I know it’s been a while since my last post.  A lot has happened since December.  And, I know, most people that read this don’t care about anything I have to say.  They just want to see pictures of my girls.  So, for those people, here are a couple of pictures:

Big Sister

Little Sister

So there you go.

Even though both of those pictures are a great pick me up, I did have something else to say that caught me completely off guard today.  No…we’re not pregnant again.  That would be wild.  New job and new pregnancy in a month.

Oh, yeah.  I forgot to mention that I got a new job last month.  I’m now working at Acxiom in Conway.  Shorter commute and it seems to be more in line with what I want to do.  So far, so good.  I’m working with some really great people.

Man, I get distracted easy.  Anyway, for the pick me up.  Have you ever reached into your pocket and found 5 bucks that you forgot you had?  That’s awesome, isn’t it?  To know that you have money that you didn’t know you had.  Not much else is as satisfying as that.  I mean, you just made 5 bucks for reaching into your pocket.  I wish all jobs were that easy and rewarding.  That happened to me today.  Except it wasn’t my pocket and it wasn’t 5 bucks.  I reached into my email and found 240 bucks that I didn’t know I had.  Yeah, that’s right.  Two hundred and forty dollars.  WTF?!?!?!

Let me explain:  About 2 1/2 years ago, I ran the 2007 Chicago Marathon.  The exploits of that weekend can be found in great detail in this post.  You’ll notice in that post that Amy made up some shirts for the family.  Iliana’s said, “My Dad just ran 26.2 miles…What did your do?”  I thought they were really cute and fun. So, when I got back to AR, I made up a couple of designs for CafePress.com and SpreadShirt.com.  And promptly forgot about it.

Well, I was checking my email this morning, like usual, and came across another CafePress.com email and I automatically deleted it.  Well, as soon as I hit the delete button I noticed the subject line said something about a CafeCash balance.  So, I went to my trash folder and looked at the email again.  It said that I had a balance of $241.00 and that I need to log on and update my payee information so that they could send me payment.  My first thought was, “Phishing scam!”  Here’s a little web tip for you:  If you get an email requesting you to click a link to update financial or account information, hover over the link and look in the bottom left hand corner of your browser.  The actual address of the link will be shown.  If the link goes to an address that looks like a bunch of gibberish, then it’s a scam.  If it points to the actual website, you should be safe.  But you should actually just open another window and manually type the website address so that you know you are going straight there.

Okay, little bit of ADD going on there.  Anyway, so I go to my CafePress.com account and sure enough, I had a balance of $241.00.  There was also a message asking me to update my account information so that they could send me my commission check.  I thought, “No way!”  So, I started looking at all of the sales.  That was nuts.  The sales reports only go back 3 months.  But in the last 3 months, my stores have sold 28 items.  The commission averages about $1 to $1.50 per item or 10% of the cost of the item.  So, that means in the past 2 1/2 years, I’ve sold about 200 items and didn’t even know it.  How’s that for reaching into your pocket and pulling out some change?

So, what’s your best “I just found some money” story?

When I was younger, I loved playing video games. And when I say younger, I mean, like, 5:00 this afternoon. Anyway, there are certain games that I play that I feel like I have to start over every time I mess something up. So, I hit the reset button. In a way, it allows me to perfect my game, but it’s still wasting time trying to perfect a level on a video game. How OCD is that?

Starting over. At times in all of our lives we have to start over at something. Whether it’s a software project or as simple as cutting a board, (always measure twice and cut once) there are times when scrapping what you got is the only option. A lot of times you can take the leftovers and build off that.

But there are times when starting over just plain sucks and you can’t salvage any of your previous work. Like running. That’s something you never want to start over doing. You see, the last time I really trained for a race was about a year ago. I haven’t done a lot of running the past year. Yeah, I did the Little Rock Half Marathon, but it was pretty ugly. Doesn’t take a lot of training to do a bad half marathon. So, I’ve gained some weight since the last big training session. About 15 pounds. I started wondering why my pace was getting worse and worse. Turns out, that’s a lot of extra weight when you’re running 5 to 6 miles. So, I started thinking about how much starting over sucked.

Which got me thinking about what I did at the beginning. When I started training back in the day for my first (and so far, only) triathlon, I was afraid to run because I had a lot of weight on my frame and had never run more than 3 miles. So I started riding a bike to lose weight. And it worked. I lost about 10 to 15 pounds doing that. That made running quite a bit easier. So just like good ol’ Michael Finnegan, I’ve decided to begin again.

Introducing my new obsession (hopefully), Felty:

It’s a Felt F80. So, if you’re in Searcy and on the bike trail and a fat guy on a bike whizzes by, that’s me. So, here’s to me having to start over. Hopefully, I will have learned my lesson this time and I won’t have to start over again. But you know me, I’ll probably mess this up screw this up. Dang it, gotta start over….

Where do I begin?

Well, it turned out like I expected. No, I didn’t have my best half marathon time. I had my worst. 2:27:54 to be exact. Let me paint the picture for ya.

Saturday night

I didn’t want to get my stuff ready for the race. I eventually did, but it was a struggle. I checked the weather and it said that the temps for race time wouldn’t get past 46F. So, I decide to pin my bib number and “Half” designation on my long sleeve running shirt. I get everything else set up so that all I have to do is wake up and get dressed. I even had most of everything in my truck ready to go.

Sunday morning

Had to take nighttime medicine to help me sleep because I’m still sick. Woke up, showered and ate a bowl of oatmeal. Looked at the weather one last time. The current temperature in Little Rock was 49F. So much for not getting into the 50′s during the race. This gets me re-thinking my entire race wardrobe. (Not in a fashion sense, but in a functional sense.) Left the house around 6:10 am. Still not feeling it for this race. Got to Little Rock shortly after 7 am and got a parking spot. Got out of the truck and decide to ditch the pants and long sleeve shirt and run in shorts and a technical T-shirt. So much for putting my bib number and “Half” designation on my shirt last night. Also, I’ve been using Vick’s ointment for the past 2 days to try to get my cough under control. You know, the medicine that you rub on your chest. Well, before I leave my truck, I have slathered it on my upper lip, in my mustache, and anywhere else on my face I think might help.

I finally get everything situated and head to the starting line. Starting to feel kinda lonely. Don’t know anyone there. I started in corral “D,” which is where all of the casual runners start. Every once and a while, people turn around and do that “smell the air” thing like they are trying to determine the source of some weird smell. I think the Vick’s is so strong, it’s not only keeping my coughing under control, but helping the others around me. So to throw everyone else off, I start smelling the air and looking around, too, in a way that tells everyone, “Yeah, I smell it, too. What is that?” It worked.

Well the starting gun fires (I think. I was so far back I couldn’t hear it.) and we’re all off. You can tell the first timers. They’re all giddy and ready to run, run, run. I can always tell who they are because, mentally, I have them pinned to the ground and am punching them until they realize that this is going to be how they feel in about 2 hours. It’s cute really.

Fast forward about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I’m coming up on mile 8 and to my surprise, feel pretty good. I look at my watch and start to calculate the time and what it would take at my current pace to beat/tie last year’s time. At this point, I’m right at 10:30 minute mile pace. If I keep it up, I’ll beat my time. I start to day dream that my wife, daughter and some friends of mine were going to surprise me somewhere throughout the course to give me that extra pep I needed to finish strong. I start to think that I have a chance. Turns out, I was getting high on the Vick’s.

Then, I turn the corner and hit the 9 mile marker. It’s a steady uphill climb for about .75 miles. By the time I got to the top, speed walkers were passing me. Yeah, that’s right. My run wasn’t fast enough for people walking really fast. Talk about embarrassing. I finally level out around the 10 mile marker and realize that I now 1) can’t stop running and 2) have to run 10 minute miles to tie last year’s time. (It’s amazing how good I am at math when I’m running.) I also realize that the .75 uphill run depleted what energy I had in reserve. And considering that I was sick and started out with less energy in reserve, I don’t stand a chance.

By the time I get to mile marker 12, I look at my watch and realize that I have to run the last mile in 5 minutes to tie last year. It was at that point that I gave it up. I started walking for a few minutes. I was completely spent. I barely had enough energy to start running again when it turned into downhill. Finishing the last half mile took all I could muster. I kept looking around for a familiar face. None in sight. I crossed the finish line and heard the announcer say, “Great job, half marathoners! You managed to finish under 2 and a half hours!” For some reason, I wasn’t excited to have just finished “under 2 and a half hours.” When I race, I only race to compete against myself. There’s no way I’m going to win one of these races, so I race to beat my previous time. So, my races have 2 places: first and last. Oh crap. I just realized that I’ve just summed up my racing philosophy to resemble that of Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights; “If you’re not first, you’re last!” Now I feel even worse.

So, I finished and got my medal. They also were handing out those mylar blankets. I almost passed them up. I was thinking, “Why would I want one of those? I’m hot.” Turns out, I’m glad I got one because I would have frozen on the long walk back to my truck. Or I should say, “the long limp back to my truck.”

I learned a lot yesterday.

All of the above 3 combined to create the Perfect Storm of Sucky Running.

Now I have to go train for my next race.

*Sniff* *Sniff* Yeah, I know. What is that smell?

Yeah, if you’ve seen my Facebook status, you know I’m sick and I have a race coming up. And that I think this weather sucks. Tuesday afternoon, it was 81 degrees. Thursday afternoon, it was 31 degrees. Anyone else see the problem here.
So, now I’m all congested and hacking up a lung and have to run in the Half Marathon Sunday. So, I’m either going to have the worst half marathon time or my best. The worst, well, because I feel like a big cold pile of poop. Not steaming hot, because that might be better than how I feel right now. Cold poop. The worst kind. The best because I might get out there and think, “Well, I’m here so let’s go ahead and get this over with so I can go home.” And run faster than I ever have. (By the way, as I wrote that last sentence, I nearly coughed up my other lung. Lovely.)
The only silver lining is that when I tell people that it took me so long to finish that the walkers beat me to the finish line, I can say, “You know I was really sick and didn’t think I would be able to run. I almost died. Twice. I left part of my lungs on the course up around the Governor’s Mansion. What’s your excuse for being so slow?”
Everyone knows that’s a lie. All of my friends are way faster than me. Now I have an excuse.
Oh yeah. I went to the Little Rock Marathon Expo to pick up my packet today. I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed. Sure, it was organized a lot better this year than it was last year. There were no lines. The packet pickup/shirt pickup/chip check was as fast as I’ve ever seen one, but the vendors were very limited. Not a whole lot of swag either. When the largest displays are from Easy Runner and One More Mile, then there’s a problem attracting vendors. On the plus side, Bart Yasso was there promoting his book. If you’ve ever read Runner’s World, you’ve probably read something from Bart Yasso. Pretty neat.
So, to all of my friends that are running the race on Sunday, I’ll be the guy coughing his way to the finish line.

*cough* *cough* *hack*

Whoops. Gotta go. My lungs just fell out.

Answer me this:

If you are in meetings all week, how are you supposed to get your job done?  That’s what I’m struggling with.  In meetings all day…all week.  That equals no fun.

On another note, I’ve gotten back to my training schedule and ran with my friend Jon Monday night and we are planning on running again tonight.  So, now I just need to register for the marathon.

Well, I did my long run Saturday. 10 miles. All I can say is … head winds suck. I basically did an out and back. Out was fine. I normally don’t feel a tail wind. When I started feeling the head wind, I knew I was going to have problems coming back. When I hit about mile 5 1/2 and turned to go back west, the wind hit me full force and just about took my breath away.

Still got a long ways to go.

Well, I’m doing better this week.

I ran last night and it felt really good. I am supposed to run 10 miles this Saturday. Don’t know how that is gonna go. Last long run was 7 miles. And that was a couple of weeks ago. Oh well, we’ll see.

I’d like to take this time to say how much I love my wife. I sent her a text this afternoon asking her to help me get out and run tonight. I have to say that I hate to run. And I really hate running at night. By the time I get home and get everyone fed, the last thing I feel like doing is running. Which is why I usually don’t run. If I could run as soon as I got home, that would be better. So, I was only expecting my wife to say something like, “Hey, don’t you need to get your fat butt outside and run?” Then I, depressed and dejected, would have made some excuse as to why I couldn’t go run. Instead, I got home and she said, “Hey, I thought Iliana would ride by you while you ran. Do you wanna go now?” That was so awesome! It was great to have my girls out with me. Even if it was only half way. That really made a difference and running wasn’t such a problem tonight. So, Amy, if you are reading this (which you probably aren’t), thank you so much for going out with me tonight. It meant a lot to me.

I just realized that I haven’t written a post in a while, so I’ll try to catch up a little.

Today marks the first day in our new offices in West Little Rock. It adds about 10 to 15 minutes to my commute each day. Not too bad though. I was worried about coming across the I-430 bridge, but by the time I came across, it was fine. Then I went down Cantrell and noticed that everyone was coming IN to Little Rock, so I had no traffic coming in. That made me feel a little better about the commute. I was also worried about going back to driving alone. For the past 5 months, I’ve been in a carpool, and let me tell ya, it has saved me a ton of money. Now, I’m by myself for a couple of weeks. Good news is that I met a guy that lives less than a mile from me that works the same shift as me. So, we will start carpooling in a couple of weeks. Thank God that the gas prices are half of what they were.

So, I’m adjusting to life in a new cube farm. I feel like Wild Bill Hickock. Not because I fancy myself (that’s right. I said “fancy myself”) as a gun slinging lawman or an amazing poker player, but because I’m sitting on the end of the row and have no wall behind me. I don’t like having people come up behind me.

I’ve also started running again. I’m supposed to run the Memphis St. Jude Half Marathon and the Little Rock Full Marathon. I say “supposed to” because I haven’t registered yet. And until I register, my training sucks. I didn’t run all last week. I’ll have to start posting my training runs on here again. That way I may feel a bit more accountable. I give everyone that reads this blog permission to hold me accountable. My run days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. And if you ever want to know what I am supposed to be running, you can click here to see my training schedule.

We went trick-or-treating Friday night. Iliana was Ariel from the Little Mermaid. She had a red wig and everything. It was pretty cute. The wig only lasted for about 3 houses though. Then dad got to carry it. We went with the Wrye’s and had a pretty good time.

Saturday, my dad and BJ came by for a visit. Iliana loves it when Papa K comes by because he always has Jake with him. Jake is a 110 lbs. Golden Retriever. Iliana loves playing with Jake. When they got here, everyone else was taking a nap, so we went for a drive out to the old ranch. When we first moved to Arkansas 18 years ago (holy crap! it’s been 18 years!), we lived on a 5,000 acre ranch. We were only renting it, but loved it. Long story short, we had to move, but I have always wished things could have worked out that would have allowed us to stay. Anyway, the place is barely recognizable. We used to host trail rides and all of the trails we cut through the woods by the barn are completely gone. They have now been replaced by a reservoir that is going to be used by the natural gas industry. To think of all the money we would have if we would have bought that place. All the money from the natural gas industry would have paid the place off. Oh well, hind sight is 20/20.

That’s about it. I will say that the fall colors in Arkansas are spectacular! It’s the one time of year that I enjoy living in Arkansas.

Oh yeah, I hear there is an election coming up. Go vote.

Here’s the video for the race we did last weekend:

Find more videos like this on Marathon Makeover