I think I'll...... think.

Went for 10 miles on Saturday, did about 4 today. It's very interesting to run that far. The first 2-3 miles (it's crazy to think that 2-3 is the beginning part and not the whole run) are fairly painful. It's cold, the muscles are arguing with me about not wanting to work so hard, the 'not' shin splints hurt, and I get this weird thing where my calf muscles on the front on my right leg pretty much just stop working, and my toes slap into the ground with each step. Then, I usually do a little stretching, run some more, and before I know it, I'm fine. From then on, it's just a mind game, to see if I can keep my thoughts distracted enough and busy enough to not realize that I'm still running. Then, at about mile 8ish, when I figure I should walk for a bit, I find out that walking actually hurts more than running, so my choices are to completely stop and lay down on the pavement (which sounds like a fantastic idea at the time), or just keep running till I can sit down. Did the 10 miles in about 2 hours. My rough goal is to finish in under 5 hours, but that's not nailed down at all, it's my first one, and I want to enjoy it, to see if this is something I'd like to do more often. Not sure if I'm up to the training involved to try and qualify for Boston or something like that, but running is pretty fun. There's no thoughts of needing a more expensive bike to be better at cycling, or a faster car for racing.... I go as fast as I can go. That's it. If I want to go faster or further, more expensive shoes aren't going to help, fancy pants that add support around the legs would only add a little, at best. Speed in running requires that I go faster. It's fun to think about, and trust me, 2 hours pretty much alone, with only the thoughts in my head to listen to, there's a lot of thinking going on.
Fundraising, well, not nearly as successful as the training. I've gotten lots of money from unexpected places, and very little from the ones I figured would be first to donate. If you're visiting my site, the links on this page take you to the websites for our fundraising... even 5 bucks helps!

Double digits

Saturday was a big day for me, I ran 10 miles. It's the longest distance I've ever ran, and it was a loooong ways. Had a rough time for the first few miles though, both calves cramped up and it was quite painful. After some stretching and walking it mostly went away and I was able to make it. After the big runs, I like to tell myself how many more of those I have to do... Like back when we did 3 miles, I knew that we had to do 9 of those. And now, I just have to do about 2 1/2 times what I did on Saturday. Whoa. We got some more donations over the weekend, which helps a lot. I just hope we get close enough so that in a couple weeks we can realistically commit to doing the Phoenix one instead of the OC one, since that's the one we want to do. We're working on a few other fund raising ideas, we'll see what happens with those too.

the sights of my town

While running my 5 miles last night, I saw quite a few interesting parts to my town. I saw a 3 person family make eye contact with me, then proceed to not move out of the way on the sidewalk as if they didn't see me. I saw 3 little girls, one crying, one consoling the cryer while yelling at the third, and the third picking up her bike to leave. Wish I could have seen what had happened to lead up to it. I passed a homeless man wandering around the Jack in the Box, then about a minute later, a can of soup that looked like it had been accidentally dropped and spilled out.. was it his? I passed a guy in all green, smoking and yelling at the traffic, and as I passed he yelled "you're nothin marine, you're nothin!" Not sure if he was yelling at me, but I'm pretty sure he was. There was the other running guy, going the opposite direction, that I passed twice. The really rough part is passing the pizza place, because it smells so good, and it's near the end of the run, and it's before dinner. Altogether, a good run.
Recommitment is in a few weeks for the marathon. Basically, that's when we decide whether or not we can still continue, depending on how much money we have raised. Jen has nearly half, I do not. I don't want to do the OC marathon instead, but we have to raise a lot less so it's easier, since however much we're short, we have to pay ourselves. I guess we'll see in the next few weeks!