halfway there.

ok, so i'm done with 9 weeks of the 18 week training cycle. Just a 17, 18, 20, and 20 to tackle and away we go. Spring must be coming soon. Must.

11 this morning was super easy. The Lakefront Path was closed from North to Grand, though, which I didn't know till I got there, rerouting me through areas I don't know well. Either way, I ran most of the way at marathon pace, which makes me know I can do this, which is good.

Ben's off in Indy with several other folks looking at art bikes. I just don't see the need. Instead Audrey and I enjoyed some Scrabble and Indian food with our favorite canine companion and a stack of great dvds, including my favorite movie, "Josie and the Pussycats."

building sandcastles in the sky.

So, today's the day that my Big Winter Project is either green-lighted or completely shut down. One thread still hangs out there. It's killing me. Ugh. This is a big undertaking and a big risk for us, and at this point it makes me just as overwhelmed to think about having this go through as it is to think of scrapping months of work.

Yesterday for work I threw a press conference that had no press. It took place in a union hall where I parked what was the only foreign car in the lot and felt a twinge of fear for my job being seen walking away from it. I walked into the union hall and the staff was smoking in the building and there were ashtrays on the conference room table. Wowsa. I talked a local paper into running my press release, so we got some coverage. But not a good day.

We had some friends over for a congrats dinner last night. They're escaping Chicago. It's funny how familiar I am with folks leaving town-- in 7 years in DC I went through probably 4 groups of friends because nobody sticks around. I guess leaving Chicago isn't quite as common, but it's completely understandable. They're lucky to have good prospects in San Francisco.

And Wednesday after work Audrey ran with me AGAIN, a 4 miler, this time completely on pace. Hot snakes! This could work out great.

This should be a quiet weekend, but I'm too much of a realist to expect it to stay that way. It's a step-back week, so just 11 mi tomorrow. I have vacation on the mind still, but no chance of making it happen...

nothing good.

(image: Gavin)
I may or may not have mentioned that Yohei, Ben, and I went to this party/gathering thing on Saturday night, but something that stuck in my head came right back when I saw this photo. I mean, look at my expression. It's like Chris was telling me his cat died, but he wasn't.
It's been a while since I've had to make small talk, and thankfully there were enough good friends of mine there (like Amy and Chris) that the talk wasn't all small, yet I found myself answering the "What have you been up to for the past Xnumberofmonths you've been in hiding?" with a simple, "nothing good."
OK, so it's not like nothing good is happening, it's just that it's all happening slowly, and it's not interesting to strangers, and it's about as exciting as this blog has become. I get up, I run, I go to work, I come home, I sit on the couch with Ben and our broken dog. The most exciting thing that happened to me today was that Ben made me coffee and left a note next to it saying "the lotion to keep your motion going," or something like that, that made me giggle a lot and wonder a little. So, it's not like nothing is going on, or that everything going on is bad, but just that there's nothing good enough to be interesting.
In my third Chicago winter I'm learning that this is par for the course. We all disappear for 3-5 months, we all do nothing exciting. I should stop acting like it's a bad thing, it's just a winter thing.
And in the uninteresting news department, I failed once again at a pace run, but this time because I averaged 20 seconds/mile faster than I should have. Which I guess is good, but I still am not meeting the goal of learning how to run at marathon pace.