Running Happy

This past Sunday I had one of the coolest experiences of my life. I ran the annual Houston marathon. It was my very first marathon, and it exceeded all of my expectations. The race was incredible. Everything was just perfect--the weather, the people, the city. The day started for me at 4:00 AM. I hadn't slept much. All the pent up excitement and nerves didn't allow me to sleep until after 1 AM. Before I knew it, I was getting up to the sound of my alarm. I had breakfast and got all of my gear together. I had 5 other family members running that day, so we were all going to meet up and head downtown together. We got there just before 6 AM. As we fought our way through the crowd, our group was seperated. I ended up following my cousin Peter in the time prior to the start of the race. It was half past 6 when we started making our way out from the George R. Brown convention center and to our starting corals. We were starting in different places, so we were forced to part ways. We wished each other luck, and we went off on our own. The streets were packed full of runners and spectators. Just as the sun started to break, the starting gun fires. I was running for about a mile when I looked to my right and saw probably the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen in Houston. I couldn't help but smile. There was an odd peace about it all, despite the chaos of the all the runners around me. It was one of those rare moments when life just seemed right.

2 hours and 13 minutes later, I finished my race. I was pleased with my time, since my original goal was to finish the 13.1 miles in 2 1/2 hours or better. It was the longest I had ever run without stopping. The real fun came later, when I was reunited with my family. A couple of hours later, we went out to cheer on my cousin Peter and my aunt Elizabeth (both of them were running the full 26.2 mile). It was incredibly rewarding cheering on complete strangers. Having just run, I knew how much that meant and was more than happy to oblige.

Back to work

So this week was my first week back at work. It was a short week for me (3 days), but it couldn't have ended any sooner. Getting reacquainted with everything is a little disorienting. I'm slowly getting used to the daily grind again though. On a brighter note, it was nice to play Smash with everyone (John, Dan, and Jackie) again though.

Ah..Super Smash Brothers...sweet nectar of the gods. You see, I've been having a really tough time competing against one of my Smash buddies. So today, we played Smash for about an hour at lunch time, then for another 3 hours after work (pretty typical). I really felt I had played poorly all day, but I wanted more. So I make some calls and I find another game going on. It was with Zach and his buddies. Apparently, they have a reputation of being some hardcore Smashers, so I was extra anxious to see how I would stack up against them. I quickly found my grove, and commenced the pwnage. Don't get me wrong, they were good. I hear they compete in tournaments and such. So it was extra sweet when I got to play this one guy one-on-one. I beat him both times. The second time, I could really sense his frustration, which made it all the sweeter.