Just Another Waste of Space

That’s right, I plan on participating in the Secret City Half Marathon this year. I’m going to have to take this “training” seriously now. I’ve even talked another poor soul to join up. That’s going to be at least two(2) people that have never competitively ran ever before entering into a 13.1 mile race to fame and glory.

Okay, so maybe fame is a bit of a stretch but I’m pretty sure that just completing this will be impressive none the less.  I’m also curious to see how much 7-8 months of actual training will do for me.  I’m a bit pudgy in the center so hopefully I’ll be able to tone that up a bit while achieving a life goal.

Now, to get an awesome Team Name.  Toss me some ideas and we shall see if they stick!  I also would like to invite all that can to join in on this half marathon.  If you can great, join up and we can even compare how well we did!  If you want to join but you don’t think you have what it takes, or aren’t quite sure how to get ready let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction!

For more information on the Secret City Half Marathon check out their site! http://www.secretcityhalfmarathon.com/

I’ve been wanting to start something new for a while now and I think I have a pretty good plan set up.  I’m going to start running.  That’s right, I’m going to start a running schedule!  I’m going to start out very simply, nothing crazy at all.  So simple in fact that I will be walking to start!  For at least 1 month I will be using Hal Higdon‘s “30/30″ plan.  It outlines a very simple process to get started in running.  If this works out well I’ll probably jump over to the Spring Training set also by Hal Higdon.

To help keep me on track I’m going to use Training Peaks schedules to track my routes and my daily exercise.  I’ve conveniently already set up an account and have added the Free 30/30 plan to my calendar.  Should be interesting  Wish me luck!

Well, I finally made it up to Michigan to meet Kat’s family!  I left around 2am Thursday night (crazy work schedules make you have crazy travel schedules ) and I arrived outside Kat’s sister’s house somewhere around 10am. I got there a bit before Kat and her younger sister got back from the gym which gave me a little bit of time to play some catch with the coolest 5 year old I know.  The really great thing about my arrival time was it meant I got there in enough time to see the Marshmallow Drop!  If you are are just as curious as I was about this please read up over here.

After the amusing and slightly messy marshmallow drop we went back to Angela’s house and Owen (previously mentioned 5 year old) had us play all kinds of games ranging from jumping on a trampoline to playing hockey.  After a bit of persuasion we talked Owen into letting us visit Kat’s parents (He just wanted to stay and play all day).   I was really glad to get the chance to meet her Father and her Mother both.  Her entire family is fantastic.  There really isn’t any better way to describe them.

We went back to Angela’s and had some dinner with Kat’s brother and his wife who were also pretty great.  Her brother is a trip, super energetic and amusing while his wife was very cute with her little baby bump and very nice as well.  We played some hardcore soccer with all the siblings, Owen, Noah (Owen’s friend), and myself of course.  It was very intense and I’m pretty sure everyone walked away with a few injuries but I know 100% that everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

Saturday was a bit calmer since Owen went to visit his dad for a bit. Before he left we got to color some eggs(and fingers) which was fun especially since I haven’t done it in so long.  Kat and I took advantage of the day and met with some of Kat’s oldest friends.  I got a chance to meet Mindy and Missy who are both extremely smart and pretty funny too boot!  We went to lunch (Melissa included!) which was a great way to play catch up and get to know each other a bit.  After this we went back to the parent’s and relaxed a bit getting to talk with Mr. Takach a bit before we headed out for drinks with another friend of Kat’s.  Natasha was a bundle of energy (probably so excited to get to see Kat, I mean who doesn’t get excited for that?).  We had a nice talk for an hour or so and then we all parted since it was getting a bit late.

Sunday morning started bright and early for Easter Mass (yay for getting up at 7am right?).  The service wasn’t bad but I did find out that I am a Christ Chin which was pretty amusing.  After Mass we went to Kat’s parent’s house to prepare for Easter dinner where Mrs. Takach made a lot of super yummy food (enough for like 50 when there was only 14 of us) but no complaints on this side I made sure to eat up and enjoy the company.  After dinner and dessert we all took a small break to talk and socialize then we broke out some more games to play in the backyard.  Kat and I failed to beat Mr. Takach and her”Crazy Uncle” at a game of Ladder Golf but we had fun and were able to watch Angela and her boyfriend Kevin kick some butt so all turned out well.  After a while we started up some more soccer, this time in a larger back yard but I don’t think that helped the deadlyness of the game any.  Either way it was great even though Melissa and Kevin won against five other players they just have crazy skills I tell you.

The hardest part about the whole trip was leaving though.  It was very hard to say goodbye knowing that I wont get to see my Kat when I wake up and knowing that both of us have to head back to work which isn’t fun for anyone after a great weekend of family fun.  I look forward to another visit and hopefully this time I’ll get a bit more time to talk with her parents since I neglected them a bit this trip without really noticing until now…

I think I have given a pretty good summery of the weekends events (though it is a super condensed version of everything that happened).  Now that you know what I did, how was your Easter?