It's been a few days....

.... since I posted. I haven't been running much, either. I did run today. Not a long run, but a pretty hard one. Someone suggested that a hard 5K would be a good thing to keep the legs going, and then just another slow run later in the week. I was going to do the 5K last night, but there was an unavoidable clinic at REI last night, so I didn't get away from there till almost 10:30. I have run that late, but at this point I think sleep is more important. So I ran this morning instead. It was cool enough, and I felt great. I did a 23:57 5K. That's quite a bit faster than I've ever run a 5K. A 7:43 pace. That would put me in the top half of my age group in the DRC, which is fine. The world record (I just looked it up) is 12:37. So I'm just a bit shy of that. At least I'm less than double now. I've actually been sorta thinking about my goal time in terms of less than twice that of the winner. That would "only" require that I do something like a 4:22 or 4:24. Or perhaps even slower. That's entirely doable. But not at all a sure thing. We'll see.

I won't run tomorrow, and then Friday I'll do a slow one for 3 or 4 miles. Take Saturday off, and be rarin' to go! I can't believe it's almost here. The time has gone by so fast. I'm pretty excited, as I guess I've already said.

The semester is almost finished. I'm glad. I won't have enough time to enjoy it. Any time will be welcomed, though. I think next semester I'm going to require all papers and assignments be submitted online. I can't believe the amount of paper I end up with each semester. I will probably save most of a tree by myself. I'm kinda looking forward to next semester. I have 3 classes, but one is a Large Group, so I'll get paid for 4. Of course, a Large Group is as much work as 2 classes, so getting paid is not exactly charity.

(You know, opera sung in English just sounds funny. It **should** be in Italian. All my favorite operas are. Except for the ones in German.)

(Heard something funny today. On Fresh Air. Terry (we are on a first name basis, you know) was interviewing this guy who wrote a book about how important migrating animals are. He was talking about tracking migrating dragonflies, and said "... we were following dragonflies migrating in a plane, and ...." I had just the image you'd expect, of a bunch of dragonflies in a mini 747, with a bunch of dragonfly flight attendants handing out drinks. It's a good thing I wasn't doing the interview. I'd have made some smart ass remark. In fact, Terry even asked a followup question confirming that it was the people in the plane. I assumed at the time that she was trying to give the guy a chance to find his own humor in what he'd said, but he didn't go there.)

Anyway, it's late and I've still got some schoolwork to do, so I'm stopping.

I'm PUMPED for the race! It's going to be such an experience. I can't wait for it to be over!