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AGGGH! Don’t you hate it when you forget to push the Add Item button on your blog, close out your browser and realize at the very last second that you forgot to post this incredibly intelligent crafty post!?

So here we go again . . . I promise you, it won’t be nearly as funny or crafty.

So this morning I felt like crap, but got up at 10 after 5 anyway and headed to the gym. I wondered what it would be like to blow my nose on the treadmill? My goal this morning was to run 3.1 miles (5 Kilometers) without stopping. So I hopped up on the treadmill and started walking at 3.5 MPH while I was entering my weight, age, etc. A few seconds later, I cranked it up to 5.0 MPH (12:00 minute mile) and started to run. Well maybe lope, or trot, or jog, but definitely not a walk! And I just kept going and going and going. I felt like I should have been beating a drum in front of me and wearing really cool Tom Cruise Risky Business sunglasses. (I think the pink rabbit ears would have been a bit much though) The first mile went by pretty quickly and without much effort. The second mile, my left quad started tightening up, but nothing major, so I just kept on going. After I hit 2.1, 2.2, 2.4 and 2.5, I knew when I got to 2.6 miles with only a half left, that short of stumbling and being ejected off the back of the treadmill, I was going to make my goal. When I do longer runs like this (for me anyway) I envision how many laps of the Curtis track I have left to run.

Back in High School, in Sophomore PE class, we were required to run a mile for time each week. Back then, I was in pretty fantastic shape, even for a big kid. I was consistently running a 6:05 mile. But the problem was, our PE teacher was like 63 and ALWAYS ran a 6:00 mile. The competitor in me took over and I thought there is no way I’m letting some guy old enough to be my grandpa beat me. So my times started to inch down. 6:04, 6:03, 6:01 . . . and finally on the last mile of the year, I ran a 5:55! Victorious, I celebrated! There was much wine, women and song. OK, really I just did a little dance around my room at home. My celebration was short lived however, the following week we had to run “The Pit”. Now the Pit is about 4.2 or 4.3 miles. Our PE teacher ran a consistent 6:00 mile throughout the whole thing. He absolutely CRUSHED me! But I had my mile . . .

So having run so many times before on the Curtis High School track, I can pretty well envision where I am on that 1/4 mile oval while I’m running. It’s kind of a nice escape. Even though I’m running half as fast. In my defense though I am 50% heavier too. And ahem . . . more than twice as old. But I digress . . . so this morning as I crossed the finish line at 3.1 miles, I looked down to see 37:22 on the timer. Not too shabby! OH, and blowing your nose isn’t so hard on a treadmill, assuming you have something to blow into. (Sorry guy that has to pick up the used towels at the Y)

AND, as an added bonus, I was down to 304.0 this morning!

Now I’m going to press “Add Item”