Sunday, August 05, 2007

I Scream You Scream We All Scream For Ice Cream

It started out as a simple bribe to Elizabeth. I needed to run 30 minutes for triathlon training, and I thought if she went with me and rode her bike, the time would go faster, and she could keep track of time and mileage. The motivator - a dipped ice cream cone from McDonalds. She lobbied for a dipped cone from Dairy Queen (apparently they are better) but McDonalds is closer to our house and cheaper, so she agreed to McDonalds. We set off to the Riverwalk for our training.

The first two miles went pretty smooth, aside from the water bottle falling from her bike basket 1/2 mile in to the run. "No, we can't stop to get it," I told her, because if her bike stops, then the time stops, and then I would have an inaccurate time. At the beginning of the third mile, I was starting to suck wind, and she was complaining that her knees hurt. No time for complaining, I told her, I wanted to finish three miles in less than 30 minutes, and I was just on pace. She was a trooper and coasted across the "finish line" a few seconds ahead of me. After walking a bit to cool down and then sitting on a park bench drinking the water (she rode ahead and picked it up quickly on the way back,) we headed to McDonalds for her reward.

We started at the north McDonalds, just a couple of minutes from home. We coasted up to the speaker to order our cone, only to find a note saying that the drive thru was closed and sorry for the inconvenience. After running three miles, I was not about to go inside to get this cone with sweat dripping off my body. I told Elizabeth, "I guess you will get your Dairy Queen cone after all," and we headed to Dairy Queen, five minutes down the road. We got to Dairy Queen, and apparently Sunday evening is a very popular time for ice cream in Marion. The drive thru was so long that when I turned into the line, the rear of the Jeep was sticking out in the road, blocking the right lane on the bypass. Oops. Luckily, after about 30 seconds the line moved, and we got out of traffic. However, there were still 7 or 8 cars ahead of us, so I told Elizabeth we would back out of line and head to the south McDonalds. We got to the south McDonalds, and I was happy to see the drive thru was empty and in working order. "I would like 1 chocolate dipped cone, please," I pleasantly ordered into the speaker. The voice on the other side said, "I'm sorry, we are all out of ice cream tonight." "What, you are all out of ice cream?" "I'm sorry, ma'am," he said. I told him we would not be ordering, and in disbelief, we drove on out. "Well, Elizabeth, I guess you will have to settle for a Frosty." So we headed into Wendy's, and without a hitch, we ordered a vanilla frosty for Elizabeth (and a chocolate one for Anna, I guess she was the big winner in this because originally she was not going to get a dipped cone,) and headed home.

Funny thing is, as I looked at our training schedule for tomorrow, I noticed I had made a mistake. We were supposed to run 45 minutes, not 30 minutes, and had I known about the 45 minutes, I would not have taken Elizabeth with me, knowing that she probably wouldn't last 45 minutes on the bike. Then we wouldn't have had our ice cream chase. But then I also wouldn't have had our conversation on the bench about second grade, and our Fall Break Disneyworld trip, and her birthday plans (which at the moment include Chuck E. Cheese,) and she wouldn't have had the proud opportunity to shout out to passer byers at the park that "We're training for a triathlon." So all in all, it worked out pretty good, for tonight at least. I probably won't be thinking that as I tack on 15 minutes of running to the 25 minute swim and 45 minute bike tomorrow.

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Hurray for both of you! You're both winners! :)

August 05, 2007 10:35 PM  
Blogger Bekah said...

Deb you're my hero (though I will pray for you...) for this triathalon thing. I think that time with Elizabeth is just too precious!!

August 06, 2007 8:00 AM  
Blogger Jaena said...

You're my hero too, Deb...the "wind beneath my wings" as I tell Joel. :)

August 07, 2007 9:00 PM  
Blogger Keetha Broyles said...

Doesn't that just get your goat - - - driving up and they say, "I'm sorry, our ice cream machine is broken, we don't have any shakes/cones/ etc today." I think it happens at McDonalds MORE than any other place!!! I always wonder if the machine is REALLY broken or if they are just being lazy - - - - -

Hmmmmmm

August 08, 2007 1:51 PM  

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