March Madness

Or should I say frustration?

Well March has been here for a week now and it seems like time is getting away from me already. We "spring forward" tonight, losing yet another precious hour and I'm already starting to get a little stressed. You see, March is a busy month for me. On the first I was supposed to begin Marathon training for the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, but a week has gone by now and I've been out running, oh three times. This has been partly due to Sierra Trading Post's delay in getting me the right shoe, sending me the same, wrong shoe twice! And tonight I finally ran with the right one, only to find that it was too small. Ugh!!! So it looks like I'll be suffering for another week until we get it all worked out. Remind me to NEVER buy my running shoes online again, will you?

Okay, with that off my chest, I guess I can start planning for the next three months or so.

First, I'd better get off my a** and start running. This week wasn't a complete loss as I did manage to get in a soggy 8 miles on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday and a fast 4 tonight. If I suffer through 10 tomorrow, I'll have 26 for the week. But then it's gotta start ramping up. My longest run of the year-to-date is only 12 miles, so I have quite a bit of mileage building ahead of me.

I sure miss Dean's Sunday Group Runs in Missoula. They were always so motivating.

Next, I've really got to start trying to ink my next job, you know, the one in Alaska. That way I don't have to travel 1800 miles or so to run the Marathon. I'll only have to drive to the starting line and hit go on the old stop watch. My company has been very good at getting me work, so I'm not too worried. But it's always nice to have that signed contract to help guide me through the whole moving on process.

Last, but not least, I've got to concentrate. This has been made much more difficult by the above two issues. I am especially distracted by the proposition of actually moving to Alaska. It is going to be a really long drive for the motorhome and tow vehicle, and we're only giving ourselves two weeks. Two weeks should be enough time, save for a freakish storm that may stop us like the Donner party, somewhere in Canada, eh? And then, of course, it's all about keeping it together mentally, because we are so excited about our move that we can hardly contain ourselves. It's going to be hard to keep my focus on the present with such a big move on the horizon. I'm already envisioning myself fishing those Alaskan waters for trophy salmon and steelhead...

Wow. Well thanks for saving me a trip to the psychologist. I just wanted to be sure you got some credit.

So if you see me running down the road next week with my fly rod in one hand and my cell phone in the other, try not to laugh out loud, alright?

Thanks.