Staying on Top

Okay, this post is as much about getting something new out there as it is about anything informational, but hey, its something. Part of me is resistant to putting a new post up until I have at least one comment on the previous one but I guess you all have no opinion whatsoever about Mitt Romney digging up a stump so I guess I have to move on... My lovely wife can attest to my Primary Fever as I have been far more political this round than in election cycles past.

What I wanted to quickly write about is just how hard it is to sustain maximum effort. You would think that a distance runner would understand and master this concept better than most but alas, even I fall short... Since my run on Thanksgiving Day, I have run a grand total of ONE time for 3.1 miles. Now I could point out that I was "taking a break" after my race, or that I gave blood the following week since I had missed my routine donation a month earlier because I "was in training", or that I have been playing hard full court basketball one night a week since then so that should count some, or that it has been too cold to run outside since that time, or that I am catching up on some undone "Honeydoos" that Jamie let me pass on in the name of getting another run in leading up to the race... You get the picture I'm sure. Ultimately, these are what they sound like, excuses. Could I have maintained my 15-20 miles/week pre-race pace, probably not, could I have run twice a week, most definitely. This is why we admire winning streaks, and enduring champions, because for all the effort it takes to get to the top, it takes a champion to stay on top. I'm not there yet. And don't even get me started on how far off the mark I am in other areas of my life...

Back to the plus side - Milestones I have reached recently, I am now weighing in at 198 and for perhaps the first time in my ENTIRE LIFE, my waist is now smaller than my inseam. Yep, I purchased my first 32x34 jeans this week! (I was going to include a picture of the tag but decided that might come off a little to close to BRAGGING which we know I NEVER DO!) Do you realize how hard it is to find that size?!? I will admit that they are "loose" jeans, which I need to accommodate my MONSTER calves and thighs. Okay, enough with the chest thumping, but you understand I had to build myself back up after admitting my fallacies in the paragraph above...

I hope you are all striving toward whatever you have defined as your "TOP". Have any of you started to formulate goals for the new year? I think mine will be a full Marathon and 183lbs (the weight at which my BMI is no longer "overweight"). I'm sure there will be others, maybe addressing the "other areas" but those aren't as easy for me to set or reach... but I'll get there.

Christian Service

I don't often post about things beyond my family or myself but when I'm blown away by something, I sometimes do. I'm not shy about my support for Mitt Romney and I think I may have emailed this link to many of the people that visit my blog but I just thought this was a GREAT example of why this man would be a GREAT President. While visiting his son in southern California just after the San Diego fires, Mitt joined his son Matt and a crew of LDS missionaries and local members to help remove a stump from the front yard of one of Matt's neighbors. WITHOUT CALLING THE PRESS FIRST! How many other top candidates out there would do this? Probably a few of them, maybe a few more if they could get the press there, but there he was, goggles on, messy hair, down in the dirt with a chainsaw! This was a couple weeks ago and it is finally leaking out through some personal journals and amature photos. Mitt didn't and wouldn't publicize this himself but I think it needs to get out there...

Your Candidate?

Thanks to one of my brother's blogger acquaintances I found this fun little quiz. Answer a series of questions and it tells you who your most closely aligned with in this election cycle. I don't know how scientific it is, but it was fun, and hey, it said I was 94.92% aligned with Mitt Romney - Dead on if you know my politics... Let me know who your man (or woman I guess) is.