Still going, and going, and going...

As many of you may or may not have known, I like to think that I am a runner. I don't think I am a great runner, but I do run. I absolutely love it and wish I had more time to designate to it. I remember thinking ,back when I was in high school (1989-1993), that people who ran for the sake of running were crazy, or stupid. A friend of mine who lived in the neighborhood was on the cross country team and tried to get me to do a few runs with him. I think my initial dislike of long distance running was his fault. We ran about a 1/4 mile at a pace I could handle, then this fool says, "let's pick it up a little". Needless to say I got smoked. I tried to keep up but had to stop in order to keep my lungs from climbing outside of my body to get more oxygen. Perhaps if I had just ran a quarter mile that day and then ran a little further the next day I could have biult up some endurance and enjoyed the sport way back when. So, a few years passed and I stayed in shape(I use the term loosely) by playing basketball mostly with the occaisional flag football game and such mixed in. My next attempt at running came as a result of a less that perfect relationship. You see, I was dating this girl, and it suffices to say that we dated longer than we should have, During the last couple of months a felt trapped by this brood of vipers and was looking for a way to have some time to myself. One day, in order to get some peace and hopefully relieve some stress, I said "dear, sweet, kind, wonderful one(probably not my exact words), I think I need to get in better shape so I'm gonna go for a run". It was great! no nagging, no aggrevating, just mean and the beautiful scenery of rice mine road and the banks of the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa/Northport. What I quickly learned was that the longer I ran, the less I had to hear the naaging and aggrevation. So, I quickly went from a mile to 3-4 miles. As it turns out, I lost a few pounds and generally felt better. Not long after, the relationship ended. I continued to run. I still had many stresses and the running seemed to help. A good friend of mine, Parker, started running with me. Those are some of my best memories, running to the lock and dam, running river road, racing through downtown Tuscaloosa.
Then Steve, my brother, took ill. I moved to Texas and continued to run. But, in time I ran less and less. We eventually moved back to La. and I got a job at abita springs water. I tried a few times to run, but it's hard to muster up the energy to run after lugging 5 gallon water bottles all day. It wasn't until I left that job and went back to school that I started running again. The fall after Katrina, K and I were living in married student housing at LSU and I found myself with some free time. So, I started with a run around the band practice field. then around tiger stadium(singing ""Yea Alabama" as I ran). Once again, a mile grew to 4 miles and in april of the following year I ran the Crescent City Classic in 57minute and 19 seconds, almost 3 mintues faster than my goal to finish in an hour. I thought I would never stop running again. It had become part of my life. Well, Classes got hectic, we moved to Slidell and back to Baton Rouge. I was slinging hash at the OG most nights. My old friend running and I parted ways. I thought of him often and tried to rekindle our relationship a few times but wasn't in the cards. Finally, I thought to myself, "Damnit! I want to run. I will run". Now I run about four days a week. Distances ranging from 2-7 miles. Usually about 3.5. One of my best motivators now is to prevent any more growth of the buddha. It's an ongoing battle. The other motivator I have is Sadie the wonder dog. We have a decent sized apartment, but it has a tiny yard. Sadie is a 75lbs yellow lab/boxer mix (we call her a golden boxador). She is very well behaved but if she doesn't get regular exercise she begins to start chewing on stuff. We don't have much but what we do have we try to keep nice, so it is my job to get Sadie the needed exercise to prevent legs from being chewed of of couches or the conversation "honey, have you seen my cell phone?", reply,"I don't know where the phone is but sadie's butt is ringing."
At any rate, I run. Last month I ran the crescent city classic in 1:01:43(beating my goal of 1:06:00).
I wrote this big long post just to get to this point. I have decided that to keep myself motivated, and to facilitate a healthy lifestyle, I should make some goals for myself. Well, I have and here they are. Within the next calendar year from today(April 13, 2008) I plan to run a half marathon, a full marathon, and a 1/2 Iron man tri-athalon. I will be in training all summer. Here is my race schedule.

Nov 23, 2008 - Ole Man River Half Marathon(New Orleans) 13.1 miles
Feb 1, 2009 - Mardi Gras Marathon(New Orleans) 26.2 miles
April 5, 2009 - Ironman 70.3 New Orleans - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run (sounds fun, huh?).

so, if you call and I don't answer, I'm probably out running. I plan to run some smaller races along the way and the date of the marathon and half marathon may be moved up a little, if I can find other races nearby. But, the Ironman Date is set in stone. Here it is in print so hold me to it. I said I would do it and I will. Feel free to ask me how it's going or to join me along the way.
So there it is, my running history and future. Oh! My other goal is to run 1500 miles by New years day. There is a ticker at the bottom of the page that will track my progress. Check back to see how I am Progressing.

Ps. no, I don't run to get away from K. I run so that I will be in better health so that I may have more time with her.