Good Mini

What a wonderful day it was! The weather was about as good as it gets for a half marathon in May, and most of my running friends had a good days today.

Kedra ran her first 5K today! I am so proud of her. She has been engaged in secret training all this year - ha ha. She did really well and enjoyed the experience. Maddie and Rebecca walked the 5K, which wasn't much of a challenge for them. They walked the Mini last year but didn't want to do it today.

I ran with Jean Sowders, my niece, today. Our goal was to get her under 2 hours for the Mini. We started in corral F, which is considerably different than starting in B, where I've been for the last couple of years. There was constant traffic - runners in the way all 13 miles.

Jean took off and naturally wanted to run faster. I kept holding her back to around a 9 minute mile. I've seen too many times someone go out fast and then bonk later on. She felt good the whole way, so once we got to the 9 mile mark we started picking it up. She ran negative splits all the way in. The last mile was an 8:16 mile! She finished in 1:57 and change. Could she have gone faster? Maybe! She looked awfully strong. My concern, again, was going too fast early on. Future races will allow her to experiment.

Lester had a good day. He ran 1:30:09! Ben had a rough day. He lost a lot of training during driver's ed, and really never got back into the flow of things. He gutted out a pretty good performance, considering his lack of training.

After the race we had a nice celebratory meal at PF Chang's, our favorite Indy place to celebrate. It was so nice! I love being with all my children.

I am trying to get ready for our big trip to AL for disaster relief. I hope to be able to blog from there, but I just don't know if that will be possible. Check back.

Hey, it's Friday! Today I will make a trip to Indy - 3rd day in a row! Yesterday I went with Jim Sowders to pick up the packets for Indy Mini, which is tomorrow. Lester and Maddie were there, so we got to see them too. We also put them to work, helping us pick up packets.

After we picked up the packets we brought them back to Mr. Gatti's for pick up. Many runners also brought in shoes and clothes for our container going to Honduras. I ended up with pick-up load of things, which is great!

Before the trip to Indy I had quite a exciting, hectic day. I tried to get my sermon done - didn't happen. I had so much communication going on about our trip to Alabama that I couldn't concentrate on anything else, which is fine. I am excited about the trip! I think we have 12-13 going.

I participated in the National Day of Prayer at Mitchell. It was a small but very nice ceremony. Four of the guys going to 'Bama were there, so we got to talk a little bit. After this ceremony I knew I had a small window of opportunity to ride, so I made my way out to the Park, changed clothes, and hopped on the bike. It was the first ride in 2.5 weeks. I tried going our usual route and ran into water. I tried a different way and ran into water; tried a third way with the same result. I managed to wander around and pick up 15 miles in about an hour. The picture above was from one of my roadblocks.

OK I have to get this sermon done! We are leaving at 4 to go to Indy for the Mini. We are staying at Lester's place. Matthew and Jean and girls are staying at a nearby motel. They will eat a carbo-loading meal with us. I am running with Jean tomorrow, trying to help her break 2 hours. The weather is looking pretty good.

OK, bye!

Celebrate!

Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.

This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day. The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo.

Missed a day

Sorry about not posting yesterday! Let me explain my excuse. Of course I am not under contract to do this, and so far no one has paid me. Oh, that's right - I do it for free! Anyway...

I had a really good smoke on Tuesday. While smoking I got a lot of stuff organized for our disaster response trip to Alabama - lots of texts, phone calls, emails, facebook messages, etc. [There are too many ways to communicate right now, in my opinion. Not everyone uses the same method, which makes it harder. The days of one email to everyone are over.] I also got to look over our Honduras trip and container stuff; both are moving along.

Tuesday late afternoon/evening I took the smoked meat to church, and a few people gathered to pull the pork. The perk in this is that you get to eat it as you go. I got interrupted a couple of times by phone calls, which is fine, and I ended up going with Darrin C. to get a pick-up truck load of stuff for the container. Good!

Yesterday I had a 6.30 breakfast meeting with Jason P. from Washington. He loaned me his Rosetta Stone a while back. He asked if I was using it, and I had to confess that I was not. We met so he can give to someone who will hopefully use it. It was good to see him and catch up.

Then it was off to Indy to see a couple of people in two different hospitals. The plan was to see the first one around 9.30 and then wait for Lester to finish his final final exam at Butler. I had about a 2 hour window to run the Monon trail. The plan was to run 7-8 miles. As I was about half undressed I made a disturbing discovery. I had my shoes, sox, vest, gloves (42 degrees and windy!!), hat, and shorts... wait, where are my running shorts? Not present! You can't run without running shorts and not get arrested (Google "Flying Pig Marathon no shorts taser").

Now what to do? I immediately set out to go buy some. Long story short: I bought a camera at Wal-Mart instead; did not run. Missed a day - which I do not like. Oh well I've been thinking of this camera purchase for a while. It was small, relatively inexpensive camera I can take to Alabama and biking.

I had lunch with Lester at the Spaghetti Factory. He just finished his final final exam at Butler! Wow, where did the time go? He now has a year of rotating in/out of different pharmacy contexts. He has to write reports about each one and then do a final research project. Then next May he will be a Doctor of Pharmacy.

After my "Lester time," I headed home, took the trash off, came to Wednesday Evening Meal, taught my class (if you could call it that), came home and crashed. Now it's time to start all over again. Going to Indy again today to help pick up running packets with Jim Sowders. Before that: sermon prep, National Day of Prayer event, and hopefully a short bike ride. Tonight is the runners' packet pick-up at Mr. Gatti's. I think a lot of folks are bringing running shoes for the container.

Better get after it...

Smokin' Tuesday

Today is going to be one of multi-tasking. I will smoke meat all day, and while I am doing that, thanks to modern technology, I will work on some major projects: Disaster Response Team trip, Honduras container, Honduras trip, organizing my reading, and a few other things. The meat I am smoking today is primarily for our Wednesday Evening Meal at church. Some of it could possibly get consumed in other contexts. You never know.

See how my smoker is strategically placed so that only the chimney is in the weather? That's the beauty of having it on a trailer. If it was nice outside, then I would move it to a sunny location. Not much chance of that happening today! Last summer I built a little lean-to to house the smoker/trailer. It has been a wonderful addition, especially appreciated on days like today. And,

Still I wonder, who'll stop this rain?

Monday evening

It's been a good day! I got fairly organized for the week and then squeezed a 5 mile run in. The run was not the most pleasant one, due to mist and wind, but it goes down in the log book. I have 521 miles for the year. My goal is 1560, so I think I am pretty much on pace. My miles are going to go down as soon as the weather permits biking. My 65 mile ride coming up on May 21 is looking more and more like a bigger challenge.

Today was one of lots of conversations - much more than usual. I got more calls, texts, and emails than usual today. I don't know what that's about! Just interesting.

Our disaster relief trip to Alabama is coming together nicely. We are going to leave Sunday afternoon and return late Wednesday night. We will work all day on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We are going through the Disaster Response Team. I talked to them today, and they are very excited about us coming down. I still have room for more!

A couple from Ohio came over today with a big trailer load of clothe. It's all going on the container to Honduras. Alex, Laura, Melissa, and I helped them move it all into the semi trailer. Then we went out to lunch. We had a nice visit.

I did some counseling this afternoon, and then Kedra and I went to Sam's to get meat. I am smoking for this Wednesday evening's meal. Boston Butts = pulled pork = yum yum!

Just about popcorn time!

Monday morning

Proverbs 24:17

Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice...

Did you have a good weekend? I hope so. Saturday was such a beautiful day and so was Friday afternoon. The highlight of my weekend was spending the day in Louisville. Several of my friends were running the marathon in Louisville and Michelle S. was running the half-marathon, her first.

I left home a little after 5.30 and made my way to race. I parked about a mile from the start/finish and ran to watch it. There were 15,000 runners, so I managed to not see a single one of my friends! After the start I ran straight out to the 6 mile mark, which was considerably less for me since they were wandering around downtown. I waited and watched for all my marathon friends. I ran a little while with each of them.

Then I ran up to the 7 or 8 mile mark to wait for Michelle. When she arrived I could tell she was having trouble. Her foot was going numb and getting very painful, all at the same time. She and her mother went around the track at Churchill Downs, and I, along with Jean S., waited for them to come back out.

We all four ran together for a while. Michelle was in a lot of pain, but she kept going. Jean and I ran with her down to about the 13 mile mark. About that point I thought she was going to pull one of my stunts and pass out. She got very wobbly. She was in a tremendous amount of pain, but demonstrated a great deal of perseverance and determination. Jean took her to the finish line, while I jumped out of the chute. Michelle was disappointed, which I understand, but to me and others it was quite an amazing performance. She'll bounce back and I predict she will do very well next race.

My marathon friends all had rough days also, with the exception of the always amazing Jimmy Sowders. He ran 3.18 on a warm day with not enough training miles! Everyone else could not reach their goals, not even close. It was not that warm, but it was too warm for great performances, plus there was a lot of humidity early on.

I ended up running 14+ miles on Saturday. I loved it! I got to see everyone and experience a lot of the course in different parts. Louisville is still poorly organized, compared to other races. They brought the marathoners back onto the mini course around mile 16, which meant the fast marathoners had to dodge the slow walkers who were trying to finish the mini. Unbelievable!

After a meal at Logan's with several of the runners, I made my way home in time for Prom pictures and all that. Rebecca looked beautiful of course. She went to the prom with several of her friends. They had a nice time.

Busy week ahead...