Good morning! Everyone must have stayed up too late watching the Olympics. Wakey wakey - we're all in our places with bright shiny faces! Sorry... A quick 4.1 miles before work this morning. Beautiful full moon and cool breeze at 4:45 when I took off. It's pitch black here until 5:15. Back to the reflective clothes and headlamps, I guess. Teachers back today for a week of orientation, kids next week. It will be hectic. As George Costanza's father said, "serenity now!!!" Enjoy your Monday, everyone. Jeanne

It's a beautiful morning here in Western, MA and I felt like running miles and miles and miles. I didn’t quite do that, but had a good run no less. 12.6 miles at 6:30 AM and 60F…. just me and the iPOD and at 8:06 pace. I had a marvelous weekend in Texas. I met up with two of my oldest and dearest friends (also former track and cross-country teammates) for our 26th annual girlfriends gab-fest. This was supposed to be a wedding weekend for my Texan friend, but a broken engagement meant that our weekend didn’t involve taffeta or dyed to match pumps---just great conversations, laughter and tears. I have known these two since I was five years-old and we are planning our next gathering as I type. We were able to catch some Olympic action as well. Emotional ebb and flow on Saturday. As thrilled as I was that a 38 year-old won gold, I was devastated for Deena Kastor. My feet ached in sympathy. Meeting Spareribs and The Saint was just tremendous. They are both kind, generous and such true partners. I was so happy to meet The Saint that I hugged her reflexively. I may have startled her, but I couldn’t help it. She is fly as my cousins say. I felt immediately comfortable with their running club members and had more than fun during the run. I am grateful for the effort that Ribs and The Saint put forth to make arrangements and ensure that I didn’t feel out of place. It's often easy to find kindred spirits amongst a group of runners and this was certainly the case. We merely scratched the surface when it came to our many conversations and I hope we’ll have many more chances in the future. Spareribs looks terrific and without the display of his scar that clearly marks the cathartic history of the past few weeks, there is no way you would know. Handsome and dashing? Yeah, yeah, yeah…..Funny and witty, well, sort of ( !), Respected and loved? Without a doubt. As for any dulcet tones I might possess (and I am deeply flattered ), I think we could expand the running and race report business. Ribs, you write the reports and I’ll read them for those who are pressed for time. Imagine the possibilities! Download the daily thread on your mp3 player, get an audio feed of the weekend race reports. Relive your last marathon set to smooth jazz. Okay, maybe I won’t retire just yet, but thank you for all the kind words. Darkhorse! I am so happy to see you here. Welcome back. I missed you and hope you’ll stop in all the time. Holly, I am so happy for you! I’ll get a chance to say woo hoo in person when I am there in early September. Don’t push it too hard now so you can keep on adding the miles without pain. Aamos---you are my idol. Great racing and what fun. I hope to do that race someday as I love being in Kathrine Switzer’s company as well as yours. Hugs for (((((Steve, Sarge and Nonoruns)))))). CNYrunner/Karin

Rest day here. Michigan passed a wonderful law that takes full effect this year: No school until after Labor Day! Hooray! That's how it was when I was growing up in Western NY and how it should be. Of course, this is the first year that I don't have kids in school so it means nothing to me.

Morning! I was up Jeanne, really. just not much to report. about 50 min. of prehab & callanetics, then gentle hammie stretches & ice. And a little outside work. The Olympics do make my usual wakey time a little tough. last night I thought I wouldn't watch much. But it wasn't a good night for that! It does seem the dark just came on fast. ( Was it ever light at 4:45?) I remember Doug said a few days ago "who turned out the lights?". I'd had the same reaction that very day. Bill, healing vibes for your ankle. Erika, wtg. That's an understatement. And as far as keeping track... I can't even count a few laps without losing track. happy new week.

Good morning all, I had an exciting run this morning. It was a nice morning and I went out in the dark for a 10 miler on my usual course where I basically don't see anyone for the whole run. Well, this morning at about 7 miles into my run, I hear footsteps chasing me down a slight incline. When I turned around I saw a young girl bearing down on me. As I was just crusing along, I decided to just let her pass but thats when my competitive instinct kicked in... She pulled away from me & opened up a 200-250' lead but I closed the gap going up a hill. At that point she again opened up a lead going down the hill and on a flat section. As we approached another hill I closed the gap again and continued to stay within about 100 feet of her on the flat. As we headed up another hill I almost caught up with her and kept very close on a flat section. It ended at about my 9 mile marker where she stopped to cross the road and I turned around at that point to finish my 10 miler. We gave a quick hello to each other and parted company. I really enjoyed that.... ...almost forgot....10.15 miles @ 9:03 pace this morning. Good runs to all today.

... what's an "SB"?

Stupid Bill. See Sunday's daily thread for further details. Stupid Bill

Things I did on my first day of retirement: - Got up at 6:30, but no need to rush out to run. Made a pot of coffee and had a cup while reading the paper on my front porch. - Took coffee and paper on a tray upstairs where DW would find it when she woke up. Changed into running clothes. - Drove out to a nearby trailhead. Watched the tense expressions on the faces of drivers heading the other way in rush-hour traffic (heh, heh). - Took a 5-mile run on the Paint Creek rail-trail at a 10:07 pace. My longest and by far fastest run in several months. - No rush to get back, so took time to stretch and cool down before driving back home. - Shower, get 2nd cup of coffee, sit down to check in at RA and KR. Hey, Tom S! How come you never told me it would be like this? By the way, my big improvement in pace has to be due to running a bit later. I'll admit that those 6AM runs have been a lot harder to get going for lately. That's also why my race-pace is generally a lot better than what I can do in early-morning training. Glad to see everyone else out running and feeling good. I'll have to catch up with the weekend's activities when I have some time.

I'm reading the roster of the U.S. men's distance runners and suddenly I realized that I couldn't pronounce the last name of any of them. It then dawned on me that in 2004 I had the same problem when I tried to pronounce the last names of the Kenyan distance runners. Wait a minute! It's the exact same guys! I called a sports agent friend of mine and learned that we had traded for the entire 2004 Kenyan team. It cost us cash, 2 draft choices, and a field hockey player to be named later. Sunday's long runs: Lou (I wouldn't worry about stamina problems on longer runs...I have stamina problems on short ones), Gordon (11 slacker miles), Aamos (you did a full marathon as a training run?), Larry (even though you cut it short, sounds like even the 10 was extra tough), Francesca (back to back marathons...jeez), Maine (great 16 after great 5K..."hail" of a run), Sue (great 20-miler and great choice to buy a DVR). Erika: Hey! 50:56 (8:12 pace) on what sounds like a brutal course...I think that's wonderful! Walking parts of the uphills is no big deal (at least in my opinion). It's been my experience that if you're out of gas, if you walk for about 15-20 seconds, you can start back up again at a faster pace. Even if you have to do this a number of times, no big deal. I think you're time was excellent...and for my glowing pat-on-the-back, I should be entitled to one bagel. Maine: 70 degrees, 88% humidity...and you were within about 10 seconds of a PR? And you feel you didn't have it? Jeez...I think you did incredibly well..5th in AG, 45th overall. Looking forward to reading your complete report. Ribs:

Yes Dicky, that Marty. He and I are still close. If you still have the book, go look in the Acknowledgements and you will see my name.

Exceptionally cool...you are indeed a star (although Marty Rudnick gave me a credit on his latest CD). Holly: You ran 11+ miles??? Congrats! Breger: Frankly, I can't see how you managed 12+ miles in temps like that. Were you hydrating during your run? Twocat:

Sigh. . . there is no free shortcake in this world is there . . .

That cracked me up, pal...that's gotta go down as one of the great lines of all time! Karin: Wonderful report on your day with the Ribs'...look, when Ribs is off on his walk, feel free to talk about him behind his back. Peter: Great run this morning...and was she cute? Ran 5.2 miles this morning in 47:51 (9:13)...a lousy 2 seconds slower than last Monday on the same course. Did manage 17:31 for last 2 miles. Like Tramps said, the humidity is getting back up there. DickyG