From the mouths of babes...

Click the link below for more of the story...
(via KBSJ)

Marathon Update #7 - I Just Ran

"That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going." - Forrest Gump

That's about what this week feels like for me, just looking at my training schedule. This is the peak week for mileage, finishing up the week with a 20-mile run. Then the "taper" begins until marathon race day.

With this being a high-mileage week, I took last week easy to rest a little. Saturday was just an easy 14-mile run around the mountain (boy does it feel good to be able to say that). I did do something a little different, though, this weekend. I usually strap my iPod to my arm and listen to music when I run, but Saturday, for no particular reason, I went iPod free for the first time and I actually rather enjoyed it. It didn't help me run faster, but it didn't slow me down either. It was just different. I'll probably go back to the music for my 20-miler this weekend, but it was a fun little experience. I just hope that when I get to the end of that 20 miles that, like Forrest, I feel good enough to say, "I figure, since I've gone this far, I might as well just keep right on going."

26 days and counting...

Every Village Has An Idiot

Like I've said before, I'm not sure yet who I will be voting for in the 2008 Presidential election, but I do know for certain who I will NOT be voting for. Hillary's campaign has recently created a web page filled with testimonials from "those who know her best" in order to convince us simple-minded people that she really is a nice, sweet person.

The Hillary I Know

Look...if you have to spend time and money trying to convince people that you are a nice person...you probably aren't.

More New Bloggers!

After helping Wes and Blakely get inspired to start blogging, we've got some more new bloggers in Jamey and Mary Droddy. We've been friends with Jamey and Mary since they moved here several years ago. They will be moving to Shreveport, Louisianna in January, so they've started a blog to help keep everyone here at "home" in touch with them. Check them out at The Droddy Blog.

See...everybody's doing it...who's next?

Houston, we have a problem...

Last week one of our neighbors spent several hours getting their inflatable Christmas decorations set up just right, with the spotlights pointed exactly where they needed to point for the perfect Christmas display. Unfortunately, this is what they look like most of the time...

Nothing says "Christmas spirit" like deflated snowmen and Santas.

Christmas Decorating

We're a little late on this since we actually did our Christmas decorating a couple of weeks ago. I've always loved being able to decorate the house for Christmas, and though I've never quite gone as far out as Clark Griswold, as you can see in the photo to the left, we've got quite a few boxes full of Christmas decorations. Seems like each of the last few years we've had to run to Target to buy just one more box in order to get everything back to storage after Christmas.

So, after getting our ginormous Christmas tree in the house, lit and decorated, we got to decorating the rest of the house. I think it turned out pretty well, and except for the warm weather outside, we are definitely in the Christmas spirit! Here's a sampling from around the house. Oh yeah...we added a stocking to the mantle this year...but not for the reasons most people would suspect!

Book Review - Once a Runner

In a recent issue of Runner's World magazine, there was an article about the newly published sequel to the book Once A Runner. I'd never even heard of the book, but it apparently is a "cult classic" book for runners. It is the fictional story of Quentin Cassidy, a college "mile" runner who gets kicked out of school, moves into a mountain cabin to begin a grueling training regimen and compete in the Southeast Relays against the best miler in the world.

Originally published in 1978, the book is out of print now. It is such a cult classic that original prints of the book go for upwards of $300 on Ebay and Amazon.com. This fact alone got me intrigued, but I sure wasn't going to pay that kind of money for a book, and I don't have the time or patience to sift through the bargain bins at used bookstore. Luckily, I found it online...literally. Someone has scanned the entire book into a PDF file. Probably not completely legal, but supposedly the author knows about it and doesn't care. I printed it out page by page and finished reading it on my trip to St. Simons.

It was pretty well written and very interesting. Competitive running is not really my thing, but the book does a great job and getting into the mind of a true competitive runner. The training regimen described in the book makes my little 35-mile-a-week program look truly amateurish. If they do reprint it next year, as rumored, I may have to pick up a real copy. I may even have to go ahead and put the sequel, Again to Carthage, on my Christmas list.

St Simons Community Church - Almost Finished!

As Joy has written about before, my main project over the last year has been a new building for St. Simons Community Church. The building has a large auditorium that will seat about 1,000, educational space for children, youth and adults, and of course some administration space. The church has been meeting for several years in some space at a retail center, so they are anxious and excited to be moving into their new home.

Our work is pretty much finished. The church has some work left to do to get the building ready for full time use, so they will actually begin having services there around the first of March. This has been a great project to have worked on for the last year, and the people we've worked with at SSCC have been tremendous. If you happen to be on the island anytime, be sure to drive by or visit one Sunday. Here are a few photos from my trip down earlier this week...

Main entry into the Sanctuary

Entry drive and drive-thru Portico

The Clubhouse - Children's Theater

The Wherehouse - Youth Room

Main stage in the Sanctuary

Cooties!

The Friday-before-last, Joy and I babysat for our friends Jamey and Mary. Their boys, Jonah and Seth, begged us to play the game "Cooties" with them. You may recognize the game from the picture. Needless to say, the game has changed a little since I played it as a kid. The premise is the same, but the parts and pieces that you attach to the Cootie body are a little different. Joy, however, had not ever played the game. In fact, she had never even heard of it!

Well, in her quest to learn more about Cooties, Joy came across this very important public service announcement which the parents of any small children need to see.

Speak to your kids about cooties before cooties speaks to them first.

Marathon Update #6 - A New Personal Best

This is week 13 of my 18-week marathon training program. I'd modified the last couple of weeks in order to fit the Atlanta Half Marathon in, so last week was supposed to be a recovery week with a shorter long run on the weekend. This week was supposed to be an 18-mile long run, but I debated whether or not to cut it short since I'd done 16 last week. The 18-mile long run is the next to last long run in the program before I start the "taper" to the marathon. You gradually reduce mileage over the last couple of weeks in order to let your body recover some in preparation for the race.

When I left the house at 5:30, I still wasn't sure whether I'd do 14-miles or 18-miles. I'd drank a lot of water on Friday in preparation for a long run, and I grabbed a couple of bananas on the way out the door. It was an absolutely perfect morning for running. Hit the streets at Stone Mountain at about 6:00 and cruised the first lap. 4.8 miles down. I was feeling good so I didn't even stop for water. Second lap around wasn't too bad, and was about 1-minute faster than my first lap. 9.6 miles down. Grabbed a sip of water and some Sport Beans and headed back out.

The sun was coming up now, and I was starting to feel the miles but my legs were still feeling good. As I was finishing up the third lap, 14.4 miles, I had a decision to make. Stop or Run. I sipped some water, gave it a quick thought and said, "what the heck." About 41 minutes later I was finishing up my fourth lap around the mountain for a new personal best 19.2 mile run! That's over 2/3 the total distance of the marathon, so pounding out those miles is very encouraging. Next week will be a drop-back recovery week, and then my last long run of 20+ miles. Five weeks to go...

Wedding Dance

I tried to get Joy to do something like this at our wedding, but she refused. I wonder why?


(h/t: Kelly)

1,000 Visits!

Sometime early this morning, we passed the 1,000 visit mark. Not too bad a milestone for our little blog here. Still a long way to go to even get into Carlos' neighborhood (372,000+), but thanks to everyone that stops by. Hope you are enjoying it, and we'll try to keep working on it so everyone knows what's going on!

P.S. I know it's probably actually only about five people who check the blog five or six times a day, but 1,000 is still a fun number!

Carter Martin Classic

The Martin family have been friends of our family since I was a child.

This is the story of Carter, Scott and Leigh Ann's second son who died of cancer in 2004. This video was shown during the 2006 Carter Martin Classic. The Classic is held annually to raise money for cancer research in cooperation with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Please visit http://www.cartermartinclassic.org/ for more information or you can visit Children's Health Care of Atlanta and select The Carter Samuel Martin Experimental Therapy Research Fund to make a donation to help find a cure.

Marathon Update #5 - 16+ Miles and a 100-Mile Month

From November 1 to November 30 I logged 123.8 miles! Hard to believe, for me, and I never would have thought that I would actually accomplish this kind of quantity in training. Its a good thing I'm a morning person or else a lot of those 5:00 AM runs would have probably gotten skipped. Last week alone I put in almost 40 miles, which is, by far, my heaviest workload so far. I finished the week and kicked off December with a 16.4 mile run around Stone Mountain Saturday morning. It was a long, hard run and a little bit slower than any of my previous training runs. But it is the miles that are important in getting the body ready to take on 26.2 miles.

This is my Training Log chart since the beginning of September when I started my official marathon training program. It's good to see those long run bars get taller and taller. 42 days to go!

By the way, if you have any interest in checking out the Disney Marathon Program I posted about below, you can see the whole thing online. Just click the linky.

News That Makes Me Feel Old

Saw this article the other day on ESPN.com about the 2008 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame candidates. A player has to have been retired from the game for five years before being eligible for the Hall of Fame.

Seriously? David Justice? It seems like it was just a few years ago that he was the hero of the Braves only World Series championship. Tim Raines? These guys were in their prime when I was in high school and college and they are already eligible for the Hall of Fame?

I'm not sure if David Justice will make it into the Hall of Fame, but I just can't believe that he's already eligible. Boy, I'm getting old.

Thanksgiving

A few pictures from our Thanksgiving...I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Emily & Erin fixing their plates.
Jenny's chocolate cake...

Men watching football...Girls were playing games.

The Countdown Begins

The reality of running the Disney Marathon in January is starting to set in. I got my official race program in the mail yesterday. I will be #9931.

55 Days and counting...

Not Quite The Griswold Tree, But Close...

So, we went Christmas tree shopping Monday evening. We started out at Pike's, because Joy wanted to try to help them get out of bankruptcy (And at the prices they were charging for trees, we might actually have made a dent!). Didn't find one that suited us, so we headed down to the local Home Depot.

The prices were much better, so were looking through the 9'-10' trees looking for a good one. We had pretty much settled on one, but - like an idiot - I decided to pick up one more. Immediately, Joy says, "That's the one!" Unfortunately, it was actually a 10'-11' tree...but not wanting to disappoint my wife, we got it anyway. I strapped it to the top of the Envoy and off we went.

While Joy headed off to her Monday night Bible Study, my dad came over to help me stand it up and string the lights. Turns out that the trunk was a little crooked, so we had to do a little sawing at the base to get it stand up straight in the stand. Eventually, we got it up and got it in, and boy is it BIG! I'm pretty sure that its the biggest tree we've ever gotten, but it looks great and now it is starting to look a lot like Christmas!

Dear Santa... (Part 1)

Our computer at home flips out all the time.  A few months ago it crashed, and I had to install a new hard drive.  Just this week, the monitor decided that it just didn't want to stay on longer than 20-25 seconds before going blank.  Then, last night, it healed itself.

So Santa...please bring me one of these SWEET babies!

Preferrably the 24", 2.8 GHz Core 2  Extreme processor, 2 GB memory, 1 TB hard drive model with a wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse!

A guy can dream, can't he?

International Google Fame

See that little white box over on the right hand side, just down a little?  That's a link to Sitemeter, a site that lets us track the visitors to our little blog world here.  Not "Big Brother"-like tracking, but it tells us where people are coming from and how long they stay on the site.

See this little map below?

This is a report that Sitemeter has that shows the location of the last 100 people that have visited the site.  It is pretty neat to see these little dots all over the country.   I probably don't even know who most of the people are that have visited.  But that's not the point...

Do you see those dots over on the other side of the world?  Who are these people?  I'm pretty sure one of them is my friend Lauren, who lives over in London, but what about the rest?  All I know about them is that they all found our site (except for Lauren, I'm sure) by Googling the phrase "Japanese Reality TV" or some variation of it.  Seriously, try it yourself.  There we are at the bottom of the first page...my post about Japanese reality TV!  Who knew it would be so popular?!

Atlanta Half Marathon Report

I'm sure all three readers of our blog have been waiting with baited breath to find out how I did in the half marathon last Thursday. We took a break from everything over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I didn't get a chance to put up my report, so here goes:

Overall, it was a great experience, and I was really pleased with my results. My goal was to finish in under two hours. My official race time, which is measured from the time the starter's gun goes off, was 1:51:58. My "chip" time, which is the actual time it took me to get from the start line to the finish line was 1:50:04. Beat my goal by ten minutes! The only slight disappointment was that I had to walk through two water stations to grab a cub of water because of the traffic. If I hadn't had to do that, I could have had a 1:40-something time.

I thought we were going to miss the rain that was forecast, but as soon as the starter's gun went off it started drizzling. The good thing was that it wasn't cold. The bad thing was that about ten minutes later, the bottom fell out so by mile 2 I was soaked from head to toe. Because of the crowd, it took my until about mile 3 to get to good open space where I could run without dodging slower runners and walkers.

Just after the 4-mile mark is the normal start for the Peachtree Road Race, and the next 5 miles is the Peachtree course right down Peachtree Street. There weren't quite as many spectators out for the half marathon as there usually are on the 4th of July, but running this familiar stretch made the miles seem to go by quickly. From "Cardiac Hill" to the end of the Peachtree Road Race is mostly uphill, but it didn't seem to be as bad as I had anticipated. At about mile 12.5, we made the turn from Mitchell Street, next to the capitol builidng, onto Capitol Avenue and down the final stretch to Turner Field. I knew I was going to get in under 2 hours at this point and was just trying to finish as strong as I could.

I actually finished before I thought I did, because the big finish line banner was hung across the full marathon finish line which was about 30-40 yards past the half marathon finish line. As I crossed the line, my name was announced, I collected my finishers medal and picked up some watered down Gatorade and a couple of bananas.

All-in-all, it was a great event, and I enjoyed the running. I'm not sure I could have imagined turning around and running back to the start line, but I've still got a few weeks before I have to run that distance.

Gee...Why Didn't I Think of That?

Straight from the product's website (emphasis and hyperlink added):

"Using an ingenious gravity flow system, the PiMag™ Aqua Pour™ Gravity Water System can provide you with Nikken PiMag water no matter where you are."

Now...according to Dictionary.com, ingenious is an adjective that means:

"characterized by cleverness or originality of invention or construction"

So...you open the faucet, and gravity forces the water to pour out. Ingenious!

Pretty sure I learned about this in my third grade science class.

Less Than 24 Hours To Go...

Tomorrow morning...Thanksgiving Day...me and 9,000 of my closest friends will be headed down Peachtree Street in the Atlanta Half Marathon. My first half marathon...13.1 miles. I've heard and read that the last six miles are really tough and mostly uphill. My goal is to finish in under two hours. I'll have a full report after the race.

Marathon Update #4 - 15 Miles

I forgot to put up a training update this weekend, but I got my 15-mile run in Saturday morning at Stone Mountain. Some random thoughts about the run...

It was COLD out there at 6:30! When I climbed out of the Envoy to start my run, the temperature reading on the dash was 33 degrees. I did wear a sweatshirt over my running shirt, but I haven't moved into pants or tights, yet. It took about three miles for my hands to thaw out, but after that...no problem.

Stone Mountain has started putting up their Christmas lights, so in the areas around the entrance there are snowflakes lit on the lightpoles and several buildings are lit up with lights. Adds a little fun flavor to the run. At least while it is still dark!

I've had this suspicion for a while, and after this run I am pretty sure that someone out there is stretching out those mile markers every time I run around the mountain. They just seem to get farther and farther apart as the run gets longer!

This week is a modified "step-back" week when I am supposed to allow my legs to rest and recover before increasing mileage again. It is modified because instead of a 12-mile (yeah...that's step-back for me now!) run on the weekend I'll be running the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thursday before gorging myself on turkey and my mom's sweet potato casserole!

Mike Huckabee - Chuck Norris Approved

Just so you know, this post is not an endorsement for Mike Huckabee. Its still early in the political season, and I haven't really spent a lot of time studying all of the candidates. I know for certain who I'm NOT going to be voting for *cough*Hillary*cough*, but there is still much to learn about the conservative candidates. However, you've got to like a candidate with a good sense of humor who will put an ad like this together:

If you don't "get" Chuck Norris humor, you need to spend some time looking here, here or here.

My Famous Pecan Pies

I just found out (from a family member) that I was famous for my pecan pies. I didn't know that I was famous for them. Anyways, I have already started making them for Thanksgiving. I just thought I would share my recipe. Happy baking...

• 1 cup KARO light corn syrup
• 1 cup sugar (scant cup)
  
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 Tbsp margarine, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans (south GA pecans)
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked/frozen deep-dish pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir the first 5 ingredients until blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust.
3. Bake 45 minutes. (Do NOT overbake.)
4. Cool and Enjoy!
   

Anybody want a tractor?

I've got a big yard. I love my yard, but it is BIG, and it takes a long time to mow it every week during the spring and summer.

Ever since I bought this house I thought that I could really use a good lawn tractor to cut down on my mowing time. The lawn was right at the threshold for the size recommended for lawn tractors, so last year I splurged and bought one.

It is fun to drive, but I quickly found out that my yard just has too much undulation to get a good cut from the 42" deck, and I am REAL particular about how the yard looks. So, after letting the tractor sit in the garage for a season, I'm putting it up for sale on Craigs List. Here's the listing:

Sears Craftsman 42" Lawn Tractor

Who wants it?

P.S. We've also got a SOFA AND LOVESEAT for sale, too!

As The Seasons Change...

With the leaves changing colors now, I thought it would be a good time to update the look of our little blog here. I always thought the simple gray background was a little bland, but I didn't want to put out one of the standard templates, either. So, now that I know just enough about this blogging thing to be dangerous, we're changing it up. What do you think?

Marathon Update #3 - 14.4 Miles

The thought of running 14+ miles several months ago seemed like an impossibility. Last week, though, I found myself actually looking forward to my weekend long run. So...early Saturday morning, before the sun came up, I hit the road at Stone Mountain. My thoughts on the run:

Bad News/Good News: The bad news is that I've mapped the loop around Stone Mountain on both Gmaps Pedometer and MapMyRun.com. I've also driven around it to triple-check and sure enough, it is actually only 4.8 miles. The distance from mile marker 4 to mile marker 5 is short by about 0.2 miles. No problem, though, as this can be accounted for, so my 14-mile run became a simple 3-loop run for a total of 14.4 miles. The extra 0.4 miles was just a bonus!

Best Feeling: The best feeling of the run, besides finishing, was finishing that first 4.8 mile loop and not feeling tired at all. Six months ago, one lap around the mountain was all I could handle. The marathon training is paying off.

The Regulars: It has taken a couple of months, but there are now a handful of people that are at Stone Mountain just about every Saturday morning that I recognize from week to week and now recognize me. There were at least three different people that I passed going in the opposite direction (I like to run clockwise) on both sides of the mountain several times that smiled and waved each time. It's good to be a "regular."

Magic Beans: I've been reading a lot about maintaining energy during long runs, and up until Saturday had never stopped for water or nutrition in the middle of my runs. Things like PowerBars and Energy Gels don't appeal to me, so I tried these:

Sport Beans by Jelly Belly. I read good reviews about them so I picked up a couple of packages last week. I ate one pack at the end of each loop around the mountain, and they definitely helped a lot. They are a little bigger than a normal jelly bean and have a little different taste, and they are packed with electrolytes and vitamins to keep your energy up. I will definitely be getting more of these soon.

Next Saturday will be a 15-mile long run, and then the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. I can't wait!

Things That Bug Me At The Gym - #1

Because I like to do most of my running in the morning, and because we don't have any sidewalks in our neighborhood or the surrounding surface streets, I do my running on the treadmills at LA Fitness.

I've had a membership with LA Fitness for about 10 years...started when they were still Australian Body Works in Atlanta. Of course, my use of the gym has been cyclical for most of that time. But over 10 years, I've observed a lot of different "characters" at the gym. Some are entertaining and some are annoying. And now that I've got this blog outlet I'm going to share some of the things that really bug me at the gym.

Today's installment comes courtesy of the character I like to call the Clydesdale. I see a lot of these at the gym since I spend most of my time on the treadmill. I pointed one out to Joy, in fact, last night. The Clydesdale is that person on the treadmill who runs completely flat-footed, so over the din of the gym's music, the sound of the treadmill and even my iPod earbuds comes this very loud, very annoying THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP as his or her feet pound the treadmill track. It is especially annoying when they try to run really fast. That's all. Don't be a Clydesdale.

Dinner with friends...

We had dinner with Josh & Valerie last night. Valerie is one of my best friends from college. They live on the other side of the city, so we don't get to see them a lot. It is always good to see them and catch up when we have a chance. We had a fun evening!

Marathon Update #2 - St Simons

Marathon training couldn't take a break just because I was enjoying the weekend in St. Simons, so instead of sleeping in on Saturday morning I hit the streets and put in the longest run of my life to date...13 miles.

An hour and 54 minutes later I was back at the house, and Joy was just getting out of bed! This was just a tenth of a mile shorter than a half-marathon, so I feel pretty confident heading into the Atlanta Half Marathon that I am going to be running on Thanksgiving Day.

The image to the right comes from a great little tool I found online called MapMyRun. Next Saturday I'll be back at Stone Mountain for a 14-miler.

Weekend with Friends

We had a fun weekend with Steve & Johnna and Jamey & Mary. This weekend away has become an annual tradition. Last year we went up to the mountains. This year we spent the weekend at St. Simons. We really enjoyed just hanging out, riding bikes and eating lots of good meals.

Dinner on Friday night...

Steve & Scott did most of the cooking.

The Biker Gang

Coolin' at the Playground Ya Know

Johnna decided to go for a swim. Mary & I did not join her.

I love St. Simons! It is so pretty especially when the sun is going down...

We had a great weekend!