#2. Lexington Half marathon. Not sure why this is called the Lexington half, it took place about 36 miles east of Lexington in a little town called Mount Sterling. Actually, didn't even go through Mt. Sterling, went out a country road out to nowhere. Beautiful run though. Chilly, clear, listening to cows mooing at us, horses and unfortunately too many dogs chained up next to houses. Even more hills than Cincinnati. All the UK shirts didn't do anything for this Gator fan. Special treat: A KRYSTAL burger right next to our hotel, woo hoo!! Friday afternoon we drove 30 minutes down to Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge, gotta go back, that was some fantastic stuff.

#1 is in the books. 42 degrees at the start, 48 at the finish and rain. Lots of hills in Cincinnati. Ran the last 2 miles with a running group from there, really helped a lot. Off to Lexington next week.

Half Marathon #52, Last Chance for Boston, Dublin Ohio. The next two weekends I just have training runs before the big event starts March 20. What was I thinking signing up for these? My legs are killing me after today! All for a worthy cause: my sanity. And to raise a little money for Red Sky rescue.

I can whine and complain with the best of any other, including fishermen and golfers. My whine this week: it got to the mid 60's and sunny!

Why, you ask, should I complain? Because the week before it was single digits, around zero at night and cold! So it warms up to the 50's and 60's throughout the week, all while I'm at a desk looking outside. Saturday comes for my long run and, BA BOOM!! 28 degrees again.

Next Sunday is the "Last Chance for Boston" half marathon in Dublin, can't wait! I've been to Dublin once before, great one mile loop course, 13 laps. And we're talking Dublin Ohio. But after 4 months of no halfs I AM READY!!

It's bad enough I pay money to travel and GO somewhere just to run 13 miles. Now, I'm even driving hours to get a training run in! Got tired of all the ice and snow here on the ground for the last month or two so last weekend I drove to Bernheim Forest south of Louisville. Beautiful area but the trails were closed due to...ice and snow!! Between here and there nothing is on the ground. Apparently the last storm went south. Oy vey. I still managed 2 hours on their roads in the park.

Here is a tentative, definitely for sure, probably, almost maybe list of the half marathons I will actually pay good hard earned money to people to let me slog 13.1 miles in their venerable locations:

March 20: Heart Walk, Cincinnati
March 26: Lexington KY
April 2: IU Mini, Bloomington IN
April 10: GO! St Louis, St Louis MO
April 16: Glass City Half, Toledo OH
April 23: Pine Line Half, Medford WI
April 30: Derby Half, Louisville KY
May 1: Flying Pig, Cincinnati OH (Yes, 2 in 2 days!)
May 7th: 500 Festival, Indianapolis
May 15th: Pittsburgh PA
May 21st: Geist Half, Indianapolis
May 29th: Madison Half, Madison WI
June 4th: Sunburst, South Bend IN