Wow, my last update was back in August… Oops. Back then, I was planning on running a fall marathon - probably the Fox Cities Marathon up in Appleton/Neenah, Wisconsin. Both Milwaukee and Chicago were already full. Alas, my plans were ruined by the white trash folks across the street.

I’ll get into the long and nasty history between us later, but for the moment, what’s important is that they’ve been “dogsitting” a pit bull since early summer when the dog’s owner “went to Mexico” suddenly. They don’t know when he’ll be back. They tie Athena to the front step on a line just long enough that she can reach anyone on the sidewalk. She’s very aggressive.

To make a long story short, Athena went after Tes one night. I tried to tackle her, but missed, slipped, and tore open my left big toe on the driveway. I managed to get between the dogs and rescue Tes, but my training was effectively ended for the next few weeks.

After I healed up, I took a rather lazy approach to running, trying to get at least one run in per week. I wasn’t always successful. But somewhere around Thanksgiving, I noticed something while looking at my running log. I had over 570 miles so far. A nice, round, 600-mile total for the year was within reach.

Last night, Tes and I went out for a four-miler that would bring me to 596. At about 2.5 miles we made the decision to go for it. On we went, over the ice (yay for slip-on cleats) and snow. Tes did fantastically; she’d only done more than five miles one time, and the weather was much nicer for that. We did it.

I probably would have been up close to 700 had I done another marathon, but the accomplishment felt huge anyway. Fingers crossed, I’ll be better at writing all this stuff next year - which is really starting to look ambitious!

May 25 - Madison Marathon, Madison, WI - 26.2 miles
July 12 - Lake Michigan Triathlon Series, Kenosha, WI - 13.1 miles
July 26 - Grand Island Trail Marathon, Grand Island, MI - 26.2 miles
September 27 - Road Runner Akron Marathon, Akron OH - 26.2 miles
October 18 - The North Face Endurance Challenge, Madison, WI - 13.1 miles

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.