I'm a believer

After screwing up yesterday's run through overindulgence the night before, and with clear (if chilly) skies this morning, I opted to run my long run today. Not every run is stellar. After a week of good runs, today's was less than comfortable. I spent the first two miles telling myself I would do two 4-mile laps. If my calves, ankles and feet didn't loosen up, I planned to cut the run short at 3 miles. I must have started to feel better at about the 2-mile mark though, because where I was going to turn toward home, I went straight. By the third mile I was definitely feeling warmed up, though not exactly full of energy. I started planning the rest of my route, trying to determine if I would do six, seven, or the originally intended eight miles. I wound my way up and down streets, guesstimating final mileage as I went. By the time I hit 5 miles, I knew I would do 8.

You can tell where the uphills were, and that I wasn't feeling this run the way I did my last few. I could tell you I just started out slow, as that would have been the responsible and smart way to approach a long run. That's not what happened though. I wasn't trying to go fast or slow. I was just running as best I could while feeling slow and uncomfortable.

I'd like to draw your attention to the final mile. I've decided I believe the GPS was correct last week when I posted those 11-minute-mile runs, even though the app needed updating. Otherwise, how could I post an 11-minute-mile today, as the final mile on the longest run I've done in months? Granted, this was technically "downhill" with maybe a 10 to 15 foot elevation loss. That doesn't take away from the fact that I pushed hard and ran it though.

After my run, I went out to get some bubble wrap. I have a very special package going out in tomorrow's mail.

These are the result of the domestic archeology at my Mom's house. Three 8mm film canisters (one marked Family 1964, one Family 1965, and the 3rd unmarked) and eight unmarked Super 8 reels of various length. I'm shipping them off to imemories.com, where they will be converted to digital for the low price of $9.99 per 2-hour DVD. I'm thinking there should be no more than 6 DVDs, if that. Once imemories has the film, they will digitize it and post it on their website. I can then view the videos and choose if I want to have them burned to disc or not. They return the originals to me with whatever DVDs I order.

I'm so very excited to see what's on these films. I wish there were some way to convert the sound recording I found, labeled John Micheal (I'm guessing Big Bro, though that was also my father's name). The site also do photographs, so I'm half tempted to send off the books and books Energizer Bunny is currently working on scanning. I'm back to one of her favorite sayings. "There are three ways to do a project: cheap, fast, or well. You can only have two of the three." So. Fast and well would not necessarily be cheap, but this might be cheap enough.