Remember the brick from the last post? Same brick, except this time I stared at it for 88 minutes instead of 25. I kept checking the weather all week for Saturday’s forecast. It said rain/sleet mix starting in the afternoon, into the night. Even last night before I went to bed, I checked. Of course when I get up this morning and look out the window, I see snow falling and about a 1/2 inch of the white stuff covering the roads.
I don’t like to run on the roads if they are icy or snowy. I just don’t. I’m all set with getting hit by a car while I’m running. The roads are narrow enough right now with the snowbanks. I’m running on the white line as it is. No one would feel any sympathy for me if I got hit by a car while I was running. They would just say ‘See, you shouldn’t have been running! Sit on the couch and watch TV with the rest of us. Who runs in the winter anyway?’ And so on and so forth.
I decided not to take the chance and went to the gym. Typical of the day after Christmas, the gym was packed! I laced up my new shoes that Santa got me and started running. Thank God for the iPod, Kenny Ches, Michael and Gaga. Yea, I said Gaga. 88 minutes goes by much faster with them in your ears. Of course when I leave the gym, it’s completely dry out and 39 degrees. I should have waited. Oh well, it wasn’t that bad after all. I got to sit in the steam room after, so it was worth it.
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I ate too much. I had an absolute enormous dinner on Christmas Eve with 2 rounds of dessert, 2 rounds of dinner yesterday and I really can’t even begin to count how many desserts I had. The last thing I ate were 2 gigantic whoopie pies at 8 and I had to throw in the towel.
I realized that the days of cool Christmas gifts are behind me. No more toys, sports equipment, video games, baseball cards. You know you’re getting old when you get things for the house, toys for your dog, shirts and ties, sports coats and hair-loss shampoo. The sad thing is, I needed all of it.
I am unfortunately headed out to say good-bye to one of my best friends. He is moving to the Whale’s Vagina tomorrow. He is having a small 1/4 life crisis and wants to see what the other coast is like. I can’t say that I blame him. Why not, right? The worst part will be getting out there. Three 14-hour days of driving. Ouch. Hey man, if you read this, I wish you all the best. Good luck. The San Diego Marathon is June 6th. Start training when you get out there.
Mike's Marathon Blog 
Ha! I was just telling Mark’s dad that if Mark was a 10 year old boy, he would have hated Christmas this year. I got him socks, underwear, a book, and a couple sweaters. I didnt even think about hair loss shampoo, i’ll remember that for next year.
And Mike,you are awesome. I admire your long run even in crap weather dedication! Tell Jacky she should have put those little hot pack things in your stocking so you could put them in your running gloves. I love them.