Onyare!

I have finally decided on a name for my snow corn snake. I went with Onyare, pronounced o-NYA-reh, which means "Snake". The word is from the Mohawk Nation of Native Americans, who were located in the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York, where I was born. The other snake shown here was one I found while mowing my lawn. I captured it to identify it, and later set it free near where I found it. I believe that it was an Eastern Ribbon Snake, T. Sauritus. If you are interested in garter snakes, there is an excellent forum located at http://www.thamnophis.com. My uncle Terry has posted some excellent photos of his “pets” in this thread, under the name “Stonyloam”. See my pictures here.

2007 Spirit of St. Louis Marathon

Well, all of the training paid off. In my first half-marathon, I ran the 13.1 miles in 1:57:21. I was pleased to beat the two-hour mark. The run was amazing. The first section started off with a lap around the Anheuser-Busch brewery, taking us past the massive brick brewhouses, and even the famous Budweiser Clydesdale Stables. Since I am a professional firefighter, I even got a red “Battle of the Badges” singlet. The cops wore blue ones. I had a great time, and I look very much forward to the full marathon in September. Here are my pics!

One week to go!

Happy Easter!

Only one week to go until the Spirit of St. Louis half-marathon. I have followed the excellent SmartCoach program at Runners World pretty carefully, and I think that I am ready.

I had a pretty tough nine-mile run yesterday because of the weather. It was about 33 degrees with a steady wind of 12 mph and gusts up to 25 mph. It wasn't bad on the way out, as I was running with the wind. It was windy enough that I felt it blowing on my back as I was running away from it. When I turned around, I realized that it was going to be a long way back. :) I did well speed-wise, though. I averaged 8:07 per mile. Here is my Nike+iPod screen:


Anyway, the race is next week, so wish me luck. I will post pictures after all is said and done!