Post #1:  So here it is:  I'm a runner.  An average, 41 year old, middle-of-the-pack runner who did his first race a few years ago on a whim, the Run4Kerri 4-mile road race in 2009 in Matunuck, Rhode Island.  I surf near the race site, and some friends asked me to join them...and I got hooked from that first race.  I finished with a 9:29 per mile average, coming in #412 of nearly 900 runners.  Like I said, completely average.  I've always been in good shape, due to surfing and martial arts training, and finished with a respectable time.  But I got hooked on  the race, the buildup to race day, the sheer spectacle, all of it.  You can be fast or slow, compete against others or yourself, but damned if it isn't fun.  My side of the walk-in closet that my wife Lori and I share is now full of race t-shirts, and I haven't gone clothes shopping in over three years.  I have a huge stack of race bibs and a lifetime supply of safety pins, if ever I need them.  If this sounds at all familiar, you're a runner.  If not, welcome!  I'll try to make sense of this.

I've decided to do this as a way of documenting my race schedule/obsession (which requires a separate calendar from our usual family stuff), my training, and to share the fact that I signed up for an "Ultramarathon" in October, the Bimbler's Bluff  http://mrbimble.com/WordPress/bluff/ 50K trail race (that's 31 miles, y'all), which I've committed to financially.  Which means that I paid for the entry, so I have to attempt it.  Once I've paid for a race, there's no way I'm not going to do it.  And I'm terrified.  Really.  Like I was with my first half marathon last September, the inaugural Surftown Half in Misquamicut, RI.  Nervous and driving to the race in the dark, asking myself "What the Hell was I thinking???"  But I made it, and crossed the finish line with my friend Gary, who I met during the race.  Gary is a lunatic who was running with a rucksack full of bricks (GO RUCK!!!), and has provided just enough peer pressure to get me to do this...so I have him to thank!  Thanks, Gary!!!

I'm going to be as detailed as I can, with regard to every run, race and training sesh I do leading up to the run.  I'm sort of winging it here, and while there may be a better way of doing this, it's not me.  I've always found my own way of getting there, in spite of all the good intentions of family and friends.  So here ya go.  I'm in, going to give it my best, and will let you all into the fold, as it were.  I'll also be sharing some observations from my previous races (like the three barefoot runners in yesterday's 5K, now there's a subculture for you), and trying to show whoever has read this far that anyone can build up to the short, middle, and long distances, and have fun doing it!  Aren't there worse things to do with twenty bucks and a couple of free hours?

Of course, I could also fail miserably at this whole project, and wouldn't that be just as entertaining???  Full disclosure, people, I'm not a politician...so you get the good and the bad and everything in between!  More fun for you!  So here goes...