Priorities

I started writing a follow up email to friends and family that I was hoping to solicit some donations from.  As I began, I kind of got caught up in the frustration of how we can spend billions of dollars on political campaigns, not to mention the cost to us as tax payers for actually carrying out the election, the money spent by groups to either get out the vote or prevent people from voting.  While it didn't turn into a tirade, it became evident that it probably was setting the correct tone to get people to give.  I sent it to my wife with a preface saying that this was what I'd like to send, but knew I shouldn't.  In her wisdom, she suggested another blog post.
So, here it is:

Greetings from Memphis!
As many of you know already, I'm running the St. Jude marathon again
this year and raising money for the hospital.
I've been thinking about how we, as a nation, spend money.  With the
elections coming up in a month, it is estimated that $5.9 billion will
be spent to elect/reelect the President, Congress and one third of the
Senate.  $5.9 BILLION.  Every member of the House (who isn't retiring)
pretty much is running/raising money year round.  The President and
Senators have a little bit of time where they're not forced to do
this, but it's still not very long that they're not running again and
the campaigns and PAC's are raising/spending money.
What does this have to do with St. Jude? Directly, nothing.  But, what
could St. Jude Children's Hospital do with $5.9 billion?  Well, it
costs about $1.9 million to run the hospital each and every day.  So,
with the aid of a calculator, you can see that the hospital could run
for 3052 days on that money (not including interest earned).  For 8
years and 4 months, they would not have to raise funds.  For that
amount of time, they could continue to treat children, help families
and research cures without wondering if donations will be enough to
cover operating expenses.
I guess my point is that we watch commercials for politicians running
for office or trying to stay in office.  We hear lies, double speak
and, often times, pointless blather.  We get junk mail, phone calls, and
emails.  We see yard signs, bumper stickers and billboards.  It all
costs money.  And, honestly it's just to get about 5% of the country
to move from one side to the other.  The other 95% made up their minds
months ago.  But, since the elections will swing on that 5%, the rest
of us have to endure the inundation.
After the election, yard signs will end up littering our roads and
flyers and junk mail will end up in our land fills.  And St. Jude will
still have to spend a tremendous amount of energy to raise money.
So, instead of giving money to your favorite (or least hated
politician), which is not tax deductible I might add, how about giving
it to the kids at St. Jude?  Please make your donation at:
http://heroes.stjude.org/scottsmith  Also, while any amount is greatly
appreciated, remember there's no limit to how much you can give
(unlike the $2500.00 you can give directly to a politician).
Many thanks,

I think my overall point is simply - we have our priorities messed up.  What else could we do with that money?  Build a dozen schools, provide 118,000 public sector jobs (teachers, police, firemen) with an average salary of $50,000, pay off some of the debt (or at least the interest on the debt).  How about buying 59,000 $100,000 homes for homeless vets?  There are so many more worthy things that could be done with that money.  Unfortunately, in today's America, those billions of dollars will effectively turn into trillions of dollars in influence.  And, that's the shame of our political system.
So, that's my rant for the day.  Apologies if anyone is offended.  I tried to not let my personal political leanings show.  I realize that it's not tax payer dollars we're talking about here, but the donations of individuals.  I know that I can't tell others what to do with their money.  I also know that there are many, many generous people in this nation of all income levels.  I guess I just wonder if we can't do a bit better and if we shouldn't be focusing our energy and resources on doing more good works instead.

Whole30 Diet - 12 Days Later

I mentioned before that I was going to start this diet and it has now been 10 days (well, I'm on day 11 now). It has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.  While I'm happy to eat bacon, I'm getting a little tired of doing more cooking, dish washing and menu planning then I've become used to.  But, it's been, for the most part, a positive experience.
First, the good news.  I actually feel better.  I've "cheated" on the diet by stepping on the scale after 7 days - you're not supposed to weigh yourself for the 30 days.  While I know that weight can fluctuate, I was just looking for an idea of how things were going.  Well, they're going very well, thanks for asking.  I dropped a significant amount of weight and I'm well on my way to where I need to be for the race.  This diet was a good kick in the pants for me. I know I'm eating healthier - getting more fruits and vegetables and not eating any processed food.
Now, the bad.  My energy level is a bit lower than I would like it to be.  Combine the diet with never enough sleep and I've been pretty consistently tired.  My runs have suffered as well.  I can't seem to run more than 10 miles without having to stop.  I actually cut one of my weekday runs short last week because I just couldn't get moving.
My training partner, Brian, is on this same diet and he experienced the same thing but his energy has come back up over the last week or so (he's a couple of weeks ahead of me).  So, I'm hoping for the same results.
I'll check back in later on and will hopefully have good news.  In the meantime, if you're interested in it, you can find information on the Whole30 diet at www.whole9life.com.  It's hard to call it a 'diet' in the traditional sense, it's really about learning how to eat properly and give your body the food/fuel that it needs to be healthy as well as exercise and recover after long runs.

10 Weeks, 30 Days and 1,000 dollars

Tomorrow is the 10 week mark until the marathon.  Ack!  Last week saw me doing 45 miles of running - most of it good.  About 6 miles of the 16 on Sunday were not good and not what many would consider "running", but overall a pretty solid week of training.
This week will end up with about 42 miles.  I ran an extra day last week to try to catch up from my lack of running during our vacation - just a few extra miles.
But that's not what I'm excited about.
The first thing is that I hit the $1,000 mark on my fund raising efforts.  While I still have almost $1500 to go, I  feel at least there's been some serious progress made and the amount that I may have to "donate" gets smaller and smaller.  I got a surprise donation from Blue Diamond Athletic Displays (www.athleticdisplays.com).  My wonderful wife had bought me one of their medal displays as a gift two years ago and I love it - it's a great way to show off those finisher's medals.  It's a solid product - not some cheap thing and I'll probably get another one in the not too distant future.  We both became friends with one of the owners on FB and they made a generous donation to St. Jude.  It was a wonderful gesture.  I was already a fan of their product and company, this was above and beyond.
The second thing is I start a new "diet" tomorrow.  It's not really a diet, but more of a change in eating habits.  My training partner, Brian, and his wife started on the Whole30 plan a couple of weeks ago and he has had a lot of success with it.  I'm not sure about Carol, but I'll see her tomorrow morning and looking forward to hearing what she has to say about it.
It's similar to Paleo - how can you go wrong with eating lots of meat and vegetables and some fruit?  Seems pretty simple.  I'm reading their book, It Starts With Food, now and there's a ton of information on, www.whole9life.com. One of the things that I'm excited about is it will force me to cook more.  Seems weird to think of "force" when it comes to something that you already love to do but weeknights have often been more of survival than enjoying a good, healthy meal.  I also have been eating too many pre-packaged meals that I know, while better for me than a Quarter Pounder, not the best thing for me and I could be doing better.
So, I head to the grocery store(s) tomorrow with a grocery list in hand - filled mostly with meats and produce and spices to buy.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I also got to buy some new gadgets/pans for the kitchen so that's a bonus.
I took some measurements this morning - weight as well as chest, midsection, upper arm and thigh circumference.  I plan to repeat those each week to see what happens, but I'm pretty sure that there will be shrinkage (in this case, that's a good thing).
--Scott

More About Our Vacation and My Knee Problems.

So, we spent the past week in the Wild West.  Two days in Las Vegas and the next 5 in Sedona, AZ.  Vegas was fun, as it always is, but Sedona and the Grand Canyon were awe inspiring.  I really think I could spend the rest of my life exploring that area and just looking at the mountains and rock formations there.  I think Julie was pleasantly surprised at the area.  She thought it would be more desert and not as varied as it was.  The Grand Canyon was truly one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.  As we took picture after picture, we knew that they would never convey the magnitude and majesty of that natural wonder.

We stayed at L'Auberge de Sedona.  A wonderful hotel/spa just off of Main Street.  Dinner that night was beside a creek and was in the top 3 meals I've ever had.  The service was outstanding, the wine and food were superb and the setting was unbeatable.  We seemed to do very well all week with dining choices (including a trip to In-N-Out Burger one night).  But, we really had a few outstanding meals.  We won't talk about the server at Ken's Creekside that I have a man crush on....

I didn't do a whole lot of running out there.  I managed a couple of decent runs in Vegas (despite pretty much splitting a bottle of Tequila with Julie one day) and one run in Sedona, but the schedule prevented me from doing much more.  And, to be honest, a bit of laziness.  I did get a couple of good hikes in so I figure that made up for some of it.

I think it was on one of those hikes that I hurt my knee.  Nothing specific, but the next morning I woke up with some pain and a bit of swelling.  I'm hoping that a day off tomorrow will help a bit.  If I still have problems after this weekend, I may have to consider taking a bit of time off which is not good timing as the marathon is only 78 days away at this point.

Probably the highlight of the trip was the day we spent white water rafting.  We signed up through a company that transported us from the hotel to Peach Springs, AZ where we boarded an old school bus that took us down to the launch site where we met Shaun, our Hualapai guide that would pilot our pontoon raft down the Colorado River.  We spent the day alternating between calm waters and rapids that ranged from class 2 to class 6 (or maybe 7, Shaun said with a twinkle in his eye).  We got to do a short hike/climb to a hidden waterfall, eat a picnic lunch, watch a storm blow in, have our outboard motor conk out on us and get lashed between two other rafts.  Then, we "enjoyed" a helicopter ride up the side of the Grand Canyon.  And by "enjoyed" I mean "scared shitless".  It would have been fun except for the lightning, rain and wind that threatened to slam us into the wall of the canyon.....good times.  Julie managed to take this picture from the front seat of the helicopter:

And, here's a picture from our cabin at the hotel:

I could go on and on (maybe I already have) about our trip.  It was wonderful and, to some extent, it made both of us long for a new place to live where the landscape is a bit more varied, the seasons a bit more defined and maybe a few less people around.  We'll see.  But, for now, it's back to work and back to training for the marathon.  I'm working on losing some weight that those great meals added on and really starting to build up the mileage - Will do about 45 this week if all goes well.

And, of course, still looking for more donations to my goal.  I'm just over one-third of the way there with about 6 weeks before the fund-raising deadline.  Getting there, but slowly - kind of like my running :-) 

--Scott

Vacation and Knee Problems

This is just a short post to apologize for my absence recently.  The last couple of weeks have been crazy with work (trying to get ready for vacation), then vacation, then back at work (trying to catch up from the days away).  I'm planning a more lengthy one about my trip to Nevada and Arizona that I hope to post tonight or tomorrow.
The short version - had a great time out west, did some running, did some hiking, did something to my knee which now hurts when I walk up stairs or overly flex it.
The marathon is less than 80 days away and I'm not even close to being ready.
Still only 1/3 of the way on my fund-raising goals and lots of mileage to do over the next 11 weeks.
More later, back to work....
Scott

A Thank You Note

I received a very generous donation the other day and (finally) wrote a thank you note.  Without getting too smooshy about it, I wanted to express my thanks and try to describe what St. Jude means to me.  Sure, I don't have any children and my wife's grandkids are healthy and, hopefully, will never need the services that St. Jude provides.  Still, I feel a strong connection with the hospital and a sense of pride that it's located in my newest hometown.
As I wrote, Memphis has some issues.  It also has some great things to see and do (damn, forgot all about Graceland!).  But, St. Jude is the crown jewel.  If there's one thing all Memphians should be proud of, it's the work that is being done there.  It's the kids that are saved and cured.  It's that no family has to pay to get the treatment that their child needs.
Here's what I wrote:

I received your donation and just put it back in the mail to send to St. Jude.  It may be another week or so before it shows up as deposited on your end.

I can't thank you enough for your generous donation!  St. Jude has really become a cause that means a lot to me.  Despite some issues in the city, there's a lot about Memphis to like.  The zoo is wonderful, Beale Street is a fun place to go if you're a bit younger, there are some really neat neighborhoods to go through and they're doing some stuff along the river to revitalize the area.  But, no matter what else is going on, the hospital is the jewel of the city.  It's a great place (as much as you can say that about a hospital).  I've been over there a few times and I'm always impressed by how it looks and how the people there act.  When you add in the amazing work that they do there and that no child ever pays for treatment, you can't help but take a certain amount of pride that it's located here.  

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but the race runs through the hospital campus.  The kids, parents and staff are all outside, lining the road, holding up signs and cheering the runners on.  They draw pictures and words of encouragement on the roads and they have balloons and decorations and a band playing.  It is the most emotional and inspiring part of the marathon.  As you go through there, you realize that in a few hours, you'll be done and you can rest and refuel, but for many of these kids, they have a long, tough journey ahead of them.

I'm happy that I can do my little part to help and really happy that my friends and family give generously.

Hope all is well!

What a Difference 10 Degrees Makes

Last Sunday, I did 10 miles on a relatively flat course.  I started out on the Greenline here in  Memphis at around 6:00 and the morning temps had already hit about 81 degrees.  The humidity was pretty high as well. By the time I finished, I could pretty much wring the sweat from my shoes.  My average pace for this ordeal was 10:30 and I was completely wiped out for the rest of the day.
Fast forward 7 days.  My scheduled called for 11 miles and I've been getting bored with the Greenline so I thought that I would run a shortened version of the Germantown Half Marathon course.  This has a somewhat tough hill for the better part of a mile near the beginning of the course and then a couple smaller hills right after that.  It then flattens out for the most part and it's a pretty easy second half.  My average pace for this?  9:40.
So, I ran 1 more mile and had a semi difficult hill to climb.  The real difference was the temperature.  It was about 10 or 12 degrees cooler at the start of the run.  Hovering around 70 degrees for the better part of the run made for a beautiful morning.  As I ran along, I was mulling over how awesome it would be to run in weather like that all the time.  Unfortunately, we don't have plans to move to San Diego anytime soon.  So, we'll just take these mornings when we can get them here in the summer and suffer through the others.