Long time....no post

It has been a terribly long time since I have posted here.  Wow.  Sorry to my few readers.  What's been going on?  Well lots, but then when I look back, not a lot but I always seem to run out of time.  It's been cold and snowy here for far too long.  I am so ready for some warm weather.  So what is new.....not a whole lot.  I have been training a lot.  Asher has been an awesome running partner.  I am building my mileage for the Big Sur Marathon on May 1 and he has been a great running partner.  He has done back-to-back 16 milers and has done great.  And he is loving every minute of it.  He wears his backpack and shoes and people check him out as we are running along.

Jeff, Asher and I have been trying to get out and do as much as we can with the sub-par weather.  We went to our first professional lacross game a few weeks ago and are going to another one this weekend.  The Buffalo Bandits.  Until I moved here I never knew there was a professional lacross league.  The games are pretty wild and fun.  They are rough and the crowd really gets into it, chanting and yelling and they play music throughout the whole game.  Pretty cool. 

I took a couple trips up to Canada to get some lactate testing done for my coach and then I did the Shamrock 8K here in Buffalo.  The weather was terrible, rainy and 30+ mph winds but it was good to get out and race again.  I have my race schedule set through September so I'll get that posted on here as well.  Lots of new races to try which will be fun....and even a little traveling to new places as well.  I'm looking forward to it all.

I'll be better about updating in the future.  Promise.  I hope everyone is well and praying for spring. 

Snowshoeing

We finally got out recently to snowshoe.  Last Sunday we went to Chestnut Ridge Park and today we went to 18 mile creek park.  Both were awesome.  Here are a few pics: 

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

2 hours of fun and a huge smile for Asher

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

18 mile creek park

18 mile creek park

18 mile creek park

18 mile creek park

18 mile creek park

Check out the frozen cliff.  People were ice (rock) climbing on the ice on the cliffs

18 mile creek park

Another happy Asher after a fun day in the snow

18 mile creek park

18 mile creek park

18 mile creek park



More Naples Pictures

Here are a few more Naples pictures.  You can never have too many of the beach and the water.  I love it!!!

Scorpion (don't worry, he's dead, we checked!)

Wiggins Pass

Back of Jim's House

Flowers outside Jim's house

More flowers

Naples

Last Friday, Jan 14-Monday Jan 17th I went to Naples, FL for a long weekend.  I went for many reasons but the big ones were to run the Naples News Half Marathon with Mark, to see Mark, Sue and Mark's dad Jim (which is where we stayed) and to see my Godfather Brent and see his house and hang with him for a day.  So needless to say, lots of really good reasons to go to Florida in January.  Oh yeah, and because Florida is the only state without snow and here in Buffalo it's always snowing, everyday, sometimes multiple times in a day.  I didn't take my shorts off the whole trip!  It was awesome.  

I flew in early Friday morning and Brent picked me up at the airport.  One slight miss-hap getting off the plane.  A person on our plane couldn't wait 3 hours to smoke and was caught smoking in the bathroom on the plane.  So a man in a haz-mat suit had to check out the plane and the police and eventually the FBI had to have a fun visit with this man.  Federal offense.  Dumb idea.  Anyway.  Other than that the flight was great.  I highly recommend Jet Blue to fly with.  Brent and I headed to his house, I met his friend Jim and then we headed to the beach.  And oh was the beach beautiful.  White sand, lots of shells to pick, beautiful (but cold) water. 

Back of Brent's house

Barefoot Beach (Gulf of Mexico)

Shells

Barefoot Beach

Beautiful

We did a little more sightseeing and then headed to Jim's house.  Where I met this pretty lady.  Trudy.  Trudy and I became good friends over the few days I was there.  She's a sweetie.

Trudy

Saturday Mark and I went running, in shorts, and then went and picked up our packets and did a little sightseeing. After lunch we hit the beach.

Beach with Condos in the distance

More condos in a pass

Beach

Pelican

Sunday was the race.  Mark and I ran together, both with colds but we made it.  It was funny to see all the natives there with jackets and long sleeves and even some gloves and hats.  Mark and I had on sleeveless shirts and shorts.  Funny!  The race was very well run, there were about 2,000 runners and the course weaves though the "high rent district" of Naples.  Some major money where we ran.  Beautiful homes.  We even had a priest bless us, twice, on the race course.  A very nice race and one we hope to do again and hopefully feel better.  The rest of the day we just relaxed at the beach. 

Monday, Mark and I went running on the beach.  Past some beautiful beach homes.

And picked some shells.  It rained pretty much the rest of the day so we did a little shopping and hit the Naples Pier.  This pier has been rebuilt year after year when it gets knocked out from a hurricane.  We also saw some people wind surfing since there were actually waves.  Cool stuff!

Wind Surfing

Naples Pier

Naples Pier

And a great way to end the trip.  A rainbow over the lake outside Jim's house.  (On the left is a key lime tree.  Awesome key lime pie was made as well!)