Tuesday a.m.

Give Thanks 4 raffle tags torn off

Good morning! Think it'll rain? What about snow? Doesn't look like much of that. Oh well, I think it will come sometime before too long. Cold rain makes you want to stay inside, but most of us have to go out anyway. Yesterday morning, when it was raining very lightly, I took off for my Spice Valley to Bryantsville Hill Run, a nice 6 miler with lots of ups and downs. I'm getting stronger and threw in several periods of acceleration along the way, including uphill.  No Heartbreak Hill for this guy!

Day 1 of the 26.2 plan is in the books and it was successful. Let's do it again today! Eating this way presents some challenges when you are out and about all day, like I will be today. I've packed several things to take with me to eat at the appointed times. The cool weather is nice, since it eliminates the need for refrigeration or a cooler.

One of the nice things that happened over the weekend was that I got to discuss my accommodations for the Boston Marathon. My niece-in-law (is that a term?) has a sister, Mary, who lives in Boston. She was in for the weekend +.  Their apartment building keeps a suite open for visiting relatives. It has a couple of bedrooms, a kitchen... well, it's an apartment. We have it booked for Friday the 13th through Monday 16th, and it is about half the cost of a hotel room, which are very expensive as you can imagine. Staying there will allow me to eat much better and be better prepared to run on Patriot's Day! I'm also hoping that maybe some other family members might be able to swing a trip to Boston.

Mary is married to Gregg, and I really enjoyed getting to know him. He is a researcher at Harvard University and works on finding a cure for cancer. Clearly he is a sharp guy, but he is also easy to talk to. He has some friends from Harvard who have run the marathon, so he shared what he knew about their experiences, which is consistent with everyone else's testimony.

Better get going - lots of people to see and things to learn. I running this evening in Bedford. Hopefully it will be snowflakes falling instead of rain by that time.

The photo above was the start of the Give Thanks 4. Some, very few, forgot to tear off their raffle tag from their bibs. An announcement caused everyone to check.