Race Day Sunday, May 4th came for me at 5:30 AM. I awoke before the two alarms I had set went off, which was good because I managed to get up, dress, eat, and leave without waking the kids. And with only waking Suzanne briefly before she dozed back off to sleep. The four of us were sharing a hotel room at the Shilo Inn in Springfield, 3 miles ...

My marathon career started when I was 14 while a  freshman at Archbishop Molloy High School in NYC. I had run cross-country and  indoor track and there was a bit of gap before outdoor track was to start. My  brother Bill and some of his friends decided they were going to run in the  Earth Day Marathon that April in 1973. Bill, ...

I finished my sixth marathon yesterday, the Eugene Marathon, and missed qualifying for the next Boston marathon by a mere 15 seconds. My time: 3:36:14. The qualifying cutoff time for my age/gender group: 3:35:59. Bummer. Overall, a great race. Perfect weather. Cool, not cold. No precipitation. A little wind in places but nothing too bad. One ...

Yesterday I was biking home in the dark. (Boy, it gets dark before 5 PM these days.) I was on the Burke-Gilman trail, a popular trail that cuts through the heart of Seattle. Anyway, I'm cruising along in the dark in a section of the trail that is quite poorly lit and hit a large root that has buckeled the asphalt quite unexpectedly. (This ...

Okay, I finally decided I can't do the Sept 17th Kirkland Tri for a number of reasons: a. I'm busy finishing up my SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services course. b. My hamstring pull is no better. c. The kids school seems to have an event we have to attend almost every other night which interferes with any chance of training. TIme to call ...

I just checked the calendar, it's been 4 weeks since my last Tri--the Midsummer Triathlon in Blue Lake, OR--and I've only biked 3 times since that time prior to yesterday. No running. No swimming. (I had thought it was only 3 weeks, but the calendar never lies.) Why? A few reasons come to mind: I pulled my right hamstring during the race ...

I just got back from visiting the Vermont .NET Users Group today. The flight out this morning was early and I mean early! 6:00 AM which meant I had a wake up call at 4:15 AM, giving me about 3.5 hours of sleep. I rolled into the office about 1:30 PM-ish and then when I got home jumped back into chapter 8 of a 12-chapter SQL Server 2005 Reporting ...

Hey, after about five months of dieting and exercise I have achieved normalcy (so to speak). According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta I have achieved a BMI of 24.9 (at least as of a week ago) which puts me in the normal category for my height! Wahoo! Finally, despite everything that you all say, I am normal. Boy, it feels good, ...

So I am bicycling this past Sunday on the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle. Trying to get my exercise in on a cool crisp day. In Fremont (a Seattle neighborhood) the trail is detoured because of work on the Fremont bridge (the trail normally goes under the approach to the bridge). However, on Sundays, the Freemon Sunday Market occupies a good stretch ...

It's hard to believe but my diet/exercise regime is continuing to work as I inch closer to my goal weight. I lost six--count 'em--six pounds last week while I was in Vegas. (I was up 2 pounds the prior week so I perhaps it is more accurate to say I lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks--still impressive.) I guess running 5 out of 7 days and working hard to ...