FU Lance Armstrong

Recently, Adam was looking forward to one of the random 4-day weekends the military sometimes give Soldiers to make up for all the midnight phone calls, last-minute working weekends or late nights without compensation, charging leave for weekends and holidays if you leave town, and all the other BS that makes me so happy to be off Active Duty.  His plans to do some more much-needed repairs on the green bus were derailled however, when he was ordered to be on base at 0530 the Friday morning he was supposed to be off.  I asked him why... and the answer was "I have to go run with that bike dude..."

"What bike dude?" i asked. 
Adam: "The guy who won that race in France all those times."
Me: "You mean you have to go in to work to run with Lance Armstrong?"
Adam: "yes."  And then Adam had to call up all of his soldiers to let them know they had to come in for the run.  "You know those yellow bracelets everyone has... that guy"... or "the bike dude that had cancer and lost his nuts".  It was amusing to be privy to only one side of those conversations.

Anyhow, i know a lot of "Livestrong" dorks who would really get a kick out of running with the Lance, and I thought about all of those amazing guest speakers we would have at the Air Force Academy.  I can't really remember who any of those speakers were, because I was always pissed that I had to end my bike ride early for them or had to listen to them when I had a big project due the next day and wanted to go to sleep by midnight.  After I returned to the Academy as faculty however, and got to attend presentations by DJ Skelton, founder of Paradox Sports, and Greg Mortenson, author of 3 Cups of Tea, and countless leaders of the free world and industry, I started to wonder how much I might have missed back in my cadet days with my myopic priorities shading my ability to give these speakers their due. 

I googled "Air Force Academy Guest Lectures 2002", but just came up with some Economics guy with a lot of publications who sounded pretty boring... and I do remember getting my "Contrails" book signed by Chuck Yeager - so I must have been listening that time... so my hope is that i really did just blow off the kinds of speakers who presented things like "Peace by Numbers: Disaggregating IGOs in Time and Space."  (taken randomly from the google search from a guy who had been one of USAFA's lecturers at some point - not sure what speech he actually gave at the Blue U). Yawn.  Or not yawn... if I hadn't been busy playing grab-ass with my buddies or surrepticiously working on a problem set when none of the officers were looking, i may have learned something important or at least interesting.  i don't know.  I will never know, but as I attempt to travel the path to being an athlete and re-learn to prioritize and focus on things that will lead me to my goals, i hope I will remember to keep my eyes open to my surroundings and be open to opportunities that aren't exactly on my "to-do list" for the day. 

Who knows... maybe someday i will get to trip Lance Armstrong.