Weekend Wonders. . . Or Lack Of

Friday morning, a tested day. To test my broken car to drive from Portsmouth to Middleport. A two hour drive with wore out brakes and what I thought were two shredded rotors. Well, it was a successful trip. I made it into town and dropped my car off at the shop and explained everything that was going on. I walked to my dad’s shoe store afterward, drove his car home and later he drove my repaired car home. I was right, my rotors needed replaced and my car is now fixed! This means I can now drive out to the forest once again without the worry of NO brakes! I am so excited.

Saturday morning. This morning was the first morning of my first race in the 2009 summer. I woke up at 6:30 to pick up Aaron Martindale and headed towards Jackson, in a fixed car. We got to the check in at around 8 am, and I warmed up with Linkous, Eli, and some of the Unioto guys. Me and Linkous looked to be the only two contenders since Erock and Galen weren't running. Well, at least not competitively. Erock pushed Chuck, still ran 17 something and Galen paced Adrian, who finished 3rd. Other notable finishers were Amart, a pr at 17:50 and Paxton who barely beat Erock and Charley! But, the real race was between me and Linkous. We opened up a wide gap from the first steps of this race and ran together for the first mile. The mile markers were wrong because we read 5:18. We were going a lot faster than that. After the mile I wanted to go faster and got a good 5 meter gap on Link. My largest lead was probably around 25 meters, but he closed and caught me with about 800 to go. I think the reason he caught me was because of the last turn to put us on the last road. I slowed way down to round it. My 6'3" body has a harder time than most people! So, now we are neck and neck. From there, we started flying and increasing the speed every step till the finish line. I would take a step lead, he would, I would, he would, and so on. And the finish. . . .Linkous by .4 seconds! I will take second place in that effort. The finish was the closest in race history. And I say the race was run the most poorly in history. I mean, there was no start line, the guy just said. "OK, stop, that looks good." Who knows if it was short, long, or what. All I know is that me and Linkous were listed at 15:56, even though we both went 15:40's last year on a short course. The start was farther back this year, possibly too far back! Cooled down and enjoyed Sonics after the race!

Later that night I went out for 7 easy miles on Rocksprings road. I felt good and it was nice to shake out the legs after a fast race. Got 16 miles for the day total. Off to bed.

Sunday morning I skipped church to head to Cincinnati for my first Reds game this year. I should have gone to church. This was the first Sunday our new pastor preached and I haven't heard or met him yet. It is about time we have a hired pastor to lead our church. Maybe he can set us on fire for God again after a year and a half without a full time pastor! I hope!
Got to Cincy and was 3 hours early for the game. Chilled in the team shop and was one of the first ones in the ballpark. I got cheap seats but ended up sitting in a lot of different locations. Before the game I was down near the Cardinals dugout trying to get some autographs and only got Todd Weleymeyers. He is their second best pitcher so I was pumped. After that I walked over to the Reds bullpen area and Ryan Hanigan threw me a ball. That was amazing. My first ball I have got after several dozen games! I later got Daniel Ray Herreras attention and threw him my ball and I got his signature. He is one of my favorite relievers. Reds lost badly, Bronson threw like crap but I got to see Carpenter, one of my favorite MLB players throw a good game for the Cards. Pujols didn't get any homers in the game but he cranked like 15 straight in batting practice. A great experience even if they lost 10-1.

Drove home and got back around 7:30. Ran 5 miles with the girls and that put me at 77 miles for the week. Stretched and called it a night.

Today, Monday, I woke up at 9:30 and ran with BJ. We did the KY loop and near the end of the run it started getting real hot. Good run never the less though. After the run, Brittany L, Sara, and Bri came over and we made some gooey cake. It was kind of random but they were bored and wanted something to do. The cake tasted good and was a fun time. After they left, I took a nice nap. For some reason I was real tired. Made a chicken sandwich, baked beans, a carrot, and garlic bread for dinner and headed to work. That is where I am now. I am going to head straight to bed after this because I have to get up early for orientation! Going to be a fun one!

Running is amazing for me right now. I was pleased with me race and the way I recovered after it. I am also happy that my car is fixed and I will be able to drive to the forest again! I can't wait, this week I will hit 80 miles! Running Free all week long, latah!