Running for IT
I ran a 5K race today. I haven't run a 5k race since April 1996. Yep, exactly 10 years. Happens to correspond with the month that I started dating my future wife :-) Lot has happened in between races...like 50 pounds...amazing...how did I gain 50 lbs. 15lbs with each child, plus 5 this past year...it was the last 5 that did it for me. I don't know why, but when I saw that extra 5 go on, and I didn't have a baby to blame it on (how exactly did I think the babies were to blame anyways?) something just snapped. That and the fact that many friends in the same boat as me have picked up running the past 2 years and are leaving me in the dust. Nothing like a little peer pressure.
So I ran a 30:18. I imagine that without the extra 50 I'm toating around, i could run quite a bit faster - what do you think? :-)
In April 1996, I ran a 21:30. It's slightly depressing, but it's reality. Good news is that 2 weeks ago when i started training, I was running at a 36mn pace. It's going to take a lot of hard work, discipline and patience to get back in shape. But the alternative is an open heart table - and a whole new wardrobe cause basically nothing fits anymore. Plus i have just felt sluggish and not myself. Anyways, it will be worth it. IT always is. It is discipline...it doesn't matter if it is prayer, reading the Bible, spending focused time with my wife or kids, etc.... IT always is a great return on investment...and if this was my last day on earth, IT is what I want to have been found doing.
Well, hopefully my times get better, but that's just a measurement - like my waistline :-)
"Those are the rules"
Nothing deep tonight...listening to Rascal Flatts, "Broken Road", reflecting on the day, the past couple of weeks and looking ahead.
Behind...Easter - 995 at church, nearly twice our normal attendance...I was so busy and it went so fast, I barely had time to enjoy it...but it was a good morning. My maternal grandparents were there. I sang the Easter Song for like the 10th straight Easter...it is always fun to sing though... :-) I really do need to do another recording soon...and that has to be on it. If you know me, I wonder if you have a favorite song that you have heard me sing that you think I should record? Just curious... :)
Today...Abby...she was a pill today. I have been staying home two or three mornings a week this year to watch her while Lori teaches. Most of the time she has been fine, and we get along, have some fun, but lately, she has been more grumpy and wanting more attention. Today was one of those grumpy days. She like me, has bad seasonal allergies in addition to her food allergy to wheat. Anyways, she has resorted to a variety of tactics to express her grumpy moods, most of which i won't go into here. All of this, to mention something totally unrelated...she, like all 2 1/2 footers (as my brother David like to call them) says some of the funniest things. Lately, she likes to get on her "soap box" and start waxing elequently about some nonsense regarding me, her sisters or mommy, telling us all how certain things should be. Sometimes she just recounts all the things she hears that her sisters have to do like "clean your room, brush your teeth..etc...but then she will add "and those are the rules". Just hilarious when she says it, hands on hips and a glean in her eye. No way you could ever stay mad at the kid...she's always looking for a laugh...and usually gets one :)! Took her and Lori to Burger King for lunch. She likes french fries with ketchup. Tonight I fixed Brianna's bike then went on a 30mn bike ride around our 'hood with the older girls. Elizabeth must have pointed out 20 houses that she knew the name of the kid who lived there. Very impressive!
Looking ahead...running a 5k this Saturday. I got out my old racing numbers and results. My last race i ran at a 7:05 pace in April of 1996, just one month after I had met Lori). This Saturday I will be doing my best to run a 10:15 pace. Should be interesting...i'm looking forward to it though, and running with some friends from my church. Next weekend, we are hosting our first "district praise night"...over 100 in the mass choir, friends and peers from all over the city, coming to our church to worship, praise and hopefully - to have fun!. In between, I need to mow the grass - desperately :-)
Like I said nothing special tonight...just some randomness...
Check it out...someone actually has the courage to call the dream of the perfect american family, the newest, "american idol". Are our children being raised to be narcissists? Are the Suburbs to blame? How do we fight this insidious evil of suburbanite anti-community? :-) Seriously, is this really a problem? Or is this an overreaction...
A very well written blog...take a look(click on the header to this entry) and let me know what you think...
-bb-
