Wednesday, September 7 (three days to go)
(Every one of your articles ends with a problem. What was the “next problem”?)
We breezed through security and found seats at our gate. I may have been on vacation from my job, but I still had a graduate school paper to complete. It was due on Sunday, but I was going to be busy that coming Sunday … swimming, biking and running. I knew that after the race I would hug my family, call my dad and go to sleep. There was no way I was going to write a paper then.
(So, you don’t wait for the last minute on everything.)
I opened my laptop and waited to connect to the airport Wifi … and waited … and waited … and decided that I would deal with it later.
(But you had a paper to write.)
I would deal with that later. If triathlon has taught me anything, it is to plan for things to go wrong and make time to solve them.
(How were you going to solve a laptop that wouldn’t connect to Wifi?)
I have an 11-year-old and an 18 year old. I was sure that they could resolve the issue.
Due to the shortness of time between my being awarded my spot at Ironman World Championship Nice and the actual race, I was not able to book four seats together.
(So, you took the single seat for yourself?)
Are you nuts? I gave it to my wife. The woman deserved a little quiet.
(You mean you are not quiet on flights?)
Me, I talk to everyone.
(How many pages of your book did you read?)
I never opened it.
(What did you do for eight and a half hours, postulate Pascal’s Wager?)
I watched a movie.
(For eight and a half hours? You can’t sit in shul for more than 45 minutes without needing to walk around.)
I did that too.
(It’s a tube with wings! Where the dickens did you go?)
Mostly to the gallery … for extra peanuts.
(Nonsense! They don’t serve peanuts on flights anymore. Someone might go into anaphylaxis shock.)
Free coffee refills.
(Ok, that I believe.)
We arrived in Nice at 10 a.m. local time. We gathered our luggage and met our driver.
(You ordered a driver?)
It was included when I booked the hotel through the Nirvana travel agency.
(Holy smokes, your driver looks like a young Ringo Starr.)
“Baby, you can drive my car.”
(So … what is Nice France like?)
It’s like Miami Beach.
(Palm trees?)
Up and down the Riviera.
(So, Collins Ave?)
Very much. The road is flat, and the beach and sea are mere feet from the road. A pedestrian walkway lines the roadside between the cars and the beach. The sun was shining and street side boutiques were selling beach stuff on every block.
We arrived at our hotel, which was full of triathletes and their families.
(I’m shocked, I tell you.)
The hotel lobby windows and doors were open and the smell of the Mediterranean Sea filled our nostrils like homemade soup on a summer’s day.
(You have soup in summer?)
Shut up, you’re ruining the mood.
The lobby had marble floors that echoed with staff footsteps.
(This was an old building.)
Probably pre-war.
(You were in Europe. They used to fight wars for 30 … even 100 years at a time.)
It was 11 a.m. and we couldn’t check into our room yet, so we went to get lunch.
(You found kosher restaurants in Nice?)
Several … and my wife had researched them all before we left New Jersey.
(Smart lady.)
All the kosher restaurants in Nice were within one mile from our hotel.
We walked to Bozen, a kosher fish restaurant.
(Sushi?)
I’m happy to say yes.
(Your happiness is immaterial. Did they have a sushi boat?)
No, but I ordered foie gras sushi and…
(Wait.)
Yes?
(What is foie gras sushi?)
Duck liver pate wrapped in rice, with an onion jam dipping sauce.
(Sounds delicious.)
I didn’t want to come home.
(Ummm, weren’t you there for a specific reason?)
Yeah, but it escapes me for the moment.
(Tell me you ate more than one dish)
I also had the ceviche, which was so fresh I thought they had just caught it one mile away.
(How different was fresh ceviche than what you usually have?)
The fish simply dissolved on my tongue.
(What did you do after lunch?)
First, we had to wake up the kids. They had fallen asleep because their bodies thought it was the middle of the night.
(Jet lag?)
Well, it wasn’t the ceviche.
David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].
