Well, here's the deal: I am not a writer, I am not creative, for goodness sake I am an accountant. I want to keep track of some things in my life and this on-line journal/blog thing seemed like it might help me in this regard. I suppose I could buy a notebook and get a pencil and write this all down in a journal but that seems so old fashioned and I wouldn't have the chance to share my life with you. I don't consider myself illiterate but my spelling and sentence structure may not pass an eighth grade test, however I will do the best I can and will attempt to look up in the dictionary the spelling to words that I recognize I don't know how to spell. As far as sentence structure, I apologize in advance for putting sentences together improperly but again I will do the best I can.

I don't know who reads these things, or why they read them, but here goes my attempt to become a real-life blogger:

For some reason I have lately become somewhat obsessed with running, and in particular ultra running. Ultra running is basically running any distance further than 26.2 miles. I am currently training for my biggest ultra undertaking which will be the Mother Road 100. A 100 mile race which is ran entirely on Route 66. Starts in Arcadia, OK and ends in Sapulpa, OK. Check out www.motherroad100.com for more info. Following is a brief history of my not-so-illustrious running carreer:

About a year ago I started training to run my first marathon. Before that, I ran a few miles every now and then, but nothing consistent. A marathon is 26.2 miles long. A pretty substantial distance to run by most folks standards. I sought out a training program to help me with my goal and found one I thought would work.

Some background information: I have never been an athelete. I never ran track. The only organized sport I participated in was baseball which I was honestly not all that good at. I played baseball through my sophmore year in highschool which has been a long, long time ago. Even in my baseball days we didn't really train. Throughout most of my baseball carreer I smoked cigarettes, chewed tobacco, and drank beer. I say this only to encourage those that may wish to start a training or fitness program of any sort, that you don't have to have a background as an athelete or as someone that was once "in shape" and now longs for those days of six pack abs and muscle shirts. That was never me; not then and not now. I did quit smoking and chewing tobacco a number of years ago. I do however, still drink beer. I have also had that 10-20 pounds of spare tire to deal with too.

At the end of my four month training period, my wife and I packed our bags and we headed out to Las Vegas so I could run the inaugural New Las Vegas Marathon. It is called "new" because it is the first marathon to actually run down Las Vegas Blvd ("The Strip"). They close down the strip to traffic and thousands of runners take to the street. The start is quite a sight as there is music and fireworks right at daybreak, and then the sound of thousands of runners feet pounding the street. To make an already too long story short, I finished the marathon, never walked and ran a time of 4 hours 47 minutes. Not very fast by most standards, but it is not about winning or racing for me. It is about setting a goal and doing what is necessary to achieve that goal. It is about personal satisfaction and accomplishment. The feeling I got when I crossed that finish line among the people cheering (yes, there are still people hanging around and cheering on the slower runners) is awesome. For just a moment you forget that the winners crossed the line several hours prior and it is just all about you.

OK. So my training is going ok for now and I have set yet another running goal. Every July there is an Ultra running event in California called Badwater. This is a 135 mile race through Death Valley. It has been called the most demanding and extreme running race offered anywhere on the planet. Temperatures can reach 135 degrees. Anyway, enough about that for now. Just another dream of mine and I will keep you updated on my progress.

Until my next blog, take care.

ps: if you want to read a really good blog, you can check out my wifes blog at yahoo 360. i think it is under sarahstrums.

take care...