Surprise, I'm BACK ....

Sorry that I have been slacking on the posting lately, I was busy organizing and coordinating a Baby Shower for one of my two sisters. It was a surprise shower held in Myrtle Beach, SC so you can imagine just how much work was involved. I'm happy to say that the shower was a big success and my sister, Heather, was indeed surprised.
Doesn't she look surprised? And ready to give birth any day?

She and the baby have 5 more weeks ...

I'll post more on the shower and pictures later as I promised to friends and family.
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My cough is history and my calf is healed so the time has come to get back on track and boy am I ever ready. I have about 4 weeks until the LiveSTRONG Challenge and roughly 6 weeks until the Maine 1/2 Marathon which my sister Cathy and I plan to run together. While my injury set me back a little, I am holding onto the fact that I have base miles and experience at these distances for both events.

Neither race is going to be a Personal Record (otherwise known as a PR) but I'm sure that I can cover the distances, have fun and use them to jump start my training. I have decided that I have two big *A* races for next season which were chosen with the hope that the workout volumes will lead me into my push to race an IRONMAN in Fall 2008.

My current "Raod to IRONMAN" plan is to do the following big events:

Myrtle Beach 1/2 Marathon - Feb 2007
EagleMan 1/2 Ironman - June 2007
Marine Corps Marathon - Oct 2007
IRONMAN Florida and/or Wisconson - Fall 2008

My guess is that I will end up doing IRONMAN Florida since I plan to head down there this fall and volunteer for the race and check out the venue. The ocean swim still scares the crap out of me but I vow to wait and see how Nancy rates the swim and then make my decisions.

Why do Myrtle Beach and Marine Corps again? Well why not? I have course records to smash AND my sister Heather wants to train for her first Marathon post-pregnancy. The two of us have such a good time running together that she decided she wanted Marine Corps to be her first marathon and ask me to run it with her. I would NEVER say no! I am honored to tag along and help her reach her goal!

Of course there will be some other races that will happen over the next 2 years for prep and practice but in the sense I am going to take Nancy's lead and try to keep my focus on "training for the Ironman" so the other races that I do will be "training days with lots of like-minded" friends.

But not too loose focus, I have alot to do in the next 6 weeks to prep for the LiveSTRONG Challenge and the Maine 1/2 Marathon with my youngest sister Cathy. So off to the gym, I go!!

I have Baby Shower tales and much to share on the antic of Wallace and Grommet ... those blogs are coming soon!! Stay tuned ... It is going to be a busy Fall!

Keep Living STRONG!