My Brothers Pit-bull Is A Sissy

My brother Brett has a pit-bull named Cassius, and he's a bit of a sissy. I was clipping his nails this morning after he about ripped the top of my foot off last night running around the house. The entire time I was using the nail clippers he was squirming around like the world was going to end. I just don't understand how a dog that can be trained to kill could turn out to be a big sissy.

We are about 7 weeks away from the Boston Marathon. I am feeling great as my training progresses and seem to be getting tons of miles under my belt.

I am still preparing for my big jump across the pond. I have been working lately on all the paperwork that goes along with my trip to Zambia. It's soooo much fun, believe me. I've got 100 more days until I leave.

A Great Day

Have you ever just had a great day? Not necessarily an extraordinary day, but a truly great day. Well I had one today. I woke up feeling great after having slept for a little under 9 hours. Had a good breakfast and did some stretching. Went to work, which turned out unusually good. The costumers seemed a tad more jovial than they usually are, and it showed in the tips. After work I walked outside to find that it was much warmer than I thought it was going to get today. Had a relaxing afternoon napping and hanging out with Cassius. And the workout I did with the RRO crew was excellent. We did 20 ¼-mile repeats with a 200-meter recovery in between. I felt better with the passing of each leg. To top it all off, I just got done eating a scrumptious chicken potpie from Whole Foods. It's funny how the little things in life make you feel awesome. Like I said, it was a great day. I hope you all have a great day soon!

Feel free to let me know about your Great Days in the comments section at the bottom of the post.

A Nice Cold 20

We here in North Carolina seem to have skipped right past winter and gone into spring. There is a good side to this. Friday was sunny and in the mid 70's. There is also a bad side however. This morning as Mike, Ben, Sam, Paul, Greg, Bryan and I set out on our run, the thermometer was hovering right around 16 degrees. We did not let this stop us though. We set out to do 20 and at least some of us finished it.

After about 4 miles or so Jim, Sam, Greg, Bryan and I were distracted by a trail off to the left of where we were supposed to be going. We let Mike and Ben keep running ahead as we darted off on to the new trail that none of us had ventured on before. After about 11 miles we ended up back at the car. This is where Sam and Greg left us and Jim, Bryan and I kept running. Jim and Bryan ended up doing 16 miles and I finished out the last bit by myself to get in 20. I am sure Mike and Ben got in 20 as well but I will have to wait until tuesday to find out. I passed Mike as I was approaching the parking area and he tried to persuade me into doing a little more on the single track with him. I politely declined and ran the last couple of minutes back to the car.

All in all it was a very good run. I got my 20 miles in, which is what I wanted to do, and we had a little fun doing it. Maybe next time I do a 20 mile run mother nature will give me some warmer weather.

More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the marathon relay on Sunday:

A brisk run in the park

Today eight other folks from the RRO team and I participated in an informal marathon relay race over in Greensboro with a bunch of folks from the Off n' running store. It was, to say the least, a very cold morning but was still a whole bunch of fun. The course was a one and a half mile loop around Country Park. We took turns running laps and I ended up doing a total of about six miles for my team.









The week did not turn out how I thought it would in terms of mileage. I only did 58 miles and I had planned to do a little over 70. It might have been a good thing though. I was having some problems with injuries and in the last part of the week I was hit with a head cold. I think it was my body telling me to take an easy week. We'll see how it helps me in the days to come.

The return to normal

I know...it's been a while since I last did and update. All I can say is that I'm a slacker. I've been a little busy the past two weeks and I neglected a few things.
My running is going great. I did a 20 miler this morning with Sam and Mike and it felt great. That took me to 64 miles for the week. I am hoping to do a little over 70 this coming week. Only about 10 weeks left until Boston. The time seems to be flying.
I am still going crazy waiting until I leave for Zambia. If it weren't for training for Boston, I think I might have gone completely insane already. I have been learning all sorts of things about my future home and meeting people that are already over there and will be going over in June with me. I've got about 120 days of agony left! Can't wait!