Rob Murphy

5 easy miles at Liberty Park. Still trying to kick the head and chest crud that has been kicking my rear for over a week. I was planning a longer run but lost interest so I stopped and walked around the park for a long time. Then I went to Barnes and Noble and read for a while before Ann texted me to see if I wanted to meet for dinner - which I did.

Nice end to a hard weekend.

AM: Push-ups, Sit-ups, core.

I'm having a lot of fun reading the new Tim Feriss book, Tools of Titans. It's a goldmine of useful tidbits that will especially appeal to folks in their 20s and 30s and older folks whose job it is to inspite and motivate.

My 27 year old nephew has had a really bad stroke and things don't look good at present. He is a very special young man. If you are the praying type you could remember Ryan Keller of Dunedin Florida. Also my sister Marni and my brother-in-law Paul and his sister Elizabeth and brother Sawyer.

PM: 5 miles, hills sprints in the gully, weights.

Early AM: 8 miles around Sugar House Park. Light snow.

Easy 4 around the neighborhood.

Zero. No sleep last night taking the red eye from Salt Lake to Tampa.

So I'm here in my original hometown of Dunedin, Fl visiting my mom and my sisters family. Decided to run the Say No To Drugs 10k in Clearwater this morning. The course is one I've run many times before back in high school for racees like the Fun-n-Sun Run and the Easter Bunny Run. Out-and-back on the Clearwater Beach Causway. When I went to bed last night on my mom's couch I decided not to set an alarm since I had no sleep the night before and if I woke up in time then I would race, if not I'd do a nice long run on my own. So I woke up about 10 minutes before I needed to leave, got dressed, had a cup of coffee and a cliff bar. Still feeling groggy from the sleep aid I took last night. I wavered back and forth about going and then decided to give it a shot. Got to the race, registered, hit the POP, and then did a little warm-up. Got hassled by a creepy Scientologist guard when I set foot on cult property which happens to be pretty much all of downtown Clearwater.

Pretty warm and, for me, really humid. Pushed hard on the way out with a nice tailwind (5:58, 5:50, 6:00) but then crapped out on the way back and didn't race very hard, just pushing it as hard as I could without experiencing any real pain (6:21, 6:30, 6:45, 1:19). In my defense, it was against a pretty good headwind and very bright sun and I didn't wear sunglasses and I was cranky at how generally lethargic I felt. Even with the slow splits I maintained my place - passed one guy and one guy passed me. So I was happy to break 39, win my age group, and with the nice pancake breakfast and snazzy medal after.

Sad that I didn't run into Mark. Would have been nice to see another FRBer.

Nice distraction. I highly reccomend this race. Beautiful, well organized, good cause.

PM: Easy 3 miles around old Dunedin. Swim after.