that this time I turned it into a workout with a 2-mile hard session (6:08, 6:01) and a 3-mile hard session (5:54, 5:46, 5:57). Worked hard on this one.
PM: After signing off work for the day, the weather was finally cooperating enough for me to take my bike for its virgin ride. Easy coastal spin.
Saturday: 3 run, 15 ride
Westerly, RI. Early easy run with Brady on a mix of roads and trails at Champlin Glacier Preserve.
Westerly, RI. Group ride with Justin P and Bob K. Great catch-up with both, especially Bob, whom I seldom see, and is new to biking and swimming and looking to do a couple of tris this summer. A little cold (38°) and windy (14mph) for me; looking forward to warmer rides.
Sunday: 5
Planned to get up early and run long, before volunteering. Yeah, right. Set my alarm for 5:45am, got up, noticed it was dark and cold, and I was still tired from a long day yesterday. Back to bed.
I firmly believe in giving back. Give your time to your community, to those less fortunate than you, to running, to conservancies, or whatever is important to you; just don't take it for granted. So when WHS senior and WTAC member/volunteer Jake Serra reached out to me with an idea to put on a 5K for his senior project, I was all in. We get a number of requests like this each year, but what differentiated this one was that Jake already had volunteered so much for the WTAC last summer, he had a plan first and resource requests second, and his passion exuded as he discussed his thoughts.
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| Set up our WTAC clock and finish flag, |
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| and then headed to my assigned spot on the course to serve as course marshal. |
Charlestown, RI. Post race after putting our gear back in storage in Dunn's Corners, I headed to Ninigret Park. I pulled in and couldn't believe how many people were there. It's all good, as there were flag football and soccer games transpiring, as well as some sort of disc golf competition, and parks are supposed to be used by active participants. But for me, it meant no running the fields I had hoped. Just as well as I had some stomach distress (no details!), so I'll be back another time.
Weekly mileage: 35 run, 31 ride, 4 walk
Weekly synopsis: Lowest run mileage in quite a while. In fact, since November, the week after Philly. I'll call this a recovery week as well, after Eastern States 20.
Weekly lowlight: Not getting the miles in.
Congrats on your looming retirement! The American Dream in action.
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