With my Dad’s death now 5 years in the past and my kid 500 miles away, Father’s Day was meh. Although Ironman Florida is still 20 weeks away I was scheduled for a long brick workout (🚴🏼♂️🏃🏻♂️ick = 🧱) of 70/12 miles. As the killer heat dome was starting to arrive I headed out on my bike before 6am when it was only 47 degrees. To deal with the initial cold I wore long fingered bike gloves and put a section of newspaper inside my jersey (like the pros do for cold descents in the Alps). It was a beautiful sunny morning and the roads were wonderfully empty for the first few hours. Niagara County is very rural and I passed cattle, horses and fields with crops just starting to grow. I stopped after 2 hours and 35 miles to fill my water bottles and switched to short fingered gloves and ditched the newspaper. I saw a Black squirrel near the park!
There are forts on both sides of the Niagara River dating to the War of 1812. When Alex was young they often had a soccer tournament in the state park one weekend of the summer.
This was the second year in a row that Alex was not with me for Father’s Day. Last year they were in NYC with friends and this year again down there preparing for their move from Manhattan to Brooklyn.
Prior to last year, Alex and I had gone fishing every Father’s Day; beginning when they were 4 in our backyard pond.
And then the following year at Bond Lake where we collected some of our bluegills in a container and brought them home to our pond.
After one more year in our backyard ….
…we moved onto Tillman Nature Preserve in Clarence. At Tillman Alex caught a big bass (I think the same one every year) as well as bluegills and we also saw snapping turtles that followed our worms sometimes.
Actually in 2015 or 2016 we went to Chestnut Ridge Park for a change of scene and as there was a Father’s Day event there.
When my Dad was still alive Alex and I would call him from the car or while fishing. He had often taken me fishing when I was a kid (usually in the Hamptons or out of Montauk Harbor) and one year he did get to fish with Alex when he visited us in the Finger Lakes.
On the way home I passed a roadkill fawn (still with spots) which seemed sad on Father’s Day. A flat tire with only 6 miles to go was also disheartening. Of course it was the rear wheel! It only took 20 minutes to deal with but by then it was over 70 and the sun was strong on the side of the road.
For the first hour of my run I felt pretty good but then I got behind on fluid intake and the last hour was awful as it was over 80 degrees.
Next year I have to make sure Alex and I get to spend Father’s Day together. Even if they are in Brooklyn it is an easy flight for me. I didn’t consider flying down this year as I am driving down to help them move tomorrow 🙂