Marathon Monday!

Well it is now Tuesday and the Boston Marathon has come and gone. I did not quite hit the time I wanted to, but all in all I would say it was a successful day. I finished 427th with a time of 2:50:18. There were right around 20,000 runners at the race and the weather was perfect. Robert Cheruiyot finished in 2:07:14 beating the old Boston record by just one second. Rita Jeptoo came in first for the women in 2:23:38.

Team Raleigh Running Outfitters was well represented at the race with close to ten runners.

I have to admit that the Boston Marathon was one of the most fun races I have ever done. The course is quite challenging and the crowds were awesome. With the passing of every town as we got closer to the city it seems as though the crowds just got bigger and louder. I am definitely going to run Boston again some day.

Now that Boston has passed I am on to even more exciting things in my life. There is just under 7 weeks left until I head out for Africa. I got to meet Libby, Katie and Brette this weekend while in Boston. These three ladies will be a part of the group of PCT that I am going over with. I am getting really excited to finally get this adventure off the ground. Not much longer and I will be doing my training runs in the bush of Zambia.

Cheers.

"Blue skies knocking at my door"

Early today I was laying on the hammock in the backyard starring up through the trees and I was mesmerized. The sky was a deep shade of blue that I rarely have seen. The depth of the color was so that it almost looked as though the sky was flowing like currents in a meandering river. There wasn't a cloud in site and through the mosaic created by the branches of our tree, the sky seemed magical.

One week from tomorrow I will be competing in my first ever Boston Marathon. I am really stoked and the lack of running due to my tapering is driving me nuts.

I am now less than two months away from being a Zambian resident. It's almost surreal in a way. If you had asked me a year and a half ago what I would be doing for the next few years, I really don't think I would have answered in the way things are panning out. The next couple of months should be fun and my growing excitement is about to burst my body into a million pieces.

I hope everyone is doing well and not taking life too serious. Get out and have some fun folks. You only live once.

Sweet Dreams

For the past few weeks I have had the strangest of sleeping habits. I seem to fluctuate between getting 4 hours of sleep and 9 hours of sleep. I think it is in part due to the amount of training I have been doing for Boston. My body seems to be so tired it can't go to sleep. But then there are the nights that I lay there in bed for hours thinking about what will be when I finally get to Zambia. I know that the marathon has invaded my entire consciousness now. Every night at least part of my dream -if not all of it- seems to involve me running the race. Sometimes it is a realistic view of what my crazy mind has conjured up about the course. Other times it is a surreal interpretation of no race I have ever competed in. I have always had some strange dreams, but never have they been so overtaken by one event in my life.

Zambia, however, has not been completely pushed out of thought by the race. Even my days have turned into a dream like state in which I am conjuring up ideas for what can be done while I am in Zambia and what great adventures I will come across. Needless to say, this has accounted for more than one brain fart while trying to meet the needs of my many tables at work. But seeing as I work at a pizza joint called "Mellow Mushroom", most people don't seem to expect that much out of us.

Over the past week it has really hit me that I am moving out of the country for at least 2 1/2 years in just about 2 months. I have been trying to figure out how I am going to go and hang out with just about everyone I know in such a short amount of time. I guess if I don't get around to seeing everyone, they will just have to come and visit me in Africa.

Well, I suppose I should get to bed now. I can't wait to see what twisted adventures my brain has waiting for me tonight.