My first half marathin...
When I woke up this morning and looked at my alarm clock, I was a disappointed. 3:14 am. O.K., that sucks. The race is still 4 hours and 16 minutes away. It is a 15 minute drive from my house. Why am I awake? Why am I thinking about the race? Why can't I go back to sleep? Why did Kathleen comment on my Facebook page that there was going to be a hill at the end of the race?When my alarm went off at 5:30, I think I had been asleep for about 20 minutes. Not a great way to rest up for my first half marathon. I got out of bed and went out into the living room, and it was still pitch black outside. I got down the box of oatmeal, and made myself some breakfast. I was trying to do every

Hangin' with the home boys... part 2
As we headed out the front door towards the elevator, I asked how far they wanted to run. I was a little worried that it would be farther that I was planning on, since I am going by my training plan for my upcoming marathon in January.Paul answered that he didn't care, what did I want to run? I told them that my usual loop was a four mile run, or we could go to the next leg, and it would be about seven miles. To that, Pete said "Seven miles, that would be farther than I have ever run in my life."On the outside, I played it cool. On the inside, I was jumping up and down with a big giant smile on my face. All I was thinking was that no matter what, at least I wou

Hangin' with the home boys...part 1
When I joined the Air Force in 1983, my pal, who also signed up with me, and I started running to get into shape for Basic Training. I was 18 years old, and built like a miniature stick, weighing in at 123 pounds. I was probably close to being in the best shape of my life, before or since. We started out at a couple miles, and worked our way up from there. Do you know how long you had to run on your final long run in Air Force Basic Training in 1983? 1.5 miles. Yes, you read that correctly, 1.5 miles. We started at about a quarter mile run, and spent six weeks of rigorous training to work our way up to a mile and a half...That was the last time I ran with my pal Pete.

Running friends
When my buddy Paul started running, it bugged the crap out of me. Every time we got together with him and his wife, the conversation would eventually turn to running, spin class, bike riding, training, his body bugg, his calorie burn, or some other fitness topic that usually led to me ordering seconds, or having another cocktail. Dude, we get it. Your in shape. You could pull a car. You could have your own show on the ocho at 3am. Get over yourself. Cripes! Shut up about it.Now, five years later, I just had a friend of mine post something like that to me on my facebook page.Quote: "If i have to read one more comment of you eating a salad, running in the heat...readin