My First 5k Run

Last week I was suckered into signing up to run in the Rise & Shine 5k Run/Walk by a pretty woman, my girlfriend. It will be my first ever 5k to participate in. For those who don't know a 5k is about 3.1 miles (I had to look that up). The purpose of the run is to raise money for The Rise School of Dallas. The Rise program focuses on the needs of toddlers and preschoolers who have developmental disabilities. You can find out more about the program and how it got started by clicking here.

When the proposition to run a 5k first was given to me I wasn't all that excited, but I was willing to suck-it-up to keep from making a withdrawal from Claudia's emotional bank account. After reading what the event was for I felt better about my commitment to run 3 miles. I was raised around children with disabilities, I have a severely retarded cousin and a former step-brother with Down syndrome, and they have a special place in my heart. Beyond believing in the cause I knew it wouldn't hurt me to be able to run 3 miles. I've slacked off of my workouts over the past five months and have gained about 10 pounds. Loosing some of those 10 pounds would be nice. Now I know I can't loose 10 pounds by running 3 miles, but in the four weeks I have to train for the run I plan on running between 25 and 30 miles.

My goal is to run the 3.1 miles in 25 minutes. Currently it is hard for me to run one mile in 8 minutes. So for me to run three with an average of just over 8 minutes per mile will take some work. I found a training program online that is suppose to help me get there in 6 weeks. The only problem with the program is that I only have 4 weeks to train. I modified it to fit my 4 weekend deadline and I hope it works.

I'm a Jackass

As a man it is inevitable that I act like a jackass every now and then. Well, today was one of those days. My incredibly sweet girlfriend, Claudia, wrote a poem for me and sent it to me in an email. Instead of responding back with how much I loved the poem, I responded with how much I loved the poem and pointed out two grammatical errors that she made. This jackass move crushed her spirit. She was excited to show me how much she loves me and I squashed her passion like an ant in the kitchen.

I didn't mean to hurt her feelings. I was actually trying to protect her. I knew she would print it out or post it somewhere and I didn't want it to have an error on it. That is why I pointed out the two lines that needed to be changed. If I had written the poem and I published it with grammatical errors I'd be aggravated and embarrased, and I didn't want her to feel that way. In the process of trying to spare her feelings I ended up kicking them to the curb.

I've since apologized multiple times in multiple ways, but I still feel like a jackass.

An Awesome Target Experience

Tonight I went to Target to do two things. Thing one was to pick up a photo that I sent in via Flickr to have developed. Thing two was to buy enough food to last my brother and I two weeks. Of course I took care of thing one first. After picking up my photo, which was for the cover of the awesome photo album Claudia (girl friend) made for me, I grabbed a shopping cart put my photo in the child seat. I walked around the store throwing everything that was on my mental list and more into the cart. $215, I know....crazy, and over an hour later I exit the store with my cart full of food and my photo. After unloading the cart into the trunk of my car I walked the cart to the cart return, got into my car, and then drove home. Just after taking all my groceries into my apartment I started to unload the bags. AsI unloaded bags I realized that I never took my photo out of the cart! I proceeded to unload all refrigerator and freezer items as quickly as possible and bolted out of my apartment and back to the store.

Once I made it to the store I check the cart return area for what was once my cart, but it had already been picked up by the cart boy. I walked up to the store and tried to look at all the carts that I could in the "cart cage", but I didn't have any luck. My photo was no where to be found. This sucked. The print only cost me $1.72 and I've left more expensive things in a cart before. For example, I once left a $14 bottle of laundry detergent in the bottom of my cart. The $1.72 wasn't the issue. The issue was that I was excited to make my print the cover of my photo album and because of a moment of forgetfulness I was being denied that joy.

I walked into the store and to the photo department. I told the lady behind the counter, Annette, what had happened and asked her if she could print my photo for me again. She told me she would be happy to do so, but they don't save the online prints in their system. So I would have to drive home and go online to submit my print again, and I did. Two beers, a small pizza, and an hour later I went back to the store to pick up my print. I walked up to the counter, pulled out my wallet and waited for Annette to make her way back to the counter to assist me. She pulled out my print without asking me my last name and placed it on the counter. She smiled and made no move towards the register. It was in that moment that I knew there would be no charge for the reprint. I told her thank you, have a nice night, and walked away from the counter a lot happier than when I pulled up to the store for the third time in only a few short hours.

I want to take a moment to once again say thank you Annette; have a nice night.