Year 2, Week 13, Day 6

Weight (today's reading): don't know

Weight (weighted moving average): don't know

Today's food: english muffin, funeral luncheon (ham, 2 servings funeral potatoes, 3 pieces cake), large cherry coke, piece of cake, 1/2 cookie, 8 inch sensuous sandwich succulent seafood delight, 5 donuts, jr. frosty

Today's exercise: ~9 miles @ ~9:00

in utah

Year 2, Week 13, Day 5

Weight (today's reading): don't know

Weight (weighted moving average): don't know

Today's food: apple, china isle (triple treat lunch special, egg drop soup, spring roll), 2 slices pizza, 8 cookies, 3 slices orange cake, brownie, medium dr. pepper

Today's exercise: ~3.6 miles in 37:32 (~10:25/mile)

in utah

Year 2, Week 13, Day 4

Weight (today's reading): don't know

Weight (weighted moving average): don't know

Today's food: wing shak (4 garlic pepper wings, 4 pineapple bbq wings, a few fries, half basket tots, medium dr. pepper), grapes, burgers supreme (clam chowder, a few fries, a bit of burger, two chicken nuggets, 6 spree), pear

Today's exercise: 7 miles (miles 2 & 6 @ 7:55, rest of the run at 9:20-9:25)

in utah

Year 2, Week 13, Day 3

Weight (today's reading): 180.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.3

Today's food: 2 tangerines, 2 suckers, 1/2 banana nut muffin, broccoli chicken penne, biscuit, 2 slices lemon cake, sunflower seeds, fish burrito, becki's leftover chips and beans

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 13, Day 2

Weight (today's reading): 178.2

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.1

Today's food: denny's (flapjack skillet), banana nut muffin, dinner (flatiron steak, red beans and rice, 2 crescent rolls), grapes, peanuts

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 13, Day 1

Weight (today's reading): 178.2

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.0

Today's food: cookie, yogurt, medium cherry coke, apple, orange, spaghetti with 3 meatballs, garlic cheese bread, bowl of peanuts, tall orange juice, 4 cookies

Today's exercise: 1.5 mile warmup, intervals (2x800 @ 7:15 pace, 2x400 & 4x200 @ 6:45 pace), 1.1 mile cooldown (total 6 miles)

Year 2, Week 12 Wrapup

Still eating a ton this week, but my weight has almost plateaued at 178. I ran about 27.5 miles this week, so I'm back up to speed there.

On Thursday, I met up with a local workout group. They call themselves The Workout Group. They're a running group who train twice a week to get faster. On that particular day, there had been heavy rains, so they scrapped the drills they had been planning on the field, and just did 1/4 mile intervals on the running path around Reid Park. There were people of all levels there, but the main pack was keeping about a 6:45 pace in the intervals. That was just a little too fast for me, but I averaged between 7:00 and 7:15 on the intervals and caught up with them on the recovery. There were a couple of dozen people there, and it seemed like a fun group. I think going regularly would definitely help me get faster. I just don't know if I want to commit to having to be there at a regular time or anything.

I've done a lot of thinking this week about my goals for running, and I'm at a bit of a crossroads. On the one hand, I don't really want to be a runner anymore. It takes a lot of time (8-10 hours per week) that I could really be using for other things. On the other hand, if I quit running now, I would probably never get back into it, and then I would get mad at myself later in my life for not doing more with my good running ability when I had the chance.

On top of all that is the realization that I need some form of exercise, and there's no other form of exercise that I would want to do or be able to do more than running. If I gave up on competitive running entirely and just ran 4 hours per week for fitness, I would have a hard time going out to run at all. Training for specific goals is what actually forces me out the door, and not having those goals would make it next to impossible to motivate me to actually do it. Try as I might, I just can't envision myself as one of those guys that just gets up and jogs the same few miles every morning.

So, I'm thinking I can't quit now, because I haven't done everything I might want to have done. It's not like I have a bunch more that I want to do; it's more like I'm afriad of quitting, and then identifying something I wanted to have done. I think that I'll have to identify all the goals I might ever have, then preemptively beat them so that I can feel free to quit sometime.

I'm coming to the realization that I'm going to have to go to Boston. If I don't, I'll regret it. If I do, I'll probably feel like I have done enough and could safely quit. So, it's all coming down to that. The 2010 race is already full, of course, and the 2011 race would fill up by December 2010. So, if I could somehow qualify by December 2010, that would give me 22 months to work up to the right speed. Seems doable, but still really hard, since that's less than 2 years away, and would require me to maintain a 7:27 pace for 26.2 miles (when the longest I've ever gone at that pace was the 5k a couple weeks ago.

So Boston's probably going to have to be the big goal, but there may be a couple of others that I feel like I might have to beat. For one, I'd really like to do a sub-20 minute 5k. I'd also like to win a race at some point. That one's more of an issue of planning than of training, though. If I really search around and find the right combination of small race and weak field, even a 20 minute time can be a winning one.

Year 2, Week 12, Day 7

Weight (today's reading): 177.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.0

Today's food: 1/4 pop tart, 2 cookie, 2 grapefruit, small bowl chicken broccoli penne, 1 1/2 bratwurst, scalloped potatoes, green beans, 3 blueberry streusel bars, 3 cookies, tall orange juice, kettle corn

Today's exercise: day of rest

Year 2, Week 12, Day 6

Weight (today's reading): 178.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.0

Today's food: 2 quesadillas, 20 oz gatorade, tall orange juice, baked potato with gravy, 5 cookies, sucker, mixed nuts

Today's exercise: 10 miles @ 9:27

Year 2, Week 12, Day 5

Weight (today's reading): 177.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.0

Today's food: 1 slice fruit pizza, chicken and dumplings, 2 tangerines, dinner (2 little yoshida-marinated flatiron steaks, scalloped potatoes, green beans, grilled peppers), tall orange juice, popcorn, grapefruit, chocolate covered pretzels

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 12, Day 4

Weight (today's reading): 177.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.0

Today's food: pear, chicken and dumplings, chocolate/caramel bar, ribeye steak, sliced roasted potatoes, 3 slices fruit pizza, cookie

Today's exercise: 1.36 miles warmup, intervals (.25 mile X8 @ ~7:15 with .25 mile recovery), 2.45 mile cooldown (total 7.55 miles)

Year 2, Week 12, Day 3

Weight (today's reading): 179.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 178.0

Today's food: about 10 inches of sub sandwich, potato chips, 4 cups lemonade, 2 chocolate chip cookies, leftover penne rustica thing

Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ 7:55, 1 mile cooldown

Year 2, Week 12, Day 2

Weight (today's reading): 177.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.8

Today's food: yogurt, apple, orange, ascolese's (1/2 calamari appetizer, 1/2 penne rustica thing, 1/2 tiramisu), movie theater (medium pocorn, medium cherry coke, large sprite), cold stone (medium strawberry pie crust waffle cone thing)

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 12, Day 1

Weight (today's reading): 177.4

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.8

Today's food: yogurt, apple, orange, dinner (tamale, refried beans, tortilla), porterhouse steak, roasted sliced potatoes, ice cream

Today's exercise: 1.5 mile warmup, intervals (2x800, 2x400, 2x200 @ 7:15 pace), .9 mile cooldown (total 5 miles)

Year 2, Week 11 Wrapup

I still ate a lot this week, but the graph of my weight gain looks slightly better this week. The slope of the line isn't quite as steep. Maybe next week I can plateau, and then the following week start heading down. If I graphed weight gain and miles ran for this month, I think you'd find a not-so-surprising correlation.

Only 14 miles this week. More than last week, but not yet back up to my desired training routine of 25-30/week. The running went okay this week, but my legs and joints have been a little sore. I was planning to do a long run on Saturday, but skipped it to provide a little more rest.

I added up the miles on my shoes, and I'm about at 350 now. So, I could be nearing the end on those. I decided to just stick with what I have (Mizuno Wave Alchemy 8), so I went ahead and ordered two more pairs of them. I don't know if I should just alternate pairs and wear them evenly. Or, maybe I should keep one just for races and speedwork, and put most of the miles on the other pair, demoting the good pair once the heavy-use pair wears out. Ideas?

Year 2, Week 11, Day 7

Weight (today's reading): 179.4

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.9

Today's food: piece of bread, another piece of bread, 2 suckers, orange garlic country-style pork ribs over rice, oreo pie, cheese and crackers, cookie bar

Today's exercise: day of rest

Year 2, Week 11, Day 6

Weight (today's reading): 178.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.7

Today's food: roast chicken breast, mashed potatoes, 10 sugar cookies, pork chop, 2 ferrero rocher, popcorn, ice cream

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 11, Day 5

Weight (today's reading): 177.4

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.6

Today's food: yogurt, 5 cookies, orange, 2 bowls chicken and dumplings, cinammon roll, 2 mini butterfingers, chocolate covered pretzels, pretzels

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 11, Day 4

Weight (today's reading): 178.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.6

Today's food: yogurt, orange, wheat thins, apple, 3 pieces pizza, 13 sugar cookies, handful of chocolates, dum dum pop

Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 5 times up the hill, 1 mile cooldown (total 4 miles)

Year 2, Week 11, Day 3

Weight (today's reading): 179.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.5

Today's food: carl's jr (steak sandwich, crisscut fries, large dr. pepper), heath bar blizzard, bowl of wheat thins, 1 piece roast chicken, bowl of ice cream

Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles @ 7:58, 1 mile cooldown

Year 2, Week 11, Day 2

Weight (today's reading): 176.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.3

Today's food: piece of chocolate, chocolate covered pretzels, apple, orange, three cookies, chocolate caramel bar, shake and bake pork chop, mashed potatoes, pretzels, dum dum pop, 1 dozen mini cookies

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 11, Day 1

Weight (today's reading): 177.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.4

Today's food: yogurt, apple, orange, 5 mini cookies, tall grapefruit juice, 1 piece grilled chicken, potato salad, doritos, chocolate covered pretzels

Today's exercise: 1.5 mile warmup, intervals (6x400 @ 7:15 pace), 1.5 mile cooldown (total 5 miles); 24 pushups

Year 2, Week 10 Wrapup

I ate a crapload this week. Looking back at the reasons for that, I can pin it down to three factors: 1. It seems like there's a bit of a psychological thing going on where I felt deprived of my favorite things for so long, and I felt like I should be rewarded for doing the marathon. This kind of justified in my mind everything I was stuffing into my mouth. 2. We had a lot of candy and snacks left over from Christmas, and I don't like keeping a lot of stuff like that around the house. I determined the best way to remove that temptation was by eating it. All of it. 3. I was just plain hungry all week. Could be my body rebuilding after the marathon training. Or, it could be just that the trip to Vegas completely reset my body's perception of hungry and full. Either way, I felt pretty hungry.

The combination of ridiculous eating habits and only running 10 miles total means my moving average is up almost 2 pounds for the week. I'm sure that will settle back down next week, but it's alarming nonetheless.

I felt really good after the marathon, and was ready to run again by Tuesday. However, I had dinner really late that day, and had too much food in my stomach to really want to go out that night. So, Wednesday was my first day out running, and I did an easy three miles. Everything felt great, and I didn't feel sore or anything. Thursday, I did another 3 miles, with a couple of fast sections in the middle.

Great Expectations Academy Feeling Fit 5K

I had seen this race coming up on the schedule, and also heard from someone in my ward that they were probably going. I wasn't really considering going because it was only a week after the marathon. But, the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to go. It's a small race, but with age divisions every 5 years. Looking at the results from last year made me think I had a real shot of at least placing in my division or possibly even winning the division. The drawbacks were that it was a half hour away in the town where I grew up. So, there's a little drive, and I ran the risk of seeing someone I know. There was also the big unknown of how well I could really do so soon after the marathon. But, I was feeling really good, so I decided to go for it.

On the way down, I suddenly began to feel really nauseous, and a bit ill overall. I thought that if it didn't pass, I'd just forget about the race, and go to my work (which is right down the street from the race) and puke and lie down for a while. But, it did pass, and I was feeling well enough to sign up and pay my money. Approximately 20 seconds after the money left my hand, I started feeling sick again. It was too late to get my money back, but not too late to write it off and head back home. Again, though, it shortly passed.

I warmed up a little, and waited at the start, and the nausea still never came back. However, I had all sorts of visions of having to pull over and puke in the bushes, so I made a conscious decision not to push myself too hard so that I wouldn't embarrass myself like that. It's one thing to turn in a winning performance and have to puke after. It's something entirely different to be running at sort of a middle of the pack pace and then have to puke halfway through.

Despite this conscious decision to rein it in, I still started off too fast. I maintained the too fast pace for long enough to do 7:11 for the first mile, but I definitely slowed down a little from there. In the second mile, even though I was slowing down, I passed a few of the people who had passed me previously. These were people who evidently had even more of a problem of starting out too fast than I did. One of the guys I passed looked about my age, so I was especially motivated to stay ahead of him once I had passed him. In the third mile, my shoe came untied. Since I've started running, that's only the second time that's happened, and only the first time in a race. I wasn't going to stop for it, so I just let my laces flop around for a half mile. I'll probably start having to remember to double-knot them in races, now.

There was a little out and back section right before the end, and once I started heading back, I could see that I was about a minute ahead of the other dude my age. So, I eased up just a little. But, once I rounded the last turn and could see the clock, I was really surprised by how good my time was. So, I turned it up at the very end to try to take another second or two off. My final result was 23:11. That was good for 12th place overall (out of 100) and 1st in the M 35-39 division.

I'm tickled pink about this. It's over a minute and a half off my PR, and it's my first real award (I'm not counting the "award" at the stake 5K since it's not really clear that I actually placed what I thought I did there). I did it 1 week after a marathon and on the verge of puking, too. Looking at that time, I feel like if the race was a few weeks after the marathon, and I wasn't sick, I could have pulled out 22:30 easily.

The only drawback to winning something is having to wait around until afterwards to get your award. This race took forever to hand them out, because they had to wait for everyone to finish the 5K, then they ran a 1 mile fun run. After that, they gave out like 1000 raffle prizes (yet still not drawing me for some reason). Then and only then did they do awards. I got a big ol' medal. I'm more proud of it than I am my marathon finisher medals. The finisher medals just don't have as much meaning anymore. I mean, they'll give those things out to just anyone who runs 26.2 miles.

The great 5K finish reaffirms my commitment to work on speed between marathons. So, starting next week I'll do another 6 week cycle of some speed workouts. My intent is to break 22:30 in the 5K by the end of February. I'll still be doing long runs on Saturday to start building back up for Ogden, but I won't switch in to structured marathon training until I get this speed goal out of the way.

I think it's a little bit crazy to jump right into the speedwork right after the last marathon. But, on the other hand, my body still feels really good, and adding it up, I only did about 10 miles this week. So, even starting the speedwork, I'll plan on only doing 15-20 next week, then get up closer to 25-30 the week after that. So, with any luck, my body will take advantage of what little rest interval I'm giving it. If I pull or tear or break something in the next few weeks, though, I'll definitely go back and reread this post and wonder just what in the world I was thinking.

Training paces for this round of speedwork:

Race goal pace: 7:15
800 - 3:37
400 - 1:48
200 - 0:54

Speed pace: 6:45
800 - 3:22
400 - 1:41
200 - 0:50

Tempo pace: 7:55
Long run pace: 9:30

Year 2, Week 10, Day 7

Weight (today's reading): 179.0

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.3

Today's food: yogurt, handful of chocolates, 5 mini cookies, roast chicken, potatoes, steamed spring vegetables, 6 turtle brownies

Today's exercise: day of rest

Year 2, Week 10, Day 6

Weight (today's reading): 179.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 177.1

Today's food: yogurt, donut, banana, piece of danish, slice of big sub, 1 chocolate, german pancakes, old chicago (pizza roll, italian nachos, cheese bread, italian sausage rigatoni)

Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup; 5k

Year 2, Week 10, Day 5

Weight (today's reading): 179.2

Weight (weighted moving average): 176.9

Today's food: apple, chicken and rice, dinner (grilled chicken, pasta salad, potato salad), 6 chocolates, candy bats, gummi brains, tall grapefruit juice

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 10, Day 4

Weight (today's reading): 178.4

Weight (weighted moving average): 176.6

Today's food: handful of chocolates, mixed nuts, hot dog estilo sonora, slice banana cream pie, 2 brownie cookies, dinner (2 rolls, 2 pieces fried chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, potato log), piece of toast, 5 almond roca, popcorn, tall grapefruit juice, handful of chocolates, 3 mini cookies

Today's exercise: 1 mile warmup, 800m @ 7:15, 400m recovery, 400m @ 7:15, 1 mile cooldown

Year 2, Week 10, Day 3

Weight (today's reading): 179.6

Weight (weighted moving average): 176.4

Today's food: 2 almond roca, manuel's (chips and salsa, chili relleno, beef taco, beans), mixed nuts, 4 almond roca, 1/2 cup chex mix, ferrero rocher, m&ms, gummi bears

Today's exercise: easy 3 miles (@9:43)

Year 2, Week 10, Day 2

Weight (today's reading): 178.8

Weight (weighted moving average): 176.1

Today's food: 2 slices zucchini bread, triple play (bacon cheeseburger, 2 onion rings, fries, cheese stick, jalapeño popper, 2 medium cherry cokes), baggie of caramel corn, dinner (grilled chicken, rice, corn, roll), mini butterfinger, 2 dum dum pops, mixed nuts, 5 almond roca, 3 ferrero rocher, m & ms, swedish fish

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 10, Day 1

Weight (today's reading): 178.2

Weight (weighted moving average): 175.7

Today's food: 3 clementines, apple, 12 celery sticks with peanut butter, small slice roast, ham soup, 2 chocolate star cookies, popcorn, 12 more star cookies, 3 almond roca

Today's exercise: none

Year 2, Week 9 Wrapup

I started the week deliberately eating less than normal, because I knew I would be doing the opposite once I got to Vegas. Also, Becki and I had a bit of a contest going on the last couple of months. We challenged each other to see who could get the moving average of their body weight to drop by 5% first. We traded off the lead for a while, but I had a healthy lead at the end and wanted to finish the contest before going to Vegas. I knew that if I didn't finish before Vegas, there was a chance my overeating could set me way back and let Becki sneak in for the win. But, my weigh-in on Tuesday clinched a victory for me. We could never settle on appropriate wagers or prizes, so this was just for pride. Still, though, I do like having me some pride.

On Thursday, we got up early and drove to Vegas. The whole famdamnily went, just about. We checked into 3 rooms at the Riviera, ate at Cafe Rio, ate again at Raising Cane's, then rendezvoused with Scott. The next morning, Scott and I ran about 2.5-3 miles. I don't know exactly how much, because neither of our watches were getting a good satellite lock since we were running under roofs and things. So, too bad for us. It was pretty cold, and I had the additional difficulty of having somehow failed to pack my underwear and socks. After running, we went to the running store where Scott got shorts, and I got socks. The lady promised me that the socks that I bought were the best that have ever been made and that I would get absolutely no trouble from them. She also told me that since they were new, I should use a little Body Glide on my toes before the race. In hindsight, I believe that might have been useful information to remember. After the running store, we went to Kmart to get gloves and underwear.

On the way to the running store, I noticed that the Vegas McDonalds were selling McRibs, which dashed my hopes of having a proper pre-race nutrition routine. There are a lot of schools of thought on what the proper nutrition regimen is on the day before a race, but none of them recommend a McRib. (Note: if proper pre-race nutrition is important to you, don't run a marathon in Vegas). Lunch was at Togoshi Ramen, which I guess does count as a traditional carbo-loading. After Togoshi, Scott went off on his own, and Becki and I and the kids drove down to Boulder City to do packet pickup and meet up with Cathi and Gordon and their kids.

I hadn't seen Cathi in somewhere between 10-15 years, but all those kids and marathons have evidently been good to her, because she looks great. You can tell from looking at him that Gordon is a great athlete, too. We talked briefly during the evening about how frustrating it is that we haven't seen each other in so long, and we all looked good before, so the best we can hope for now is just to look as good as the others remember us. People who've seen me in the past few years can look at me now and say "Wow, you lost so much weight! You look great!". But, if you haven't seen me in 15 years, about the best compliment I can hope for is, "You look just like you used to, except a little more wrinkled and hairier and grayer". I guess the lesson that I need to learn from this is that I really need to stay in touch with people better, mainly so that they can see me more when I get fat and be in a better position to be surprised when I get skinny again.

We went into the actual city of Boulder City for dinner. I've driven past Boulder City about 100 times, but never been into the quaint little city center. It's kind of nice. We had pizza while our combined 9 children did their best to get the other restaurant patrons to rethink their decision to come there.

Running From An Angel Marathon 2009

In the morning, we drove down in plenty of time for the start, but saw that it was very cold and very windy once we got there. So, we camped out in the car, getting out in just enough time to get to the start with about a minute to spare.

It was really cold and windy, and I kept wearing the throwaway jacket I brought for about the first four miles before ditching it. I kept my gloves on until about mile 15. The gloves I got are great. They're super cheap women's knit gloves that were on clearance for 2 pairs/dollar. I got them as throwaways, but they block the wind and cold way better than my other gloves, and I don't sweat in them at all. Now, I wish I had got a few more pairs, because I'm not going to want to throw these ones away.

Cathi and Scott and I ran for a while, talking and catching up, then met up with Arizona Kathy (from Goodyear) a few miles in. We all ran together the rest of the way to the turnaround. After the turnaround, I took off down a really long hill. I knew I would go slower on the following uphill, so I wanted to get as far ahead as I could. Sure enough, once I got to the top of the following hill, Scott and Arizona Kathy had caught up with me. Cathi had started struggling at that point, so the turnaround was the last I saw of her until the finish. Scott, AK, and I ran together a couple of more miles, then Arizona Kathy and I inched ahead. Arizona Kathy and I were together until about mile 25, when she started to kick, and I started to slow down a bit. Somewhere during the last mile, I was passed by someone else in my division, so that bugged me, but I couldn't really muster up any more energy to keep up with him.

I finished in 4:16:31, 34th out of 80 overall, and 5th out of 9 in my division (after taking out the overall winner). This was almost 40 minutes faster than Park City. Scott came in about a minute later. (It was important to me to beat Scott, because this was such a small marathon that I was worried we might be the only ones in our division. In that case, I would have a chance to win the division. Turns out we were both way behind the actual winner). This course was way harder than Park City, too. None of the hills by themselves was too steep, but they were relentless, with not a single flat spot on the course anywhere. It was absolutely beautiful out there, though, but it seems that natural beauty always comes hand in hand with extreme difficulty.

The wind was another major factor to contend with. It wasn't always a headwind, but seemed to be always against me on the uphills for some reason. The aid stations came frequently, but they had this nasty swill called "Heed" as the electrolyte drink. I took a sip at the first aid station by mistake and almost spat it out. It's seriously nasty stuff, like if gatorade and horchata had a baby. Because I hated it so much, I stayed away from it the whole rest of the race. To get my electrolytes replenished, I tried to get the salty pretzels whenever I they had them at the aid stations. At the turnaround, they also had electrolyte capsules that I took one of. I was also hoping that the couple of gels I took had some electrolytes in them. Either way, it was difficult to tell if I was getting enough electrolytes. At about the 20 mile mark, my left quadriceps started cramping up, and then both of them cramped up on every other hill thereafter. I can't say for sure that my aversion to Heed directly led to the cramping, but it's possible. I will say this: If there's any way the race director could find something else than Heed next year, it would make for a much better race.

Speaking of the race director... Joyce from Calico Racing puts together a mighty fine race. If I complain about this race and never run it again, it's because of the hills and the wind, not because of the way the race is run. The race was done fantastically. It's a small race, but it was chip timed, everything was well marked, and the aid stations were fabulous. The food afterwards was just stellar. I can't imagine ever seeing a race with better food than this. There was a big pot of soup simmering, hot chocolate, a toaster for bagels and toast and english muffins, pop tarts, yogurt, fruits, really good fruit preserves, etc.. It all really hit the spot after such a long run. So, major kudos to Joyce.

Also, I want to point out that I beat Bart Yasso, a veritable running legend who happened to be running this race. If you ask him, he'll probably come up with some lame excuse like that he wasn't really running for competition, or that he was planning all along to finish with his wife since it was her hundredth marathon. I'm not buying any of it. I beat him fair and square and don't let him tell you any different.

Three of my brothers, Tyler, Carson, and Steven, all did the 5k part of the same race. Steven won, as might have been expected, and then Carson and Tyler finished a minute or two apart behind him. Tyler, while finishing third, had a really good time of 31:15, which is way better than the first 5k I did.

After the race, we went to the Paris Buffet, because I felt the need to replace in one meal every single one of the 3700 calories that I burned during the race.

So, overall, I'm very pleased with the race. I was really happy to see Cathi again. It was fun to have half my family running and the other half there in Vegas. I'm pleased with my time. And, I'm feeling really good physically. I've got a couple of really nasty blisters on my right toes, and I'm just a little bit sore in my quads now, but not anywhere else, and nowhere near as sore as I've been after some previous training runs. I'm actually feeling really good overall, and will probably not take the next week off like I originally planned.

Year 2, Week 9, Day 7

Weight (today's reading): don't know

Weight (weighted moving average): 175.5

Today's food: main st. station breakfast buffet (don't remember exactly what, although I'm sure it was a ridiculous amount), red laces, in-n-out (cheeseburger, a few fries, small coke), runts, nuts, swedish fish, 8 chocolate covered star cookies

Today's exercise: day of rest

coming back from vegas

Year 2, Week 9, Day 6

Weight (today's reading): don't know

Weight (weighted moving average): 175.5

Today's food: banana, mcdonalds fruit and yogurt parfait, race food (1 dozen pretzels, gummi bears), post-race food (soup, bagel with cream cheese, hot chocolate, 1/2 banana, 1/2 english muffin, 1/2 pop tart, strawberries with yogurt), paris buffet (too much to list), in-n-out (a few bites of fries animal style, medium sprite

Today's exercise: Running From an Angel marathon

in vegas

Year 2, Week 9, Day 5

Weight (today's reading): don't know

Weight (weighted moving average): 175.5

Today's food: wild wild west breakfast special (2 eggs over medium, hash browns, bacon, toast), mcdonalds (mcrib, large coke), togoshi ramen (champon ramen, 1 each of several appetizers like gyoza or fried baby octopus), several pockys, 2 slices pizza, cheese stick, 2 poppers, 12 hershey kisses

Today's exercise: ~2.7 miles

in vegas

Year 2, Week 9, Day 4

Weight (today's reading): 174.4

Weight (weighted moving average): 175.5*

Today's food: pop tart, tall orange juice, sausage mcmuffin with egg, piece of cheese, café rio (2 pork tamale special, small dr pepper) doritos, raising cane's (3 chicken fingers, toast, fries, large sprite)

Today's exercise: none

* new low. traveling to vegas.