Monday a.m.

Falls at Guajire

Good morning! Today, this week, I begin easing back into a post-summer routine. I am ready for the process to begin. It has been a great summer, full of lots and lots of different things, but they are over and I don't see anything too unusual in the near future. At least there is nothing that will require an overnight stay.

Last week ended well. I spent a lot of time at Camp and thoroughly enjoyed it. Friday was a day of transition. I had an invitation to early morning ride with Jim and Rand. How can I say no to that? We had a great 30 mile ride -- lots of good conversations. After the ride, I finished up my Sunday prep. Saturday I got up with the intention of running 10 miles and then riding 40 miles.

I got to Parkview and met with a few others to begin the run. We decided to run 5 miles and then come back and then do some more. Long story short: I decided to join some of the others in running the Glory Days 5K. There were not many people running and most of them were running it as a relay. I didn't want to run too hard, since I have not done any speed work this summer. We took off. I quickly figured out that Rand and I were leading the non-relay portion of the race, and I could tell Rand was going to run it hard, even though he would not say that.

Another long story short: Rand won (congratulations to him!) and I finished 2nd in a time around 22 minutes. I was very happy with that! It's pretty encouraging to me, actually. I'm hoping with a little speed work that I can get my 5K time down into the 20s. Well see how that works out in the context of training for the Monumental Marathon.

The Cicero triathlon is not going to happen. At least that's the way it looks now. There will be no swim due to low water levels. They will turn it into a run, bike, run event. I don't think I will do it. I've had a couple of conflicts pushing me that weekend already, so... I am going to look for another sprint event in September. I am gaining some new confidence in my swimming, thanks to Iron Bill's help.

Anyway, after the 5K on Saturday, I run a cool down and ended up with 8.5 miles for the day. I decided that the 5K effort made up for the extra miles that would have made it a 10 miler. Then we hopped on the bikes for a 43 mile ride. Four of us made the journey to Orleans and back, via Amish country. The weather was so pleasant and ride very enjoyable.

Yesterday was a long day for this old man! I was up at 5 a.m., spoke at the Park at 8:30, did my church things from 9:30-12:00, had a family lunch, swam at Kenray, hosted our life group, took Rebecca to the Batman movie, and then went to Ben's football madness at midnight (if he ever doubts my love, I will point to this). I went to sleep around 2 this morning.

I had a really neat email from one of our Honduran friends last Thursday. He wrote thanking us for coming and working in Guajire. He then told us that there were 8 people baptized after we left. That's the kind of news I like to hear!

OK, I better get after everything while I still feel awake and decent. I think a crash could come later today!