Fun Day at WPIAL's...on to PHX

So many neat things to update:

WPIAL's
-Boys made it to State's; Girls missed, but one individual made it. Both are a little disappointing relative to past success, but it's been a solid overall year for the boys and they'll have a chance to get some revenge at Hershey. For the girls, it was a rebuilding year plus some injuries, but they fought hard all year and didn't give in today.

-I saw so many neat people today, including:
Beth's college coach from PSU (Coach Sullivan) and assistant, who were there to recruit Natalie Bower (4-time WPIAL champ), I assume. I was able to chat it up with her and she passed along a hello and good luck to "Bethie." Also, the one girl from our school is interested in running at PSU and I introduced her to coach. Hopefully that's a good match from both ends.

Beth's High School Coach who retired from teaching and coaching high school two years ago, but he's now teaching at a small Christian school east of Pittsburgh and coaching at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe

GS Coaches Nate & Jeremy, both of whom are running the marine corps marathon this weekend. Good luck!

Of course, my high school coach--it's always nice to talk with him. His son (and my former teammate) lives out in Phoenix, so I might try to get in touch with him this weekend.

Wendy, Beth's blogging friend was there. I hear a "Hey Oscar" out of the blue and then I recognized her with the red, curly hair. Her high school girls qualified for state's for the first time in their high school history. GREAT JOB!! Also, sorry about the teacher's strike. Nobody wins with those. I hope it's resolved quickly.

Beth touches down in PHX
I just got a call from Beth and she has landed and found my parents already. She's going to call again once she gets settled in. Tomorrow's a day for her to get organized and relax some before training & meetings Saturday and the big BOUS race on Sunday. Results may be here.

I fly out tomorrow after school
In an attempt to not have to pay for TWO cars at the airport this weekend, I worked out this crazy scheme where I'm going to park at a teacher's house, walk to school (0.8 mi) and then get a ride out to the airport from someone who goes home that way. It seems like it's going to work, we'll see. Then, on Monday, we'll be picking up my car. I hope we don't forget it. Or else, Beth's getting up Tuesday morning to drive me to school!!

Our furnace is A-OK
We kicked on our furnace last Saturday during the PSU game, but it didn't come on. This wasn't good. I tried again Sunday morning and it worked for a little bit, but wouldn't come back on after the initial fire. So, Monday & Tuesday we would turn it on and crank it up to 75 or so and then live off of that heat for about 8-10 hours and then repeat.

So the service man comes on Wednesday and figured out that it was a motor that does something with the heat exchanger or gas pump. He replaced it and we're back up and running, all for under $200. Thank goodness!

Sports Update
So, time to go finish packing and watch the Rays vs Phils and the 'Eers vs Auburn Tigers. Good thing the PSU-OSU game is the 8:00 ET Prime time game Saturday. It will be starting at 5:00 Arizona time, just after we get back from dinner and Beth will be making her final preparations for Sunday's race. Also, the Steelers are 4:15ET start, so I may get to catch that after the race.

Pics from Buffalo Creek 1/2 Marathon

I found some pics online from the half marathon:

The race started with a siren from a fire truck, but it was a really whimpy siren. We were all laughing about it as we left the line saying, "that's all the better they could do for a siren?"

These are the four other guys I ran with most of the time. The young guy (297) broke away with about 5 miles to go. I started dropping back with about 3-4 miles to go and finished behind all of these guys. But, only the top female passed me between here and the end.

The anguished face of a guy who's been training with 5k guys all fall during the last 1/2 mile of a 13.1 mile race. Ugh!

Next blog either from the airport or in warm, sunny Phoenix (High of 90 Saturday!!!)