Sunday, April 18, 2010

Big-Race Goodie Bags Lead to Fun Pix

ORN (Sat): 14.0 miles, R3/W1, 2:24:26, 10:19/mile

After my truncated "long" run last week, I hoped to have a more positive long-ish run yesterday, 2 weeks ahead of the Illinois Marathon. I walked out the door committed to 12 miles, hoping though to do 14 if the strained upper right calf cooperated.

On a perfect, sun-swept, cool spring morning, it was fabulous to simply be out. Since the plan is to run a 1/1 run/walk in the marathon, I wanted to run a 3/1 for training, while keeping the same run pace I intend to use on race day, 9:12/mile.

It worked. The pace felt fine. Better was the news about the right calf. Around mile 4, it mentioned to me "Hey, I'm still here!" But, it never got louder. Just a bit of a minor whine from the back seat which never got worse. This could be the story on race day... it was good to experience and know it is manageable.

But, I digress.

When John and I ran the Honda Los Angeles Marathon four weeks ago, we got, as usual, a full goodie bag at registration. It had the usual mishmash of local race notices, pain relievers, restaurant deals and odd nutritional drinks. Most funny, though, was a complimentary Sweatband emblazoned with the 2010 US Census logo. I guess the tax dollars were worth it for the publicity, but it seemed odd to John and me.

I did have the idea it would make a fun gift for my twin, six-year old grandsons, so John happily donated his to the cause. I gave it to the boys last week and they gladly posed for grandpa to take a photo.




Then, as two kindergarten boys are wont to do, Drew looped behind Nathan and they began to wrestle, leading to this epic image.




Which then raises the Census Question of the Day; Just how do they count two-headed boys?

I guess if you are a Census worker, you just shrug your shoulders and persevere.


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6 comments:

Backofpack said...

That is too cute! What a picture...

Sarah said...

Your grandkids are so cute!

Glad the calf if getting better. I too have had a less than ideal recovery/training/taper from one race to the next (I think ours have been and will be on the same weekends.)

Darrell said...

Great pic of the twins, for sure.

Good to read that the whimper from the back seat was kept to a minimum.

Wes said...

LOL... great pics! Glad the calf is at least going through the motions of cooperating :-)

David said...

I heard it costs the government about 50 cents if you mail the census survey and about 50 dollars if a surveyor has to come to your door. I saved the gov't some tax dollars.
Glad to hear the wheels are holding together. Your race is close. I hope the forecast is all systems GO.

Lynnster said...

Great picture! I didn't realize you had twin grandsons! I hope all goes well next week for your marathon! I'll be running in Columbus for the half- not doing Indy this year