The first of the fat guys

Well holy crap, what has the wife got me into now? For the last 10 weeks she has been teaching a clinic on learning to run. Somehow I got roped into it as well as being a pacer, anyway the whole idea was to be able to run a 5Km race at the end of the clinic. So here it is after 1o weeks of training with some really awesome people the day has arrived for the race event. The Diakonos Retreat Society 2nd annual St. Patrick's Day race. I can't even pronounce that and she wants me to run it! Oh well after moving my bib number around 10 times, started out on my leg, then on front of my sweater that I thought I didn't need to wear then I put it back on, then put the number to the side but it kept hitting my hands then I put it back on my original sweater that I had taken off cause I thought I might be too hot in it, then I was going to take off one of my layers of pants but then decided not to. So the bib number ended up on my leg again! How's that for nervous energy! Do I look nervous in the pic? Anyway all I could think was when is this thing going to be starting so I can go home and get some rum to warm up.

Well we are finally outside and the temperature was -10C according to my wife's new car! Yes her new car which can tell you the temperature outside of the vehicle and it was saying brrrrrrrrrr, well maybe it wasn't but I was. Oh yeah this car of my wife's was suppose to be my new truck! How did that happen, I don't know. The wind chill was around -22C but the wind died down before the race so wasn't really a factor. After the start of the race I was on my way not knowing what to expect. Notice how I didn't post any pics of me from the start. It's because my wife never took any of me at the start!
So as I am running down the path passing people, WHAT? Yes, passing people, I'm wondering something isn't right, these people should be better than me why am I passing them? Then I caught up to Shirley who was in our running clinic as well and she is also taking a marathon class. So I ended up running with her for the duration of the race. It's a good thing for me to have someone to run with cause I get bored if I'm on my own running. And I was getting to that point fast as there weren't many more people close to me that I could have caught up to. Our training teaches us to take a one minute walk break to refresh the body but as I was running with Shirley I sensed she wasn't about to walk so I said to myself well I'm not going to either, only a few more kms to go. Until I seen the 3km marker up ahead when I thought I had already passed 3K already. The last 2km were steady as I started to see the end in sight as the Ea Claire market buildings were just a little bit away until those race volunteers steered us into the park for a little loop through the park that I wasn't expecting! Oh well 5k is 5k I guess. So here we are Shirley and I in this pic running down the stretch with a few metres to go to the end. By the way the hippy looking guy with the mullet is me! Like the Habs sweater? Number 2 in the eastern conference baby as of last night! Anywyay my final time was 28 min and 30 sec or something like that, and I placed 18th overall of all the 5k racers. Not bad I guess for my first run, but alot of people who finished ahead of me and the 10k racers who finished ahead of me in the time it took me to do 5k all look like they weigh 4o pounds! I guess I was the first of the fat guys to finish as I didn't see anyone else with a beer belly at the finish line waiting for other racers to finish!




4 tires at Bristol
So why woudn't Tony Eury jr. bring Dale jr. in to get some fresh tires with 8 laps to go in the race at Bristol today. Harvick got 4 and passed a few cars til he had an accident with Tony Stewart. Jr. could have easily improved his position with 2 or 4 new tires, I preferred he get 4 but I was resting after my run, so is not my call! Anyway congrats to RCR with their 1,2,3 finish at Bristol Motorspeedway today and to Jeff Burton on his win.