Day 25

Two things today, an update on the running and a shameless plea for donations.

Ok, so I did run yesterday. I'm getting a bit of a schedule down where it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and either Saturday or Sunday so I'm getting in a good 4 days a week. Closer to the big day I'll probably kick it up to 5, but we'll slam into that wall when we get there.

The plan for this week was 3 on Wednesday, 4.5 or so on Thursday, and 6 or so on Friday, then depending on how I feel after/during the 6m, a little further on either Saturday or Sunday.

I headed out to Bayland Park off Bellair near Hillcroft last night and hit the trail there. The path is somewhere between .3 and .35 miles since I ran 9 laps in about 32 minutes. The shorter distance puts me right at 12:00 miles which is a decent enough pace, but I need to kick that down some over the next few weeks. The longer distance puts me at 10:00 minute miles, which is tollerable. I figure I'm somewhere in the middle.
After the 7th lap last night I walked a few steps to catch some breath and a guy flies past me. He's not much older, maybe 5 or 10 years (putting him in the 30-40 something bracket... I'll pause to let you add you own jokes here) .... and by the time I got going again he had built a good 1/4 - 1/3 lap lead on me. I decided I would catch and pass him if I could. At the end of lap 8 I'm less than 1/4 lap behind him and I can feel the adrenaline kicking in. I kick up the pace a little more and about 3/4 through the lap I catch him. At about that same time one of the football teams on the field right next to the track was doing something big because the crowd just went banannas... or they were going nuts over my FANTASTIC finish. I'll take the latter.

Long story short (too late, I know) I think I've crossed that magic threshold between hating running and simply disliking it a whole, whole, whole lot.

I'd still rather be doing just about anything else, but then again, the kiddos I'm running for would probably like to be doing anything else other than being abused by their parents. Every dollar I raise for this goes directly to Child Advocates, an organization that works to ensure that those kiddos get that opportunity to do "just about anything else". They help find stable, nurturing environments for the children caught--through no fault of their own--in an abusive household. By breaking the cycle of abuse they help ensure that a whole generation of kids can live, grow, and thrive in households that aren't build around destruction and abuse. Please help them help the children of Harris County by visiting their web site and giving something, anything. www.childadvocates.org