It took three days for me to walk without a limp. Even now, ten days after a momentary lapse in focus resulted in my mid-race injury, I can feel an occasional twinge of ankle pain.
Following the Triple Lakes race, I took a full week off from running, walking, shuffling or anything close to training. Rest assured, my life is filled with many things, many more important than running. The seven days after the race went as follows: The evenings on Sunday and Monday were filled with what we call "solo time." Solo time is a one hour (or more) one-on-one discussion between me and one of our daughters, usually at Starbucks. Sunday is me and Hannah. Monday is me and Moriah. Tuesday was a trip to Atlanta, which I'll describe in a bit. Wednesday and Thursday were filled with work-related travel. A fall Friday evening is filled with high school football. And Saturday brought another trip Atlanta, which I'll also describe in a bit.
The Tuesday trip to Atlanta was for Cathy and I, along with a number of work colleagues, to attend our first U2 concert at the Georgia Dome.
I started making plans for this trip back in June. Given the amount of time I had invested in anticipation of this event, you can imagine that I had high expectations for my initial U2 experience. By way of background, my awareness and appreciation of U2 goes back to the overly loud stereo played in the dorm room next to mine during my freshmen year in college (circa 1982). In the three decades since my introduction to U2 I had not made the effort to attend a concert...until now. As an aside, my interest was renewed a few years ago due to the book Walk On by Steve Stockman. If you have even a mild interest in U2, Walk On is worth reading.
My review of the concert could be filled with all kinds of superlatives. I'll save the words, offer a few pictures and tell you to make the effort (and expense) to attend a U2 concert at some point in your life.
The journey of U2 from high school band mates in Dublin to modern icons who have literally impacted the world is truly amazing and nearly inexplicable.
Thanks to the Georgia Dome staff for the quality concert pics! Much better than my iPhone!!
Our second trip to Atlanta was as a family, this time on Saturday. If you check my "About Me" section you'll see three bands listed--Huey Lewis & The News (I've been a fan so long their songs are now "oldies"), U2 and Third Day. Saturday's trip was to attend a Third Day concert...actually, it was the Third Day Family Picnic at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta, Georgia. The "Family Picnic" theme means there were a variety of bands, with music beginning at 4:30 in the afternoon and concluding around 11 p.m. The significance of providing my favorite band list is to let you know I had the opportunity to see two
of my three favorites during the same week, which eliminated any concern about the ankle injury. A high point of Tuesday's U2 concert was Bono recognizing Third Day for their work to support the "One" effort http://www.one.org/us/.
of my three favorites during the same week, which eliminated any concern about the ankle injury. A high point of Tuesday's U2 concert was Bono recognizing Third Day for their work to support the "One" effort http://www.one.org/us/. Third Day is (sic) Good guys. Good music. Good works. Good guitar. Good message. And their own rendition of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." We had seats in the second row right in front of the speakers, which means my hearing is just beginning to return. If I'm ever in an ear doctor's office and asked, "when did your hearing loss begin?" I will answer, " At the 2009 Third Day Concernt near Atlanta." For what it's worth, to the right is the Sankey family taking advantage of the "meet and greet" photo opportunity (I joined the fan club for this moment) with Mac Powell (lead singer), Tai Anderson (base guitar), David Carr (drums) and Mark Lee (acoustic guitar)....otherwise known as Third Day.
Just for good measure, I picked the picture to the left off the Third Day website just to show the intersection of U2 and Third Day (photo picked from Mac Powell's twitter page)! Which is the more impressive picture...Third Day with Bono...or Third Day with the Sankeys???
One final note, if you buy Third Day's Live Revelation CD/DVD combo you will see my wife at a "meet and greet" session following a concert in Birmingham (again, I joined the fan club just for that purpose).
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