Friday, December 18, 2009

What a Year!

For a lot of reasons 2009 has been a pretty rough year, the economy tanked pretty bad and that made life pretty difficult for a lot of people, myself included in some respects. But if I look past that I can without doubt say that 2009 has been one of the best years of my life. I've made some great new friends and discovered some things about myself that have really surprised me.
It started in February when I ran my first marathon. I didn't know I'd end up running three more before the year was up. In March I bought a house. Wow, I knew that would eventually happen but didn't really expect it to happen last year. In March I got a dog. Blue can be a bit of a terror, he still doesn't like strangers, but he loves me. In June I did my first triathlon, that lead to 4 more including a half ironman and a fairly expensive Triathlon Bike along the way. Also in June I became an Uncle. My nephew Drew was born, I'm fortunate enough to get to spend Christmas with him and the family. In October I got talked into running a 50k trail run by my good friend John. That is 31 miles through the woods on a mountain. It was not easy, but man a lot of fun.
I hear a lot of people that have known me for years comment on how I'm always on the go, and how they never know what I'm doing next. As crazy as 2009 has been I've got even bigger plans for 2010. Only 5 things that I have officially signed up for, Houston Marathon January 17th, Mountain Mist 50k January 23rd, Mercedes Marathon February 15th, Ironman New Orleans 70.3 April 18th, and Ironman Florida November 6th. I'm sure my schedule will take me to some other places and I'm sure there will be many surprises along the way. I just hope I have as much fun next year and I meet even more really cool people along the way. Cheers to a great 09' and an even better 2010!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Memphis Marathon

There is quite a crew headed to Memphis this weekend for the St. Jude Marathon. I'm really excited to be going and pretty excited about the race. I had a dream about the race last night, I don't remember a ton of details, but in the dream I ran the race way faster than I thought I could. The goal is 3:30:00 and to be honest that probably is not realistic. My friend Julie is also aiming for 3:30:00 so we will run together and see how it goes. As usual my training has been less than stellar but still better than last year. My ace in the hole is that I've actually run some long distances this fall so hopefully my legs won't fall apart when I hit mile 20. I've always been a race day sort of guy so hopefully I can find a little something extra like I normally do. This is the site of the first long race I ever did. Just last year I ran my first half marathon, it was a struggle. My time was something like 1:50:00 and it hurt to walk for the next 3 days. I've come along way and met some great people that have helped me get there. Looking back it is crazy to think that I've only been doing this a year. I wonder what things will be like next year.