Tagging is easy. Just copy the following onto your post. The rules of the game are posted at the start of your blog post. In this case, I’m asking you 5 questions about running. Each player answers the 5 questions on their own blog. At the end of your post you tag 5 other people and post their names. Go to their blogs and leave a comment on their blogs telling them they’ve been tagged and to look at your blog for details. When they’ve answered the questions on their own blog, they come back to yours to tell you. Got that? OK - here is my reply:

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I could not run. I was, however, riding a bicycle fairly often (my oldest son would have just started walking, and we were also foster parents at the time). I would ride either at 5:00 AM or late at night, around 11:00 PM, because that way I didn’t leave my wife stranded with the kids, they would usually be asleep. Key word “usually,” because the little buggers have an uncanny ability to know if a parent is out of the house, and tend to wake up at odd hours if that is the case. I started running probably three or four years ago, when I joined an adult soccer league for a little while and they (literally) kicked my ass. Also, cycling seemed to be getting more dangerous, I had a couple of people try and run me off the road, which when you are riding out in the middle of nowhere, is a pretty scary thing. Not that aggressive drivers are ever fun, but when they make a point to do it where there are certainly no witnesses? Think about that.

2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?
I don’t race. I’ve run a few 5Ks, pretty much at my turtle-like recreational runner speed.

3. Why do you run?
On the one hand, to try and stay healthy (I’m “morbidly obese,” in case I haven’t made that clear enough elsewhere in my blog. Heart attack waiting to happen, if I don’t do something). On the other hand because I like to hear some heavy breathing and maybe get a little time to think.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
Buy good shoes. Us heavy guys (see #3) need shoes that don’t torture our feet. Also? Body glide.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
When I graduated college I weighed over 100 pounds less than I do now.

I don’t know enough folks to tag anyone to do this, but if you want to do it, just leave a comment or link back and I’ll put you on the list!

I’d love to pretend that I’ve been so busy being a Rock Star that I haven’t had time to blog. I’ve had time. It’s not me, it’s me. I just don’t feel like oversharing as much as I used to.

Here’s a little snippet of what’s been going on:

We sold my wife’s mom’s house. Yay! We have that behind us, after six months of fretting and working on things. We’ve learned some stuff. We hate the housing market right now (there are so many foreclosures and people trying to sell that - hell, just read a paper. It sucks) Still, it’s done.

We closed on it, and it took maybe ten minutes. There was also a four hour drive (each way) to make this happen. But the kids saw their grandparents (it’s been too long) and Dad (that would be me) tried hard not to piss everyone off (it sorta worked, for a while).

Father’s Day was low key; the way I like it. We had cupcakes, everyone went swimming, we watched geeky science shows on TV, my family cooked me a steak dinner. Pretty awesome, yes?

I’m still running; I have 23 miles so far in June, including three four mile runs. The heat is kicking my ass. Actually, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. It was 77 this morning with a dew point of
76 or so. Yeah. But get this - I think I saw a fox this morning. Ran across the road about twenty yards in front of me, and it was pretty light out. Very slender, dog shaped, but with a bushy tail
that was almost as long as it’s body, very fast.

(disclaimer: this was toward the end of my run, so a pink girraffe on a cell phone wouldn’t have surprsised me at this point)

I’m alarmed by oil prices as much as anyone, I guess, but there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it, so I’m trying not to lose any sleep. Just watch with me while our economy follows our environment right into the crapper. Sorry, kids, we enjoyed fucking your planet up for you, maybe some of you are smart enough to recover from our mistakes.

Whew, I’m such a happy little bastard! Sorry about that. (I keep saying “sorry” and can’t seem to quit, and I think it’s driving my wife nuts, because she comments on it. Not sure what to do about it,
though. Oh, another thing that drives her nuts? That I’m ‘addicted to movies.’ Another thing I can’t seem to get out of my system. It could be whores and drugs, though, so maybe it’s not such a bad vice? And what’s with the parenthesis? Dayum.)

This is going downhill, fast, so I better just quit. Have a nice one.

Remember this movie?

Remember how John Candy got some extra speed during the big sailboat race?

I have underwear like that, now.

I thought maybe I should write something here, since I haven’t been writing much lately. Work is busy, kids are nuts, I’m an idiot, what else is new? Anyway.

Here’s something for me to talk about this summer: I’ve made up my mind to lose 20 pounds by Labor Day. I want to be below 250. I’ve been stuck at my current weight - just at or below 270 - since at least January. I don’t even want to pull up my 2007 chart (yes, chart, shut up) and see how far back my current stagnation goes.

I’ve been running - 183 miles since January. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and I’m proud of the fact that a 270 pound middle aged guy CAN run that much. That is 65 times that I have laced up the shoes and gone out and pounded the pavement. Wow. But in spite of all that, I still weigh the same.

Why? Well, I could list a dozen reason. Like the fact that donuts are sold by the dozen. Or that I happen to love Pop Tarts more than is humanly possible. And that I don’t get enough salad in my life. So that’s why I’m going to go about losing some poundage this summer. It should make running a little easier (imagine being the legs on a 270 pound guy, running. yeah. Ouch.). It might make it less traumatic for the kids when I take them to the swimming pool. Maybe less chest pain. Etc.

20 pounds in three months. I was gonna start on the 1st of June, but hey, the kids wanted McDonalds… I can do this.

Today: ran 4 miles, 48 minutes and 16 seconds. Weight: 267.4 according to my poor, abused bathroom scale. Cereal with raisins for breakfast, with a yogurt chaser. I’m on my way.

(stop laughing. You know who you are…)

Anyway, three in a row. Eight miles. For me? That’s doing alright.

Four more scheduled Sunday, gonna try and walk and/or maybe go swimming between now and then.

Go, me.

She was tall, skinny, had long blonde hair (in a ponytail), tan, big boobs, pearly white teeth and a huge smile when she said “good morning” as she ran past.

But then, it figured out I was looking, and hid under a layer of fat. Dang.

A couple of notes. I’m running lots of short runs right now, but that’s cuz I’m following Hal’s spring plan. What I’m most proud of is actually doing all these runs, as tempting as it is to stay in bed in the morning and go “it’s only a couple miles, I can skip it.” Instead, I’ve gotten moving. And it isn’t so bad.

(yeah, right, it was 32 degrees yesterday. That’s freezing, people! )

Another thing is that thanks to his 4 times a week schedule, I feel stronger and less tired when I do run. I have the beginnings of actual leg muscles, now. I don’t remember that before.

And why do I think so much about ‘before?’ Because I’ve lost a ton of fitness. In October I ran 57 miles. This month I’ve managed 40. Now, that’s more than January, and almost as much as January and December combined, which is a Good Thing. But last February I ran 59 miles (fifteen runs) and in April I ran 14 times for just shy of 80 miles. So, in my mind at least, I have a lot of room for improvement. There’s no way I can do the 8, 10, or 12 mile runs I was doing less than a year ago. Five miles is a lot right now.

And in case you’re keeping track ala the t-shirt, I’ve run 26 times so far in 08; so my ratio is about 26 to 1. Not something I’m particularly proud of…

Coming in at #1:

Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing

(link was really slow when I wrote this, my computer apparently had Outback)

I don’t even need a fork…

February will be better.