Well, the marathon has arrived. I know I haven't chimed in with an update really since I started my whole post-20-mile slow down. There really hasn't been much to report besides this nagging pain in my leg that I'm praying isn't as bad as I fear it could be. I took things really easy on myself for the past two weeks. I feel very lazy though, I am kind of itching for a good run. It would have been nice to get a few more training runs in, but I want to be 100% on Sunday.

I'm on the plane writing this now, actually, and there is a woman sitting on my row who has taken on the same goal that I have been considering: running a marathon in all 50 states. It's an incredible goal, and when I mentioned it in my typical blabbering manner to the man who sold me the shoes I'm going to wear in the race on Sunday, he laughed out loud. "Who would want to do that??"

I need to keep the long runs up though. I must admit I really enjoy my Saturday runs. Though I'd much rather get sleep, There is something so calming about lacing up at 6 a.m. and trotting down Yokohl Drive alone. It's breathtaking and I always come home feeling incredible. Regardless of what happens Sunday, how can I not do this again? Why wouldn't I want to committ my adult athletic life to something spectacular that only a very select few could ever hope to accomplish. It's these goals that keep me going, these personal feats that provide me with great personal pride.

But that's the day after the day after tomorrow, isn't it? Shouldn't I be more concerned over the fact that my friends have noticed a slight limp in my step the past two weeks? Shouldn't I be wary of all those extended breaks I took at every water stop in Yokohl Valley? Is there anything more I can do?

The race Sunday will be great. I'm expecting, in light of my sometimes sluggish sum pace on my training days, I will finish between 4:40 and 5:00. That's commendable, but I want to do better. I still somewhat consider that a lazy marathon (but an improvement on my first).

I think I might surprise myself tomorrow. While I did take the water stops slowly while training for Rock 'n' Roll Marathon last year, I also walked a whole lot more than I did this year. I ran at a brisk pace for the majority of all my runs this time around. I also showed up to an impressive amount of mid-week training runs. I followed the schedule very closely, so I may find that even walking through the water stations on Sunday will still bring me to a 4:45 finish (maybe even 4:30). I'm just trying to be realistic and not get my hopes up.

In concert with running my second marathon and marking a second state off my marathon list (only 48 states left!), I will be visiting Georgia, where many of my dear friends still live. I'm looking forward to this very much and I'm thrilled I will have the opportunity to share this race with the people I care about. I'm especially proud of my friend Marilia, who will be running her first marathon on Sunday. I can't wait to see her sprint across the finish line. I just hope her experience will be as positive as mine has been.

This is a dream come true for me, I've looked forward to this weekend since last summer when I was bemusing crazy thoughts with Marilia on a Sunday evening. It's amazing how far I've gone. I've run over 300 miles since November 20th. I've been so committed to this, I'm so stoked to see it finally come full circle. Please wish me well and thank you so much for your support!

Want to track my progress? If you are registed with Active.com, you can actually get text-message notifications of my progress in the race! You can opt for a message when I finish or get text message when I reach the 10K, half, 20 mile and finish line. Click here to sign up. (But you'll need to know my full name or bid number, so if you don't know that, I guess you'll just have to ask!)

It's great that The Associated Press has started to slug the fun stories with the word ODD in all caps. It makes finding gems like this so easy:

3 injured by cats that invade house in Nebraska
The Associated Press

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Two stray cats got into a house and attacked three people inside, then were euthanized and checked for rabies, authorities said.

The cats entered Melissa Breva's house through an open front door on Monday, and attacked two women visitors and a boy, authorities said.

"I thought I had seen it all, but I have never seen anything like this," Chief of Police Martin Gutschenritter said.

Animal control officer John Pettit responded to a call for help, Gutschenritter said.

One woman was scratched and bitten on her legs; the other woman was bitten on her right calf, authorities said.
After talking to them, Pettit went to his truck for snares, then heard screaming from inside the house.

"When he ran back, he saw a young male with blood over his face," Gutschenritter said. "He was bitten on his forehead, nose, left ear and right cheek."

After some first aid from Pettit, the three were taken to Great Plains Regional Medical Center.

When investigator John Stadler arrived and opened the bedroom door, "he saw a gray and white cat baring its teeth in attack mode," Gutschenritter said. "He shut the bedroom door and returned to his car for a dart gun."

Both cats were shot, tranquilized and taken to the animal shelter, where they were euthanized.

The bodies were sent to Lincoln for rabies checks, Gutschenritter said.

Authorities want to find out who owned the cats. Under a city ordinance, cats may run free if they don't become nuisances.

I don't know about you, but I think if a cat came at me in "attack mode," I think it would be time to whip out the Kung fu, John Inman style. Waaaa!

More on my pending marathon soon. My leg has been bothering me this week, trying to take it easy. In a week I'll be in Atlanta!

I'm so pissed that I didn't hear about this sooner:

John Inman, Television Actor, Dies at 71
Agence France-Presse

LONDON, March 8 — John Inman, the British actor who became famous for his role as an eccentric shop assistant in the BBC comedy “Are You Being Served?”, died here Thursday. He was 71.

His death was announced by his manager, Phil Dale. He had been suffering from hepatitis A.

He starred as Mr. Humphries in the popular comedy, which was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. At its height it attracted an audience of 22 million viewers in Britain and was then sold around the world.

His camp catchphrase “I’m free!” helped him win an award for Funniest Man on Television presented by the British weekly TV Times in 1976. In recent years, Inman regularly appeared in pantomime productions.

He is survived by his partner, Ron Lynch.

If you haven't seen the britcom "Are You Being Served?" then you are really missing something. Mr. Humphries was my favorite character (well, I was partial to Mrs. Slocombe). He was so flamboyant and gay, but he always knew how to play it cool. It was never 100% obvious he was gay, he was a fabulous actor. He's my britcom hero.

I'm sad, don't know what else to say. It's best to let Inman lead us out:

It feels strange to be on the other side of March 3rd. It really wasn't anything more than my 20-mile run, but last year that meant so much to me.

When I took on the 20-mile run in preparation for the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego, I had never really run more than a few feet over 15 miles. I had taken a serious stab at the 16-mile run when I was visiting in Georgia last May, but it was very half-hearted. It was more a tour-de-force of my former stomping grounds. I ran all the way from downtown Athens to my old apartment and beyond. I walked often and when I returned to my friend Padmini's house, I scoffed at my recently-acquired GPS personal trainer that said I had only run 15 miles (of course now I can testify to the accuracy of that nifty device).

This year, I have made it to the top of the hill at mile 8 on more than one occasion. I have begun to frequent the water stops that I no longer need to set my odometer when I'm driving ahead to place my water stops. Twenty miles, to me, represents no more than two miles more than last week, and that's somewhat disappointing.

I almost think that the 18-mile run was more difficult. It was such a nonstarter. Still having the same problems: too much rest. I'm going to run the remaining training days without stopping for water. I can easily run an 8-mile run without water (I think I'm overly hydrated as it is). The last Saturday run — only 10 miles — I can bring the water-bottle pouch I bought for the last marathon if I need it. I know during the race I won't have the opportunity to sit on a stump and take a breather, so at least any sluggish time won't be as wasteful as standing still for 5 minutes. It's going to be cool...

One thing I did do last week was skip my mid-week runs. I lost a total of 11 miles on my training schedule, but it was totally worth it. At this point in the training last year, I was having shin splints and I was in bad shape. This time around, my legs are aching all the time. Now that I'm through the thick of the training, I just need to keep them warmed up and ready for the big day. There was no point subjecting them to unnecessary strain in advance of the big 20-mile Saturday. I knew I was going to make it, with or without the extra training.

The photo I included this week is the "T." When I was training with Team in Training, I always imagined it stood for that since we parked a few hundred feet from that sign. Now, when I see it rising over the hill, I know the run is almost over. Now that I'm slowing down in anticipation for the actual race, it's sad to think that the training is really coming to an end.

"Slow down! / Why you gotta move so fast? / Why you gotta walk so far..." ~"Slow Down," Nada Surf, The Proximity Effect.

It's funny, when the thought occurred to me to move to California (which happened shortly after the state of Georgia passed a blatant, inexcusable measure designed to denigrate gays and lesbians as second-class citizens forever), I figured I would be free from all of that in the bluest of the blue states. On the whole, that is very true. California is a great state and I live confident that even with a Republican governor I am respected and honored as a citizen. But even the blue states tend to have a red streak.

Visalia is a pretty conservative, family place. It's a gorgeous, wonderful place to live, but there are also many Bible-thumping freakazoids that like to throw the good book around into people's faces. Letters often appear in our paper that lash out at the "homosexual deviants," and I place them, because I think it's very healthy for people to speak their minds (even though I don't necessarily agree with them). And, thankfully, there are people who respond to such nonsense. One such response in its entirety:

Homophobia is rampant in this community
Jim Mancini, Visalia

Why does the Times-Delta seem compelled to print so many letters from Visalia's Christian, homophobic community?

I've lost count of the number of letters from Christian dogmatists who usually quote a passage in the bible that "clearly" condemns homosexuality. The latest, from Sam Lukes, quotes one of their favorite passages, (Romans 1:26:27). He says, "God is quite clear."

Even as a high school student who studied the Bible (Roman Catholics' version) for two years every day in religion class, I realized that it is a collection of writings by people of ancient times who were new and zealous converts. Furthermore, someone had to edit these writings and choose which ones to include. So today we have many versions that claim to be the true interpretation.

With all due respect to those who interpret the Bible literally, there are many of us who do not. The social context and language usage at the time that the stories in the Bible were collected, edited and published were much different than today. These writers were from different cultures quite limited in their scientific knowledge. Add to this the various language translations and the Bible is far from "quite clear."

Many modern biblical scholars interpret that passage in Romans quite differently than Mr. Lukes. He might try to open his mind just a little and research other points of view. All the Bible thumpers out there who like to quote verses that justify their homosexual bigotry should also mention that the Bible condones genocide, mass murder and slavery.

God bless you.

Anyways, we have this wonderful "StoryChat" feature on our Web site that makes it very easy for those indoctrinated nutjob drones to instantly respond to a reasoned argument. You can only imagine what things were said, but I thought this response deserved the spotlight (but there are several worth mentioning):

If you don't like the religious justification against homosexuality, how about this.

A lesson in basic plumbing explains it for me. The human body has "in" holes and "out" holes. When it comes to traditional love making, men do not have an "in" hole. Women do! Two men together or two women together have to break the laws of basic plumbing to attempt to make love. Using "out" holes as "in" holes is not a good idea. Seems simple to me.

How about from natures perspective. Natures goal for animals(including humans) is to promote survival and create offspring. man + man = no offspring... woman + woman = no offspring. Again... seems pretty simple!

— ForTheKIDS

You know, he's got a point. I mean, nothing ever comes out of a vagina, ever! Only in. A special trap door must open when it's time for babies or "that time of the month."

And it's a good thing God-fearing Christians NEVER use that other "hole" they must be speaking of (the anus), because they have so many other holes to choose from. And I guess if the vagina has that coveted "in-hole status," the mouth must also be dubbed an "in hole" since things more frequently go in than out. And of course, no one has been impeached or sent to fiery damnation for sticking their dick in that, now have they.

Freaking psychos...