"Your journey began from a single point. You travel in a straight line; sometimes the slope may be steep and the distance seems far, but you you are at midpoint. The endpoint is in sight."

---Bob Miller

Maybe someday I'll be able to calculate the slope of this line.

But for now, I had a really nice Saturday morning run twice around Elkhorn and into the woods. It's an unseasonally warm spring day that started out cool in the morning when I ran, and then got up into the 50s! The lake was mostly frozen and there were about three flocks of birds in various parts of the lake that had patches of open water. I always think of winter as a dormant, silent time, but there was a lot more bird call than I thought. At one point, people stood watching an entire flock of birds fly noisily overhead. Then, I saw a blue jay in a bush. The run went well and I ran the whole 4.5 miles without walk breaks, keeping pace by listening to my breathing.

On Sunday, it was 61 degrees--a breath of spring in February!!!! I took my bike off the trainer and went for a 19.5 mile ride. There was a really strong blow-me-over 22 mph wind, especially at the beginning of the ride. To avoid the combination of a strong wind and big hills, I began to do the route out of order and backwards, first heading over into the Clemens Crossing and Hickory Ridge neighborhoods and expanding my route a bit. Then I headed down onto the hilly, scenic part of the route. Except for one long steep incline hill, I could swear the route is easier in this direction and that's why I see so many cyclists heading in the opposite way when I go down this route. I saw probably half a dozen cyclists and two dozen motorcyclists as well as people in cars, just getting out and enjoying the beautiful unseasonably warm afternoon. At the end of the ride, I felt like I could have gone further but I headed back. I was sore yesterday after the run and I'm anticipating a case of Monday morning DOMS, but I don't care.

Graduation

This is a blast from the past. I came across my older son's high school graduation photos on my computer, and I wanted to post them for the memories.

Informal shots after graduation. Ryan saw his grandmother for the second, or maybe third, time in his life. Probably won't see her again for a long time.

I did the tourist thing and took Grandma down to the mall in Washington, DC where we went to the Museum of Natural History. There was a wonderful exhibit of tropical butterflies. The exhibit is a glass enclosure that people can enter to spend time looking at the butterflies and plants.

There was fruit on posts for the butterflies, and information cards that so that people could identify the butterfly and its native country.

Grandma looks at the butterflies.

We watched my youngest son play a lacross game, although the game was rained out shortly after the photo was taken.

Penguin Pace 2009

I had no idea how I'd do in this race because I've barely been training--and I mean barely--but I shaved a few seconds off my time on a hilly course so I was reasonably satisfied, although I keep wishing I was in better shape. The only consistent training has been in the last two weeks in which I've been alternating treadmill running and cycling dates with Troy Jacobson, whose workout killed me the first time I did it. It will be two or three more weeks before I know whether the consistency actually sticks.

Penguin Pace is one of my favorite local races because they give out a great t-shirt. I love it when races give you a moisture management shirt that you can actually wear while training. This shirt is my base layer for my winter training outfit, so I wear it all the time. The race sells out each year and is known for it's catered sit-down breakfast. But this year, a water pipe broke in the senior center where the event is held, so they moved the breakfast to a nearby middle school and handed out bag breakfasts. Not quite the same...but a nice way to start the day. I'll go cook my Super Bowl chili now.

Alley Loop
I know I shouldn't keep using the Internet as a tool for fantasy, as a way to find information, photos, and videos about other places, activities, and events in which I'll probably never get to participate...but I do this a lot lately. This weekend in Crested Butte, the Colorado town near where my son goes to school, they had the Alley Loop Nordic Marathon. There are actually many distances from 1.5K, 3K, 5K (hey I could be doing a xc ski race instead of a running race), 10k, 21K, and 42K. The event is billed as "Crested Butte's largest costume party." All of the races start in the small town near the nordic center and wind through the streets and alleys of the town before heading out onto the trails surrounding the town.

Just to help us all visualize, I found a video of the finish which shows the quaint town: