Hey HEY Hey - Nope, I'm not at work.  Put in for the day off many moons ago.  I'm actually more tired today than I was yesterday.  Guess I was still working off some adrenaline.  Also, we had to drive back yesterday, which was about a 6-hr drive.  Rained liked an SOB for about the first 4 hrs of driving.  So, so glad that didn't come in the day before.

Joe - Congratulations on the trail race!  How fun!  So maybe, just maybe, you're leaning a little further toward the dark side?  Hmmmmm???  You're gonna kick buttooty next weekend.

Carol - I agree with Arla - yard work is cross training.  And Shorty was a tad "misty-eyed" while watching the implosion of TX Stadium, too.

Arla - That illness is still hanging on?  Dang, girl.  Good job getting some running in anyway.

Ev - You have two more weeks, right?

Jim - So you gonna take Arla's challenge and go for the full in December???

Jewels - How's the knee?

Cindy - Sounds like they're going to be able to fix your car.  Is that a good or bad thing?

Frances - Welcome to our little family.  The more the merrier!

Hi, Kelly!  Thanks for coming to "see" us again!!

I'll do a race report, but in the meantime . . . . wow.  One thing is definitely for certain - I could not have finished this race without my buddy, Karen, as my pacer.  She was amazing.  She yelled at me, cajoled me, laughed with me, cried with me, or just let me be whenever it was necessary.  I barely made the second cutoff, and I only did that because of her, with 2 minutes to spare. The climb at the end - holy freaking cow.  I finally told Karen I could power walk it, but there was no way I could even try to run any of it.  It felt never ending. 

Saturday evening, a lot of runners were staying at the same hotel we were.  You could pick 'em out 'cause we were all walking the same - like we had cobs stuck up our butts.   You'd see someone walking and say, "You run the race today?"

I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this, 'cause 2 days later, it feels sort of surreal.  One thing is for sure, a lot of what kept me going was knowing how many people were rooting for me.  When I wanted so bad to quit, you guys were constantly in my head, as were my friends here at home, and I just kept thinking that I couldn't let anybody down.

Hello to Frances and welcome......good luck with your training.

Way to go Joe.....love the pic! Sounds like you had a great time and a super nice "time". Congrats....

How is Ms. Leslie feeling? I watched a lot of the live video stream they had going on but they shut it off at the 12 hr. mark, and I was like wth.......my friend is still out there! Looking forward to your race report and tell Karen she's a great friend for getting you through the difficult section at the end.

Knee sucks.......I really want to "pick" a marathon race and start setting goals but, I need to get this figured out soon. Heading back to the doc in a couple of weeks to see if he can work some of his magic.

Gotta get movin'.......

Jewels

2m recovery last night but checked 5 bins for x-training. I could really feel the burn going up all the steps on the new bin though not winded. Maybe good for strength/hill training, think I will work that into the schedule at least every other week. Good for BB's hills.

Leslie rest up we can wait for the full report til you're up to it. Google The Day after the Marathon London, hilarious will remind you of your hotel lobby.

Cindy aahh your soooo fun-neeee . Doug can kick my butt anytime he chooses, cause #1 he is a natural and #2 he gets more running just back and forth at work than I do all week.  Sucky wind today huh? Glad u and the Raid got out, Doug too!

Arla that really sucks with that bug, is there a dr in the house? What's he say? On a fall marathon who knows haven't ruled it out just need harvest to cooperate a little more. It's normally over by the time I was supposed to be at peak mileage, don't wanta have to get up at 3 am to get long runs in then work til dark like last yr . I dunno, So far I really don't believe its something I can physically do regardless of work at this point anyway.

Jewels hope u get a good report on that bum knee.

Nice Katy run Carol. Local gal is doing boston, her mom is going along they are really excited. She won the Lincoln marathon women's open division. Comes from an athletic family, her dad walked on at Nebraska Football as a reciever (very fast but a little too small for div I) and her mom's family are all good athletes.

Hi to Ev  Joe Kelly Stumpy and Evry one else.

50 mph winds stuck in office for now.

MTA a welcome to Frances

Getting a bit ansy for the race and the weather does not look good. Temps from 34*-45* with rain. Winds out of the northeast which means a headwind the whole way of 16mph with gusts to 35! Yikes!

Keeping fingers crossed Mother Nature stops PMSing and decides to give you all a break.

Jewels - Frigging knee.   I know of one stretch for the IT band, if you want the info.

Carol - Hey!  You kept up with a Boston runner!

Jim - Yeah, all that climbing is definitely excellent cross training.

Arla - Nothing really major re intestinal issues, but I did get pretty behind on the calories.  Absolutely nothing sounded good except chicken noodle soup, which, besides when I saw The Hub, was available at only 2 aid stations.  Unfortunately, I couldn't carry a warm container of it around with me.  Hardly any chewing involved and easy to swallow, which became 2 big issues.

I'm feeling good, except for being tired and some residual soreness in the right hip joint. The blister I got is even mostly gone.

Was suppose to walk or slowly jog 3 miles this a.m., but when I got up at 5:45, it was pouring rain outside. . . . . I went back to bed. 

Got my new running schedule, which takes me through most of June.  As I requested, Coach gave me weekends off for the next month or so.  Only working out during the week.  Very nice.  Maybe I can get some much needed yard work done now.

Later, friends ~

Good evening all.  I did my running on a basketball court for an hour and a half last night.  First time in over a year and a half.  I had stopped when it seemed I would get an a-fib episode shortly after playing.  The good news is--no a-fib, no bruises (very relevant in the game I play in) and nothing major sore.  Now I have to figure out  how to deal with the fact that both basketball and yoga are on Monday night.  no overlap, but I usually feel like rest after yoga and not a couple hours of BB.

Joe that looked like a fun race.  Not familiar with the area, but maybe I ought to give it a try.  Even a 10K and I would have been seriously tempted.

Leslie--not even remotely tempted .  Glad to hear you're healthy and recovering well.

Jim--that autopilot rig of yours is amazing.  But can't you let dessa ride by herself and you could get something else done and really multi-task?   Just hop back in at the end of the run?  I had a little idea that farming was really high tech, but I'm glad to hear more of the details first hand.

Jewels--hope your doc comes up with something good for you.

Arla--Hope your crud clears out soon.  I'm sure it's getting frustrating.

Hi Frances.  nice place to be.  Can't complain, they let me in here.

Max the dog wants to go out for a walk.  Have get out and get to bed--I took another unplanned rest day so I have to get up early tomorrow and be good.  May actually be back to tights weather around here.  36 this morning and it looks like more of the same.

Good night.

Thanks Ev. Hope you're healing up what ails you. You have a lot of good training for your race as well.

Good going on the cross training Stumpy. I was never a very good b-ball player.Should have been a little chilly up your way.

The gym membership is helping to ward off the taper madness this time around.

Last night was Body Attack followed by a 6er on the mill and abs workout.

4 with LuLu this morning, a couple interval like thingys and a squirrel fartlek into the mud. I Let Dessa Lou off leash the last half mile, she took off like a rocket and looked back at me with her little dog smirk like "You're so sloooow!).

Wicked little storm last nite, we had either an F0 or a very strong whirlwind as it ripped 4straps and one mount bracket off our hot tub. I watch the swirling dirt go right by our picture window. The UPS driver watched 2 swirling masses but didn't see a connection above but alot of rotation in the clouds. Anyway had to be at least 70 mph accompanied by small hail and later heavy rain just shy of an inch. Glad we have the ground ready to go as I can hook my planter and get all the gremlins out of the system now.

Kevin glad you got to hit the bball courts with no probs, sounds like a sport you have missed .

Joe yup nice to have the gym to shake off the taper crazies!

Ev come on up BB is memorial day. Fly into DIA rent a car and u can be in Boulder in less than an hour, stay in Westminister or Broomfield 10-15 min away. It would be a nice fun race after your big one!

http://www.bolderboulder.com/site3.aspx

Hey to the rest of ya all, better use this rain break to get some office stuff done.