Stolen idea & a few of the amazing people I know

Yep, I'm admitting to a bit of theft here......a friend had put up a quite well-written blog post last week talking about friends, friendship, and the people he knows--all without naming any names, lol, so I'm not quite sure I'm included in that group ;-).  However, I'm going to be a name namer here with discussing some of the amazing people I know and some of the events in their lives.

First off, there's Jeff Clark, the marathon trucker, somebody who I greatly admire & have exchanged multiple emails with.  He was in the process of completing his 9th marathon last Sunday when he had an "event".  You can read the details here in the blog he writes for Truckers News.  Jeff is amazingly & tirelessly dedicated to trying to improve the health & fitness education of truck drivers and others involved with the industry.  I'm personally seeing the toll in friends right now who've driven anywhere from 25-40 years and didn't take the time to care for themselves as well as they did the freight they've hauled.  Wishing you all the best Jeff!

Next, Leah Thorvilson..........She's fast, funny, fast, friendly, fast, foxy, fast (all right enough with my love of alliteration already).  Ok, if you people that follow marathoners don't know who Leah is shame on you!!!!!!!!  She lives in Little Rock and I have had the great luck to have shared many a local race course with her albeit waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back behind her in the pack.  And why should you know her? She's FAST (as well as an all around amazing person, which is the most important part).  As a matter of fact, she's so speedy that she qualified for the Olympic trials yesterday at the Fargo Marathon :-))))). You can read a little bit about it here.  I must say that while I get to speak to her occasionally that I'm in such awe of her that I get too quiet and don't quite take the opportunity to talk to her as much as I would like (yeah, I'm a bit shy, lol).

On the down side, we ran into a couple who we've not seen in a few years although we keep talking about dropping in & saying hi.  We should have been doing so because we found out yesterday that Dick has lymphoma and will be starting his 2nd round of chemo tomorrow.  Such sad news, but he's a fighter so hoping all goes extremely well.

A new acquaintance is Mike that I finally got to meet yesterday after hearing so much about him.  He's paralyzed I think from the waist down but he's even more active than I am!!!!!! He's a competitive hand-cyclist, kayaker, jet-skier, swimmer, competes in triathlons, who all knows what else.......Anyways he makes me look like a slacker in the athletic dept, lol.  James & him have struck up quite the friendship already & come to find out we've competed in quite a few of the same events.

I could go on and on with this subject but, unfortunately I don't have all day to just write (and it would take at least that long!!!!!!!!).

Running is going well, cycling even better although the past 2 weeks have been kinda off on the 2-wheeled mileage, grrrr.  I have been tired this week--got ready to go out for a ride Thursday, laid down to cuddle with Elsie and promptly fell asleep so there went one of my days.  I certainly didn't want to get on the trainer so just chalked this up to a rest week. 

Monday:  2:01(20:55) mile easy run at Pulaski, TN, includes 3/4 of the way up water tower hill

Tuesday:  6:24 (59:07) mile run at Breaux Bridge, LA. Was followed by somebody all over town in a pickup. couple of times is coincindence, 5 times=stalking, yuck

Wednesday:  4.01 (35:56) run at Cotulla, TX

Thursday: 1.22 (13:20) mile slog around the neighborhood with Elsie

Friday:  3.01 (29:42) mile neighborhood run with Elsie again

Saturday:  7.62 (1:18:06) miles at the NLR RiverTrail with some of the Cabot Cruisers (mostly Brice, Patti, and Isabella) followed up with birthday breakfast for Lisa (who is also moving to Dallas in mid-June).  also 1.2 mile walk across & back on the bridge to the River Market.

Sunday:  No run yet, but will do at least a mile for day 21 of the Twitter 30 Day Run Challenge later.  30 miles cycling with Alyson and James.  Today was a T.I.T.S. ride (time in the saddle) with no pushing hard for me, needing to rest the legs.  I did do one-leg drills for a bit and practiced riding with no hands on the bars.  We also had a few hills but no hammering up them today.

Actually should call today's ride Turtle Rescue Ride, we stopped and moved at least 4 turtles out of the road so they wouldn't get squished.  And yes, we moved them in the direction they were going although the first one hissed at me when I picked it up. Was almost tempted to put it back down in the road, lol (just kidding, I wouldn't do that!!!!!!).  There was also a four foot long black snake that had been run over out on Hwy 367, I swear that snake's body was as big around as my calf.

I mentioned riding with no hands--I just learned how to do that last week!!!!!!!  Was jealous of those crossing the finish lines with both arms raised & was determined to learn how.

We also took the motorcycles out for a spin Friday evening, sooooo love it but remembered why I don't go out very often on mine very often anymore--the seat hurts my back after about 25 miles.  Need to start doing some research on those & replace my badlander even if it does look good.  Just don't want one of those over-padded, over-sized behemoth seats, yuck :(.

Yeah, I ride Harley :-).  Those that claim they're pieces of crap can just go on believing their misguided little thoughts, lol.  My softy is 8 years old and hub's eglide is 10 years old and the only problems have been due to disuse & misuse on my part--this is my first bike, learned to ride on a Buell Blast then rode hub's Honda 750 until we bought the Softail.  Nothing at all against other bike makes, as a matter of fact I would love to get a Triumph or a Ducati, just the people who feel it's ok to slam what I choose to ride.

Wow, this ended up being kinda long-winded so those that were hoping for the shorter format to continue are a bit out of luck.

Next weekend, James' and my 22nd anniversary, the Rock Run 8k, maybe the RiverFest 5k, and the Du it in the Parks sprint duathlon.  As for now, time to think about getting Lola loaded up and heading out for the week.