Sandy - if you have a window seat on your flight, maybe you'll see this on your approach to Heathrow Airport.  An 18 yo cut it on his father's land to welcome the President.  Supposed to be visible on approach.

 

I love that kid.

I ran somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles this morning. I added a little loopty loop to my normal morning route.

 

 

QOTD: Haven't ever had a running coach, only drill instructors in Marine Corps boot camp, except for one instance below:

Bert-O and I are similar in that we both hated running in HS, and chose to do the Field part as throwers. I was a shot putter. I think I weighed 170, but I had a very strong bench press. I think squats would have been more beneficial, but I could always hurl that thing far enough to make the final round. There were some talented individuals at other schools that always seemed to beat me and the other Neanderthal on my team. At one district meet, we were a man down in the 400 relay. I was asked to run the lead leg in a pair of borrowed shoes that almost fit. The coach said, "Run as fast as you can when the gun goes off and give the baton to the next guy." That was the extent of the coaching. I did what he asked, and I never lost a step to the others. I was the first one to the next runner, and we won the race. Had we lost that race, I don't think we would have advanced to the state meet where we eventually won the 1986 state championship for the Louisiana Independent School Association (LISA). They gave me a trophy or something at the athletic banquet and said they wished I had competed more in sports during high school. I only "ran" track and field my senior year.

Really cool!  And you had to be a pretty damn good natural athlete to pull that off.  The shorter running events do emphasize the fast-twitch muscles which are in your favor.  Even though I wasn't very good at it, I did like to throw.  I think the discus was my favorite (even more so than than the javelin).  But I did have a good strength-to-weight ratio.  I think I was about 140 lbs when I benched 270.  And I could do full squats (things parallel to the ground) at 315 x 5 reps.  Don't know why I ever got into running when weight lifting was clearly what I was best at.