A Little Catch Up On A Lot Of Stuff

It has been a long time since my last post and I have no good excuse except that it is summer and it gets busy. In the fall, winter, and spring when the sun goes down earlier and I am inside sooner, there seems more time to blog. But I digress.

So I am sitting here watching the All Star Game and thought it was a good time to catch up. So I bring you a little of this and a little of that.

First the running. Last week I was off work which always throws off my running schedule since on a weekday, I usually run after work. I decided this would be an easier week and i was with only 3 runs all week. Tuesday was 7 in the morning. Thursday was 10 in the morning. Both of these were at or close to 8:30 pace and I did them on the track at the school 1/4 mile from home. Took the next few days off while I went camping but did get in 13 on Sunday evening. I ran the first 9 at 8:32 pace and then ran the next 4 with a teacher from my daughter school at 10:16 pace pushing my youngest in the jog stroller. 30 miles for the week.

Monday was the before Volleyball run or 8 miles and that run kinda sucked. I had to stop at 5 miles to hit the woods for a minute and almost got carried away from the mosquitoes. They are terrible this year. Today was an easy 5 after work at 8:20 pace.

Sunday's run proved to be quite interesting at just under 1 mile in. I was running on a path that goes between 2 yards to the next road and I was following a girl that I would guess was 10 years old as she was biking home from her friend's house. She was about 100 feet in front of me on the road when she dumped her bike onto the road and started crying. She was wearing sandals and when i got to her, she said she was hurting. That was obvious from the road abrasions I was on her foot in about 3 or 4 spots as well as on her knee and elbow. She was wearing a helmet so that was good. I ended up seeing a neighbor next to the trail and I loudly asked him if he had some ice. I carried her to that house and he got out a lawn chair for her to sit in and got a towel. We soaked it in the sprinkler and cleaned her some and wrapped her leg in it. I then asked for a phone to call her parents but he thought I was the Dad and was surprised I wasn't. She only lived 2 blocks away but was in no way ready to walk. Her parents came and then I left on my run. I never got her name but I feel good that I could help. I guess there was a reason I was at that point of my run at that time.

The rest of my my week off was fun. I took my oldest, Melissa, to Six Flags Great America on Monday. She LOVES roller coasters and I got her on as many as I could. She is only 7 y/o and was just too short for a few but loved the ones she got on. We did all sorts of other rides and I watched her on all the spinny or twisting rides. My head cannot handle that any more. She had a blast none-the-less. There was even a concert by Raven-Simone from Disney Channel there. We saw 2 songs and left as it was ungodly loud. There was no reason I could see that it needed to be that loud especially with so many kids there. We just left and did more rides.

Camping was fun. They had a nice pond with lots of fun water objects to climb on. It rained both nights but was sunny each day. This campground is hosting a duathlon in late August that I am considering entering. It is a 2 miles run, 20 mile bike, and finishes with another 2 mile run. Sounds like fun to me.

Finally, I got an email from my friend Chris who is the race director of the InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon. They have scheduled next years event and have new and exciting events to be included. Sunday, January 24th, will be the full marathon again but this year they have added a half marathon on Saturday. Actually they have added 2 half marathons anticipating a lot of interest. The field limit in each half marathon is 120 (due to the size and capacity of the track) so at 7AM will be the faster half marathoners, and at 10 Am will be the slower ones. How will they determine which one to be in? I am not sure. Then at 1PM, they will have a marathon relay. They Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon relay always sells out fast so they think this will bring some shorter distance runners into the mix.

The final new thing they are adding is The Gold Medal Challenge. This is like the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World. Only 30 will get the chance to compete in this but is consists of running the half marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday. Count. Me. In. I would love to run a great marathon there but the appeal to the 1/2 & full challenge is more for me. If you are interested in a January marathon, you might want to consider this one. It is a real fun experience.

Well, there is the update. I hope not to be gone this long again.