Research?

The Tour de France is drawing to a close. There are three more stages. I've watched pretty much every minute of the coverage -- albeit fast forwarding through some of the stretches when not much was going on. I exercise a strict news blackout during the day until I can sit down and watch the coverage with my husband at night. I have a print out of the teams sitting on the coffee table and by now I can identify many riders by their number. I can even tell the difference between the Schleck brothers based just on their profiles (Andy's face is thinner).

On Sunday morning I must get up very early and drive to Napa for my writing conference. It's the last stage of the tour -- the ride into Paris and along the Champs Elysee. Usually not much happens but it's fun to see and this year who knows what might happen. I'm considering getting up even an hour earlier than I need to and watch an hour before I get in the car.

Why am I doing this? I can't explain why I have become so taken with the sport. It really started last year (yes, I'm the only American who started following cycling in earnest AFTER Armstrong retired). I feel that odd and comforting feeling of characters and scenes roiling around in my mind. Surely there is some fiction to be crafted from this drama. People who push themselves beyond physical endurance and who accept pain as a daily part of their lives, people who see food as a tool and don't have enough hours in the day to take in the nutrition they need, people who are away from their families for most of the year for a sport that many people scoff at and where your career is largely over by age 35. Boy -- it sounds an awful lot like professional dancers. Hmmm, I wonder why I find it interesting......

But this week I know that I'm also trying to distract myself from the fact that I am going to a writing conference next week. I've read all the submissions from the other people in my workshop and I'm excited to meet them and talk about their work. But I have underlying anxiety about the whole thing.