No Harsh in this Yellow
Category: Sports (Pro/College/HS)...
Posted Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at 09:56 AM [GMT-6]

I was browsing my wife's new copy of Runner's World magazine and ran across a column entitled "Keeping Up Appearances" (no online version). The author is a young woman who was training for the New York City Marathon (which took place on November 4), and she was describing her training regimen and outlook.

She talked about being a single mom (with three preschoolers) who did much of her training either before the kids were up or after they are delivered to kindergarten. She wrote about her new "post-run ritual: a vanilla latte, a breakfast taco and dips between my cold swimming pool and a warm Jacuzzi." She's also worked in a regular yoga class.

I began wondering about the ability of an unmarried woman with three young children and no apparent job to be able to pull off this lifestyle. Training for a marathon is time-consuming work, if done properly, and she showed all the signs of doing it right.

Then she started talking about a specific celebrity athlete who had announced his intention to run NYC, and how it took her by surprise...some guy she referred to as "the Yellow Man." I glanced at the author's byline and it all made sense: Kristin Armstrong, Lance's ex-wife.

The last part of the column dealt more with him than with the training program. Here's how she referred to him: "the hottie pro athlete"; "a genetic anomaly"; and, most telling, "the man I loved most, who knew me the best."

Kristin still has obvious respect and strong feelings about her former husband, even as she is moving on with her life. She even has a sense of humor about the situation, referring at one point to Lance's ability to "party like a rock star (ahem)" and still qualify for Boston or the Olympics the next morning, a subtle dig at his well-documented relationship with the annoyingly shrill Sheryl Crow.

Lance has written a couple of well-received books about his bout with cancer and his Tour de France experiences. Wouldn't you just love to hear from the other side of the marriage? I won't be surprised if Kristin eventually writes her own book. (Incidentally, while doing a little research for this post -- yes, bloggers do occasionally check sources! -- I discovered the existence of another Kristin Armstrong, who is a pro cyclist for the T-Mobile women's cycling team.)

In case you're wondering, Kristin finished the NYC Marathon in 3:45:35, an 8:36 pace (which is almost exactly the pace MLB ran when she completed Dallas' White Rock Marathon some years ago). Lance, on the other hand, apparently changed his mind and didn't run the race; his name doesn't appear in the official online results.

[Update: Here's an interview with Kristin just prior to the race in which she discusses her motivation and faith.]