It's a Boy!

Monday morning, after my chiro appointment, I head to the airport for my flight. Moments after I turn on my phone it rings: "Hi Honey, I need to talk to you about something." Sorry, love, waiting for the car shuttle, can I call you back. "Sure, but soon, okay."

Ten minutes later, finally getting to the car, my phone rings: "I thought you were going to call be back." Just got to the car, what's up? "Well, I know the timing isn't what we had talked about, but Ann called and she's at the dog shelter and found a dog for us." Okay, well, we were gonna wait 'till the end of June. "I know, but Ann said I have to see this dog. He's perfect for us. I'm on my way to the shelter. What do you think?" Well, this wasn't the plan. Call me from there.

We're not dog people, but we want to be. The thing is, a dog requires commitment. It requires planning when you're traveling. All that stuff. And besides that, we're just not that spontaneous.

Deb calls me again and says she can't see the dog because they're neutering him. She now knows that his name is Andy and he was found at a Baltimore tennis court wandering around with no tags. He was on death row in the city when the shelter rescued him. She gives me the shelter's web site to look at him.

Okay, I'm a big dog kinda guy. Growing up we had a retriever and I love that size dog. Andy is a poodle. I think of poodles as really small, but I looked at the web site and saw this cute little guy and had to approve the deal.

After school, Deb took the kids and they met Andy. The shelter approved us as being suitable and responsible pet owners (who knew there was a test?) and Andy came home with them.

My new son, Andy

Monday, of course, was Boston Marathon day. This is not the first time I've been in the Boston area on Patriot's Day. One day, I'll actually figure out how to finagle a visit to the course to watch. (Or, I could always shave 2.5 hours off of my expected Frederick time and just run it.) It seems like everywhere I went in public, there were folks wearing their official long sleeve t-shirt Very cool.

I was staying at a hotel in Dedham, MA and decided that it would be nice to run on the local street. New England towns have such a warm feel to them, what could be bad. Although I did wake early enough to get out, laziness overtook and I headed off for an exciting day at the office. As the day wore on, I though I could still get a run in after work, if the daylight would hold out. And it did. After a good stretch, I headed into the center of town to see all of the 17th and 18th century buildings. I felt really fast with almost no pain from the injuries.

How fast? I'm glad you asked. For the 4 miles, my splits were:

9:52

10:08

10:42

11:18

Total: 4 miles, 42:00, 10:30 average.

What's that you say? Is that your first EVER sub 10-minute mile? Well, yes, as a matter of fact it is. Thanks for noticing. Am I a bit full of myself? Well, YES, I AM! It was a bit of a down hill start to the run, but the second mile was fairly flat. I am always amazed when improvement happens. It almost always seems to come out of nowhere. It felt really good.

One of my co-workers, Rich, had said he'd be running at lunch today and invited me along. After telling him how slow I was, he said no problem. Would I be jinxing myself after yesterdays run? Would the pain in the butt return? Well, no. We went out at lunch time -- 71 degrees and sunny -- and did about 3.1 miles in about 35 minutes. My concern was more how I'd feel. I felt good.

I'm certainly not going to declare myself totally fit for the big day, but I'm feeling a lot better about it than I was just a few days ago!

That's it for now from suburban Beantown. Gotta run!

L'Chaim!