Easy Like...

Ah. Sunday mornings.

It's a comfortable routine, and after the early morning runs on Saturday, a blessed one. I wake up between 9 and 10, make some coffee. Goof around on the Internets for a couple of hours and then, maybe, take a shower and start my day. I'm still 20 minutes or so from that shower, which today, I think, will be followed by taking my dad to a movie, something I don't do nearly enough. Many Sundays include a few hours at the office, but with no deadline this week I think I'll manage to avoid that.

More about this marathon. I should add that my wife, Nichole, is training with me. She's preparing to run a half marathon the same day as my full. The catch: It's in San Francisco on Oct. 21. It's the same weekend as our fifth wedding anniversary. No, we're not into S&M. Earlier this year I joined the board of the Springfield Lukemia & Lymphoma Society, and felt compelled to participate in their Team in Training program. It's on my "life list" to run a marathon, and I figured I'm not getting any younger, right?

The San Fran race is the Nike Women's Marathon. Though men are allowed to compete (obviously), race veterans tell me men are often booed. Militant lesbians, you know? I plan on fashioning some sort of shirt or loose cape that says "I'm running with my wife." Imagine finishing 26.2 miles and getting effing booed! Good thing I have sizeable sense of irony.

The big catch to this marathon business is raising enough money to go. That means $3,800 each for me and Nichole. Yow. That's a lot of bake sales. Of course, if we do it, it means an all-expenses paid trip to the Bay Area for our anniversary--the actual day is Oct. 19, so all the romance can get out of the way prior to the dry-heaving. If you'd like to donate to our cause (I'll give you a big shout out, plus it's tax deductible) you can e-mail me at matthew.lemmon@gmail.com and I'll tell you how. When I get a link to the donate-online thingy, I'll put a permanent link at the bottom of the page.

Well, it's noon. Time to clean up and take the old man to see Live Free or Die Hard.

Peace.

M