Memorial day

We did celebrate memorial day this weekend as well as I always think of those that have lost their lives while fighting for our freedom during the day. I am very proud of being a veteran myself so it gives me a feeling of what more can I do now for my family and country. I woke up early on monday and head out for a nice 6 mile run. The weather has been a little crazy lately with lots of rain for several short periods of time. It was muggy out but was lucky to not have any rain during the run. I was planning aon some more runs earlier in the weekend but missed the small window of opportunity. Was a good run though and went without the ipod so I enjoyed listening to the birds and other noises during the run. Looking forward to more runs this week and my best friend is coming to visit this weekend for a day so I may do some other funs things as well.

Did spend all weekend with the family and absolutely loved every second of it. We hung out with the big boys best friend from school and they are the two best kids in the world. They had a great time playing and hanging out while the beautiful wife and I hung out with his parents, great time for all as the boys didn't want to say goodbye. We will be hanging out lots more in the future for sure.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.

packages

Another great weekend in the books with nothing but family time for all of us. The beautiful wife had taken thursday and friday off to spend with her mom on her birthday and also visiting family staying with the inlaws for the mother-in-law birthday. The usual crazy family stuff going on but we did our own thing and didn't have to deal with any of it, whew. i didn't get anything done on the outside of our house as I wanted to but I did help the wife go through her closet and I have four huge bags of stuff to bring to the battered womans shelter.

I was able to get a trail run in on thursday evening and it was the best. I could tell that I haven't been in a while but was super pumped to get the new shoes dirty and see what they have. They were better than I thought giving me the support and cushioning I needed. I could tell that the area has had lots of rain lately as the whole trail was very technical with lots of roots showing and the usual technical areas were extra technical. A great 6 mile run to start breaking the shoes in and looking forward to many more.

Then I came home on friday to another package at the door for me, two in one week let alone one year, crazy stuff going on. It was a package from I love steaks with a rei waist bottle carrier inside. I'll take pics and post soon, but the nicest and coolest thing ever. I took it out for a short test run sunday morning and it is absolutely awesome, easy to use and very comfortable. I have been trying to think of a way to thank him for the pack and will definetly being sending a thank you package shortly.

The run sunday morning was a little rough but it felt so good to be outside in the quiet morning enjoying the beautiful morning although it was very overcast. Looking forward to many more runs with both the shoes and pack again soon.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.

sweet angels on the feet

Check what was at my door last night waiting for me to take them out and get dirty.

I won these by joining the montrail group on facebook. Absolutely amazing thing to win and then when I put them on my feet, beautiful angels disguised as trail shoes. I haven't stopped smiling since I got them. I am planning on taking them out on the trail after work as long as I can make it through today, I keep fighting the urge to leave knowing all my stuff is in my car waiting for me. So excited.

I have been having bad problems with knots in my back this week that made me decide to take yesterday off from all workouts and lay on a heating pad. The beautiful wife even gave me some narcotics to help but still have soreness today. Not sure what to do but I'm not letting it stop me from running the trail, Fo Sho!

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.

walk to poop

Well, I didn't go as long as I wanted for the relay for life, but was absolutely a great event with plenty of great things going on for the event. I was hoping that the beautiful wife and big boy would do some walking with me but neither of them cared at all about the walk, except the big boy loved the tons of kids things to do there. I brought the big boy with me at the beginning and he was very excited when he saw the field filled with lots of kids activities but was fighting me trying to get situated with where things were. Took me about 10 minutes to find the registration tent, not even sure it was the registration tent but I was able to grab a survivor shirt, hat and pin which I wasn't planning on getting since I don't really consider myself a survivor. Yes, I had a cancer (stage II) and it was removed but it was removed during my lunch break one day. I didn't put the purple survivor shirt on at first or take a survivor lap but walked around with the big boy looking for a shirt for him or even his school tent. Never did find it and he just wanted to do the kid stuff anyway. We were in line for the sphere ball roll where the kids get in this big ball and they roll you around, when an old classmate of his was in front of us so we talked to them for a couple hours. I didn't like any of the food that was at this event so decided to take the big boy to McDonalds at 9 for dinner since the beautiful wife wasn't going to do anything. Dropped the big boy off at 9 and then decided that I would just walk back to the school for the walk. BAD IDEA!! I walk for several hours and then my feet started to hurt so I sit on the bleachers for several minutes and then ... I have to poop! No way am I going to at the high school so my thought is, home. I start walking and it gets real bad, and as soon as I get in my development I start running. It isn't that bad except when I finally get home I am sweaty and have to unlock the house, turn off the alarm and then finally get to poop. I am exhausted at this point so think I will just go to sleep and go early in the morning, but I'm still sweating so I decided to cool down on the floor down stairs. I wake up two hours later and finally climb into bed, wake up late and then the wife stays in bed so I am stuck watching the big boy. I finally decide that I'm going to just go to the walk by myself and drive there but there is only like 15 people most there, so told myself to forget it. I have a ton of stuff to do anyway so I start working on that. Busy weekend for me and didn't get anything done that I wanted to but oh well. Next year I want to go real big and probably going to create my own team and stay the night!

Good run last night of 4 miles with absolutely perfect conditions. Felt great to be out moving around and again thinking that I really need to build up my running mileage. I didn't run much through winter cause I didn't want to get sick so I can visit my dad when needed and the spring has been consumed with not only my dad but helping the wife, and be there for her and the big boy after the loss of the baby. It has been a very difficult couple of months but very happy to made it through strong and ready to get back out enjoying it all. The pool opens up this weekend so I'm hoping to get in some cross training.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest!

Relay for Life

I've been wanting to run, run, run lately but just haven't made any moves. I have been saving up any runs for the Relay for Life tonight in hopes I could do a total of 26.2 miles for the love ones with cancer. I haven't done really any runs lately so I'm not sure how I'll do but I will go dig deep and push my limit as far as I can. I am really looking forward to this relay and excited that it is happening at the high school right outside my development, with plenty of stuff close by for support. Also the beautiful wife and big boy son are going to do some of the relay walk with me. I am planning on wearing my new heart rate monitor (Polar F1 I believe) to learn what it can do. We have been busy working on things around the house as well I have been working on joining the Knights of Columbus. I am looking forward to that as well with my Dad and 2 brothers are members as well. I have been wanting to do more for the community around me as well as everyone that is close to me. I think this will help and looking forward to getting started growing in this aspect.

I have a really big list of loved ones and friends that I am walking/running for which seems to be growing quite large. My Dad, Mom, Grandma, Aunt Pat, Mr. M, Cousin Tracey, co-worker Lare's husband, next door neighbors brother, and many many more. Each one is always with me and in my thoughts 24/7, no matter their condition. Loving spending time with everyone and looking forward to everyday!

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest!