What? No blog for 3 weeks?

There was a terrible mixup and these two aliens banged on the door in the middle of the night on Nov 5 and dragged me off kicking and screaming (not loud enough to wake Judy) and took me to the Mother ship where I was examined for 3 weeks. They had left a shape shifting alien in my place so that no one would notice. They had been very careful to study me before they took me, so they had all the Buppa information down well and Miranda did not guess that this was a ruse during her visit. Fortunately, the replacement was a grandfather alien and knew all about granddaughters so he fell into the role quickly.

When they found out that I had no government secrets or answers to the major questions of the universe they just agreed that though I am fun, I would probably do better back on Earth and they would reassign my double elsewhere. You may see him at a Republican Candidates debate in the near future but you won't be able to distinguish him from the orginal. They are that good.

Well, before they brought me back, I got to see the video of what my alter-ego had done over the last 3 weeks. He did try the Lotus Room for Yoga on Tuesday and found that to be great for stretching and psychological enhancement. He told everyone that I enjoyed it a bunch. He made arrangements to do it again when Lisa came to visit the next week.

That Saturday was a group run that was missed because Lisa, Frank, and Miranda came to visit on the nite before and since they were still on West Coast time and she and the alien caught training later in the day.

The alien took her to the yoga on Tuesday. Additional training went on through the week. A trip to Disney on Weds, Thurs and Friday included treadmill time in the exercise room. The next Saturday was still too early with West Coasters going home the next day. Then after some training over the weekend, I was returned. The return was just in time to make the Thanksgiving trip to Charlottesville to visit with Jenn at her place. Two training activities for 3 milers each using a 1/2 mile to the soccer field, several trips around the track for 2 miles and the 1/2 mile back to the house. Thursday included a lot of walking around the Natural Bridge where George Washington did his training apparently. After a great meal at the Hotel we walked down to the bridge and saw a great light show after sundown ( the show was cool but the weather was getting cold). By Saturday, we did a 7.5 miler in Charlottesville and started in mid 20 degree weather. Coach Steve said try anything new during training so there would be no surprises and nothing new on race day. Well, I got a chance to try out exercise with gloves, several layers of shirts, and "woosh-woosh" pants over my shorts. It does not seem likely that Flagstaff will be any colder than that and I survived. What seemed like a really adverse weather start turned out to be a good training opportunity.

Thanks to the Charlottesville Running Store, I am in a second pair of running shoes. Great help by the staff that assisted with a video assessment of my running while on a treadmill. Big help with the Saturday training and now we're ready for the longer runs that will be in store over the next 8 weeks.

Thanks to Lisa for keeping the alien in shape and to Jenn for keeping me going.

Also thanks to Uncle Bob and Aunt Betty for their very generous financial support and words of encouragement. You two make great heroes in many ways.

Go Team