YMCA Running / Birthday

Today I did something new.  I went to the YMCA and ran on a treadmill.  There were some really nice things about that.  I was able to control my speed very well.  Just a little adjustment and my speed was changed.  It is much harder for me to know what my speed is outdoors.  I can figure it out after a little while but this was instantaneous.  Very nice!

On the other hand though, it was very boring looking at the same thing for a the whole run.  I ran 4.25 miles and walked about .75 mile.

Overall it was a very good run and I feel great now.  The machine told me I burned about 650 calories.  Great!  It is my and Linda’s birthday today and we went out to the Seafood Buffet at the Rio.  That 650 calories that I burned probably paid for my dessert tonight.

While Linda and I were on our way down to the Rio tonight we were talking about when we met.  It was December 12th, 1986 and we were going to get together the next day on our birthday.  That morning I went out surfing and it was a great day with great friends and great waves.  I thought, “what a great birthday present!”  Then (without going into all the really cool detail) I came off this one wave with my board flying into the air.  When I came up out of the water my board smacked me in the face across my nose, chipping a bone, almost making my pass out, splitting my face open, and giving my one big black eye.  Wow – this great day has come to a quick halt.  So, I never went out that night and didn’t meet up with Linda.  It wasn’t until about 5 months later did we begin dating.

Now my thought was this.  When I turned 19, I could surf all day, but I couldn’t run 4.25 miles.  Today I am 41 and I can’t surf all day, but I ran 4.25 miles.  So, I am feeling pretty good about the run today!