Sunmart 50K

I made my first run post 30K tonight; 3 miles at Memorial. The weather was chilly and just about perfect for running. I was having the "maybe I should just run two miles" thoughts that I periodically have when running solo, and then Brenda and Chris came trotting by, going the opposite way of me, so I turned around, caught up, and finished my middle mile with them, and then the final mile solo.

Everything felt decent, though my left knee was a bit angry a time or two. I've been dealing with left knee pain for about nine years now, so I can handle that. The feet aren't perfectly quiet and pain free, but they are manageable. All in all, it was a successful run.

And with that, I'm going to run Sunmart. 31.1 miles (50 kilometers) sounds a bit long, but now may be the best time ever to run it. I am not at the peak of running fitness that I was in early 2006, but I am accustomed, after seven months of training, to running long distance, so it's time. It will also give me a chance to volunteer to support the HoustonFIT 21 mile run the following weekend, and I think I will enjoy giving a little back to the running group.

Boston Rob has run Sunmart before and has been giving me some advice, including that I should consider wearing my fuel belt as the aide stations can be spaced far apart. I'm going to quiz him on the subject one more time, but I really can't see myself wearing the belt for seven to eight hours. Even though it will be warm on Saturday, I think I will enjoy the run more if I just make use of the water at the stops. Also, that decision will force me to "graze" a bit at the stops, which will probably make the tail end of the day a bit more bearable! Unless Boston Rob leaves me with the impression that the trails are full of crazy roots, or unless I hurt myself playing softball on Thursday, I should sign up on Friday, and be running my first ultra marathon on Saturday morning. I'm actually looking forward to it! If nothing else, it's another medal, and a bit of a redemption run for Chicago.

I've been thinking about starting up a blog devoted solely to people who are relatively new to the working world; a kind of early 20's to mid-30's kind of blog. Over Thanksgiving I drafted up about 30 or so topics that I would want to discuss, and I'm spending some spare time seeing if I can actually make those topics into coherent, useful posts. Perhaps I'm being cocky believing that I have something useful to give on those topics, but I feel strongly about many issues, particularly financial ones, related to that time of life. So perhaps early in the new year, I may have a new, independently hosted blog focused on just that; it would leave this blog as a way to simply track my weekly running and related rants.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, my new assignment at work may be announced. As indicated by my boss about a month ago, I will be going into Project Management for Upstream IT. I'm OK with this change, but I am worried that I will be a glorified paper pusher and manager of our many processes. Only time will tell if my worries are based in fact. I will say that in the face of this move, in one instant it's easy to get motivated to finish up my remaining tasks in my current job, and in the next instant, hard to get motivated to do anything other than simply make it through these remaining days. Hopefully I can "finish strong" and put a positive end to my 22 months in our Planning organization.

I'll be at a Rockets game Wednesday night, softball Thursday, rest on Friday, and run/walk/crawl on Saturday. Sunday, I must celebrate; wings and beer or my post 50K time will be a failure!