I ran/walked a hilly route through my neighborhood with my two dogs, about 4.5 miles in about an hour, for a whopping 13:20 average pace. It's my second run at altitude since I got home from 2 weeks at sea level, and I can tell I'm not used to it! Yesterday I ran in the foothills at about 6,000 ft, and I felt fine, with an avg pace of 10:40. Today I ran in the mountains with a starting elevation of 9,300 ft at my house, then up to a high point of about 9,600 ft, down to a low point of 9,200 ft, back up and over the high point, and a nice downhill finish to the house. Whew, that was tough! The dogs are tired, too! The snow's starting to melt, and the roads are muddy. Mud season = spring! Steve, congrats on the new job and the promotion! Glad you and the new boss get along so well already. Hallar, good luck on the 18 miler tomorrow! Btb, nice idea for Amy and her family! Did you say THREE HOURS on the elliptical? PDR and WRFB, good luck at the Cherry Blossom run in DC. The cherry blossoms in Japan were coming out during our second week there and were awesome. JJJ, I love the picture! Mountain trails in the fog are kewl. Today I was just running mountain roads in the mud.

I'm soooo excited but first congrats to Steve....team Amy I'm in!!!! I just got home and I am tired, sweaty, sore, dirty, sun burned, crusty (white salt stuff all over me) and never felt soooo good. New distance PR for me today.....21.5 miles in 3:29:17, 9:45 ave pace. I was hell bent on running 20 miles today, which I have done before last fall. At first I didn't feel the greatest, but my legs came to me. At mile 13 I took a gel and water and felt sooo good. At mile 13 through 17 I ran at MP 8:30 and then settled into a cruising pace to get me home. I know I struggle at times and ask a lot of advise from others who have "been there, done that" which has help me so much. In 3 weeks I am going to go the whole distance to complete my first Marathon....even if it's not a real race!!! I would have to say that I thought about Holly's 26 plus mile run last week, along with thinking about Bob and what he is going through....he is such a wonderful guy. And Ribs has helped me more than he probably knows....I like the every 3rd week he suggests....which is what I am doing. A question to you all...when I finished my run, I was talking to a neighbor of mine who asked how far I had ran. As I was talking to him I was slurring my speach as if I was drunk....I felt so silly, but he really didn't notice....do any of you go through the same thing??? I was fine after a few minutes, but contribute it to being dehydrated I suppose. It's amazing to me that I ran that distance on 1 cliff bar, 2 gels, and 20 OZ of water....how do you guys and gals carry enough "stuff" with you??? Oh well, off to the shower, and eat. Good job everyone no matter what you did today!!! Tim

You guys have left me trembling, smiling and in tears all day... CNY- good to see you finally tapering down your runs! I am so excited for you! Good to hear all is getting back to normal in the household, I hope you dodged the bullet. They sell bulk Purell at the warehouse stores. nonoruns- no mention of foot cramps today! Yay! Do your proprioceptor exercises this weekend please! Holly- thank you again for the very thoughtful thing to do for Amy. That was very kind of you. THank you! Hope you had a good outing with the family, sounded like a fun day was in store! STEVE!!!- This is the news I think everyone here has been hoping to hear for a long long time!! I've heard of one guy getting fired before he was even hire, but I think you are the first one to get a raise before being hired! No doubt you will be a tremendous assest to this company, as well as providing always needed smiles to them! I really happy for you! It was good to see you post a run report too! PDR- safe travels, and a great trip and race for you guys! I suspect you and WRFB both need this weekend away, you seem like you both work way too hard. JJJ- beautiful! I'll have to try falling next time it's foggy here to see if it catches me too! Can't wait to try that! THanks! Jeanne- glad you got to work on those pasty legs today! WHat a better way to do it than with a great long run! Get going on that yardwork while it still seems appealing to you, we'll see how you feel about it come mid July! sarge- when is your wife's race? Didn't she do it already? Did I miss it? Ribs- I'm not familiar with Newton's shoes, but as long as they match your shorts, they must be good! Also, I owe you much.... thank you! WRFB- good luck to you too in the race tomorrow! Nevada.... getting some altitude training in before Boston. Good move. dromedary- we'll need to know if you scored in the trifecta or not! hopeful4ever- no jacket, glove or headband equals a darn speedy run! Nicely done! stumpy- Forestry school attracted you, didn't it? PJH- glad to hear you finally had some decent weather for your run! What a long haul it's been for you! Car shopping... how fun. halllar- I'll be thinking of you and your calf on your run tomorrow. Keep us posted and good luck! You doing anything to help rehab it? As your mileage builds, it makes it harder to heal on it's own. wa5yom- sounds like you peeled a few layers off during your run! Primed and ready for the task at hand in a couple of weeks! BCMorant- good to hear you gave the track a break today! breger- why the treadmill today? Florida having a cold snap? fussyrunner- good to have you posting here again! Sounds like you have a fun day ahead... Good thing you got your run in! perchcreek- it's the effort that counts. You did well given the hills and the conditions. These hard efforts on your own outside of a race are tough. Well done! Twocat- best of luck with your run tomorrow! Even if your calf feels good, keep working on it, we don't want a relapse. Please. Teresa- enjoy those huge Texas hills! Everything is bigger there, right? enke- a 6 week old dead rat? Send it my way! Roadkill stew! Hope things dry out for you soon before the slugs take over. lyndenrunner- hope you are more ON than OFF tomorrow. Feel better. vista- I may not be able to run the route, but I'm pretty darned sure I'll DO the route. No way can I not do it. No way. You're writing a novel? Do tell please! Awesome! wildchild- you have been missed! Don't wait too long to tell us about, and show us, your trip! Sound's like you need to reaclimate to being home. biketm- a post from you on the weekend! Cool! Done that drunk running thing many times, a sign of a good effort. As long as you felt ok otherwise, no worries. Slur proudly! Aamos- 17 miles, ho hum... just ran a marathon... ho hum. I'm not too jealous! Well done! Yep, 3 hours on the elliptical. Had to dry up the foot wells 3 times from all the sweat. Started the first hour just flat and easy. Did a progressive hill routine the 2nd hour, finished up with progressive resistance the last hour. All in all, it was ok. Then it was lacrosse practice. What a great group of girls this year, giving it 100% the whole time. First game is tomorrow. Spent the afternoon doing yardwork. My ankle was killing me the whole time, but I never stopped smiling.... I wonder why. If you need a hint, go look in a mirror, guys. What a day.... thank you thank you all!

Holly, what a great idea! SteveP, congratulations. Like everybody else said, great choice on both your parts. SR, thanks for your input. I have a follow up question (I think) but I want to re-read parts of the book again first. It's so nice you're running & feeling great. It looks like your reminder about our supporting Bob's pledge goal really paid off! PJ, drive safely. btb, 3 hours?? (I know, but I had to say that). the thread for Amy had me in tears too. um, easy on the ankle, at least for tonight, yes? Twocat, I hope tomorrow goes really well for you. jjj thanks for the picture(s). Stevep, maybe you can tape them. 2.6? miles on the treadmill this morning, then hours of yard & garden clean up. great for the hip extensors . What a perfect day.

Steve, that is great news! I'm so happy for you... and your boss is yet to learn just how lucky he is. JJJ, love that trail! I so want to run some of those trails you do. The new avatar is fun, too. Makes you wonder just what is up there.... Teresa, I may need to borrow that book as I prepare for my San Antonio trip. I leave at 7 am Monday, get in at 11:10 pm... crazy how long that trip takes! Team Amy! What a great idea. But I'm still hoping BTB makes it to the start... Wow, 3 hours on the elliptical? Can't even imagine.... My athletic club would've carted me away after 2 I'm sure! I finally have a really cool Non-Moose critter sighting to share! Just past 5.6 miles of my run, I saw a bird out of the corner of my eye fly up and land on a telephone pole I was approaching. I looked up and stopped cold... a boreal owl! We have these nesting in our owl houses around our house, but rarely see them because they're usually out at night, and are very "shy." This one had a mouse, and started to pick away at it with me right below him watching, fascinated! They are so cool; small gray owls, big round yellow eyes (he stared right at me for a bit before starting on the mouse), very pretty. A biker came by and I pointed up and said "Look, an owl!" He said "How cool!" looked a bit then kept going. It was fun! Hit my garmin button again and headed back home. The run itself was a bit of an exercise... a friend dropped a bug in my ear that given my recent training paces, I could be looking at 7:45 as a MP to shoot for. Ha! Fat chance, thought I... but then I thought I'd try it a bit. Miles were 8:11, 7:49 (downhill), 7:42 (some downhill, most flat, major sleet and headwind), 7:53 (flat, same conditions), 8:04 (included turnaround), 8:01 (owl stop), 8:19 (incl uphill), 8:49 (major uphill to home), last .53 at 8:42. So... don't think 7:45 is in the cards for a marathon, but it's probably going to be my goal HM pace now. And I agree with friend that I'll see a lot of 8 min miles at Boston... (the weather sucked for this run... wind, sleety snow, 32F at start, 28F at end...., 8.53 miles at overall pace 8:08 )

Just a short 2 miler for me today as tomorrow is the half marathon that I will run with my college friend. Although my foot is still a huge problem, I don't want to let her down. She is a slower runner, so I won't beat my foot up too badly. I'll take it nice and easy. I just want to get her across the finish line!!! I haven't run much in the last two weeks so this will be interesting. I love team Amy.