New Week, New Soapbox

The catalyst for this week's soapbox is this article (http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/01/wiretap-backdoors/) that I saw on Wired.com. If you don't feel like reading it, it is an opinion piece suggesting that the FBI, instead of mandating that all new software applications be out-fitted with "wire-tap" capabilities, they should be hiring forensic computer hackers. It's a 'fight fire with fire' argument that makes sense when you consider it. That said - it was a couple of sentences in this article that got me thinking:

"Whether we like them or not, wiretaps — legally authorized ones only, of course — are an important law enforcement tool. But mandatory wiretap backdoors in internet services would invite at least as much new crime as it could help solve."

Legislation is expected to be authored later this year that will require all new internet applications and software programs be out-fitted with a "backdoor" so that if the need arises, the FBI can tap into it. This is not new news - all of that is covered in greater detail by the article. What got me thinking was this notion of government regulation as a means of ENSURING that crime continues -- and thus validating a NEED for government oversight. Lest I be thought a conspiracy theorist (which I am not), let me further explain.

What's another hot-button topic these days? Gun Control. Understandably so right? The knee-jerk reaction of our country to the numerous school-shootings over the past 10 years has been to demand more gun control. What will gun control do? Will it stop criminals from possessing or using weapons? No. Will it stop crazy people from accessing guns and committing crimes? No. In-short, will it stop school shootings? I feel that if you're being intellectually honest with yourself, the answer is no. So, what then, will more gun laws do? One thing it is sure to do is extend the reach of government. More regulation means more surveillance on the part of the State into your affairs. More regulation means more justification for the Government to spend your tax dollars -- and not only that, but also to ask for, and justify, ADDITIONAL tax revenue.

If that example isn't good enough for you - how about the "War of Drugs." Have drug laws stopped the manufacture and distribution of drugs in this country? No, they are still available in every city in America. Has it curbed drug-use in this country by limiting the availability of drugs? Maybe a tiny little bit? Maybe? Has the U.S. Government been successful on ANY front of the "War on Drugs"? If you read/watch the news and read anything about it, the unequivocal answer is "No". What has the war on drugs done? One thing it has done is justify an entire sub-branch of the U.S. Government (namely the DEA, and to an extent the ATF) and thus has justified the expenditure of LIMITLESS U.S. tax dollars. Put another way, it has justified the waste of countless tax dollars without any accountability for results. Let me be clear, a drug bust here and there or the break-up of a drug-ring here and there are not results...results consist of the actual accomplishment of your objectives which, in the "War on Drugs" would be the curtailing of manufacture and sale of drugs in this country. Am I suggesting that we legalize everything? No. But what I am suggesting is that we start being honest with ourselves and the failure of this war -- afterall, our government is ACCOUNTABLE to WE THE PEOPLE.

As a corollary - the War on Drugs has also allowed the government to justify a number of other things. Because drugs are illegal they are bought and sold on a black-market...mostly by gangs. Fights over "turf" explode into violence on our streets (22 murders so far in Chicago in 2013) and then justify the need to more law enforcement in the form of police officers and over government enforcement (FBI, DEA, ATF, etc). This ultimately costs more tax money...but the government can turn around and say, "hey, we have a huge problem here and the citizens NEED us." States have begun to decriminalize marijuana and shockingly (sarcasm) there haven't been vast increases in crime. Not only that, these states are going to start bringing in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana and will actually being making a profit on the industry, rather than spending vast amounts of tax dollars to curb marijuana use.


This might as well be a short dissertation on why I am a Conservative...a Conservative bordering on being a Libertarian. I will never feel like the Government does a better job at regulating my day-to-day life and choices better than I do. I believe that you and me do an astronomically better job at over-seeing our day-to-day lives than the Government ever has or will. The Government has a place, of this there is no-doubt, but that place is not in creating a need for itself. By making laws that extend the reach of government for the sake of "catching criminals" - the government is pulling the wool over the proverbial eyes of Americans as to what it's true objectives are.

Soapbox Post: We Know Next to Nothing

Just an up-front warning: this post has nothing to do with running. Well, not much anyway. The catalyst for this post is a book I've recently been reading in conjunction with several articles I've come across lately. The book is "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" written by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It's a long book, but it's very well written and it takes you through the evolution of medical thought with regard to cancer itself as well as the evolution of cancer treatment. Among the many fascinating parts of the book is this sense of just how far our understanding of cancer has come in the past 50-60 years...AND how much there still is that we don't know.

In the 1940s the treatment for cancer, if there even was one for the particular type that you had, basically consisted of a surgeon trying cut it out of you. For breast cancer, the treatment ideas at the time were particularly horrendous and involved major surgery that a fair amount of patients didn't even survive. A new invention around that time was chemotherapy which, in it's infancy, was a terrible ordeal to have to go through and involved months of retching, weight/hair loss and extreme fatigue...for only possibly a few months of "remission." Most of these treatments back then only retarded the advance of cancer and for most patients, the cancer would return and eventually cause death. Today the treatment methods are quite a bit more nuanced and effective, but cancer is still a serious disease and some forms of it, like pancreatic cancer, have extremely high mortality rates.

So, what's my point? My point is this: in today's world, it's easy to think, "wow, look how technologically advanced our society is, I mean, we have smart phones, fighter jets, and starbucks on every corner - what else is there to discover?" The fact is, there is A TON we don't know about. I would even go so far as to say that there is more we don't know, way more, than things we do know about. For example, here is an article I saw today (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/01/10/we-probably-wouldnt-even-see-a-doomsday-asteroid-until-it-was-too-late/). For all of our advancements in telescopic technology and in our understanding of space, it's likely that if there were an asteroid out there that could obliterate earth, we wouldn't even see it coming. As NASA puts it, "“With so many of even the larger NEOs [near Earth objects] remaining undiscovered, the most likely warning today would be zero,” We would see nothing at all until suddenly, just as the impact occurred, we noticed a “flash of light and the shaking of the ground as it hit.”" And yet our society is "so advanced."

Basically I've come to the conclusion that we know and understand next to nothing very little about our world. It seems like we know a lot and no doubt there have been huge strides forward in our knowledge and understanding in a lot of different areas over the past 100 years, but there is a LONG way to go. There are numerous examples throughout science and medicine. There are real-world examples RIGHT NOW. For example - why are there all these school-shootings happening in the U.S.? Is it the availability of guns? Is it the prevalence of violence on television and in video games? Is it our cultural attitudes towards mental illness? Is it a lack of real-parenting on the part of a lot of parents in the U.S.? Is it the decline of personal responsibility and morals in our country? Suffice to say, it's probably more than one of those things and perhaps there are additional factors than those that come into play.

Like I said before, it's easy to think we live in the 'age of enlightenment' and sure, compared to past eras and civilizations, we are "enlightened" I suppose, but there is still a lot of be discovered. I keep going back to the verse in the Bible, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9, NIV) I imagine we are quite amusing to God at times -- the created says, "I've figured this out!!" and God looks down and says, "Ha, just you wait and see." It's an incredible thought really. Another verse that comes to mind is God saying to Job, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand." (Job 38:4, NIV)

Anyway, those are my thoughts today - like I said, not related to running much. I suppose they could be related to running. There have advancements over the past 30 years in shoe technology, compression technology, physiological understanding, training philosophy and the like, but if all other disciplines are any indication there's still a lot more to learn about our bodies and about the sport of running. I'm looking forward to seeing more advancements and gaining further understanding, no matter the field.

Question: Have you become a better runner?

I should probably explain the title of this post a little. I was running with a friend of mine the other day and he asked me two questions. The first one was, "how long have you been running on a serious level?" The answer to that is simple, it's been about 2 years and a couple of months since I really got serious about running again. The second question was, "ok, in that time, have you become a better runner?" In my haste to answer that question I blurted out something about not having gotten substantially faster in the past two years, but I have improved my stamina/endurance, yadda, yadda, yadda. The question stuck in mind though and I've been giving it more thought over the past few days and I think I have a slightly more nuanced answer.

Speed:
With regard to the actual speed of my running - my answer is complicated by my expectations. Simply put, I would love to be running faster than I am right now. I think all runners want that, but I feel like my progress with regard to speed has been particularly slow. My first 5K after my return to running was in May of 2011 and I ran a 21:27. My latest 5K this past October was a PR at 19:06. So I've shaved about :46 per mile off my 5K time in 2+ years...I'm happy with that, but all things considered, I think I still have a lot more room to improve on that. As a side note, I know that I've spent much of the last year training for a marathon and that I haven't done much speed-work at all, much less running towards 5K goals. I think that if I really focused on improving my 5K times, I could make some pretty solid gains pretty quickly.

Endurance:
Without a doubt, this is the area in which I have improved my running the most. A couple of years ago, I thought running a marathon was a super-human feat. I would always say, "I have no interest in running a marathon." Then I ran my first half-marathon earlier this year and thought to myself, "hmm, maybe I should just try it? Maybe?" So I signed up for the Chicago Marathon, trained all summer for it and completed my first marathon in October. Now I want to run another one. Funny how that happens. Anyway, I went from running 20-30 miles/week before marathon training, to regularly completing 40-50+ mile weeks throughout the summer. In terms of things that I'm proud of in my life, completing the Chicago Marathon is up there near the top. A year ago, the longest single run I had ever done in my lifetime was 9 miles. Crazy.

Running Knowledge:
With anything, the more time you put into it, the more you learn about the nitty gritty details. Through books, blogs and talking to other runners, I've learned a TON about running over the past 2 1/2 years. I've read books by Jack Daniels, Danny Dreyer, the Hanson brothers, Lewis Maharam, Ryan Hall and others and spend hours talking about running with other runners. This has increased my awareness of the details of the sport itself. I've learned a lot about things like the importance of hydration, the physiological benefits of long-slow distance running, VO2Max, running form, cadence, injury prevention, footwear and on and on and on. I can't say I've been able to put everything I've learned into practice, but a lot of it I have and it has helped me.

I tend to be more on the pessimistic side of things. I have made a lot of improvements in my running since the Fall of 2010. I need to make some new goals for myself and start working towards those goals. When I'm running at my best, I'm following a plan and making every run count towards something.

Rough Draft Goals (for 2013 and 2014):
- Run another half-marathon in the Spring 2013 (~1:30:00)
- Spend some concentrated effort training for shorter races like 5Ks and 10Ks.
- Run a 5K with an average pace of 5:59 or lower
- Run another marathon sometime in the next 2 years

The Winter Blues

*Sigh.* I suppose it's finally here. Winter. When I was a kid I used to love the winter. I loved snow, I loved the excitement of that occasional day when school would be cancelled and we could play for hours in the snow building igloos, forts, sledding...now I hate winter. Since I've gotten back into running I've really come to loathe winter - all the extra clothes you have to wear to go running, being forced onto a treadmill when the sidewalks are impassable, having super dry skin all the time because of multiple showers every day. Winter sucks.

Anyway - this post isn't to bitch about the weather. There's nothing I can do about the cold days/nights and the inevitable snow we'll get here in Chicago...eventually (hasn't snowed here yet). No, this post is about something else entirely - but it's related to winter. I think I have the 'winter blues' when it comes to running. My last race was Thanksgiving Day and for the foreseeable future, I have no races to look forward to. I had a great 2012 running season. Two half-marathons, a couple of 5Ks, my first 8K and the crowning achievement of my first marathon. The only problem is this: for almost the entirety of this year, I've had something to focus on - whether it was a half-marathon or marathon or some other race, there was constantly that thing coming up that served for motivation. Now it's not there, and I'm seriously struggling to get excited about working out.

I know what I need to do - I need to make a plan. Find some race in the Spring to start training for. I know this, but I lack even the motivation to put together a plan. I feel worn-out. I've contemplated taking a break from running for a couple of weeks just to recharge the batteries, but then I think about all the progress I made this year and what I stand to lose if I just stop running. I know it doesn't disappear instantly, but it's a mental thing. I just can't seem to bring myself to stop running completely. I have been scaling back the running over the past month and focusing more on weights but even my weight days are a chore now.

Maybe others of you out there have had this problem: when I have a plan, I stick to it religiously. When I don't have a plan, everything becomes hard. By 'hard' I mean, I push hard. Too hard. All the time. All my runs become steady-state or clock runs. My weights are hard. I know this about myself and yet I seem not to be able to hold back. If I sound like I'm bragging I'm not - in fact, I dislike this about myself. As disciplined as I can be with a plan, I'm equally undisciplined without one. This is yet another reason to find a race, make a plan, and start training smartly.

I still haven't decided what to do. Might take some time off AND find a race, make a plan, etc. I gotta change something though because the ways things are going now isn't likely to lead anywhere good. The main reason for this post was just to write it out. I feel better.

Shoe Review: Adidas Supernova Glide 4

I'm no shoe expert - I'll leave that to RunBlogger. That said - Ken W. on DailyMile suggested I do a show review of a pair I recently bought so I thought I would give it a shot. I've managed to collect quite a pile of shoes over the past couple of years and I know what I like and don't like. Anyway, here goes.

I'll start off by saying something that everyone should hear, whether you've already heard it or you're a new runner and you're hearing it for the first time: shoes cannot make you a faster runner and no matter what you hear, there is no magical shoes...HOWEVER, shoes can hurt you and if you don't have the right shoe for you, it can ruin running for you. If you want living proof, I'm living proof and you can read all about that here (and read the comments too to see how many other people have been through the same thing). With that out of the way, here is my review of the Adidas Supernova Glide 4s.

I've been pretty strictly a Saucony man for the past year or so. After some experimentation I found that the Ride series, particularly the Ride 2s and 3s were the perfect shoe for me. Then Saucony had to go and mess everything up...they changed the heel-to-toe drop on all of their shoes from 12mm to 8mm (or less). I bought and ran in a pair of Ride 5s this past year and it ended up causing me some serious achilles pain. I switched back to my Ride 3s and wah-lah, no pain. You might be thinking "so what's the problem?" The problem is that Ride 3s are becoming increasingly difficult to find because they're discontinued. I've been buying rogue pairs of Ride 3s on eBay for the last 6 months knowing that eventually I was going to need to find an alternative for the future.

I have the greatest blessing a runner could ask for - my brother-in-law works for The Running Room - which is a running-shoe specialty store and not only that, he's a regional manager...so I get my shoes at a very nice discount which basically means that I can buy any shoe out there, even the expensive ones, and they don't end up costing me that much (THANK YOU SCOTT!). I was in one of Scott's stores over the Thanksgiving holiday and I presented him with my dilemma and he suggested that I try these Adidas Supernova Glide 4s. I tried them on, they felt good, they are a NEUTRAL shoe and so I bought them.

My first run in them was that night - the temps were chilly (mid-20s) and the surface was a paved road surface. I ran with my brother and we kept a pretty solid pace (around 7:25). We ended up going 6 miles and I was happy with how my legs felt after the run...especially considering this was my first run in these brand-new-off-the-shelf shoes. I didn't have any blisters or even any hot-spots which was also a major plus. Since then I've run on an indoor-track surface, on roads again and today I ran on a crushed-gravel surface. The only test I haven't put these shoes through is a long run. I've done fast running and slow running and so far I've put about 20 miles on these - maybe too few for a good review, but hey, I'm an impatient guy.

Pros:
- I really like the distribution of the cushioning in the shoe. There is a lot of support towards the heel and progressively less towards the fore-foot. I'm not a heel-striker, but I like having that extra support in the heel area.
- The shoe feels like it has a nice wide base, which contribute to an overall sense of stability.
- Another thing I like about the shoes is that they are extremely comfortable. The tongue of the shoe is nice and thick and the shoes really feel like they're cradling your foot.

Cons:
- The only con I can think of is that the shoes are a little clunky. Weighing in at 11.3 oz. these are by no means racing shoes. With all the comfort though, it's no surprise these shoes are a little on the clunky side.

So far so good with these shoes - I think they are a worthy replacement for my Ride 3s. I never expected to be running in Adidas, they aren't exactly known for their running shoes, but hey - I'm satisfied.

A Meaningful Race

I just got back last night from a Thanksgiving break of sorts. It was five glorious work-free days spending time with all of my favorite people in the world: my family. In this midst of this break, I ran a race and it turned out to be perhaps one of the most memorable races I will ever run. My brother, sister-in-law and I decided, somewhat on a whim, to run a Thanksgiving Day race. We were looking for something longer than a 5K but shorter than a half-marathon and we ended up choosing a small race in Chisago City, MN called the "Dash 'n Dine Race"; a 5-mile race.

Temperatures on race-morning were PERFECT. Mid-to-upper-40s, mostly cloudy and only a slight breeze. My brother (Tony) and I decided to do a couple of warm-up miles and when we finished those, we realized that we had gone out too early because there was still 30 minutes until the start. After twiddling our thumbs for the next 1/2 hour with nervous stretching and pacing, it was finally time.

I didn't really know to expect as far as a goal-time. I had never run the 5-mile/8K distance and my training over the past month hasn't really been all that focused, I've been concentrating more on weights and injury-prevention than I have on speed or mileage. That said, I had it in my mind that I wanted to come in around 33-33:30 which would have been a 6:36-6:42 mile split. I felt confident that I could achieve that goal.

The race started as all races do: too fast. Through the first mile I was focusing on slowing down to a hold-able pace. There were only a handful a people in front of me through Mile 1 and my brother was way ahead of me by then with another guy running right next to him. About mid-way through Mile 2, I saw the 2nd place guy stop and put his hands on his knees. I thought to myself, "huh, maybe he just started to fast (?) and ran out of gas?" As I drew closer to where he was though, I realized that he was clutching his ankle area and as I approached him I yelled, "hey are you ok?" and he said that his Achilles had popped. I felt bad for him, but only for a second. At that point it was my brother in 1st place and only one person between he and I.

At that point I realized that I had a unique opportunity before me. Tony and I don't get to run too many races together - we've managed to run 3 races this year, but typically it's been about one race per year. We've never had the chance to go 1st and 2nd in any race before and I realized we had that chance in this race. "It might be the only chance we ever get" I thought to myself. Tony had a stranglehold on 1st place so it was up to me...

Around Mile 2 or shortly after the mile 2 mark, I overtook 2nd place. I felt good, but oddly enough it was at that point that I started to doubt whether I could hold the pace I had established. I'm sure this happens to everyone in races; you get to that point there it starts to hurt, but you're only about half-way. This was where it really helped to know that I had a chance to finish 2nd to my brother. I decided that I was going to be damned if I gave up 2nd place, no matter how much it hurt. I shortened up my stride and put my head down. As we hit the mile 4 mark there was a 90 degree turn and so I peeked to see how far ahead I was - my best guess was that I had about a 20-30 second lead on 3rd place. For the last 1/2 mile, the courses for the 5K and 5Mile races joined so I was having to yell to get people to move out of the way. I saw Tony a few hundred yards from the finish and he gave me a high-five and a "Go Adam!". I crossed the finish-line in 31:24 - 2nd place out of 72 finishers in the 5-Mile race.

I suppose there is one caveat to be made. My Garmin measured the course at 4.90 miles, which is within the potential error range for it to have been 5 miles, but more than likely it was closer to the 8K distance of 4.97 miles. Regardless - I consider it an 8K and/or 5M PR, close enough right? Either way, I'm very happy with the time, it absolutely crushed my expectations. Tony got a PR in the race, 29:00 to take home the turkey (literally). It was a pretty disorganized little race, but fun nonetheless. Tony's wife MJ also set a PR in the race and finished in 11th place (2nd overall female). It was a great day all around and a race I will always remember fondly.

Race Recap: 2012 Chicago Marathon

What: 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon
Where: Downtown Chicago, IL
When: October 7th, 2012
Weather: Low-to-mid 40s, mostly cloudy
Finish Time: 3:20:25

Recap:
I can't believe it's over. After waiting for yesterday to come, it was over and done with in a flash. I have so many good memories in my head, I'm doing this now before I forget anything.

It was quite the early morning on Sunday - I woke up at 4:00am and we (my brother Tony and sister-in-law MJ were also running) were out of the door by 4:50am. We went to the Lombard train station by my house and waited a good 40 minutes for the train. There were several people there waiting to go downtown for the race and we ended up talking to a guy who was going down to watch, he was a runner too and we had a good conversation...especially considering the hour. I'd only managed about 4 hours of sleep the night before but I had a lot of nervous energy. The train arrived downtown at about 6:20am and from there we took a taxi which got us as close to Millennium Park as possible. We stood in line for the bathroom for about 30 minutes and then had to rush to the gear check and get to the start corrals. As my brother and I were walking to the corrals I tried to turn on my Garmin and it wouldn't come on...I tried everything but it wasn't working -- my brother was super nice and loaned me his watch which was a complete life-saver for me (thank you again Tony!). We got into the corrals with just a couple of minutes to spare and within 5 minutes, we were off and running.

My plan was to start off nice and easy and treat the first 5 miles as a 'warm-up'. I took time to enjoy my surroundings, all of the people spectating, reading their signs, it was such a high...but I managed to keep my pace easy. Through 3 miles I was at 24:00 which was exactly where I wanted to be at. As the race progressed past 5 miles I inched the pace up little by little and I started to get really excited around mile 7 because I knew I would be seeing my family around mile 8. I saw them right at mile 8 and high-fived all of them, it was the best I felt during the entire race.

Shortly after I saw my family at mile 8, I started noticing a niggling pain my left achilles that was getting increasingly annoying (and painful) as I went through mile 9, 10 and 11. This pain wasn't new to me - ever since a treadmill run I'd done several days before it had been bothering me, but I was hoping it had gone away. I don't remember where it was, but I stopped by one of the medical tents at one point and asked them if they had a topical pain reliever and they handed me a couple of packets of BioFreeze. I slapped that on there and kept going and the pain subsided a bit. It never really went away the rest of the race, but I was determined to run through it and so I did.

I crossed the halfway point at 1:41:50 and was feeling good. I gotta take a moment and say how awesome the crowds were yesterday. I had my name on my singlet and all along the route people were shouting "Go Adam!" or offering some other encouraging word. At the water stops the volunteers handing out water were also really encouraging - it was just plain awesome to have that kind of support the whole way. I have no doubts that the constant encouragement contributed to countless PRs that were set yesterday. If you came out and supported us runners yesterday, thank you, thank you, 1000x thank you! On a side note, I don't think I've had my named yelled that many times in one day ever before in my life.

After the halfway point I started pressing the pace a bit more. I was happy with where I was at, but I also felt like I had quite a bit of energy left. Miles 14-20 were pretty uneventful, I was just enjoying the scenery, the energy from the crowds and the views of Chicago. When I passed mile 18 I thought to myself, "ok, I'm entering new territory, this is where the experiment begins." I was still feeling pretty good at that point.

I kept expecting to hit some kind of wall at Mile 20...but it didn't happen. I still felt lucid, I seemed to have an uncanny ability for math (was figuring splits in my head) and my body felt good. At Mile 21 I saw my family again which had me on the verge of tears. I was so happy not just to see them, but I also realized at that point that I was going to at least finish the race. Even if I had to walk, finishing was assured. At mile 24 is when I thought, "ok, I'm REALLY ready to be done running now". The mile markers seemed to be going by more slowly and my lower legs were really aching. Fortunately for me, I was almost done and the best was yet to come.

Through the entire last mile and a half, the streets were packed with people. I clearly remember seeing the "800m" sign and thinking to myself, "ok, about 4 more minutes and you're done". The last 400m were absolutely awesome, I don't have any specific memories except passing some medical people and some guy saying, "ok, this is where people normally go down". I thought, "I'm still good right? I'm not going down, right?" As soon as I could see the finish line it was all I could think about and when I got there, I pushed stop on my watch, then turned around and congratulated the guy behind me. The next few minutes were pretty much a haze of grabbing Gatorade and water, getting one of those plastic "blankets" and getting my finishers medal. About halfway down the chute, I heard someone yell "Adam" and I turned and saw my wife and my boss running alongside the fence. Leslie was so happy for me and I was sooo happy to see her. After a couple minutes of chitchat I finished meandering my way through the chute and went to meet up with everyone. I learned a lesson in that chute -- there were people handing out beer which sounded great at the time so I grabbed one. After two sips my stomach started hurting so I tossed it. Moral of the story: beer right after a marathon isn't the greatest.

Let's see...things I'm proud of: I didn't walk once. I stopped two times, once to rub my achilles a little bit (maybe 10 seconds max) and the second time to put that BioFreeze stuff on my leg...other than that I did not stop and I'm way proud of that. Another thing is that I negative split the marathon. My brother tells me that's a big deal, first half was 1:41:50, second half was 1:38:35. I'm also proud to now say that I'm a marathoner...yeah that sounds pretty cool.

Today I'm hurting pretty good. My achilles is SUPER sore, it will probably take at least a week for that pain to go away. Besides that I'm hobbling around like an old man - everything that's to be expected after a marathon. If I'm in a chair or laying down I'm content. I've already been asked, "so, are you gonna do another one?" The answer to that is: probably. It's such a feeling of accomplishment when you complete a marathon. There's really nothing I've experienced that's quite like it. I'm still basking in the glow.

I have one more note to make - I mentioned that my brother and sister-in-law also ran the race. My brother had his best time ever finishing in 2:57 - I'm so happy for him, he's been chasing the 3-hour mark for awhile now and finally broke through yesterday. My sister-in-law MJ also set a personal best...by over 25 MINUTES, finishing in 3:36...this marathon was made more memorable for me because they ran it, I'm so happy for both of them.

The other huge announcement of the weekend was that my wife and I are expecting our first child in April 2013. We were waiting to tell everyone until we'd told all of our family and close friends but now the news is out there for everyone to know. We both feel incredibly blessed - yesterday was such a perfect day in 100 different ways. I've really enjoyed reading other people's marathon stories, it sounds like it was one heck of a day for marathon running, a lot of PRs set and a lot of goods times had. Here's to many more!