The good, the bad, and the ugly

Just got in from my Saturday afternoon run. It's almost dinner time but I think that I will probably shower first. Got that runner's stink going, you know what I mean?

The good- Four days this week. Not a record by any stretch and I know some of you scoff at four days but I enjoyed each day and for once in a long while, I was consistent and not finding excuses to skip.

The bad (started off good)- We had a statewide competition to lose weight over the last ten weeks. We formed up into teams of four and the goal was for each person to lose 10 pounds. For every person losing 10 pounds, his (or her) name will be entered into a drawing for $250. If the entire team lost 10 pounds each, each team member's name is entered into a drawing for an addtional $1000. We did great! All four of us lost our 10 pounds and then some. I was the weakest link of the team but lost 13 pounds in 9 weeks (early weigh in due to being out of town for spring break when the official weigh in occurred). The other three team mates lost anywhere from 17 pounds to 29 pounds! I know-you ask yourself what is bad about that. Well, I've sort of lost focus and though have not gained any back, I haven't lost any either. But I will be working on that!

Ugly-my running. Well, maybe not my running. My running if fine. It's the stupid road's fault. You see, where I live here in B'ham is a lovely little community called Mountain Brook. One of those places where you are either "old" money or "new" money. Or as in my case, NO MONEY! Anyway, the city planners must have missed their 10th grade geometry class. They either forgot or didn't know that the straightest distance between two points is a straight line. Now I am not going to argue semantics with you . . . line, line segment, ray, polyline. The bottome line is that in this area you can get from point A to point B 10 different ways and they all SUCK! There is nothing straight in this town. There are also no flat spots. NONE. We have a one mile loop around the house that isn't bad but I do occassionally venture out like I did twice this week. I did a four miler on Thursday and today (Saturday) that took me through billy goat country here in the "brook". Thank goodness I do not have a Garmin . . . I'd hate to know how many elevation changes I went through. When I used to go to a lot of local races, I always wondered why the Mtn Brook folks always did so well. Now I know-they train over here in these hills. I guess it will make me tough or it will kill me. Time for some Balvenie and Advil.

I'm going to enjoy my evening of watching basketball and being a slug. Looking forward to Sunday School where we are doing a study of the parallel passion stories in the gospels. Thanks to Bret for undertaking this and doing a great job. Go visit his blog if you have time. He is an excellent writer and has that . . . hmmmm . . . .weird(?) sense of humor.