Slacker

From the road:

I am traveling with the boss again this week. It is a "rockstar" lifestyle, to be sure. This latest round of trips took us to Okinawa, Bangladesh,and Thailand, with a pitstop on the Japanese mainland on the way back to Hawaii. Then the boss was off again to DC last week (thankfully he left me behind for that part of the traveling), and now we are in a new place (not Hawaii). This round of the trip is slated to last approximately 2 weeks. There are a lot of frequent flyer miles to be had in this line of work!

Let's talk about running and , gasp, RACES! for a little bit. I have been running pain-free for something like a week now. At this place in the game (at almost injury + 1 year), this is great! So great that I have been talking with Barb about trying to run some races this year. As a note, I ran 0 (zero) races in 2007. Bad year, I know. That's how it goes sometimes, I guess. And it makes you appreciate more (like I am now) the prospects of running a race or two, something that I was able to do not so long ago literally dozens of times a year. I don't think I am going to be approaching that type of frequency again anytime soon, but I think I am going to get more than zero races in this year. I've got my eye on a couple out in this neck of the woods and a few back on the Mainland, depending on where we go (duty station-wise) and when.

First, the Hawaii Ironman 70.3 Honu, I think is on 31 May this year. I did this race in 2006. It's a Half Ironman race and a little sightseeing and recreation with the family (went over solo in 2006 since John had just been born) in conjunction with the race is the goal. Barb and John haven't been over to the Big Island yet and we want to make sure they get a chance to see it before we rotate out of here.

If this doesn't work, another race I've got my eye on (same distance event) is a Half Ironman in Boise, Idaho around that same time. Building on the theme of trying to "multitask" with race events, some of our best friends in the world live in the Boise area and it has been several years since we have had a chance to get up their way to see them. It's beautiful country, we'd love to visit with our friends, and I'm sure they put on a good race up there. Time will tell if this is a go.

Back out this way,I've heard nothing but good things about the Maui Marathon, which goes in September. We've not been back to Maui since spring 2006 before John was born (not because we didn't enjoy our stay - we did!) and we want to get back over there before it's time to move away from Hawaii.

Well, these are just a few events that have me excited about possibly running this year. Obviously a lot of things have to fall into place for any of these to happen, not the least of which is for me to stay as healthy as possible and to get as much consistent training in as I can manage during the travels across the globe.

I hope we can see some of you on our travels!

Best regards from Korea,

Gary