Welcome to Friday! The heat is coming to Virginia.......temperatures in the mid to upper 80's over the weekend. I trust that everyone racing over the weekend have wonderful experiences. As well, those putting in long runs hopefully will find a lot of happy miles on their journey. My brother got an appointment to meet with the surgeon early next week, which amazed them all as the surgeon was booked solid into late July. I think they realize this situation needs to be moved upon quickly and for this I am thankful. Have a great day. Start with a smile that makes everyone else wonder what you are thinking.

HI Vista....I am smiling too! Roy, good cracking 4 miler. enjoy the weekend First run since the marathon on Sunday..no soreness, just a little tired. Just an EZ 30 minutes, will go longer this Sunday. Have a great day Tall

Morning gang.... Well, it's time for me to put up, or shut up and choose a Fall Marathon for my first one. I have 3 in mind....2 in Indianapolis, and Columbus. One of the one's in Indy (very close to home) is a inaugural race and is suppose to be a flat fast course and BQ if I read it right http://monumentalmarathon.com/. If some of you remember, last year I signed up for the Indy Classic Marathon which I trained for and it got postponed to a later date, then I trained again for the same race and then a week before they canceled the race with over 14,000 participants that signed up But this new race is supposes to be run by quality people that know how to plan a good event. The other one in Indy is a nice race with a more scenic route, but here there are some pretty good hills...which I would personally like to avoid for my first. Then there is Columbus which all my running and triathlete buds tell me would be my best choice hands down....super run Marathon and great course. But this would be a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, but I could make a weekend of it, and maybe meet a few Boomer's But the Indy Marathon are only about 50 miles away and I could get up early and drive to the race, and drive home in the same day. Well, just sitting here thinking about my racing plans. If anyone has any suggestions or opinions, let me hear them Oh, yeah....1600 yards lap swimming, and 55 miles cycling last night....first time lap swimming since last July Have a great TGIF everyone Tim

Good Friday morning Boomers. Rain, wind and cold this morning, and still dealing with a queezy stomach so I headed to the Y for some cross training. 6.4 miles in 40 minutes on the eliptical trainer followed by leg and ab work. Vista - nice positive start to the day, as usual. Your posts make everyone smile. Hope your brother's appointment brings some positive news. Nice runs Roy and Tall - glad you're not feeling any effects from the marathon. Tim - I say go with your training friends' advice and do the Columbus. You'll probably run into other RA marathoners and will make a nice weekend out of it. Did anyone read Perch's post yesterday about suffering from flu-like symptoms after running a long race? I'm curious to see if other runners suffer from this, and if so, how do you cure it? I've noticed that lately on my long runs and races where I really push, I have this problem. You can't get stomach flu this often, and I KNOW I'm not pregnant! Does anyone have any advice to offer? Thanks, and enjoy your runs today everyone. Jeanne

Hey folks! Out for 4 mi this morning after last night's 5 mi in the evening. Lead legs for first two mi, but overall turned in a 36:something, which surprised the heck out of me. Running home for coffee always seems to make the turnovers come easier! OHHH BIG NEWS: MY hot tub is coming today!!!! Only bad news it is coming to the new house, which is a 6 block walk from this house. Well, we received our Certificate of Occupancy for the new house yesterday, so now it's just a matter of moving my husband's office first, then getting all the electronics set properly, and then I'll move us for real. I'm hoping this doesn't take 3 weeks, but my husband just got crushed with a work project, so he hasn't really had a chance to even think about his part of the move. Unfortunately, he's first. Nice problems to have. I'll take them! Good runs to all today and good luck to all weekend racers!

Last evening I met up with McSolar who is in town for a conference. I picked him up in my convertible P-car and took him to the Beach Place which is a local popular nightlife area; figuring he'd like to be right on A1A with all the palm trees and on the ocean. 'Course he couldn't break free from his conference till 9:00 PM, so ya couldn't see anything anyway as it was after dark. Oh well. Matt enamored me with his talk of running the Ragnar relay (don't worry, your secrets are safe with me!) and with talks of a "Quiet Sun" (Dang. I've never heard anything out of it.) We talked long about races and training, compared notes about many of you, his wonderful daughter Protosun, and just generally shooting the breeze. He's been quite enjoying all the water down here, seeing as he's from Arizona and the desert. At one point, a brief, intense rain shower blew over and he seemed enthralled by that. (Wait a while, Matt. Another one will likely come through.) He hoped fondly that he'd be able to run in the rain. (Take a jog at 3:30 PM Matt. Your odds are good.) He said several times "There's water everywhere!" and also that "The sweat sticks around". (Yep, we have the ocean, canals and waterways, rain, and humidity - the unseen variety of water.) Seriously, I had a great time. Matt is a really nice, down to earth guy. He says hello to everyone and promises to post from time to time. He now owes me a couple of beers whenever I get out to his neck of the woods. Bill PS: that 9:00 PM start time put the kibosh on the early morning 9 mile run I had planned. Thanks Matt ...

Morning everyone! I'm smilin' too Vista!! Hope all goes well with your brother. Crackin' run this mornin' Roy!! Tim - if you are going to drive a ways - drive to Detroit and we can run our first marathon together!! If you don't want to drive that far then I also vote for the Columbus race. I'm sure your friends would not steer you wrong! Schedule rest day for me. Temps were nice for running - low 50's - but rain and thunder boomers all around. I'd have loved to stay in bed . . but duty called in the names of Hailey, Leroy, Jack, Charlie, Bernie, Rosie, Hannah and LuLu. They all get their first experience of licking up milk tonight - can hardly wait. Got on the scale today too was fairly happy with the reading as I've been eating ALOT. But, we are also doing lots of stuff in the yard. Last night I shoveled a yard of black dirt and we laid a bunch of sod, then spread out another yard of bark. No wonder I slept so good last night!! Happy Friday!! ~Mary

Wildchild wrote:

(Disclaimer: I'm one of those annoying naturally thin people who don't have to worry about my weight.)

Oh, let me just smack you about the head and shoulders with a small halibut….you and Rochrunner, talking about Heathbar Blizzards at a time like this, grrrr…. Evryday – OF COURSE there’s a month reserved for you on the calendar as well… Vista – please keep us posted on his progress. Biketm – I’m running the Columbus Marathon, and I live in south Dayton, about 90 minutes from there. You are welcome to spend the night before at our house and ride in with me. Keep it in mind. Of course, I’m a much slower runner than you, so you’d have to hang around the finish for a while waiting for me at the end. If you are interested, you can e-mail me at hollys4874 at yahoo dot com to discuss. Perch – very cool about the Garmin. Your post yesterday had me thinking (a little panicky) how long do these Garmins last? Breger – thanks for sharing your Mcsolar time with us – I miss him around here. Mary – awwwwww.... Sue – dumb question, but, if you run on a track, which lane of the four do you run on to make 4 loops = 1 mile? 8 miles for me this morning, with mile #4, 5, and 6 @ fast-tempo (8:06, 8:00, 7:54 – notice how I got faster as I went - woohoo), ave pace for the run 9:06. Truthfully, this was a HARD effort, but not quite maximum effort – I didn’t get a bad cramp and feel like puking at the end, like at a 5K, - but still, it's been months since I ran that fast that far. Happy Friday!