Blog Stats

Sometimes, you have to be honest. Honestly, I have about as much energy today as that slug I mentioned last week. I blew off church this morning after staying up past midnight to watch Vanderbilt play baseball on the Internet after a five-hour rain delay. Re-reading that is disturbing on several levels. If there is a Get-A-Life Anonymous, I'm sure I would be welcomed.

I peruse the Internet chat boards and blogs on Vanderbilt several times a week. So does Dori on occasion. Some of the Chicken Little's crack me up. They whine about anything and everything ... and when a Vanderbilt team has a great game, these curmudgeons point out the imperfections. People who do this, IMO, are taking out their frustration in not addressing their own shortcomings by trying to bring everyone else down to their level. How inspiring!

My friend, Paige, should never have told me about Google Analytics. It's interesting to know who reads Run for Dori. Since the new year, RFD has had 2,694 visits (30.25 visits a day) with 17.5% of those (472) from new visitors. The most visits in one day this year came on March 14 (51), when Dori was back in the hospital. Last year's high was 79 visitors on Nov. 21. Since I started tracking the blog in late October (or, since Paige gave me something fun to do with all my excess free time), visitor loyalty and traffic has steadily increased. Average time on the site is 1 minute, 19 seconds, while 39% of visits come from referring sites, 33% are direct traffic and 28% from search engines.

I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes, but trust me, Paige is loving this. I like it, too ... it's nice to have some stats about this community of friends and guests who are interested in several aspects of the blog - Dori, my take on her battle and recovery, running in general, and other odds and ends. I know some blog loyalists, but am interested in knowing others who stop by regularly. If you're so inclined, sign the comments section with a hello (public) or shoot me an e-mail (private). It would be nice to hear what's going on in your life, if we haven't spoken in awhile.

Dori's hair continues to grow - soft and curly in the back! She'll be getting a trim soon, her first visit to the hairdresser since last spring. Do you think she's excited? More like jazzed. Dori made a Costco run yesterday, which is another milestone. The kids helped her load up cases of water and beer, as well as Pepper's 52 lb. bag of dog food. She continues to go to bed very early (before 8) and sleeps in until 7 or 8. She's only on three medications, down from 12 a few months ago.

Dori is staying in touch with fellow leukemia survivors. Chuck Hendry is back at work, battling fatigue. His donor DNA is 98%, so they've dropped his meds so they can induce a little GVHD. Tammy Hart is in the long term care clinic and working on a fundraiser. If you can help, just visit her blog that I've linked. Candy Rucker is doing great, but I haven't heard about Kim Swindall in some time. Last I heard, he was doing fine ... I've asked Dori to check in with them.

I planned to run eight miles yesterday, but stopped after seven. I did not eat lunch because the cupboard was bare and I only had a brief window to run before heading out again. So I slammed a GU energy gel, drank some Gatorade and headed out the door. I felt awesome for the first time since the Tom King, so I decided to run hard on a course with some decent elevation change. I reached four miles in 34:00, an 8:30 pace, and slammed another gel.

I pressed to hold the pace, but began to struggle. My seventh mile was a 9:30, so I shut it down at 1:03:00, a 9:00/mile pace with some traffic stops. I figured I would catch my breath and run some hard sprints, rather than run another sloppy mile. That was a good and bad idea. Good, because the sprints went well, and bad, because I paid for it last night and this morning. Skipping lunch was a no-no.