Each Day Is a Gift

Wendy and I took our sweet time to go out thinking it would be warmer...brrr.  Temp was in the 20's.  Couldn't feel my feet, toes and fingers for the first 2 miles; then came the pain of thawing as we ran up the hills.  Lotsa hills today and lotsa talking too.  I think I need to move to San Diego!

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My eating has gotten out of control.  For hubby's birthday today, we went out to dinner at Texas Road House.  Had a deep fried baby blossom appetitizer, 5 dinner rolls w/ cinnamon honey butter, 8 oz. sirloin steak, sweet potato w/ the same sinful butter, chef salad, vanilla ice-cream w/ fudge topping.  SO GOOD but SO BAD!!!  I ate more than my hubby and our two sons...no shame nor self-control...aaaggghhh!!!

Was warmer this morning, just a maintenance run by myself under sunny blue sky to work off last night's OVER-indulgence!!! :)

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As a continuation of yesterday's discussion...I was really curious how many of Boston's entries are reserved for other methods besides qualifying times.  Found this on marathonguide.com: 

Featured Stories

Boston Marathon - Closed/Paris Marathon - Closed
Two major marathons have closed registration for their races five months before race day - continuing the trend of earlier and earlier registration closures by the most popular races. The Paris Marathon has closed its registration at 37,000 and the Boston Marathon has closed its general registration, but still has charity and other spots available as it reaches for its number of 25,000 registrants by race day.

Boston Marathon Registration by The Numbers
Boston Marathon registration closed on November 13, 2009 for the April 19, 2010 race (157 days early), compared to January 25, 2009 for the April 20, 2009 race (85 days early). We know many who were caught unaware by the earlier closing and many who were still hoping to qualify via races later in the year. According to the race website, the event will accept 25,000 registrants - the same as the stated number for 2008 (which yielded nearly 23,000 finishers). Beyond the open registration, the Boston Marathon has available charity registrations and reserves additional registrations - MarathonGuide.com estimates that somewhere over 6,000 registrations remain available through the alternate methods. MarathonGuide.com did a quick analysis of the numbers and here are some facts about the registrants on the day open registration closed:
By Country: USA (84%), Canada (12%), UK (1%), Mexico (1%)
Largest States: MA (8%), CA (8%), NY (6%), ON (6%), IL (6%)
Average Age: Overall - 42.2; Female - 39.4 (43%), Male 44.4 (57%)

Can't fathom over 6,000 registrations remain available thru other methods (charity being one of them).  That's more than the number of St. George Marathon's finishers!!!  CRAZY!!!

Quick short run w/ Wendy before my meetings.  Legs were lead!

Off to take care of Olga's kids.

Zero running today.  Was with Alex at PCMC all day.   Lotsa crazy juggling b/w hubby's bank events, church and family schedule today.  Miraculously made it to everything okay.  Finally home.

I am so proud of Alex for his great attitude.  He is so tough!  He's a fighter.  He is a RUNNER!!!

Went trail exploring with John and Wendy.  We ran down 3rd West going south to access the new trail that's alongside the rail road.  When we reached it we decided to turn left (east) to see where it might starts/ends.  When we ran a little further past the portion still being paved, we encountered a big black barking dog.  It jumped over a barb-wire fence and turned straight towards me.  Luckily John came to my defense.  He kicked up the gravel towards the dog which stopped within a foot of me.  John yelled at it and it backed off.  He then picked up a rock and the dog ran across the rail road barking its head off.  We turned and slowly jogged away.   Whew, I don't think I'll ever run down there alone again.

We ran west along this newly pathed trail.  Every .5 mile or so we would see four newly cemented railroad ties that look like somesort of small rest stop being built.  We also saw black chink link fense being put up.  We asked the workers about those "rest stop".  They didn't know what they're for.  Between 3rd W and 12th W, the trail bordered the backyard of some older homes.  There were a lot of dogs barking and chasing in those yards.   Luckily, most of these yards were fenced.   One big and tall Dane-Lab ran along its fence w/o barking.  I was glad that it wasn't aggressive because it could easily jumped over that chinklink and pounced on me.

Once we past 12th W.  the fence were solid rock along the Pheasant Pointe Development.  The rail road tracks were dug up.  I figured we might be the first few that are exploring this trail.  We reached SR 92 and "jay-walked" across it to the north.  The fence and trail continues on to the bridge by Cabela's where we could see the railroad being re-constructed.  We wonder if this trail eventually meet up with the Porter Rockwell Trail.  We ran up until it became dirt trail.  We decided not to go north with time constrain so we turned south to meet up on the Canal Trail north of Cabela's. 

We encountered a deer running across the field of the Traverse Ridge.  This portion of the run was cold and windy.  We jay-walked across the busy SR 92 and got back on the Canal Trail at 1600 W where I normally run on the "bench".   It felt good to run on newly paved trail and the dirt trail.  We ran the last 1+ miles on the road home.  My arthritic joints complain once back on the road and it was getting colder.

Busy day this afternoon.  Had to attend the Hispanic Chamber Commerce Gala tonight.   My 7 mon old grand-daughter and her mommy are flying in tomorrow morning.  I am SO EXCITED!!!

We picked up Marianne and Emi from the airport.  Thought we'd go to the new In-and-Out burger in Draper for lunch.  WRONG!!!  They had people directing traffic to get in-n-out of In-and-Out.  Cars lined up for miles...may be not miles...couldn't see that far.  Anyhow, we didn't get in; went to Ruby Tuesday instead.  

Emi is the CUTEST baby EVER!!!  She's 7 months old and "talks" by clicking her tongue, growling, cooing and smiling.  She is happy as long as her mommy is the one holding her.  It's SO FUN to watch her.  Seriously, I can't get my eyes off her.

Had the fam. over for dinner.  We had a pasta bar, with 4 kinds of pasta, 3 kinds of sauce, 3 kinds of meat (shrimp, chicken & ham), salad, rolls and pies.  Gary said:  "Too bad we weren't running a marathon in the morning.  This is perfect carb-load dinner." 

Now off to read everyone's race report!