2007 Year In Review

2007 is a year that I will always look back on fondly.

Obviously, the biggest thing that happened was getting engaged to Sadie. On the two year anniversary of the day we met, I popped the question at the top of Mt. Bonnel and she said yes. Most people (Sadie included) wondered what took me so long. I just thought the 2 year anniversary of us meeting was the perfect time to do it.

The next thing was qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I ran 3:06 at the St. George Marathon in Utah. I finally made it after failing on my previous 4 attempts, but I guess the failure just made the success that much better. It was great knowing that I had finally accomplished my goal and even better seeing how happy my family and friends were for me.

Sadie and I took several trips this year.

• In April we visited New York City to visit Tara. We spent 4 days there and covered nearly all of Manhattan. A few highlights were seeing a game at Yankees Stadium, going to the top of the Empire State Building, seeing the WTC site, running in Central Park, and eating at several great restaurants.
• In August we went to Chicago to see Sadie's friends Erin and Mike. We toured around a little and saw the Shedd Aquarium, Michigan Avenue, Millenium Park and the Forest Park area where they live.
• In October, we spent a few days in Utah after the St. George Marathon. We toured and hiked in Zion National Park for a couple days and saw all the beautiful scenery. After that we drove to Las Vegas and spent a day there. Those are two very opposite places. I think we both enjoyed Zion a lot more.

Work was very busy and kept me moving all year long.

Decker Challenge 20K

Today I ran the Decker Challenge 20k, the 3rd race in the Austin Distance Challenge. I've always like Decker because of the hills, but this is the first time I have run it in 3 years. I always seem to hurt myself at this race, so I've been skipping it.

I've been missing a lot of workouts lately and I haven't been feeling good the last couple days, so I didn't quite know what to expect. I lined up a little farther back them normal to keep from starting out too fast. It apparently didn't work since Mile 1 was 6:49. A little bit quicker than I planned.

The first half was spent passing people on the uphills and getting passed on the downhills. Around Mile 7 I decided to press a little harder and finished out the rest of the way pretty strong. Sadie was at the top of the last big hill with Lilly around Mile 10 and gave me a little boost to get to the finish. I finished in 1:29:32.

The weather was a lot warmer than usual for this race, but I thought it was pretty comfortable.