October

It's hard to believe it's already almost October.

But the pumpkin in the back yard already looks like this...


And this was waiting on my desk this morning...


This year seems to have flown by. So many things going on, it's hard to keep up with everything sometimes. However, I love where things are headed, I love being able to see progress towards my goals, and generally speaking, I feel good about where I am. Sometimes even though you want time to speed up to get through the bad spots, you still have to slow things down in order to enjoy the good things and savor those moments before they too have passed you by.

The Countdown - 19 Days

It's getting closer. Only 19 days and 52 miles of training left.

I completed my final long training run yesterday, another 20 miles. It was not quite as good as I had hoped, but it was still a significant improvement over my last 20 mile run. Plus, I am now confident that I will be able to reach the goal that I had set.

The other great thing about that run is the fact that it was the last long run before race day. For the next 19 days, I will not have to subject my legs to that kind of distance. My long weekend runs are to be less than 10 miles, so I should be able to handle those and actually let my legs recover a bit before killing them one last time.

I'll keep you posted.

The Course

Well, there it is. At first glance, the first thing that pops into my head is "Wow, that looks like a long way"! Then, after starting to actually try to get a better understanding of the course, I started to focus on this section:



Wow, if I'm not mistaken, that looks like about a two mile long hill starting just two miles into the course, and it just keeps getting steeper and steeper until you get to the top. This is definitely going to be interesting. On the bright side, it looks like once you get to about mile 14 or so, it is mostly downhill from there.

On another positive note, I found out last night that I will have someone there to cheer me on. Lindsey will be coming to Des Moines to give me some support during this endeavor. It really means a lot to me that she would go so far out of her way in order to support me on this. It's just over three weeks away now, and I am really beginning to get excited and looking forward to it!

Zorinsky

I am beginning to get way too familiar with this place. However, I have to admit, adding the hot air balloon floating just above the lake was a nice addition to the already scenic view.

My final long run is scheduled for this weekend, and the plan is to do three full laps around the lake. That will be about 21.5 miles. I'm just hoping that the weather holds out and I can complete all three laps like I want to.

This past weekend did not go so well, and I only completed 10 miles of the 20 that I had planned, so it will really help my confidence if I can complete the full 21.5. There were reasons beyond health and physical ability that prevented me from doing all 20 last weekend, so it's not that I don't think I can do it. I just feel that I could really use the confidence boost from making the whole thing as planned.

I'll keep you posted and let you know how it goes.

Blogging

What's the purpose?

Well, the answer to that question can be many different things. Different people choose to blog for different reasons. Some do it to create awareness for a cause such as a disease, or a company they feel they have been wronged by, or to share their enthusiasm for a particular sporting team. However, the majority of the millions of blogs that are written on a daily basis are simply people (including myself) wanting to share some part of their lives with family and friends.

Anyone that goes and reads blogs on a regular basis should keep this in mind. No matter why the blog was written, chances are, it was written with a specific audience in mind. To that end, the reader needs to be aware of the intended audience.

I am not saying people can not read anything where they are not the intended audience. It is after all, posted on the internet for the world to see, and each and every blogger has the right and ability to limit their readers if they really want to do so. However, most bloggers don't want to do that. The reason for blogging in the first place is to have your opinions heard, and that can't happen too well when you are purposely limiting the number of potential readers.

Knowing and being conscious of the intended audience will help you, the reader, to be able to place the proper perspective on what is being said. For example, if a blogger is wanting to vent frustrations, chances are they will do so without pointing fingers and putting names, companies, or anything else directing specifically towards anyone. To the contrary, bloggers aiming to discredit a specific company, doctor, product, or whatever the case may be, will almost always be very direct and specific about the subject and cause of their frustrations. Please keep in mind, we are talking about the internet here, and there are millions of blogs and posts, so of course there are exceptions.

Anyway, I guess the bottom line is just that. It is the internet, and there is a little of everything out there. The public blogsphere is primarily made up of people simply wanting to share and get things off their chest. It is not a source for news or gossip. There is a reason for the saying "don't believe everything you read online". The blogging world is made up of people's opinions, nothing more.

I apologize for the long post. Have a good day, and happy blogging to all!

Andrew's Birthday

Okay, I wasn't there for this. It was a few weeks ago, but I just got it off of the camera and thought I would share.



He had a party at the park with a few of his friends.



Andrew with his girlfriend. She is a couple years older than him so she does all the driving. I don't think he minds at all. However, she is a senior this year, so not sure where or how things will go next year.

The Countdown - 26 Days

Well, it's getting closer, only 92 miles of training left prior to the big day. Fortunately, that only includes one more long run, and I'm supposed to do that this coming weekend. From that point on, its all just shorter runs to maintain. I haven't exactly been doing too well on my training recently though. However, I still think I will do okay when the day finally arrives.

I even got a new headset to take with me on my runs...


I tried it out over the weekend on a ten mile run, and it was kinda nice. No more wires to mess with and yet it is still just as light weight as what I was using before. Now if only I can find my iron-man watch that I seem to have misplaced somewhere, I think I have everything I need.