Good Clinic Visit

Dori heard good news today at her monthly check-up. Her blood counts look good. White blood cell counts and platelets increased, while red blood cell counts went down a smidge. Her RBC and platelets are still below normal, but we're told the overall picture looks good. As you can imagine, today was a great day. When Dori called me with the good news, she sounded like a 21-year-old girl.

Last night, Dori and I joined our friends, Donna and Runcie, for some Carrabba's (good chain, one of the few) and the new Indiana Jones movie. In high school, Runcie and I went to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" more times than I care to share on this blog. Let's just say the Hillwood Theater only charged 99 cents and Runcie and I didn't drink or get in trouble in high school. Last night's movie cost $9 a head.

I liked the movie, especially the opening scene with the Russians in the warehouse and the ant scene. All the Indiana Jones movies are a stretch, but this one was on the outer edge. I also thought the script was too crammed in the beginning (too much information too fast). I like my Indiana Jones punching, dodging and weaving, not explaining too much. I'd give the flick a 7 or 8. Raiders is a 10, and the other two are 7s in my book.

I ran yesterday and today. Yesterday morning, I ran 2.75 miles in the neighborhhod, then five sets of .15-mile sprints with some cooldowns in between. It was warm with a high dewpoint, and my legs burned. The sprints help so much, though ... they're a must if you want to drop your times. The kids and I played a little tennis later in the day. I planned to run this morning, but the dinner-movie thing knocked me out. So I resolved to run after work.

Boy, was it nice today. No humidity with a high of 80. As the sun started to drop, I headed to Belle Meade Blvd. to run a seven miler. Using some side streets, I ran the mostly flat course in 1:04:04, or a 9:09/mile pace. I started slow because I was sore, but loosened up a bit after a mile or so and started running some sub-9:00 miles. In Saturday's heat, I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest; today, I felt like I could adjust my speed at will with little to no stress. Only the last mile was somewhat challenging, but I kept the pace steady. Weekly mileage is at 11 after two days.

One footnote to the fundraising: Melissa Hudson-Gant with the local LLS chapter joined the TNT-ers Saturday morning. I asked if she would check to see how many folks are fund-raising for the Nike Women's Marathon to see where No. 18 really stands at this juncture. Melissa e-mailed me today to say we're No. 18 out of 5,000 folks. Wow, y'all ... That's an impressive ranking and start. Hats off again to you all.

I'm so happy for Dori. She deserves to hear good news upon good news. This July 4 will be a lot more fun than last year (real fireworks, not chemo blasts). I'm grateful for this week's peace and our plans to have family fun.