Wow, it's been a while since I've updated. Nice to see all 3 of you again.

Since the 20-miler, I've been taking it pretty light on the running front. I left for Albuquerque later that week, so I missed the training run. While in Albuquerque, I tried to run a bit. "Tried" being the operative word. Because of the extreme altitude difference (Albuquerque's altitude is 5,326 feet, San Francisco's is 128 feet), I made it literally about 10 minutes before running out of breath. It was very very sad. I made myself feel better by gorging myself and not running for the rest of break.

Two days after I got back, we had a short 8-miler in Berkeley. I had yet to do any runs at that training site, so I was interested to see how it was. Well, it was freezing. It rained the entire time and was quite windy as well. I couldn't feel my fingers for the first few miles. My group made up for it by running really fast. We ended up being the second group to finish, about 5 minutes ahead of our pace. Oops.

This week we have a 23-mile training run, so I've been taking it easy and doing my maintainence runs on the treadmill at work. I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that my knee pain may just be something I have to deal with. Although it hasn't gotten worse, it hasn't really gotten better either, and I do still have pain when I run. I'm confident, though, that I'll be able to run the marathon, and hopefully I'll be able to do more after this one.

[Cross posted on my main website]

For those of you who have not yet donated to my marathon, seeing as I have already surpassed my fundraising goal, I ask you to consider donating to one of the many Tsumani Relief funds instead. It's hard to say that one cause is worthier than another, but I think it's clear that there is a more immediate need for donations towards relief for countries affected by the earthquake and tsunami disasters.

On the left is a short list of some relief organizations.

Since Buddy and I missed our 23-mile run this past weekend, we did our own 14-mile run along the Bay Trail after getting back from Tahoe. Although it wasn't 23 miles, even I was impressed by the fact that I could run 14 miles on 6 hours sleep after a 5 hour drive, and with 4 Del Taco tacos in my tummy. Boo yah.