We interrupt our (ir)regularly scheduled program to bring your this blog entry.

Unlike some of you readers out there, I am not a fan of adult contemporary musician Josh Groban. I find his vocals and performances to be too schmaltzy for my taste. But to his credit, I have to give him respect for his immense talent.

After watching a snippet from last night's Primetime Emmy broadcast, I can also appreciate that he has a good sense of humor. Who knew that he could mimic The Rembrandts, The South Park kids, and Inner Circle? Although he needs to work a little more on his Will Smith!

(Facebook Notes readers can go here to view the YouTube magic)

Relish

About 4 years ago as a relatively green runner, I accomplished my race goal to break 25 minutes in the 5K (8:03 mile pace). Around that time, I set another timed race goal to eventually run faster than 51 minutes in the 10K (8:12 mile pace). I kept a printout of that taped up on my bedroom wall, resolving to remove it only when I completed my task. Unfortunately, I just couldn't take down that "51:00" paper, which was frustrating. The closest that I ever came to it was 3 years ago during a fun Nike Run Hit race, and even then, I still was short by about 1.5 minutes! I started to ignore the paper after that, since I didn't want to ruin my hobby by trying for a difficult time goal. After all, I am not a professional!

But, you know how life throws you a pleasant surprise now and then? Well, I am happy to say that I finally removed that paper after completing the local Keep L.A Running 10K. Even though the results may say that I took 18 seconds over 51 minutes, my stopwatch (which did not begin until I crossed the starting line; no chip timing) said I had 3 valuable seconds to spare!

That unexpected encouragement and my pleasant training experiences with the Nike+ Human Race 10K convinced me to try the Los Angeles Marathon again. Last time, I cramped up at miles 18-19 and was just happy to finish (with a sick day the following Monday). I am training with a different group this year to see if I come out of it in better shape. I'm also going to adjust my workouts during the work week because I previously burned out from overtraining; too many anaerobic runs and too few aerobic ones. And yes, the mileage counter is back again!

There is still one question that remains (beside a funny one a Sunday school student posed last weekend, "Why do it? I think running for more than 10 miles is like a waste of time." ). Should I be bold enough to put up a race goal on my bedroom wall?