Meeting PlaneT3rry

Today I got to physically meet a virtual friend. PlanT3rry and I got a chance to run together today. I was supposed to be in Knoxville all this week, but a meeting was canceled. I really could have gone home yesterday from North Carolina, but we stuck with the plan to come over to Knoxville and meet with Terry.

We met downtown near the river and started our run. I recorded the run and will work on editing it into a podcast episode for your enjoyment.

I have been telling people the last couple of weeks that I was going to be running with my friend in Knoxville, but we have never really met. I guess this is the change that the Internet makes in relationships. Terry and I have been “friends” for 2 years. But it just seems odd to have a friend you have never met in person.

I look forward to doing the same with several other runners over this next year of traveling.

Doesn’t take much

We stayed in a hotel this last week that is apparently rated the best Comfort Inn in the nation. They did a good job while we were there. Since we stayed in one of their nicer rooms, it certainly was nice for us.

Their marquee out front read “Ranked No. 1 in nation by Comfort Inn guest.” Just 1 guest? Could no other guest say anything nice about the other Comfort Inn’s in the nation?

I guess it just does not take much to win an award these days.

Missionary Talks 56: John Corley

I am excited to possibly get back onto a regular schedule for posting Missionary Talks episodes. I interviewed John Corley this evening. Since it was easy to edit, I got this show out quickly.

I am going to try and grab another interview tomorrow to release next week. I also have another interview recorded, but have not taken the time to edit it. Some take much more time than others.

A New Car! (Cue The Price is Right music)

We were driving to North Carolina for a meeting with our ears to the ground for a new vehicle. We have been earnestly looking for one for over a week. Particularly we have been interested in the Honda Odyssey or the Toyota Sienna. My wife has been the researcher to find cars on line and then I get to call on them. We have talked with so many car dealerships and individuals, we keep getting called back with offers of cars we don’t want. I shared my frustration with one dealer on Monday that we are getting call backs every 2 hours giving us less than ideal offers. The salesman told me that I should just end the suffering and buy his overpriced car. No thanks.

After we were on the road yesterday headed to Georgia, my wife asked me where we were staying. I told her Conyers and she said that there was an Odyssey in Conyers for the best price she had found so far. We did not get there early enough last night to find it and look it over.

This morning I called and found out it was still available. We went in and trudged through all the paperwork. Three and a half hours later we drove off with a 2003 Odyssey. We quickly rushed back to the church where we were staying and transferred all of our stuff from Suburban to Odyssey.

We left the car dealership 2 hours behind schedule. We needed to be in Laurinburg, NC by 5:00. Fortunately, that was a buffer time. Absolute latest was 7:00. Since we got out of Conyers 2 hours late, that ate up our buffer. We did get to the church about 6:30 and I was ready to preach by 7:30. What a wild ride.

Our 1990 Suburban with 285,000 miles is sitting in a church parking lot waiting for us to return next week and pick it up. I told the secretary it was for sale. If she talks anyone into buying it, then we won’t have to take it back to Florida with us.

Week 11

Week 10

This week was all messed up, but here is the break down such as it was.

Monday
2 miles easy. I ended up running this on Thursday since my last long run was Tuesday. I ran 2.55 miles easy.

Wednesday
I ran this 8 mile speed run on Saturday. It was not really a speed workout. I just ran. I had even forgotten that I was supposed to run 8 miles, but ran 7.85 miles anyway.

Saturday
20 mile long run. I ran this on Monday (today) and had a great run. Since I bailed on my 18 miler last week, I was a little nervous about pushing up to 20. The longest run previously had been 16 miles. I just took it slow and made sure that I took my walk breaks as needed. I was almost 2 minutes per mile too slow on this run. I don’t care. I am not shooting for any time goal on the marathon. I will push myself next time to stay within the plan.

Week 11
Monday: 2 miles at 10:19 pace.

Wednesday: 7 mile tempo.

Saturday: 16 miles at 10:19.