Order Restored

Last night, I joined about 15 Team in Training teammates for a preview meeting of the upcoming weekend. I was the only guy in the room. When our leader, Leslie, handed out pretty bags with fluffy, colorful paper with our purple jerseys and other goodies, it felt like sorority rush. It was a good time.

Sunday's run in Sante Fe was good for several reasons (scenic, peaceful, great air), but it was very slow (10:20/mile pace). The altitude and food were factors, but I needed to bring it back with a good five-mile run this morning.

It's pretty humid this morning - 90% with a 64 degree dewpoint and 67 degrees. Great weather if it were early August, but we're in mid-October. Still, I felt pretty good out there, running a 9:20/mile pace to the midway mark. The first half of the run was mostly downhill; the return route was mostly uphill. I picked up the pace, negative splitting and finishing at a 9:13/mile pace, or 46:07 total. I'll run one more time, probably three miles at race pace on Thursday morning.

I recently read this interesting article about the credit crisis and consumers being tapped out. Consider this sentence in the article: The “entitlement generation” typically means the children of the Baby Boomers — a group that felt entitled to have what their parents had and more, but much earlier in their lives.

No one was guilty of borrowing too much or spending well beyond their means, right? Of course they were and there's plenty of blame for others to accept, if they're willing - executives and their complicit boards, Wall Street, greedy, arrogant politicians from all parts of the spectrum, lazy regulators and others. I prefer not to listen to the whining and finger-pointing ... maybe that's why I continue to avoid the yapping on cable TV and am enjoying college football talk so much!

One last thing, a fundraising update: Dori's Light the Night Team has already raised $3,000! Our TNT effort is nearing $16,000, once the dust settles and the LLS folks can identify all the matches. That's worth celebrating.