Time to Catch Up...

It has been a while, so I have a lot to cover. Let's get right at it, kids.

1) In response to AJMac's question after I was beaten by either a woman or a transvestite at the Dan Ford's 5 Mile charity race, I respond by simply stating, "no comment".

2) AJMac described his Dream Team for the Aggieman kayak triathalon. As a personal reference to his testament regarding his other brother, I can emphatically confirm that he is, in fact, a behemoth of a man. I would be surprised if they did not win their division either by having the fastest collective time, or by having his brother lift every other team up and with one fell swoop throwing them to the other side of the river. How can I make such dramatic (and accurate, I might add) statements? Well, AJMac and I had the frightful... I mean pleasurable experience of being college roommates with said behemoth. We would often tease Chewbacca and try to gang up on him only to once again discover the hard lesson of why we should never upset Chewy. (I still have flashbacks of him making loud Sasquatch sounds while beating down on us with both arms like a silver back gorilla.)

3) I have not been very consistent in my running. There are multiple causes for this. Lots of cookies and ice cream happen to be one reason. The four brownies the other night happen to be another. I have been busy with kids, work, and yard work (which usually comes after the rest). I have been going to bed late and therefore, waking up late.

Still, I have been able to keep in relative good shape. I used to have a full size tire around the mid-section, but now only have the proverbial spare tire. I now realize that it is not coincidental that a spare tire is sometimes referred to as a donut - I look like a donut. Anyway, I have been able to keep in shape by doing various other physical activities - spin once or twice a week, floor workouts, approximately two hours of fast paced basketball on Monday nights, and my minimal running.

4) Again, the oddest race happened. On Wednesday night, I ran the same weekly 5K as I did twice last year. It is the same race where I broke the 19:00 minute 5K with a personal record (PR) of 18:37. On Wednesday night, I set another PR by running 18:17. I actually expected to run over 19:00 minutes since I have had sporadic running (at best) over the last couple of weeks. I did not run at all from Saturday through Tuesday and so I did not want to be rusty on Wednesday evening; so, I went out for five miles early in the day on Wednesday. It was a light three miles, which quickly turned into five miles so that I could go explore a new conservation area. I had resigned to the idea that I will try to keep up with the another runner, but will not be able to best my previous PR. As I arrived to the race, I found the runner with whom I had traded wins last year. He proceeded to tell me that three weeks ago he set a PR of 17:56. I proceeded to look for someone else with whom I could keep up.

As the gun sounded, Mr. Speedy went out blazing and kept a 10 second lead over me and cruised to a 15 second victory. There was another gentleman who maintained a five second lead through most of the race until I closed the gap, took the inside, let him get a good glimpse of me, and then watched him kick away and come in second. So, I crossed the finish line third and in total disbelief that I was actually 20 seconds faster than before. It reminded me of the Dan Ford 5 Miler, where I could not see the mile markers and did not realize I was running a 31 minute five mile until the very end.

In conclusion, I know I have a lot of work to do to optimize my racing this year. That being said, I am not far off from being in great shape and I think that it is becoming more natural for me to run faster. It is rather exciting.

Thank you for reading. I will keep in touch soon.