A View of the Golden Corral

Did the treadmill again tonight. I gained some confidence and did a faster pace than last time. I still can't look up enough to be able to watch the TV, so all I have to look at is my reflection in the window (which is helpful, b/c I can see if I am veering to one side and I can really focus on NOT having a freak treadmill accident), the glow of the red and gold neon lights from the Golden Corral and the parking lot of the Super WalMart off in the distance.

The 10 Degree Runner

The 10 Degree Runner is not me...but I saw someone out this morning and was actually slightly jealous that it wasn't me. I've been slyly good at coming up with excuses for not running without directly using the excuse "It's too cold out." Other excuses recently have been - "I need to get into work" or "I need to catch up on sleep."

Happy Birthday, Crazy Daisies!

I just missed the two year anniversary of the Crazy Daisies blog. (It was on January 12.) But, I am back up here in good ole Hermitage/Greenville and this may be the first year that I do not get in a track workout. Reason being (1) I'm not on a training program that suggest them, (2) It is darn cold outside...ok, maybe not any colder than the past two years, but next week the forecast is filled w/ single digits and (3) Nathan wasn't all that comfortable w/ me running after dark at a track behind a high school...not that it wasn't dark when I've done it the past two years.

Tonight I got my two staff to join me at the Y. They both said their wives would be proud of the job I did in getting them there. I'm not a huge fan of the treadmill, as we all know, but I got in 30 minutes on it with no freak accidents. I always picture this happening...my shoelace comes untied and then gets stuck in the belt.

Here's to another year filled with good blogging, but more importantly, good running and good times!

Mark Your Calendar!

Matt called me yesterday and said that his dentist, who is also a runner, filled him in with all the Michigan relay races. I've found the site for a few and I am still looking for a supposed 70 mile trail relay. I think it is an absolute MUST that we do one of them!

http://greatlakesrelay.com/ - A 270 mile relay. They start taking applications on April 16 - a wonderful way to celebrate the first day of non-busy season. Swag for this race is a custom-made ceramic mug from potter I.B. Remsen and you get to meet famous Pinky Winky (???).

http://www.shoretoshorerelay.com/ - A 200 mile relay, actually not in Michigan...it is in sourthern Ontario. We should get things pulled together by February 29 to get a discount. This race looks a bit more organized than the first.

http://danceswithdirt.com/ - A 100k relay in either Hell or Gnaw Bone Michigan (one in May, one in September). This could be a good starter. It is the shortest and only includes 5 relay runners, but we could have multiple teams race against each other if we get some interest.

http://www.laurelultra.com/ - I also just found this one! I knew they did a 70 mile ultra, but didn't know there was a relay option. So close to home!

And I also looked for half marathons in the spring/early summer. Here are some reasonably close options:
May 4 - Frederick, MD
May 4 - Alexandria, VA
May 18 - Marine Corps Historic Half (already sold out...darn)
June 21 - Niagara on the Lake, Ontario
Hmmm...that's not that many options.

Also - REGISTRATION FOR THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON OPENS ON APRIL 30. THIS ONE FILLS UP FAST!

Guess Who I Saw?

I was at Michael's (the craft store, not the pizza place) on Sunday and I saw Laurie (or is it Lori?) from GOTR! She was with her mom and I stopped to talk with them for a few minutes. I asked what they were there for and she said, "Well, I'm like, kind of getting into scrapbooking..." I asked her if she had been running...to which she said "no," but her mom chimed in with the fact that they had gotten a stepper for Christmas...interesting.

Volunteering Info for Boston

There is a group set up for us so that we can all be together in our volunteering! The group name is "Crazy Daisies" and the PIN is "Pittsburgh".

Once a Runner

Here is a link to a "preview" for the upcoming Once a Runner movie (don't get too excited, though...see next link):

http://www.oncearunnermovie.com/

Here is a link debunking the movie trailer:

http://www.eliterunning.com/blog/2007/04/09/296/

What a letdown! I was so excited after I watched the trailer, but you'll note at the end that it says "Coming Summer 2007." When I went to do some research as to how it came and went without me noticing, I discovered it was a fake.

Musings on the Day

As I walked out of the Y this morning I wondered if maybe I had blinked and busy season was actually already over. It felt like such a nice spring day that it just had that feeling like winter (and long hours at work) was drawing to a close. As I sweated my way over to the office (remember how the Y has that archaic heating/cooling system that takes about 4 days to catch up if there is a drastic change in temperature?), I was brought back to reality looking at all of the work that was in front of me. Alas, busy season 08 is only just beginning.

It was so nice out that I decided I had to take advantage of the warm weather and go out for a quick run this evening. Just had to savor it! Plus, I'm reading Again to Carthage, John L. Parker Jr.'s sequel to Once a Runner, and it is so inspiring, it just makes you want to go out and run. The thing is, it takes place in the South, so it makes me want to run in WARM temperatures, not COLD. That's why today was perfect.

(Amber, do you know if Ryan has the book Once a Runner? It is out of print and sells for about $200 a copy on Amazon. I thought there might be a slim chance that he would own it, though.)

I also think it quite impressive that my last run was done in 19 degree temps (1 degree wind chill, I later heard that morn) and a mere four days later it is 64!

Boston Volunteering

Volunteer applications will be available starting January 10. Not sure how quickly this fills up, so we might want to get our act together and decide what we want to do. Here is the link http://www.bostonmarathon.org/Volunteering/BostonMarathonVolunteer.asp to the homepage. From there you can check out what the requirements are and the different positions that are available. Most of them are, in fact, a pretty extensive committment (ie - 9 am - 5 pm), so we will probably be looking at a full day. There are many options for the hydration stations along the course. Other jobs that sound interesting to me - Drug testing and/or VIP security for the elite athletes (actually, kind of kidding on this one), mylar blankets. I do NOT want to be a "rope holder" ie the person who enforces the corral designations. Personally, I always get annoyed at these people, so I do not want that job.

I think this will be a fun way to be involved and though its a committment, I think we'll be able to cheer the day before for the time trials, so we'll get our fun in that way. I'm sure the boys will be up for interspersing some non-running related fun things as well!