She Said Yes

As you already know I'm not the king of blogging. I just can't really get into the swing of it like so many people seem to be able to do. So a post here and there and a how do you do. But sometimes an event happens that is so amazing, so perfect, that you have to share it with everyone you know as well as scream it from the roof tops (or in this case post it in a public forum).

This past Friday was such an event. Standing on the top deck of the cruise ship Victory sailing from New York to Canada on a hazy, chilly evening I took a small ring out of my pocket and went down on one knee to ask the woman I love to spend the rest of her life with me. With tear filled eyes and a beautiful smile she consented to one day in the not so distant future to be my wife.

After months of planning the perfect place, the perfect words, and finding the perfect ring, I can now move on to planning the perfect wedding with the woman who is even more then perfect for me!

Playa Del Fuego (Beach of Fire)

This past weekend Jenna and I attended Playa Del Fuego, a 5 day regional burning man festival located on a large plot of veteran land in Delaware. Many of you have probably heard me or Jenna or both talk about PDF many times. If you still don't know what it's about you can check out the websites (www.burningman.com) or (www.playadelfuego.org). We had a really good time, and this being my second time I was able to participate more and observe less then the last time.

This year I even got to spin fire for the first time, here are some pics of that. Jenna and I are still learning how best to take pictures of fire spinning, so these aren't as good as some of the other fire spinning pics, but hopefully there will be many more to come.


Here is a rather large slideshow of various different events throughout the weekend, feel free to skip through if you want.

Running for boobies

Well.. I did it.

1 year ago this past weekend I swore that this year I would run the Race for the cure instead of walking through the mess of people and I did!!

This was my second 5k race and I think it went pretty darn well. With the amount of people there we didnt' really get to start running at a consistent pace until we were about 1/3 of a mile in. After last year it didn't surprise me much at all how disorganized the race is. Walkers were spread out all throughout the runners, some with baby carriages and little kids. I can't blame the people as much as the organizers because there really was very little clear signage telling people where they should be. But then again, it is a giant charity event and it's pretty cool so many people are willing to come out.

It turned out to be a beautiful morning for a run, so much better then the low 40s and rainy day I had my first time out. Jenna and I both had to pee when we got there and quickly realized that if were to wait in line we'd be there till Tuesday so decided to forgo the port-a-smellies and just run.

We made our way as close to the front as we could get to avoid the walkers and carriage pushers in hopes of getting in a steady pace early (which is important when you are not a strong runner). It took us about 1/3 of a mile to really get to the point where we weren't weaving and slowing and speeding and stopping and were able to get into a nice pace. Once there it wasn't too bad at all. There are a couple hills at about 2 1/2 miles that were NOT a nice thing to do to people, but other then that I felt good and strong. I even managed to remember to go through the gate at the end this time :)

I made it through the entire race without stopping and we managed a 36:29 race time. 36 was my goal for this race and considering the slow start I am thrilled with the time. My goal this year is to finish in 30 minutes or less, so I'm not too too far from my target!

First 5k - The details

Well.. I have to say it wasn't the beautiful morning I was hoping for. Instead of the Sunny and 70 April morning I was expecting, I was greeted with 45 and raining. Not an ideal climate for my first run for sure.

We woke up around 7:30 and had a nice bfast, hoped in the shower and headed to Velocity Fitness in Warminster. I didn't really know what to expect, my only experience with 5ks was the Race for the Cure last year, and that was a madhouse. This, not so much a madhouse as a mess. Not organized at all, cars parked all over the place, bunch of people standing around with "Philly Fit" shirts on just staring off into space and not telling anyone where they were supposed to go. So now I'm cold... and a bit annoyed. We finally found where to park and headed into registration to pick up our tags. I was 34 and as I looked around at the other runners, I noticed there were no triple digit runners. So it seems this was going to be a very small run even without the rain.

we went inside and warmed up for a bit then headed back to the car to get ready for the pre-run warmup, which was actually very nice because it was cold and crappy out and the little bit of calisthenics helped a lot to make it a little less cold.

The runners got set up to begin the race and the air sigh (the horn just made a sound like a silent fart followed by "That was it" shouted by the guy starting the race, rather then the loud horn you might have expected).

The first mile was actually a little rough while I tried to get a good rhythm and get my breathing down. It also didn't help much that we were being lapped by the kids in the wheel chairs and it was essentially a small incline most of the first mile - mile and 1/2. But once i got my rhythm I felt good. I started to warm up and we hit mile 1 at almost 12 minutes dead on, which is my pace as of now. The second mile felt great, I was warmed up, had a good rhythm, breathing was good. and at some point I realized that I hadn't taken a break yet, in all my training runs I needed to take a minimum of 3-4 small stretch, water, walk breaks throughout. So that made me feel even better. Having Jenna there was the motivation I needed to keep going, I would have never kept up my pace without her there.

As we passed the 2nd mile mark a guy there with a watch called out our time, 21 minutes... Holy crap, you mean I just ran my 2nd mile in 9? I quickly realized, thanks to Jenna and her fun GPS watch I got her for her birthday, that we actually were about 1/4 mile shy of 2 miles, so no 9 minute mile for me, but that does mean we were right on track for a second 12 minute mile, which again is my training pace and worked perfectly.

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late, I know) we rounded the corner for the final 100 yards I heard from the end of the road "GO PJ" shouted from Nicole as she held up a big sign. It was actually a pretty awesome feeling being on the other end of the sign for once, I had a little burst of adrenaline seeing the finish line and hearing my name so Jenna and I decided to sprint it in, we sprinted to the finish line and apparently, we needed to go through some chute, which I didn't know so I passed right by it. after turning a nice shade of red I turned around and went back through and they tore my tag and off to panting we went.

I know that the race was mis-measured and we were about 1/2 mile short from running a true 5k, but to me that really doesn't matter. I did better in this race then I had ever done in training. I ran the whole thing without a break of any sort.

So, now I'm sure your wondering what the deal is with the plaque below. Second place? well, after the race we wandered around the vendors and got lots of free dog food and treats (the race was a fund raiser for a local dog shelter), as well as sampled various different potent potables from the dozen or so people pushing their pyramid scheme fitness drinks, one of which made me so sick to my stomach that the rest of the day was not as enjoyable as I might have liked. I heard in the distance "Jenna Franceski" called as one of the award winners for the 25-30 age group. I ran over a told Jenna and we wandered to the award ceremony to see what was going on. Turns out that they had Jenna marked as Age 25 and me marked as Age 0. I think I might have mentioned above that this race was a complete clusterfuck in organization. In any case, after talking to a guy who decided to let us ask a question, then completely ignore us afterwards, we spoke to another guy and it turned out Jenna was 3 out of 4 in her actual age group (which is pretty awesome considering she stuck back with me). I then asked about my age group, because I had only heard 1 name called and there were 3 places for each age group. Well, since I am obvious not 0 years old, I was 1 of 2 guys in the 30-34 men's group. Which makes me SECOND PLACE BABY!!!

So, my first run I got 2nd place out of 2 running a 12 minute mile on a cold and rainy April morning in the worlds most disorganized 5k... Not bad I think. :)

Nicole was good enough to bring her camera so I'll post the pictures once I get them from her.

My First 5k

More to come later!

More Running

A quick update. After a horrible first try at running outdoors. I went again this morning armed with Jenna and her fancy dancy GPS watch. Having something to help keep me at the pace I'm used to made a HUGE difference. I was able to finish 3 miles with only a couple short breaks for water and stretching, and a small, maybe 1/8 mile walk during the last 1/2 mile.

I'm feeling a LOT better about the race next week now, I'm still a little nervous but at least I know 3.1 miles isn't completely out of reach. The plan this week is to skip the treadmill and do 4 runs out doors, taking Saturday off to recoup and then running for the Philly Fit 5k on Sunday.

Wish me luck!

Running and Diet and Birthday

Bunch of exciting things to report this entry.

I FINALLY ran my first treadmill 5k this week. 37 minutes. Not great time, but hell, I actually ran 37 minutes. That's about 37 minutes longer then I've even run prior to starting this program so I'm pretty psyched. I have my first real 5k in just over a week, and I have to be honest, I'm terrified. I went out to Mondauk yesterday evening to try my hand at actually running outdoors. Let's just say it was a disaster. My pace, form, and stamina went to complete shit and I barely made it 1/2 mile before I nearly died of exhaustion. I'm hoping that all I need is to work on my pace and I'll be able to get the 3.1 that I need to run the race next week. But right now, not looking so good.

Another FINALLY this week is I finally broke past the 227 wall i had been facing for 3 months with my diet. Since past Christmas I've been hovering at or above 227 and just haven't been able to get past it. After 4 weeks of weighing in at 227, today I weighed in at 225.4, now about 1/2 of pound of that weight is due to the difference between my new scale and my old scale. The old scale still weighed me in at 226 so it's still a break through. Hopefully it's clear sailing to my 10% goal of 117.8 over the next few weeks. I would like to be there before Florida in June.

The last excitement of this week is My Birthday. I had a great time and it was awesome that so many people came out to watch me suck at bowling. Hopefully we can get the gang out to do it again some time soon. I sometimes forget how much fun bowling is. It's taking 2 really fun things.. drinking and hanging out with friends, and throwing a silly game in with it. brilliant!

Update... Woohooo

Rather then try to update you on the last... x amount of months, I figured I would just start fresh with where I'm at now.

Financials: About the same. Still paying off the big debt pile but back down to no credit card debt which is HUGE! Now I just need to stay there.

Diet: I seem to be stuck at 17 lbs, but I'm hoping now that I am training for a 5k goal of April 27 I should be able to break that and continue on.

Running: I took a not so bried hiatus over Christmas and am now back on week 7. This week I am running 24 minutes straight which brings me a little over 2 miles. I have 4 weeks to bump that up to 3.1 before running the Philly Fit Bash in Warminster on the 27th of April!.

Jenna: Thing are still going strong with Jenna. I can't believe we've been together for over a year (over 16 months now actually). I still am amazed at how slim the chances were that we would meet the way we did, when we did. Unfortunately work as been crazy for both of us over the past few weeks and we haven't been able to spend the time together that we want. But we have 2 big trips coming up this summer, Disney World with my family and a Romantic Cruise just the two of us! I can't wait.

Other Stuff:
Beth joined the crowd this year as we spent a day of drunken fun at Finnegan's Wake on St Patty's day. After a slow start (and on 3 hours of sleep) we made it down to the bar right as Preston and Steve finished up their broadcast, and I have to say by the looks of the crowd that was there for P&S, I'm happy we missed it.

Here is a slideshow of the fun if you are interested.



I Leave you with a promise to update a little more regularly from now on! Have a great day.

2 months?

It's hard to believe that it's been 2 months since I've last posted. There is much to talk about, 1 year anniversary with Jenna, Thanksgiving, Christmas with the kids, New Years, NOT having to go back to Atlanta after the holidays, my running program(or lack thereof), diet, money... so so much........

But you're gonna have to wait, because I'm swamped with work and just picked up a project to develop a website. So, hang in there, an update will be coming soon, just not now.

In the mean time....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...
MERRY CHRISTMAS (or Hanukkah or other seasonal celebrated holiday of your choice)
HAPPY NEW YEARS
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY (just in case I go another 2 months without posted) ;)