Personal Log, Sunday 25 April 2004, 2345 Hours

Since I'm running short on time, I've once again decided to post a censored copy of my letter to my wife to explain what happened today with a few photos taken from the Ice Breaker.

  Ugh�wow. Only two major things happened today, but they sure as heck drained me. I got up this morning around 0830, and chilled out by playing some more Counter-Life (Combination of Half-Life and Counter-Strike) until you called. I�m glad that we had longer to talk too, because I just love hearing your voice. I still think that you sound different. I�m also glad that you liked the certificate that I made for you. I�m working on another one for you too, and when you get home, whether it�s after tech school or an honorable discharge, I�m gong to have a very special one for you, one that I know that you�ll want to hang up on the wall in our bedroom. I�m glad, however, that it wasn�t you that went to the hospital this week, and I can see even you know how to sneak in a few extra bites when you can. Nerd.

  After your call, I went back to my games for a little bit to try to relax a little more before I headed to the gym. Man, I can�t believe that I haven�t figured out the fact that I should have been working out in the weight room for upper body workout from the beginning. When I leave there nowadays, my chest area pretty well aches, but that�s fine because the muscles are starting to build up there. I�m sure that you�ll be impressed either way. In fact, I�m sure that you just want to be here anyways. I�ll admit, that I do feel pretty lonely there in the gym without you by my side. It�s alright though, because I know that one day soon you�ll be back here with me, working out with we whether it�s at the base or not.

  Anyways, after I got home I spent the next couple of hours getting ready for the Ice Breaker. I was pretty nervous going in there, wondering if my allergy meds were going to hold or not, wondering if my ankles were going to hold out, wondering if I should have been wearing shorts or not, since it was about mid-60s, what should I do for music, all of that. Around 0200, I went out and walked around the block a few times, and was ready to go around 0225. Mom went with me, and Katie was going to meet up with us down there. Anyways, we had to get downtown to the Civic Center, where this was all starting, by going up to 10^th Ave. S. and come down 4^th street. Mom and I parked in the new garage and walked down. I had to go into the convention center, where NEW had the Christmas party in December, and Becky was there again and she gave me a packet that had my numbered bib, and my tracking chip. I felt pretty well out of place with the bib, for sure. It�just didn�t feel like it fit my attire, which was my usual workout sweats and the Ice Breaker long-sleeve shirt that I got a few days ago. Mom helped me get the chip secured on my shoe, and Katie took a few pics of me. Katie also got a few pics of the size of the crowd that was there for the 1-mile event. The 1-mile event was billed as a family event, so there were a lot of little kids, old people, families, and even a bunch of handicapped people.

  I was looking out among the crowd as I was walking up and down the streets waiting for the thing to start, shaking my head. I knew that it was going to be a madhouse trying to maintain my usual pace and trying to dodge all these slowpokes in addition to dodging the construction areas. Our route would take us from the front of the Civic Center on central, down to 5^th street, and we�d turn north, and run down to 5^th� Ave. North, then make one last turn running down to Park drive, where the finish line was waiting. It was supposed to start right at 1500, but they held it back for a few minutes to left the 3-mile runners finish. Believe me, by the time that it was time to start, I was ready to bite nails.

  When the gun sounded to start the race, I was in the middle of the crowd, and it was a mentally agonizing walk as the crowd slowly moved their way up to the start line and the machines that would start our individual timers. After about a minute and a half after the start of the race, I finally crossed the start line, and I was off. The first five blocks felt very much like I was in a Star Wars movie and flying through a asteroid field in space. There were little kids that I was constantly dodging, even more kids cutting me off, and people going around left and right. In fact, I don�t think that I ran a straight line for a whole block. I started losing my breath after the first turn, but I kept the pace that I was running and dodged a few more slow people. The next five blocks took me along the courthouse, and it was a slight incline up. My body wanted me to slow down and walk for a bit, but I thought to myself that if I wanted to be in the military, I had to keep going. I was still breathing fine, but my throat was dry as hell. I finally made it around the next turn still going, and nearly ran over a little kid while another one just ran right by be. Fortunately, I was entering the home stretch and picked up the pace a little more. I could quite see the finish line, because it was just around the corner, but I knew that I was getting there. Plus too it seemed like you were there with me encouraging me on. I rounded the slight corner and ran straight into the finish line. The time on the clock said 8:46, which at the time was what I thought that my official time was. It was fine by me, because it was four seconds off my personal best. I took a big breath, and I damn nearly fell over I was so dizzy. However, I kept it together and wobbled over to a nearby stand so that they could clip and recover my computer chip, and get my participant medal, which I�ve also included a photo of. I looked around for mom and Katie, because for them it would have been a two or three block walk over to the finish line. I wandered from the finish line and nearly to the Civic Center where I last saw them. I was wishing that I had my cell with me, but that really wouldn�t have helped. I finally ran into mom finally, and we walked over to the finish line where I finally noticed that they were posting the results. You�re not going to believe this, and I waited until after midnight to confirm this, but here�s a rundown of how I did:

• Official time: 7:09

• Overall place: 98/957

• Overall place among male participants: 68/411

• Rank in the 19-24 age division: 1/11

  So, as you can see, it went rather well. I really wish you could have been there. That time is the best that I�ve ever run the mile. Ever. Not even in school have I run that hard before. Mom told me that they must have just missed me at the finish line because they were there around 8:00 mark and they were looking for me. But that�s okay. Katie took off after that and I took mom home, since she had to get ready for dinner at Linda and Steve�s place, and I returned for the lunch that was being given to Ice Breaker participants. They were showing a video showing everyone as they crossed the finish line. There were so many people crossing the line about the same time as me. To give you an idea, the difference between my position and the 88^th position was less than ten seconds. I thought that I saw myself there, but I wasn�t too sure. It didn�t matter to me though. I watched the award ceremony as well for the top ten ranked people in the 5 and 3-mile event.

  When that was all over, I came home, and I called Sam since she wanted me to call after the Ice Breaker to figure out what time to come on by, and I inadvertently woke her up from a nap. I quickly let her go back to sleep after she promised to call back when she knew when exactly I should stop by. I sat back and started playing Counter-Life, but I only maybe logged 20 minutes or so on it when Sam called back on the house line, rather than my cell. She sounded much more lucent and like the Sam that I remembered. We decided that I should stop by around 1800. After I hung up with her, Michele came online and we bullshitted for a little bit while I got changed out. We didn�t talk about much, but I told her about my results, and she was pretty well impressed as well. We also didn�t talk for long, as I left for Sam�s place at about 1750. It was a pretty crazy drive out to her place as well. She lives on the north side of town now, but for some reason I went out to 10^th Ave. South and turned on her street from there. Don�t ask me why, I just did. Plus when I finally got to her place I had to make two passes around the house just to make sure that I had the right place.

  Sam let me in, and it was just she and I for about 20 minutes while Frank and our friends Shawn and Dave were out getting food. Sam and I talked for a little bit, started catching up on things. I also finally got to see how Dish Network�s receivers look like and how shitty they really are. If I didn�t like DirecTV�s equipment before, I sure as hell started liking it then. Her receiver has a software glitch or the remote�s fucked, because her receiver resets itself after trying to change the volume using the remote. Anyways, it was pretty quiet there for a bit. Her kids were with Frank�s parents for a little bit, mainly so that mom could get some sleep. She and I were about to talk about some more�private things that I wanted to talk to her about when the crew came back. Frank was, of course, still Frank. Dave�s still chilling as only the club-arm man can, and Shawn (whom you haven�t met) was chilling as well. He was wearing a shirt with the picture of Quagmire from The Family Guy. Remember that charater? The horny guy with the big jaw who always has the funniest pickup lines but can�t get any lovin�? If not, that�s okay. You�ll remember when you get home if you don�t already. Anyways, Shawn went into the kitchen and started shaking up a can of whipped cream. Sam and Frank were laughing and telling him to put it down when I made the snide comment �Well, he is the one wearing the Quagmire shirt,� which made everyone laugh even harder. We all finally settled down and started watching the Beavis and Butthead DVDs that I brought over.

  It went pretty well for a while, and then Frank�s folks came home and the kids came back. Many has grown so much, and she�s really adorable now. She likes to crawl around, and you can tell she�s absorbing so much information. She ask really likes it when I grab her little nose and start playing with. Morgan is now a very active three-year-old (I think he�s three now, or maybe he�s four, I�m not sure), but he�s definitely taken a liking to me. Later on at night, when Sam set him up in their bedroom with the Mulan DVD, he came out, dragged me in there, and wanted to just sit on my lap while watching it.

  It�s official now, I think. Like I wrote a few weeks ago, there�s a part of me that regrets the fact that we don�t have kids right now. I know why we don�t, but just being a human and having a human�s urges gives us all those instincts that tells us what to do and when, and mine were definitely not happy over the fact that we�re childless. Then again, there�s still that part of me that is happy that we don�t have kids, and doesn�t want kids. I mean, I want us to be able to enjoy most of our lives together without the stress of kids, but I know that you want to have kids. Oh well�We can talk about it later on after you get back.

  Sam came in while I was sitting there with Morgan, and we talked about religion for a little bit. I told her that you were thinking about attending a Wiccan service at least once while you were down there. She again says that she can help you out answering any questions that you have about it. She definitely wants to have a chat with you at some point when you get back about everything. Not in a bad way, mind you, but I think she�s more interested in expanding her friendship with you honestly.

End Log