randomness

Adam, from I am Boring, tagged me with the Versatile Blogger tag, indicating I should come off of 7 things that are random...

Without freddy adu..

1. I cannot wait until the beginning of the World Cup and plan on having a viewing party for the U.S. opening match against England. (indeed, Freddy Adu is not on the 30 man roster)

2. I will be tackling my 2nd 50k of the year next weekend. I look forward to meeting The Sean(CR holder), Psyche(trail newbie/badass) and Terri Hayes, awesome RD.

3. I share my birthday with my mother, her twin brother and my cousin.

4. My dream retirement job is to be the old guy at Disney that has the little broom and dust pan walking around sweeping up things.


5. I look daily for a job transfer to Atlanta so I can be with my Sweet Boo and have countless running trails in my backyard...

6. Have just recently become facinated with the Barkley Marathons.

7. Logged 132 miles in the month of May. THE. MOST. EVER.


In the spirit of things random, I will tag a few bloggers.

Psyche
The Sean
CJ
Glaven
Steve Q
Al
Ryan


p.s. set a new mile PR this weekend at the Savannah Mile; 6:41.

In These Footsteps

I travelled to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky this weekend, home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) "Screaming Eagles" for my father's retirement after 35 years of service in the U.S. Army.

I grew up on Army posts all over the world. I had become acustomed to the lifestyle, it was normal to have helicopters flying over my house, see tanks driving down the road while I walked to school, or have daily conversations with uniformed men and women carrying assault rifles. Two different events this weekend caused me to reflect upon the humble sacrifices the men and women of our armed forces make daily.

The first being the actual retirement ceremony. My father is not the norm in the length of service he has given to our country. Typically, a soldier will retire with full benifits after twenty years. My father almost doubled that commitment, 35 years. There were about 20 soldiers retiring at this ceremony, of those 20, four or five served between 21 and 26 years. 10-12 retirees had served the typical 20 and a few had served a little less. In total, they were celebrating a combined 440 years of military service; 38 years served in combat. I am gratful for the gift these men and women have given us. There was a receiving line after the ceremony, I took the time to shake the hand of every one of the retiring soldiers, offer my congratulation, look them in the eye and thank them.

My second opportunity for reflection came as I rose early Saturday morning to run a 18 mile long run. As I began my run, I slowly moved away from the housing area on post, past the stores and the bowling alley and towards the barracks that housed the different units. I ran past motor pools full of Humvees and tanks. I ran along the fenced-in airfield and hangers that the helicopters called home. Then I began to run past this stretch of trees spaced evenly apart, lined in perfect rows. These trees were tall, as if they had been there for a long time. At the base of each tree there was a monument. I had an idea what these monuments were, the picture became even more clear when I saw another monument. It was about 20 feet tall, made out of marble, on the monument walls were names, names of fallen brothers and sisters from battles past. For me, the most stirring part of this monument would be the four life sized "sentrys", marble statues of uniformed soldiers standing guard around the perimeter of this monument. The next few miles passed while I reflected on the commitemnt and sacrifice so many had made. I was running along a well worn path, a path that 1000's of Air Assault soldiers ran daily. 100 people join the military for 100 different reasons. Some to get away from their family or hometown. Some are "forced", some volunteer willingly. Some are seeking educational assistance or some join out of a sense of civic duty. They all serve proudly. It was an honor to run amongst these warriors this weekend, it is a great honor to be the son of a retired U. S. Army soldier.

Hop on the good foot!!!

This morning I received an awesome email from Terri Hayes, the RD for the South Carolina Ultra on Trails Series. A few slots have opened for the Chattooga 50K on June 6th; I am in!!!!

This should be a lot of fun. The Sean and Psyche will be running at this race, as well as several bloggers I met at Sweetwater 50k.

I've got a fever and the only perscription is more trail races!!!!

Account closed due to inactivity

Well, that is what I expected to read when I decided to finally post a blogpost around here...excuse me for a moment while I tidy up, seems to be a great deal of cobwebs around here....


Well, other than me posting, a lot has been going on. I have been lurking, keeping up with some of my favorite blogs.

Big shout out to Ryan for tearing up Ironman St. George and punching his ticket to Kona.

CJ has been grabbing life by the horns and finished a century ride...crying? Really? I kid....Just don't pick up that smoke, brother!

Jamoosh has moved yet again...but I like the new digs...

Adam is hugging trees and dropping sick 5k times(without speedwork)...

The Sean ran an amazing 3rd place finish at the Valle Crucis 25k, with a time of 1:37...I can't even wrap my mind round that kind of speed....

Glaven is getting older...and has a thing for guys named Thomas/Tom, G, I wonder why?

Steve Q has bounced back from another injury and seems to be getting ready to toe the line yet again...

However, today's big shout out goes to Psyche...and this is two-fold. First, I won her giveaway contest and will be receiving a new, Blackhawk Boys T-Shirt(even if they didn't use any of the ten names I submitted for the other giveaway)! Also, she will be running the Enoree 40 miler on Mother's Day! Stop by and give her some lurve...hehe

On to some quick running housekeeping...My mileage is up, my times are down and the weather is there. Good god man! my trackworkout last night was tough! I have been focusing on 400's getting ready for the Savannah Mile at the end of the month. In the last few weeks, I have been running my 4's around 1:35. Last night? Averaged 1:42...FML, where did the spring weather go?

I am currently on the fence about a 50 miler is September. This would mean 4 and 5 hour long runs in the Savannah Summer, I am not sure if I want that. As it is, I will be logging several 20+ LSR's getting ready for the Mystery Mountain Marathon in October. Do I really want to pummel myself this summer??? I say no, but sometimes "no" means "yes"...wait, this is going in the wrong direction....

Gotta go.