4 Down 8 to Go

I particiapted in an 8K "Earth Day" race in Greer, SC this past Saturday. Normally I would say I ran an 8K but either the lead runner or the person leading the runners made an incorrect turn and shorted the course by about 1 mile. I knew I'd finished fast but couldn't figure out why based on my pace. I placed 2nd in my division but it's a bit meaningless because I'm not sure how long the course was nor am I sure if I could have maintained my pace throughout the real distance. It was great to have my parents and little Benjamin there to encourage me. The weather threatened to cancel but it was fine for our portion. After the awards were presented we stopped over at a little diner in downtown Greer and had a mid-morning Southern brunch.

My parents visited with us all weekend. It was great to see them interact with Benjamin. Dad and I worked on a few electrical issues and mom helped watch Benjamin while I worked on pressure-washing the house & doing a little yard work.

I've "officially" started my business. The more I work on things related to it the more I get excited about it. I've been working at reading doing industry related research or reading for a minimum 1 to 2 hours per day on top of any actual business activity. I have a good friend working on a business card for me and am beginning to send out letters to potential clients.

We're headed up to Kentucky most of next week to look at houses and visit with Sarah's family. It will be a good break for us and good to spend a little quality time together & with her family.

Roller-Coaster

It's been a bit of a wild week. Benjamin had a Dr appointment on Monday morning - he's doing great and is right on track. I found out Wednesday that I'm official registered with the State of SC for my financial planning business - so I'm looking forward to actually talking with people about it. Last week one of my wife's coworkers hear us talking about buying a new(er) car - so barring any problems or issues we'll have purchased one he had available in the next day or to. Good timing as my AC in my little Corolla went out again for the 3rd time since I've owned it .... hmm... 12 years. We also met with a realtor about listing our house - that should start the Monday after Easter. We're having a yard sale on this Saturday with a couple of other families. It's amazing how much junk you keep - I think its a good idea to move every so many years just to purge a few things. We're preparing to go back to Kentucky the first week of May to hopefully find a house and make an offer. That's the big items...

Bono @ the National Prayer Breakfast

Check out this excerpt from Bono's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast a little over 2 months ago...

3 Down 9 to Go

Ran the Cooper River Bridge Run this morning. It’s a 10K race running from Mt Pleasant to the historic area of Charleston – with a portion of run going over the new bridge in Charleston. There were over 45,000+ runners. It was amazing to see everyone lined up for the run across 4+ lanes as far as I could see forward and backward. The weather was great – a little overcast and cool. It was a good run. I finished in around 56 minutes – that’s not exactly where I wanted to be but I was satisfied – hard to train when you’ve been out of town most of the month. The participants were treated to unlimited bottled water, fruit, muffins, bagels, and hot dogs after the completion of the race. About 5 minutes into the run – the race announcer stated that the Kenyans had already finished the race. She was kidding because it was April Fools – but they did finish well of 40 minutes.

While running with that many people really gets the adrenaline going – it is really difficult to initially run fast or to pick up your speed because the crowd is so thick. To some extent you can only go as fast as the crowd is moving at least for the first couple of miles.

A big thanks to the friends of ours from New Spring who assisted me with housing for Friday night.

I’ll post the results in a day or two… ( Results : Finished in 55:25/9:47 pace/6210 place overall/601 out of 1694 in my age bracket) - additional links: The Post and Courier & Charleston, SC