Will Run For Bacon

This weeks training went quite well. Although I still couldn't force myself out of bed on Wednesday, Thursday morning's group run was really nice. I originally wanted to get to the store a little early and get an extra three miles in before the others got there. I hit the snooze one too many times so only got five miles in. On my way to the store I saw Jon and Erin out running already. It seems they had the same idea but actually got the extra miles.

Saturday our group met at Sandy's Donuts for a nine mile long run. Man, talk about motivation for getting the run over with -- fresh donuts. There were about twenty of us running. I knew most of the people, but there were some new faces as well. It's always great to meet new people with the same crazy interests. I ran the whole way with Erin, and Connie joined us for several miles. The air was thick with fog and everything was covered in a beatiful layer of frost. The scenery looked liked something from a painting. I was struggling a bit at the end of the run and was glad I hadn't tried to get more miles before the group started.

When Erin and I finished we went into Sandy's where most everyone else was already enjoying some donuts and coffee. I had been planning on eating one of their cream filled "long johns" with dark chocolate frosting -- pretty much my favorite donut. When I got to the display case, however, I saw a maple glazed long john with crumbled bacon on it. It may have been just me or maybe the lighting in the place, but I could swear a saw an ethereal nimbus radiating from this amazing pastry. The phrase "bacon donut" rushed out of my mouth. I took this fantastic combination of sweet and salty goodnes back to the table and enjoyed every bacony bite.

To illustrate how wonderful bacon is, I've attached a couple of videos. In the first one Homer Simpson proclaims the pig to be a "magical animal." The animation is something different, but the voices are from the show. In the second one Jim Gaffigan, a stand up comic, points out the ways in which bacon improves our food. We must ask ourselves if we can't learn from animated characters and stand up comedians, who can we learn from.

BIPPITY, BOPPITY, BACON!!!!!!

Today Jon and I went out for a six mile run. He wasn't at yesterday's group run because he was sick. He said he felt up to a run today, but it might be slow. Slow was fine by me. It turned out we were both wrong. We made it just over six miles at a strong pace. In fact the last mile was brutal! We pushed really hard and it felt great to be finished. I know that pushig myself through the misery will help prepare me for the difficulties I'm sure to face if I attempt an ultra marathon.