Finishing Touches and Back to the Marathon

Ok I REALLY need to update this more than every 4-5 weeks. I used to be so good about it. I will make more of a concerted effort in Oct. I promise. This month is flying by. I can't believe it's already Oct 12 today.

The condo is really coming together. I have ALL of the inside furniture I need now that includes a coffee table, TV stand and couch. I also got FLOR carpet tiles (see photo on the left) to put over the bamboo floors in a small section in front of the couch to add some pop!  I moved the coffee table in the photo to display all 8 tiles I bought.

I actually can't believe I am buying original art to put on the walls! It's so HEG! I am buying a painting from my friend and ex-roommate Mike Quernemoen. He is a graphic designer by trade, but also paints on the side. When I lived with him in 2000-2002 in Boston he really got into it, but had been doing it all his life. I love abstract images so I was thrilled that I was able to buy one of his existing paintings. He painted it again for me since someone just purchased the one I wanted. You can see his painting portfolio here. The one I am buying is titled "Midnight Harbor" and is on the right side. I will post a photo once it is up in my condo.

As for work things have been busy until this week. My health care client had a ton of mailings going out for the Annual Election Period (AEP), which began Oct 1. So now I will work on another account in addition to the health care account. I am doing competitive research for another division of the health care account we carry. It's very interesting work. I can tell I am VALUED there. It's a completely different feeling than I had at my last job.

The other night I saw "The Spirit of the Marathon" on Hulu and got all emotional. I haven't run a full marathon since June of 2007 so I am itching to do one again. I just want to do a few more and then I will officially retire from marathon running. I'll always run but I won't train so hard for long-distance stuff anymore. My hamstrings have been giving me problems since late 2007. I think it's something I will just have to live with. Now that I am turning 35 in December, in order to qualify for Boston Marathon I just need to run a 3:15:59 qualifying time at another marathon. Six of the 10 marathons I have completed have been under 3:10:00. I know myself and I know I could easily re-qualify. Since I am perfectionist I would want to do a lot better than 3:15 though, but to know that I have that extra 5 minutes is huge. If you are male and between the ages of 18-34 you need to run 3:10:59 in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. So that extra five minutes is great.

My goal would be to run the Carlsbad Marathon on Jan 23. That roughly gives me a little over 3 months to train. I can pull out another qualifying time. If I re-qualify I would qualify for both the 2011 and 2012 Boston Marathon. I would probably wait until 2012 though. Running Boston in April seems too soon, especially after running Carlsbad. I would have to continue to train straight through the winter and into spring. Would my body be able to handle it? I have no clue. I have to take it one day at a time and see how these long runs go. Tonight I did 8.62 miles at a 6:58 pace. That isn't too bad. All I need is like a 7:22 pace for the marathon. That pace feels very easy for me.