Has it been that long?

Has it really been a year since I last did a legit update??

Things have been interesting to say the least. Our daughter is nearly a year old and I havent run consistently in about the same amount of time. Lack of sleep is a real motivation killer!

My friend Jason has been hounding me about the Shellburg Falls race in December - so I need to really get moving to be even close to ready for that killer hill!

So, my update is: Im thinking about starting to consistently run again!

On another note: Im starting my fundraising again for the Special Olympics Polar Plunge - my goal is $3000 www.portlandplunge.kintera.org/kurtisdrake feel free to donate $5 - every little bit will help me get closer to my goal! Thanks.

Seatbelts.

In the crapper.

My motivation is in the crapper. I havent updated this blog in seven months, and I really havent run very frequently since then either. I did a half marathon in my hometown in Missouri in June and thats the last race I ran.

My wife is pregnant and due really any day now. I am pretty anxious for that to happen and to get on with real life (whatever that will look like, once it starts!).

I ran once last week and havent run yet this week. I know I need to, I know I will feel better if I do, but just cant seem to make it out of bed and get moving.

An up side is that I have been commuting by bike exclusively lately and plan to keep that up for the forseable future.

seatbelts.

Polar Plunge!

This past Saturday I did the Polar Plunge which benefited Special Olympics Oregon. I ended up raising $5000!!! I had a huge donation the night before the event and it put me into first place of Individual Fundraisers. I was pretty stoked about it. The event was alot of fun and it raised over $100,000 for Special Olympics Oregon.

Ive been running pretty well lately. Doing shorter runs alot faster than normal, and I am feeling pretty good about it. Im not sure if I am gonna do an Ultra this year, but my goal is to break my old PR at the Run Like Hell half marathon. My old PR is 1:37.4. I'd like to see if I can do a 1:35. It'll take ALOT of work to get there, so we'll see what happens.

I hope everyone is doing great!

Seatbelts.

thirty-one on my thirty-first.

Today is my 31st birthday! I got up at 2:30am, and started running around 3am. I ran 31K (19.3 miles) to celebrate :) It was a good run, I was definitely doing a bit of a death march at the end. I was pretty wiped out from the lack of good sleep. Its hard to get up that early! Thanks to Doug and Mike for joining in and keeping me going at the end.

I am skipping the Cascade 1/2 marathon this year. I was gonna do the 10k option, but I missed the early sign-up so they wanted to charge me $45 to run 6 miles. I dont think so!

Good luck to Luvin, Pain Train, and J-Dogg on Sunday. I hope you guys have awesome races! Pain Train, I hope you PR the heck outta that 10K.

Seatbelts.

closed the book

I recently "deactivated" my facebook account. Long story short, they changed the security settings and I couldnt stay as anonymous as I wanted!

I ran today for the first time in a few days and it was good. I did about 6 miles. Im finally getting over this second round of a cold. My parents and younger sis, her husband and son are coming to Salem for Christmas. They get into town this Thursday. I am expecting it to be a fun visit with everyone.

What are your Christmas plans? I hope everyone has a great Christmas! Happy holiday eating/running! If anyone wants to go for a run over the Christmas weekend, let me know. If it is early enough, I will be able to go.

Seatbelts.

expensive trail run/not feeling well

I did the shellburg falls trail run a couple of weekends ago. It was a blast! Gary Terlecki from www.runwildadventures.com did a great job organizing and setting this race up - The Pain Train was invaluable in getting this race off the ground. It was a free race which appeals to my frugal nature and I was very a happy about the lack of cost.

On the way home from the race I had to drive my VW Jetta over a bunch of gravel any my skid plate ended up acting like a scoop and scooped up a ton of the gravel. Any way, got home and parked the car for a sec so Jess could run in and grab something, she came back out and we backed out of the driveway and there was a small oil spot on the driveway. We drove around for about a half hour then came home, parked the car and forgot about it. Three hours later we had to go somewhere and we got out to the car and there was an enormous oil puddle under the car.

Long story short, we had the car towed to AJs in Salem and the "free" race ended up costing me $907 in car repairs! Wow. It was still a great race though.

Ive not been feeling well lately, lots of cold symptoms - head congestion, sore throat, coughing/sneezing. It sucks. Its impeded my training quite a bit. Hope to be on the mend soon. Hope all is well with everyone out there!!

Seatbelts.