Norman, Oklahoma's own Andrea Ratkovic has returned with her new TDS cycling team from Mallorca, Spain, and she's keeping us up-to-date on the day-to-day life of a professional cyclist. She'll provide an updated journal periodically on the RTN web site.

Read journal entry #8

Let's see, the last time I wrote a journal I had the flu, Well, I STILL have remnants of the thing, but I'm in the Keys, so it doesn't seem as bad. LOL!! What better place to heal than in the Keys of Florida!

On the flight over here I had to come through Chicago O'Hare which is usually a huge gamble with their weather. Denver isn't much better, though, either. My flight was delayed for a couple of hours, and then we were delayed once we hit the tarmack due to rerouting (because of intense storms). I couldn't have picked a better time to upgrade to First Class as I spent so much time up there! The flight itself ended up being three hours to Ft. Lauderdale. I was served warm nuts, a wonderful Asian Caesar salad with a glass of Merlot, and two warm chocolate chip cookies.

Talk about people watching... I think the First Class cabin flying to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale is the most interesting. You get all of the ritzy snobs in there (of course this is a generalization). One woman was upset to find that her seat was dirty with crumbs and instructed the flight attendant to clean it to which she replied, "I'm not a maid." The disgruntled passenger shot back, "Well, neither am I!" Then a male flight attendant came over with a white cloth and dusted off the woman's seat and apologized profusely to her about it being dirty.

I noticed this particular woman in the airport before we boarded the plane. She stood out like a sore thumb with the pants she was wearing, the way she treated her husband, the size of the rock on her finger, the big black streak of heavily painted makeup across her eyelids, the fire engine red lipstick, and the way she kept flipping her fake blonde hair around. She departed the plane just in front of me, and her husband was WAY in front of her, AND he made her cart around her own luggage. I thought, "Good for him!" She was clearly displeased which made me smile even bigger. She was wearing these see thru white parachute material Dolce Gabana pants, and they just could NOT have been comfortable as they were so far up her arse. I thought, "Man, what people do to be seen."

I am down in Duck Key right now with my father. He has rented a house here for a month and captained his boat down from St. Augustine where he lives. My father is a very successful real estate broker. If you want to move to Florida, he's the guy to talk to. He comes to the Keys (last year we stayed in Marathon Key) every year as he is an avid fisherman and loves to relax. I'm living the life of Riley while I'm here. The other night our dinner was $545, and that was without me ordering a bottle of Cristal! We drive around in a golf cart that rents for $300/wk. It's fun to live this kind of life, but soon I'll be returning to MY house and life where I'll go shopping at Dollar General and the farmer's market and driving my $500 hoop-dy car. You know something? I'm happy either way. I can appreciate both types of living and am really blessed to be able to have them.

I have started running again. Well, I don't know if I would consider it running as much as it would be jogging. Whatever...I'm just happy to be doing it at the moment. I only go out for about 30 minutes and only a few days a week. I don't know what's going to happen, and that's scary for me. At the same time, I think I'll be okay regardless of the outcome. I've come to terms with the fact that I may not ever be able to run again at previous levels. I have spent countless amounts of hours, money, and energy trying to "fix" my Achilles tendon. That's all I can do.

I'd love to complete an Ironman. I'd love to do MORE than just complete an Ironman. I'd love to qualify for Hawaii. I'd love to do MORE than just qualify for Hawaii...

My focus is still on cycling at this point because of my obligation to TDS/Schwalbe; however, my brain has started to entertain thoughts of multisport now which is good. I LIKE thinking about that, but I'm not really putting any goals out there. It's really silly to do that. I haven't run since November, and the athletes out there just keep getting better and better. I respect their talent. I just wish I could let mine shine too. That would be fun.

I leave the Keys on the 27th of May only to depart Oklahoma on the 28th to begin racing in the Northeast on the 29th. What a whirlwind, hey? I wouldn't trade it for the world because in my mind that's what I have in my little hand -- the whole wide world.

Love ya'll, Andrea