Take Me to the Smokey Mountains Way Down South

In the time since I talked to you all, I have become gainfully employed and moved to the beautiful world of western North Carolina. Every run is a hill workout and I am discovering the world of trail running. Jensen is growing up and celebrated his first birthday. He is starting to run already. Christa is doing well, except for her shoulder, which is worn out from whipping my butt!

After a seven month hiatus, I am back with the Boy Scouts. My new responsibilities are with the Daniel Boone Council. I will be working with the volunteers in Haywood, Jackson and Macon Counties to start a new District. It is great to have the challenge of starting a new District and living in the heart of the Smokey Mountains.

Currently, I live at Camp Daniel Boone. It is a wilderness wonderland at the base of Cold Mountain (the Cold Mountain which the book and movie are based) and at the trail-head of the Art Loeb Trail. From there, I could pretty much hike anywhere. The lodge I live in sits next to the Little East Fork of the Pigeon River. I literally sleep ten feet from the babbling brook.

With that, I am totally focused on running. My mileage is in the 40 mile plus range and I am getting ramped up for a marathon. My plans include finishing a marathon this summer and trying to qualify for Boston in the fall. It is a no brainer that I am taking advantage of the opportunities around me by trail running. I made a treacherous ten mile run up Cold Mountain. My pace was a walking-like 13 minute pace.

This weekend will be the first race of the year. The twist is that it will be a 12k trail run at DuPont State Forest. The fifth time I have trail ran will be a race. I've met some new folks to run with. On Tuesday night, Jus Running, a running store in Asheville host a track workout. Norm, the owner has us run from the store to the UNC Asheville track where he lets us know what kind of pain we will be in that evening. There are a great group of folks there, who are known as "Norm's Maggots". Right now, I am at the tail end of the middle pack. They have some wicked fast runners show up. I try to schedule my week so I can run with them, but that is not always possible.

This area is downright hilly. You have to look around for an area flat enough for a recovery run. My first few weeks here were pain filled. Of course, it does not help to do long runs on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 3000 feet of climbing in a 12 mile trek can be downright painful. The Parkway is great this time of year, as the snowbirds from Florida and Atlanta have not arrived yet. In my hour and a forty five minute run, there were only three cars pass by me. The only disconcerting part was the bear poop (with fur in it) on the side of the road. One evening, I heard what may have been a bear in the woods, but I learned not to look in that direction when wearing a headlight.

Jensen is freaking hilarious. He is a little clown, who runs around, carries the biggest thing he can carry, laughs and smile all along the way. He also has been trying to find the smallest crevice in the house and wedge himself into it. It looks like we have a class clown on our hands!

I need to get the camera out and get some pictures of the scenery. Stay tuned!

Keeping Up With Lance

We can now keep up with Lance Armstrong. No, certainly not on a bicycle, but you can keep up with his comeback for an eight Tour de France Yellow Jersey. He updates his Twitter page several times a day on his Blackberry. It is not very often, one of your favorite professional athletes give real time updates on their training and day to day events. Pretty cool stuff!

He also has a photographer following him around to document his comeback. Mr. Armstrong, if you are reading this, I have a request: Please have more pictures of some of the "bike bling" you are using. The other pictures by Elizabeth Kruetz are worth a look as well. Picture #20 cracks me up. Lance Armstrong is standing outside his private jet, with a pile of race wheels. That's a crappy problem to have.

Here are the links I talked about:

http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong?page=1

http://www.elizabethkreutz.com/main.php

As God As My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy the turkey, football and family this Thanksgiving. And remember to be thankful for all that other stuff you take for granted.

Enjoy this clip from the best Thanksgiving episode in television history.

Job Hunt Update

This video best describes how it's going:

Bye Bye Miss American Pie?

Those who know me well know that I am a bit of a car nut. Nut being the operative word when you lust after such expensive toys with my meager financial means. Speaking of which, the domestic automakers are the same sorry financial state as I am. The public debate has centered around whether the government should bail out the American car industry or not. Both sides of the debate have legitimate arguments. If we let these companies die, the immediate effect on the economy would be catastrophic. If we throw money at the situation, it will be money wasted on an unsustainable business model. Either way, we are having to eat a shit sandwich on this one.

Outside of the serious economic issues of this situation, is the cultural implications for us car guys. Is it really going to be the end for the Corvette? Will it not be possible for a red blooded American by to buy a Mustang? Will NASCAR be a field full of Toyota's chasing each other? Will gold old Chevy, Ford and Dodge work trucks be replaced by a bunch of Tundras and Titans?

When I was growing up, my mind was fixiated on cars. I read about them, drew them, talked about them, dreamed about them. My boyhood dreams included 1964 Corvettes, 1965 Mustangs, a Camaro Z28 and Hemi Cudas. My uncle Wayne collected classic cars. It was like Christmas making the trip up to his house to see what he had in his stable. One of the biggest thrills of my life was the chance to drive his 1857 Thunderbird. I would buy magazines, collect Matchbox cars and go to car shows.

There are many folks who are passionate about the cars sold by the Detroit-3. They may spend weekends restoring their prized 1960's era Mustang, or their working day working their Chevy truck hard, the way God intended it. People have bow-ties tattooed on their arms, named their child Camaro and I swear that I even saw a Ford blue oval on a tomb stone.

The Prius driving, car hating crowd does not understand the we have for our Detroit icons. Has the Beach Boys written a song about a Camry? When Joe Diffie sang his country song "Pickup Man", I don't think the Nissan Titan was what he had in mind. Could you imagine Lee Majors in the "The Fall Guy" doing stunts in a Honda Ridgeline? Jesse Duke did not keep Bo and Luke in line in a white Tundra, while they drove around Hazard County in an Accord.

We can not live in a country where we can not buy a Ford truck for our farm, a Mustang to tinker with and a Corvette as a self-reward during our midlife crisis. At the NASCAR race, I want to cheer for the Fords, while exchanging banter with my friends who root for Chevys.

Whatever happens to the corporate structures in the next year with GM, Chrysler and Ford, whether they stay intact, become a ward of the government, or they die and get their assets picked up by the vultures, I hope we still have some of our automotive idols around.

In the end "bye, bye Miss American Pie, drove my Camry to the levy, but the levy was dry" does not have the same ring to it. Most importantly, let's pray for the families whole livelihoods are resting on all of this.

It's A Zoo Out There

Living in the country has been a lot of fun. When we wake up in the morning (or before we go to bed), we never know what we will see in the back yard. Cats

Canadian Geese

Herron

Billy Goats

Opossom

We have also had horses and will add the picture we have of it, when I get it uploaded. Who needs to head to the zoo when you can look out your back window!

2009 Goals

My racing goals for 2009 are contingent on me getting my career back in gear. There are a couple of things that are looking promising, it is just that I will have to wait. Like any accomplishment, they start goals. If you don't have goals in the first place, you will fail to really accomplish anything worthwhile. Therefore, I am going to get things started.

My main races of the 2009 season are going to be a late September 1/2 Ironman (South Carolina Half) and a November/December Ironman or Marathon. My Ironman will either be the Beach to Battleship, or Ironman Western Australia. If I can not get the career back on track in time to sign up for either one of these races, then I will do Kiawah Marathon.

Up to that point, I will either be competing in the North Carolina Triathlon Series, or the South Carolina Series, depending on where I end up living. I like competing with my age groups and meeting new friends among the local triathletes at these races. If I end up in South Carolina, I will end up getting more competitive with it. Whatever series I commit to, I want to do at least 5 races. It would also be nice to go up to Ohio and compete in one of the races up there.

With the major moves and changes in my life, I will be happy to be registered for some races, which will give me some goals to keep my training consistent. With our financial situation, I was unable to sign up for anything, which added to the downfall of the 2008 season. Look for me to come back in 2009 like Lance Armstrong, but with double the balls!