The Aaron Harber Show

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You can sign up for the 2009 Bolder Boulder so go online and join me now. Just note in your registration you want to run with me --- unless you want to run a better time!

It's been almost a week since my humbling run in the 30th annual Bolder Boulder. Today I ran with Angela on "our trail" --- the City of Boulder's 6.7-mile White Rocks Trail. It was gorgeous out. The Sun already had passed the horizon and was beautifully lighting up the Front Range. Animals abounded and the air was fresh. It was about 45^oF --- perfect for Summer running.

We ran at a slow but decent pace. My goal was to run without stopping. Our problem was we were laughing too much as we talked about the Race and other silly things we had done. Angela had one story about how she had found a man passed out on the street in front of her place of work a year ago and how, not knowing what to do, she ran into the building, told her colleagues to call 911, and then tore down the giant First Aid poster in the employee room so she could bring it outside and determine what to do. The image of her outside, standing over a body, consulting this large poster made us both laugh.

I was still recuperating from the Race and said it was a message that I needed to get more rest, lose weight, and eat better food. Angela's attitude was I simply needed to train harder. "Oh, great," I said, "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"

She was already planning to enter us in a half-marathon. She had researched the possibilities last night and was suggesting a half-marathon either in Estes Park or Colorado Springs. She was focused on staying off pavement --- which was a good idea --- but didn't understand a "trail race" usually meant a lot of elevation changes. I wasn't thrilled about that. The only elevation change I wanted in a race was one which was both unidirectional and negative. Running up and down a bunch of hills definitely wasn't what I wanted to do.

We playfully argued about her plan. I wanted to get some rest, eat better, and lose some weight. Running again at +/-200 pounds wasn't for me. I thought I had run at about the same weight last year but Angela thought I was much lighter --- possibly at 185. I didn't think so but I could be wrong.

I needed to be in the 180 to 185 range to survive a half-marathon. I explained to her that, at 195 or 200, it would be suicidal to run. And I confessed that I could not get down to 185 in just a couple of weeks --- which is when she wanted to run our first half-marathon.

We went back-and-forth on the topic for the entire run. She was determined to sign us up and I told her that was crazy. Ooooooh… bad choice of words! I proposed we run the Boulder Backwoods Half-Marathon Trail on our own to see how we could do. Angela said she didn't like that idea because there would be no water stations. I countered by saying, "We can drive ahead of the run and place bottled water wherever you want it."

Then she argued that there would be no snack bag afterwards. We both started laughing again as I told her I would re-pack my Bolder Boulder lunch-bag with even better goodies than what the Race provided.

I thought I had won the argument --- silly me --- when she noted there would be no toilet facilities when we ran the Boulder Backroads Half-Marathon course months before the actual event. That one was tougher for me. I rejoined, "You can go in the woods" although I didn't know if there were any woods around that area. I guess I could have offered to rent a Port-A-Potty but that would have been too extreme. Nevertheless, I regretted not suggesting it. I'd save that one for our next "discussion."

I really didn't know how I would do in a half-marathon. Part of me wanted to do it and most of me said I was nuts to even be talking about it without engaging in a training program. And I knew it made no sense to do it without spending a few months getting back into shape with a plan for more rest, better nutrition, and targeted exercise.

As we ran, I was struggling to keep going but ended up never stopping during the entire 6.7-mile course. That was a good sign. It wasn't a good sign afterwards, however, when a bird flew by and pooped on my head. We both cracked up again. Angela suggested I use my headband to clean up --- which I already was doing as I laughed. There's nothing like a bird bomb to quickly humble a person.

We had run the path in 82 minutes. It wasn't a great time but it was better than the times we had been registering together. And we really didn't push ourselves. We set a sub-80 run as our goal for next week. And I was determined to get down to 190 pounds by then, if I could.

As we walked about quarter of a mile for an easy cool-down, we talked more about the half-marathon. I could tell Angela was determined to get me onboard, even if it killed me. I told her I would do it if she got certified in CPR and she said she would if she could do it online the night before the race. I told her, "No deal --- I want to see your Red Cross certification card." We laughed as we imagined what she would do if I collapsed while running. I told her I was convinced she would do nothing and simply say, "I guess the Lord wanted you now, Aaron" or something to that effect.

After the run, thanks to a lot of water loss, I weighed in at 195 and was very pleased. It made 190 look quite feasible and even 185 more realistic than it had been in months. Perhaps my Bolder Boulder blowout would be the motivating force I wanted it to be. Only time will tell…

My old patterns reemerged, however, during the remainder of the day. Besides taking Holly to a birthday party for a school chum of hers (and driving roundtrip to Boulder twice --- so much for my carbon footprint today), and shopping at the new Sunflower Market while in Boulder (I hoped the store thrived and also figured I could shop while I was in Boulder anyway, so there, Mr. Carbon Footprint!), we drove to Denver for the "Spring Fling."

The Spring Fling was a fundraiser for Colorado Heritage Camps (www.HeritageCamps.org). The head of the organization, Pam Sweetser, did a great job as did the many volunteers who made the ten Heritage camps such a success. The Camps focused on families with children who were international adoptions. There was an African/Caribbean Heritage Camp, a Cambodian Heritage Camp, two Chinese Heritage Camps, a Filipino Heritage Camp, an Indian/Nepalese Heritage Camp, a Korean Heritage Camp, a Latin American Heritage Camp, a Russian/Eastern European/Central Asian Heritage Camp, and a Vietnamese Heritage Camp. We always attended the primary Chinese Heritage Camp.

We met the Lyman family there --- Pat and Randy with their two girls, Zoe and Carly --- and picked up the 250 tickets I had purchased in advance. For me, not having eaten any solid food today, the main attraction was the International Food Court.

The Food Court wasn't very big but it was my downfall. I first dined on Korean dumplings and a tiny taste of beef. Then I moved on to four tamales --- two with meat and two vegetarian (hey, I wanted to see how they tasted differently). I had two different chicken dishes, lo main noodles, and a massive plate of Ethiopian food which included seven different items which were too complex for me to memorize and recite.

I drank three cans of lemonade and then went back for more food. I ate for a family of ten. My caloric intake had to be almost 10,000, especially when I topped everything off with a large cherry-flavored snow cone.

Even Holly knew I was in trouble weight-wise. She said "You've gained back everything you said you lost." I not only feared she was correct but knew I already had two large meals planned when I was going out tomorrow for breakfast and then for lunch. Heck, getting back to 195 not only would be tough but getting to 190 now seemed like an impossibility when it was looking highly likely only a mere 6 hours ago.

That was the battle I would face over the next few months. And it didn't help that I used my 250 tickets (valued at $125) to purchase mass quantities of dumplings, fried rice, tamales, shrimp rolls, cupcakes, and even lemonade --- all of which I took home and immediately refrigerated. The question now was "Could Aaron resist temptation?" My waist would soon reveal the answer.

Despite my fall from grace, I remained confident I could achieve my goals. I simply needed to be mindful of what I was doing. It really was that simple. The real challenge was whether or not I had the self-control, the discipline, and/or the willpower to do what I knew at all times I needed to do --- stop stuffing my face and eat better with a focus on nutrition, stop getting only 3 to 5 hours of sleep each night and try to average 6 hours, and workout six days a week, whenever possible, with two days reserved for non-aerobic workouts such as an anerobic weight workout. See, it really was simple.

When I awoke, I felt better than I should have, especially given my pathetic performance. I was terribly disappointed in my time. I couldn't believe that I took 75:39 --- almost 76 minutes --- to run a race I finished last year in under 62 minutes (61:53). My time had taken a tremendous 14-minute dive and I had no good excuse.

The results meant I had finished in 29,373rd place out of 47,443 runners and walkers who finished the Race. There were kids 6 years old who had finished well ahead of me. In fact, there were six girls who were only 6 years old who had run the Race faster than I did and one of them did it in less than 47:47. Heck, even a 76 year-old woman beat me (she did it in under 74 minutes) as did two 80 year-old men (they did it in a little over 68 minutes and a little under 73 minutes). So much for my being a macho guy! Almost 7,000 out of the 54,040 entrants did not make it to the end. I felt bad for them.

Out of 21,528 males who did the Race, I placed 15, 723rd. That meant I was in the bottom third of finishers. Clint Wells of Superior, Colorado, finished the Race in 30:52 --- 60% less than my time. He ran more than twice as fast as I did to win the Citizens' Division.

I re-checked to see how my running partner Angela had done and saw she had finished in slightly over 71 minutes (71:16) due to my being a sloth on the course yesterday. I knew she could easily break 60 minutes if I weren't holding her back. I had urged her to go all out but she insisted on staying with me. What a trooper.

I decided to use my poor performance as a motivational tool to do better. My goals for the 2009 Bolder Boulder would be ambitious. My first goal, of course, would be to finish the Race without dying. In 2009, the millionth Bolder Boulder runner would be crossing the Finish Line and I wanted to be right there.

My second goal would be to finish in a time better than this year's 76 minutes. That shouldn't be difficult but one never knows what might happen.

My third goal would be to reduce my time by 16 minutes and finish under 60 minutes. If I could get back to times in the 50's, I would be ecstatic. Of course, most people would say a 16-minute reduction in just one year would require serious training as well as major changes in eating and sleeping habits. I decided I would try to make those commitments.

To achieve these goals also meant not waiting until the last minute to lose weight or to train. I decided I would try to lose this Summer that 15 pounds I never lost. It wouldn't be easy but I thought I could do it. With the Democratic National Convention coming to town and all the attendant parties potentially adding 20 pounds to my frame, I knew it would be a challenge but I was up for it --- well, at least today I was.

I also decided to make a commitment to being able to run the 6.7-mile White Rocks trail much faster than the 80 to 95 minute times I recently had been logging. If I could be in the 70- to 75-minute range by the end of the Summer and stay in that range for a while, then I would have a real chance at getting my trail time down to the +/-65 minutes. I knew that, if I could run the trail in 65 minutes, I should be able to do the Bolder Boulder in less than 60 minutes.

As a demonstration of my commitment, I went to the YMCA at 5:15 am and began a weight workout. I completed 6 of the 16 machines on my checklist and could tell I was far more tired and worn out than I wanted to admit. That was OK. I already had begun to travel the road of running redemption. We would soon see how far I could go. You can sign up for the 2009 Bolder Boulder so go online and join me now. Just note in your registration you want to run with me --- unless you want to run a better time!

It was about 2:12 am when the dogs decided to awaken and tell me they had to go out. I had been asleep less than 3½ hours. I initially had planned to get 7 or 8 hours of much-needed rest but had to revise my plan and reduce it to a minimal pre-Race night's sleep of 5½ hours based on my later-than-expected bedtime the night before.

Once I was up, I found it difficult to fall asleep again. Part of it was my fear I would sleep through the Race and another was the fact my mind was racing on its own. I tried to go to sleep again and realized it wasn't going to happen so I got up and leisurely prepared for the Race.

I made various selections of what to wear, took a shower, and got suited up. I never ate before exercising but decided to have a cup of vanilla yogurt with some granola. I also took some ibuprofen as a prophylactic.

My wish had been granted and it had rained during the night so it seemed cool, albeit quite humid. In fact the humidity was in the 80 to 90% range --- rare for Colorado and not great for me.

The temperature was supposed to be 40^oF but was 50^oF. Still, with the overcast sky, it felt like a good time to run.

Although I was tired, I felt good and was looking forward to the Race. I got calls from some of my team members --- Chuck Fiorella, Chris Rojas, and Brian Kiernan --- so I spent some time helping to coordinate our efforts to get footage of yours truly on the course. It was a very complex proposition because it was so difficult to pick one person out of a crowd of 53,000 runners. I was confident my team would get it figured out.

At about 5:00 am, I put my bib number (E411) on my shirt and my radio frequency chip on my shoe. The latter seemed to constrict the natural bending of my foot so, before the Race, I moved it.

Although I had been running in one pair of shoes for the past several months, I decided to switch to a relatively new pair which I had worn only while I was in Iraq earlier this year. I took the trip to visit General David Petraeus and wore them the day I interviewed him at the American Embassy in Baghdad (that was a visual mistake because their bright red and white colors dominated every photograph of the two of us!) and the next day.

That next day, the General had invited me to run with him so I used those shoes to run for the first time. It was the only time I wore them to run and did not wear them after the trip to Iraq so I still had Iraqi soil on them when I put them on. (To read my Iraq trip diary, go to www.HarberTV.com.)

I headed out at 5:20 am to pick up Bill Jones. Bill lived about 4 minutes away. He had blossomed from a terrible runner to a marathon man. He started several years ago and was overweight and out of shape.

When he first ran around the track at the YMCA, he would run one lap and walk two. In a week, he was running two laps and walking one. When I passed him, he recalled I always gave him words of encouragement.

Eventually he began running with me. We would do 20 laps and he would walk one or two and then we would repeat it. After a couple of months, he was running 50 to 100 laps with me without stopping.

As the years went by, my routine decreased in length and frequency. Bill, however, started running 10K races and then moved up to half-marathons. Eventually he started doing marathons and then triathlons. His story truly was inspirational. Today he could out-run, out-bike, and out-swim me while several years ago the opposite was true.

After picking up Bill, we headed to Angela's house. She was waiting for us and, after getting in, revealed this was her first Bolder Boulder and only her second road race of her life. She was in great shape though so I knew she would do well.

We arrived at the University of Colorado campus and parked where the Race staff had instructed us. It was near the University Memorial Center and was within a three-minute walk to Folsom Stadium and the Balch Fieldhouse. This was very convenient because it allowed us to be close to the Finish Line. The disadvantage, of course, was that we were almost three miles away from the Start Line.

Chuck, Brian, and Chris arrived about the same time we did so they unloaded their equipment while I introduced everyone. It was a nice group.

At this point, it was just after 6:00 pm. The sky seemed to have cleared a bit and the ground was damp but not wet. Chuck, Chris, and Brian decided to take the Media Shuttle to the Start Line while Angela, Bill, and I walked.

As we walked briskly, we discussed the merits of doing so much walking before the start of the Race. I decided that, although it was a great way to warm up, I may be expending too much energy before the Race. I noticed I was a bit tired and that, what always was an easy walk, was tiring. I suggested that, next year, we take two cars and leave one at the parking lot and take the other to the Start Line. OK, that wasn't a way to minimize one's carbon footprint but, hey, it's all about your Race time, right?

At about the halfway point, we passed a little tent for radio station KBCO under which were morning DJ Bret Saunders, who had the top-rated morning show in the State, and mid-morning DJ, Ginger Havlat. They were both great people and did a wonderful job on their shows.

I introduced Bret and Ginger to Angela and Bill, chatted for a couple of minutes, and then continued to the Start Line. Bret was known on Wednesdays as "The Sage of World Class Rock" and was amazing answering trivial questions. He also ran a solid morning show which was entertaining, informative, funny, and easy to listen to.

Ginger was simply fun to listen to and also had a beautiful voice on the air. She was headed to the Stadium. I told her she should enter the Race but she said she'd do it only if she didn't have to run the entire course. I teased her about being the next "Rosie Ruiz" and we all laughed. She said she had just been searching in her mind for that very name. Rosie, of course, had won the 1980 Boston Marathon after cheating by taking a shortcut to the Finish Line and not actually running the full race. Prior to that, she had placed well in the New York Marathon but was found to have taken the subway en route!

The highlight of the walk was when we passed the 1 Mile marker where the technicians from The End Result. This was the company responsible for recording the time of each runner at every mile marker and at the end of the Race. Using a radio frequency chip which every runner had on one of his or her shoes, The End Result would record the data at each mile marker as each runner ran over a set of large blue mats which stretched across the width of the entire street. Underneath the mats were the electronic cables which read the tags as they passed by.

Last year the Race used the same technology but had terrible problems processing the information. For most runners, their official time wasn't available for days. This time the Race officials were so confident they eliminated the back-up system used last year. This system actually was the only system in place for decades. It consisted of a pull-tab on every runner's number bib. A Race volunteer would pull it off as runners crossed the Finish Line and would note when the runner had gone by.

The Race officials had so much confidence in the new system that they abandoned the pull-tab concept altogether this year for the first time in the history of the Race.

As we passed, I asked the technician nearby how it was coming along. He said everything looked good and asked us if we wanted to test the system. We said, "Sure" and then ran across the mats. We could hear the highly audible "clicks" which occurred every time a runner passed by.

He said we confirmed everything was working fine and thanked us. I asked what his name was and he said, "Brad Fox." I then said, "So you're the guy in charge of everyone's time, right?" He jokingly said, "Yes, what time would you like to run the Race in today?" We all laughed and continued on our way.

I told Angela and Bill that, perhaps it would be a good idea to pick a time for Brad to enter, go to breakfast, and skip the Race. We all laughed at that concept, too.

We were not making as good time as I had hoped and my guess was I was the culprit. I just wasn't moving too quickly this morning. We got to the intersection of Valmont and 30th Streets where the Race course intersected with our path. We then started walking quickly to the Start Line and beyond. Our group or Wave was "E" so there were about 15 Waves ahead of us.

The Wheelchair Race started right on time at 6:55 am. I was able to hear and see the start of the Race as we approached the Start Line. There were fences with netting which prevented most people at that point from seeing the participants but I was able to peer over.

As the disabled men and women began their race, one could only be amazed at their physical ability. Almost all of them would complete the course at a speed which exceeded that of all the able-bodied runners. They were inspirational to watch.

We eventually got in the E Wave and started moving forward to the Start Line. Each Wave's start was separated by a minute and a half or so. Former Olympic cyclist and Boulder resident Davis Phinney was the Starter. That meant he had the opportunity to fire the Starter's pistol 85 times today --- once for each of the Race's 85 Waves.

After all the consideration I gave to wearing a hat, and after having brought the only white cap I had --- which had "Romer" emblazoned in bright blue letters across the front --- I ended up discarding it while waiting in the E Wave. It now was overcast again and it didn't look like the Sun had much of a chance of making an appearance. I tossed it to Brian for safekeeping.

The weather was now absolutely perfect for running. It still was 50^oF or so and wasn't getting warmer. In some years, the increase in temperature from the beginning of the Race to the end could easily be 15^oF or more (such as going from 45^oF to 60^oF or even from 45^oF to 70^oF).

Today, the temperature seemed very stable and, with rain clouds forming, it did not seem likely it would warm up much. I liked that.

Weather-wise, there was very little wind and that was nice, too. The high humidity was not ideal but it was moderated by the cool temperatures. And with no Sun beating down upon the runners, there was little need for gobs of sunscreen, although it's always recommended.

As the E Wave slowly progressed to the Start Line, I stood at the front, where a yellow rope separated us from the preceding Wave. At one point a Security staff member came over to say "Hello" and compliment me on the television show. That was nice. Then a Channel 9 KUSA camera crew and reporter came over for a very quick interview. I'm sure they didn't use any of the footage. I sure wouldn't have!

Some people had come up to me to say "Hello" and I was joking around with my "E" running compatriots when suddenly I heard a shot. "Hey, they started the race prematurely!" I incorrectly thought. I started sprinting with the rest of the crowd as we roared off down 30th Street.

For the first 300 yards, I felt very good. I was speeding along at a pace unlike any I had ever run. I was somewhat paranoid about pulling a hamstring muscle, as I had done during Mile 1 of last year's Race, but a women standing next to me in the E Wave had demonstrated a stretching exercise which helped prevent that problem. I had mimicked her stretch a few times and was confident that would not be a problem this time.

We passed the 1 Kilometer marker and I said to Angela, "1 down, 9 to go," and we both laughed. But after just half a mile, I was beginning to have a new problem. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, I was having trouble breathing. With the 1 Mile marker in sight, my breathing was very labored. It seemed that no matter how much breath I took, I couldn't get enough. I literally was gasping for air.

Having no idea what was happening, I started to slow down. Even slowing down, however, didn't seem to help. The 1 Mile marker was not far ahead so I convinced myself to continue running until I reached it and then slow to just a fast walk.

By now, Bill was long gone. He had stayed with us for the first mile and kept us in view for another quarter mile but soon lost sight of us. Angela insisted on slowing down but I knew I was holding her back.

As soon as I hit the 1 Mile marker, I began walking and tried to catch my breath. Angela said all I needed to do was catch my "second wind" but the reality was I hadn't found my "first wind." I asked her what our time was and she said her watch had recorded our time from the Start Line at about 8:50. That wasn't a bad pace but I knew it would be the last time I saw anything like that today. Heck, if I could run the Race in 8:50 per mile, I would finish in 54:46 --- a time far better than anything I had done in years.

By now people were streaming past us at an incredible rate. After a minute or two, I began jogging again and tried to keep it up. I lasted only half a mile and walked for another minute. Then I started running again.

At this point, we had gone from 30th Street to Pearl Street and now were on Folsom Street, heading north. One of the best aspects of the Bolder Boulder were all the live bands which played along the route. Each one was distinct and provided a great distraction. There probably were

As we ran north on Folsom Street, I knew I was in a bad way when I barely looked at the belly dancers. Usually I would give them a cheer, along with many other runners. Today I barely noticed them as we went by.

At the first water station, I stopped to get half a cup of Gatorade. It didn't seem to help much but I figured I had nothing to lose at this point.

After a refreshment break during which I actually stood still for a minute, I resumed the run. It was difficult having stopped and then starting again. I was finding this to be more severe than in the past when I could get geared up again quite quickly. Today that was not happening.

This experience was making we wonder if I had underestimated the accuracy of the biorhythm chart I had seen. It had warned me I would be at a low point but I always figured my low point was equal to the high point for most other people. Perhaps I was wrong and there really was something to the whole biorhythm analysis. "Nah," I thought, "It couldn't be true… or could it?"

The sky had become completely overcast and probably was starting to feel chilly for most people. I already was sweating profusely, however, and was surprised at how tired I was. I also could tell my shoes were not helping matters. The front ends did not have enough padding so the pavement was killing my feet and one of them was tied too tight so it generated pain on the top of my left foot. I was too lazy to loosen the laces and figured the moisture from the atmosphere and my foot would loosen it. Wrong, again, Bonzo (as in "The Chimp")…

I was regretting not having used my regular running shoes. At the minimum, I should have worn these new ones a couple of times so I could have adjusted the extra cushioning I usually put inside each shoe. But even with the best-fitting and best-cushioned shoes in the world, I knew it would have made no difference today. I was toast.

I wanted to keep running so I tried to settle into a light jog. It worked for a while but slowly degenerated into a "trudge." I was going so slowly I began to wonder if I actually was going any faster than my normal walk. After a while, I was forced to objectively conclude my current running pace was about the same as my walking pace. I was absolutely disgusted with myself.

Even worse, I felt I was really holding Angela back. My guess is she could have been running almost twice as fast as I was. There were times she literally was running in place so I could catch up with her. I belonged in a wheelchair with an assistant --- not in the middle of one of the world's largest road races.

Despite my entreaties for her to go ahead at her own pace, Angela insisted on staying with me --- probably out of fear I would croak on the course. I assured her that only one person out of almost one million runners had died during the Bolder Boulder over a now 30-year period. I assured her I would not die on the course but would wait until I got home. Actually, if someone had volunteered to shot me at this point, to put me out of my misery, I probably would have given him or her the go-ahead. I was miserable and had not even run half the course.

We now were past the 2 Mile marker and began heading west, weaving our way through smaller streets in North Boulder. Around the 4 Kilometer marker, Angela said, "It's so nice to run and be able to see this part of Boulder. I really haven't seen it before and didn't realize how nice it was." I could barely lift my head up and, for the most part, the only thing I was seeing was an unending stream of asphalt pavement. If anyone had asked me what we had run by, I wouldn't have had a clue. I grunted my agreement and kept plodding onward.

People were passing us right and left. I looked at my bib number --- 411 --- and decided 911 would have been more appropriate today. And, if I had a cell phone, I would have been tempted to dial that number for help.

When we came to a hill of any size, Angela didn't say anything but as soon as we crested it, she would mention how great it was to now be running downhill. I knew I was tired when running downhill didn't help me at all. In fact, later in the Race, when we had climbed the hill on 13th Street next to Casey Junior High School, I was so exhausted when we reached the top I actually stopped to catch my breath.

Normally, when I finished getting to the top of a hill, I would sprint down the other side with reckless abandon. That thought never even crossed my mind today. I was considering rolling down a few of the hills but there were far too many other runners to whom I would present a danger so I skipped that idea.

Speaking of skipping, there actually were some people in the Race who ran barefoot. I couldn't believe it. How could one do that, especially with your foot slamming against the hard pavement? And what if your tootsies encountered a stone or glass or some other sharp object? That was something I would never do but I had to respect the fearlessness and incredible condition of those who ran in that manner.

We now were at Mile Marker 3 and I had settled into a 75% run/jog and 25% walk pattern. In past races, I had either run the entire Race straight through or slowed no more than 4 or 5 times to walk for 1 to 3 minutes. That typically covered 2 to 8 minutes of the Race (5 to 10% of my official time) and always refreshed me. Today the percentage was at least 25% and was elevating my overall time to new and horrendous heights.

When we passed the 3 Mile marker and had been running for about 35 minutes, I knew we were, at best, on a 72-minute pace. My worst time had been under 67 minutes so I was headed for a record I didn't want to set.

Angela kept asking if I were getting my "second wind" and I would rejoin that I still was looking for my "first." And neither arrived in time. I knew I was not speeding up as often was the case when I ran a race. Instead, I was barely hanging on. I had set a goal of running under 75 minutes today but had hoped for a time closer to 65 minutes or less. At this point I knew I would be lucky to stay under 75 minutes unless a miracle occurred and I found all my missing energy.

I tried to convince my mitochondria to work harder on the energy production front but no one was listening to me. It was as if everyone had shut down for the holiday. My commands went unheard and unheeded so I just plodded onward.

We now were working our way through the streets leading to 13th Street where I would have to climb the hill to Casey Middle School. That was near the 4 Mile marker. I somehow made it to the top of the hill and declined the offers of water and Gatorade. I eschewed any more liquids except for water which could be sprayed on me to cool me off.

On the way up the Casey hill, some people said "Hello" to me. Before, during, and after the Race people came up to me to say they enjoyed my television show. Some described watching it at various hours because it was broadcast on different stations and channels, often at obscure times. It was flattering to have people like one's work and Angela was surprised at the response the show evoked.

Then, as we were running up Balsam Street, half a mile before we got to Casey, a gentleman with gray hair who appeared to be in his early forties ran by and said, "Hi, Angela." It turned out it was her instructor in a graduate program she was enrolled at the University of Denver. She tried to figure out how he recognized her and assumed he had heard her voice. That was entirely possible because I certainly wasn't doing any talking. My lungs lunged for every breath of air I could swallow. Words, at this point, were a luxury.

On our morning runs, we had talked a lot about her ethics course with this instructor. He had no teaching credentials or teaching experience at that level and was an abomination. He rarely shared information with the two students in the course and, instead, kept asking their personal opinions about various ethical issues without providing even a basic construct for consideration and analysis. Both students though he was terrible but felt helpless. This guy was so bad as a teacher, I thought DU should be embarrassed.

Although Angela couldn't believe the degree of his incompetence or why DU hired him, she was reluctant to write an overly critical review. I had encouraged her to be brutally honest. Otherwise, I explained, people such as this guy would continue to be hired and would academically and intellectually torture future students. Plus, I told her the University would want to know it had made a hiring mistake so it could correct it.

I actually was surprised at DU for hiring someone who clearly was not competent to teach the course he had been assigned. I could tell it was spoiling Angela's experience at DU's program which granted a special certificate in alternative dispute resolution.

These thoughts all were great distractions and allowed me to continue running for a while. I wasn't increasing my speed but I was running a little better (the operative word is "little").

We ascended the great mountain known as Casey hill to me and, once at the top, I was ready to call it quits. Instead I ran down at a very lame pace to Spruce Street and then onto Pearl Street. Seeing the 7 Kilometer marker made me feel better. "70% down means only 30% to go," I somehow mumbled without choking.

As we proceeded down Pearl Street, I knew I would finish the Race. At this point, I could have walked the rest of the way. We turned right onto 20th Street for a block or so and then made a left onto Walnut, heading east.

Before we approached the 5 Mile marker and water station, I saw a young man with a tray and an aide with a sign offering runners pieces of bacon. This was an annual joke but the bacon was cooked for anyone who wanted it. This year there was a new addition. A young woman stood with a different tray and a sign which said, "Veggie Bacon." You had to laugh. It was a great way to poke fun at the runners and everyone in Boulder.

Once past the 5 Mile marker and the water station, I came upon my good friend Carl Oldham's house. Carl and a friend of his constituted a two-man band and were playing. Carl jumped out of his drum seat, grabbed a camera, and motioned me to go back and run past him again. I complied and went back 100 yards or so and then began running again towards Carl's location. He snapped a picture and I was on my way.

Next I spotted a sprinkler set out in a front law for runners. I went over to it, stopped, and let it spray me. It felt great. Then I picked it up and sprayed my entire front side. Several people at the home where the sprinkler was located watched and laughed. I asked one of them to soak my entire back and he obliged.

By the time I left that yard, I was completely drenched. It felt refreshing and invigorating. I was a new man and began running with the vigor I had missed. I caught up with Angela and shared the good news.

We now were on Folsom Street, heading towards Folsom Stadium, where the Race would end. There was only three-quarters of a mile to go but my water-soaked clothes and shoes now were dragging me down. Not only was the extra weight a factor but my shorts were starting to fall off due to the extra weight of the water. "Great," I thought, "Just what I need --- another problem." I solved the problem by tugging on my shorts and bringing them up every minute or so. It was a hassle but I didn't need to make any headlines this way.

It was now time for Angela to sprint ahead and tell our photographers I was on the way and would arrive in a few minutes. She was reluctant to go but I finally convinced her we would meet at the Finish Line so she went. She took off like a rocket. I couldn't believe her acceleration and speed. In a matter of seconds she disappeared into the crowd of runners ahead of us. It was indicative of how much faster she could have run the Race.

Even though I now had only half a mile to go, I could barely move. I resumed walking for a couple of minutes and then started running again. I knew I was coming to the hill leading up to the Stadium access road so I looked down and did not look at the upward sloping road ahead. That would have been so depressing and demotivating I might have stopped.

At this point, as we all turned into the access road, the road had narrowed and hundreds of people rushed by me. They were intent on making the best time they could. I was intent on not collapsing. I considered how my goals had devolved from trying to run a great time to trying to run a decent time to trying to run a not-overly-embarrassing-time to trying to finish and now almost to "I don't care what the heck happens --- give me a root beer now!"

I somehow made it up the incline to the entrance to the Stadium. Inside were thousands of cheering fans, all encouraging their friends and family members who were running to sprint to the finish.

Running slower than the stream of people passing me, I looked around the Stadium, happy to know I would finish without any injury. Looking for my still photographer, Chris Rojas, in the position he said he would be, I ran by but never saw him. I then rounded the last curve in the Race --- the southern or U-shaped portion of the football field --- and headed towards the Finish Line.

I thought I saw our video photographer and ran past him on the extreme left side of the field so he could get a good shot. Somehow, even in my energy-deprived condition, I managed to sprint for 100 yards. It was my only sprint of the day.

The Finish Line surprised me because, this year, there weren't the formal chutes they always had in the past. There also were no Race officials taking tags from the runners. They had so much confidence in the radio frequency tag system they decided to not even bother with having a back-up system.

I looked at the clock on the Stadium's north-end screen and it said 8:31 am. We had left right before 7:16 am so that meant my time was about 75 minutes. Wow, that would be the worst time I had ever run the Race in my life. I was happy to finish but disgusted with my awful performance.

I looked around and couldn't see Angela anywhere. I was hoping to meet her husband Brett and their little three year-old Jacob but they were nowhere to be seen. It now was cold and misting out so I could understand their desire to not stay. Plus, finding them in this crowd was almost impossible anyway. And with my not having a cell phone, there was no way they could reach me.

Next I followed the crowd off the Stadium floor and was funneled with everyone else to the Balch Fieldhouse. I picked up a lunch and a Dick's Sporting Goods bag and headed over to the Exposition to see what was being offered.

After spending several minutes at the Expo, munching on food samples and gathering swag for Holly, I headed to the car. I was freezing because I still was soaked from the sprinkler experience on Walnut Street. I was wearing clothing which held water nicely and it was working against me in a big way. I didn't see Bill near the car and waited a little while.

As I got progressively colder, I decided to head home, take a shower, and put on fresh and warmer clothing. Then I could come back and look for Bill. Before leaving I spoke with Dan McVickers of the University of Colorado Events staff. Dan was great and said he would make sure I could get out of the parking lot I was in and also would be allowed to return.

This was a big deal. Earlier in the day, I had spoken to both the law enforcement Dispatch Center and the Boulder Police about making arrangements to be able to return. Neither knew what to do and weren't helpful at all. Dan, however, said he would make sure the Boulder Deputy Sheriffs on Broadway would let me back in on campus. He was great. Talk about a superb ambassador for the University.

I had spoken with a Boulder Police officer at the end of the Race and had asked him for assistance related to getting a message to the right people but he said the Sheriff's Deputies were on the "gold" radio spectrum and, as a result, he had no way to reach them. I was wondering whatever happened to the post-911 concept of putting all law enforcement and emergency personnel on the same radio frequency or at least providing the technology so they all could easily communicate with each other.

As I left the CU campus, I turned right onto Broadway, heading north, and realized I had made a boo-boo. If I kept going, I would be stopped by the Race. This indicated to me I was tired and not thinking straight. I managed to turn around in a side street on the Hill and headed south to Baseline Road so I could avoid the Race entirely.

I got home by 9:30 am, got cleaned up, took the dogs out, and then left with Holly to pick up her cousin Joel. As I headed back to Boulder, feeling much better now that I was in a nicely-heated vehicle, I received a call from Andrea Jones, Bill's wife. She had heard from Bill, who thought I had abandoned him. The good news was Bill had found a ride with some of his neighbors in Erie.

That was great! I felt relieved and was glad he was safe and I didn't have to look for him. I had called his cell phone several times but then realized it was in his workout bag. Unfortunately, the bag was still in my car so, in essence, I was in my car calling the bag in my car.

As we got into the RTD bus lane to turn into 18th Street to access the CU parking lot, Holly and Joel told me I would never get back onto campus. I got to the turn and, as I made the turn, two Sherriff's Deputies jumped in front of the car and vociferously shouted, "Whoa, there!" The kids thought we were going to get shot or, at the minimum, arrested.

I rolled down my window to give them a business card and one of the Deputies said, "Are you Alan?" I said, "No, I'm Aaron" and the kids started laughing. The Deputies said we had been cleared to go through and stepped aside as I thanked them. We then parked in a lot next to the one we had been in. Dan McVickers had taken care of everything, just as he said he would.

We then went to the Expo and filled two bags with goodies. The NatureMade people were great as were the PowerBar folks later on. I was disappointed the First National Bank people would not give the kids a blanket. They were handing them out only if you applied for a credit card but at 13 and 14 years old, respectively, Holly and Joel should not be doing that (although UNITED Airlines solicited Holly every month to apply for a VISA card).

The Expo had been depleted. Several booths had already been torn down once the sponsor's supplies were all given away. While the majority of booths were left, I was surprised that, at 11:30 am, so many companies had not brought enough with them. The NatureMade, PowerBar, and Dreyer's folks had come well-supplied and I gave them credit for that.

The kids were disappointed and felt the goodies available at the Expo were lame. I explained many of the goodies were long gone and promised we would come earlier next year.

The next event was the military jet flyover at Folsom Stadium, right across from the Expo. It was an exciting event. The jet pilots often did their final practice near our house between Erie and Lafayette so it was even more exciting to see their final execution while in perfect formation.

The kids, however, didn't want to leave the car. It was raining lightly outside and they didn't want to get wet so I headed out by myself. I had a hat and wasn't too cold, thanks to being dry. Right as I was about to enter the Stadium via a tunnel, the jets from the 120th Fighter Squadron screamed overhead at what seemed was near supersonic speed (they seemed to be right on top of the Stadium) and the crowd cheered wildly. I felt lucky to have seen them just in time.

As I exited the 100-foot tunnel, I joined in the applause. Then, as I was working my way to the Stadium field, the national anthem began to be played so I stopped. It was a moving moment, especially in the rain.

The Bolder Boulder was the nation's largest Memorial Day celebration. This year it also included traditions such as a Navy Reserve Officer in Training Marine 21-gun salute and a Color Guard. Honored was retired U.S. Army Major General Patrick H. Brady, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was a Major in Viet Nam when he repeatedly risked his life making helicopter flights to save pinned-down troops, often using helicopters being damaged by enemy fire.

I saw Chuck, Chris, and Brian on the Stadium floor and thought Chuck and Brian saw me. Then, while on the floor, the International Team men's race was coming to a climax with the leading runner heading into the Stadium. I happened to be about 20 yards past the Finish Line so when the winner, Ridouana Harroufi of Morroco, finished in first place, I unintentionally was one of the first people to congratulate him. We had met on Saturday at the Media Luncheon so it was fun to see him do so well.

As the men came past the Finish Line, I was able to congratulate a few of them, including some of the members of Team USA.

Next I spoke with Chuck and Brian. They actually hadn't seen me there and, as a result, got no footage of me. I also found out Angela couldn't find either them or Chris so none of them got what we had hoped. I laughed and told them it was a good lesson about how difficult it was to shoot a specific person when there are more than 54,000 people in shorts and T-shirts all running together. Given my performance, I couldn't fault anyone else today.

After watching the women's team finish, with our Ethiopian tablemate finishing second to a great Kenyan runner, Chuck and Brian headed home while Chris and I went up to the Stadium Club to hear the announcements of the results and get a bite to eat.

Knowing the kids were in the car and now being informed they were bored, I didn't spend much time at the Media briefing luncheon. The Stadium Club was packed with runners and their families, coaches, Press people, CU folks (including Chancellor Bud Peterson), and others.

The first item I ate was a giant baby Ruth frozen ice cream cone but I was good and had a salad and some roast turkey afterwards. Normally, I would give myself permission to pig out after a race but today, given my dismal performance, I was motivated to get serious about losing weight, eating better, exercising more, and getting more sleep --- probably in that order

We visited with several runners, some CU administrators, and some CU students who had worked the event. Then I headed back to the car because I had been gone for over an hour. I wish they had come with me and thought that, next time, we should bring raingear along just in case the weather was bad.

Holly and Joel had been raiding the edible goodies we had collected but were still hungry. We went to Joel's house in Lafayette so they could have a quick bite. Then I headed home, dropped off Holly, walked the dogs, and drove a short way to deliver Bill's bag to his house.

Bill was home and told me he had tried to find me but had given up. I then heard the whole story of how he got back. He wasn't perturbed at all because he always had a back-up plan --- Andrea could come and get him. I didn't think she would have been too excited about that because it was a 15- to 20-minute drive but he said she wouldn't have minded at all. That made me feel better.

Bill had already seen the Race results and that surprised me. The results never were available so quickly in the past. He confirmed I had run the Race in 75 minutes (actually 75:39, so it really was closer to a lethargic 76 minutes).

Hel said Angela and I started out at such a fast pace even he didn't want to do it. He was a lot smarter than I was. He thought the initial half mile we ran at a breakneck speed contributed greatly to my downfall.

That may have been true but I wasn't so sure. After all, in cases where I started out too quickly, I would eventually recover and run fairly well even if it took a mile or two. This time I never recovered.

The good news was I completed the Race, I felt tired but good, and I was motivated to do much better. I knew I would run next year and decided I needed to start training tomorrow --- not a few weeks before the Race. I knew it was crazy but I decided to set some goals. They included weighing no more than 185 for the entire two weeks before Race Day and running the Race in a time under 60 minutes. That meant making a 17-minute improvement in one year. I realized this would be extraordinary but I didn't see any reason I couldn't do it. Any bets out there?

No matter how long I may have wanted to sleep, it wasn't easy for me to sleep past 5:00 am no matter what happened. I tried to get some extra rest but wasn't surprised at my inability to stay in bed. The Sun was up and work beckoned me.

I was committed to not doing any physical exercise today and didn't think that would be a problem. I weighed in at 204 so I knew I would be running the Race at almost 20 pounds more than I wanted but, at this point, short of emergency surgery, I knew that was simply the reality I had to accept. I decided I would still try to get to 185 this Summer but also appreciated how difficult that would be for someone who enjoyed eating as much as I did.

When I took out the dogs in the morning, I noticed it was warm outside. That wasn't good news if today was a predictor of tomorrow's weather. The good news was the weather forecast was changing and looked progressively better. The low was projected to be 45^oF, which was slightly higher than I would have liked but certainly was much better than 55^oF.

I was amazed at how much each additional degree slowed me down. Running at 35^oF was twice as good for me compared to 45^oF but I would be happy with 45^oF simply because it was so much better than 55^oF. Of course, by the time the Race started, it probably would be 50^oF or higher but that was OK (and, again, better than 60^oF).

Rain was in the forecast but there was no indication when that might occur. I checked to see there was a small chance of rain in the morning and hoped it would happen. Rain before the Race would guarantee the course was clean and the air would be fresh. Rain during the Race would be great, especially if it were a light drizzle, because it would keep me cool and avoid the necessity of taking detours through sprinklers which people had on for runners to use.

I worked on various television program-related tasks and corresponded with the White House about my request to interview the President. I got a quick response by phone and was told the President's schedule was so jam-packed that he would not be able to join me this time. I responded by suggesting a time be found while he was at the White House. It would be interesting to see if they actually put something together.

The White House was unduly protective of the President. My perspective was, with just nine months left in his eight-year Administration, he had nothing to lose. Plus the President was quite good at one-on-one sessions and certainly had nothing to fear by doing an interview with me. I concluded I should get back in touch in a week or so. Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and, in this case, all I was venturing were e-mail electrons.

I also got a nice e-mail from the White House Press Secretary, Dana Perino. She had grown up in Colorado and had been appointed to the position when Tony Snow decided to leave. Snow had cancer and decided to leave the White House to make some money for his family. My guess was he would be lucky to make it through this year. It was sad to see anyone get cancer and reminded me how fragile life was.

Dana was a true Bush devotee. She thought the world of the President and did a great job representing him. I was sure he had to be pleased with her work and performance in what was one of the most demanding jobs in the world --- shielding the President from the Press.

I had known White House Press Secretaries primarily from Democratic Administrations --- DeeDee Myers, Mike McCurry, and Joe Lockhart --- with David Gergen the one Republican I had met (but didn't really know at all). They all always told me how exciting and difficult the position was. I don't think any of them regretted leaving the position.

I spent a fair bit of time on the phone, including a longer-than-usual daily call to my Mother. I also spent a long time with Jim Dorsey, a good friend in Cleveland who also came up with some of the best research and questions for my television program. Jim knew more about Economics than some of the top economists and was top-notch at identifying critical issues. He was an invaluable asset to me because he often did the equivalent of the work of a team of researchers. It was always fun and a challenge to talk with Jim.

A good part of the day was spent helping my daughter organize her final attack on all the work she needed to complete before school ended this Thursday. We focused on Math, Science, and Spanish. She actually was on the border, grade-wise, in three of her courses and her teachers were giving her the opportunity to achieve at a higher level so we talked about how she could do it. We reviewed all of her work and what still needed to be done. She was unenthusiastic about it because she already was thinking about summer vacation. I couldn't blame her but this was a great opportunity to experience how three or four days of hard work could pay off so immediately.

A good friend and one of my favorite musical artists, Nina Storey, called to wish me well. She wanted me to run in spirit for her because she had wanted to be in the Race but had to get back to Los Angeles, where she now lived, to get ready for a big performance. She suggested we look at running another race in June or July but I told her to first see how I survived the Bolder Boulder.

In between calls and work, I did household chores such as laundry and ate with reckless abandon. With the Race a matter of hours away, I had given up on running as a svelte entrant. I knew I wasn't going to be near my weight target so I dined "freely."

I made a version of huevos rancheros which could have served a family and also cooked sausage with garlic. I drank several glasses of milk, had seltzer water, consumed three ice cream bars, and also knocked off two multigrain waffles with butter. I justified all of this with the alleged need for "carbo-loading" before the Race. The truth was I had done all the carbo-loading I needed about four months ago.

The day also was spent getting my team organized for the Race. There would be between four and eight people trying to take photos of me. With 53,000 people running, it would be very difficult to get any good shots but it was worth a try. There were a number of logistical issues, especially with a full schedule already set for members of the Media.

Once the Race was over for me, I would visit with some people and then would head back home to get cleaned up and change my clothes. Next I would go back to the Race and see the Memorial Day celebration, the finish of the Men's International Race, the finish of the Women's International Race, and visit with attendees. I also would attend the luncheon for the Press where the results were announced. That was a nice opportunity to visit with many of the world-class athletes after they had competed.

This year I would be realistic about my actual Race goals as a runner. With 20 extra pounds, I knew I would be lucky to break 70 minutes. My first goal was to finish the Race. Period. If I didn't have a heart attack, I would be pleased. My second goal was to finish at 75 minutes or less ("75 minutes" sounds so much faster than "1 hour and 15 minutes," doesn't it?)

If I could break 70 minutes, that would be great because I had never finished the Race in more than about 66¼ minutes or so. It would be nice to stay under 70 but I knew it probably was unrealistic given my lack of real training and the fact I weighed more than I should. Yes, I started my weight-loss effort at 226 pounds and would be down to no more than 206 on Race Day but the reality was the 226 was a result of a period of having not worked out at all. I really should be at +/-185 so I knew I was headed for a tough run.

My running partner would make certain I finished the Race, come hell or high water, but I also knew that, as one tired and became delirious, it was easy to convince oneself of anything --- including, "Hey, I'm going to walk a while."

This actually was a major issue for me because some of my better running times came when I actually stopped running for a couple of minutes and then resumed my run. I didn't know if that would work anymore, however, because nowadays, when I stopped running and walked, I found it difficult to start running again. Instead, I would start looking for a place to curl up and sleep!

Another decision point was whether or not to eat something before the Race. Normally, I never ate before exercising. It almost always made me uncomfortable as soon as I began exercising. Plus, with the extra weight I had, it wasn't as if I didn't have energy reserves to utilize.

Yet another "big" decision was to wear a hat. I did not like wearing hats but, even at 7:15 am (and certainly by 8:15 am), the Sun would be beating down on my generally unprotected head. I needed to find a hat. I wanted white hat but had not found one. I had run once with a black hat and found that was really dumb because it absorbed all the Sun's rays and heated me up even more. Talk about forgetting basic physics!

The best I could do were two old white hats. One had "Romer" emblazoned in blue across the front. I doubted many people would recognize it from one of Roy Romer's campaigns for Governor. The other said, "Gary Hart" in big letters and "For President" in smaller letters underneath. My guess was this was from his 1984 campaign.

The Hart hat had a cross-crossed or net-like surface so the Sun would partially penetrate it so
I decided to go with the Romer hat because it offered more protection. My hope was it would be overcast and I would not even need to wear a hat.

Even without a hat I would be OK because I now had a headband. Until I purchased one a couple of weeks ago, I had never worn one. While I initially found it disconcerting --- having a tight band around my head --- I quickly adapted to it and liked the way it kept sweat from pouring into my eyes. It was about 80% effective and that made a big difference.

I already was putting items into the car for tomorrow and hoped to be well-prepared. I started to think about the Race and was looking more forward to the military jet flyover for the Memorial Day celebration than the run itself. In fact, for the first time I had ever run the Race, I actually was dreading what likely would happen tomorrow.

Oh well, it was too late to back out now… or was it? I didn't feel well and noticed I was getting a bit dizzy every time I stood up. It made me think it might be a good idea to reconsider running the Race but, being a guy, I said, "No way --- I'm running this Race no matter what."

To get a good night's sleep, I promised myself I would go to bed by 9:00 pm. In that manner, even if I arose at 2:00 am, I would have gotten at least five hours of sleep. What a great plan!

My Producer, Chuck Fiorella called to go over final details. He suggested I not run the Race because he knew I was out of shape and tired. I told him I would walk, if I didn't feel I reassured him by reminding him that, after tomorrow's Race, almost one million people will have entered the Bolder Boulder and in that 30-year span of almost 1,000,000 people, just one person had died during the Race. I laughed saying, "See, the odds are a million to one against my croaking."

Of course, that wasn't an accurate calculation of the odds. If one computed the odds of a runner dying based on age, physical condition, amount of rest, et cetera, I knew the odds probably were 100 times worse. That still made them 10,000 to 1 against anything fatal happening so I wasn't worried. Plus the Race organizers had great medical care available along the entire course. I would be revived quickly, I assured him.

Angela called at 8:15 pm and suggested I pick her up rather than rendezvous here and I said I would do that. I would first pick up Bill Jones en route to her place and then head out to the University of Colorado, where we would park.

At 8:30 pm, I made dinner for Holly and then tried hard to start getting ready for by 9:30 pm. So much for my early to bed plan. Holly needed some help and then was hungry. Before I knew it, it was 10:30 pm and my plan to hit the hay was totally shot. I ended up getting to sleep as the clock approached 11:00 pm.

The good news was it was getting cloudy out. My last thought was that I might get lucky and have rain in the morning. That would make the air fresh and cool --- perfect for a run.

This was supposed to be the first of two real fays of rest before the Race but when I weighed myself and saw I was back up to 202 pounds --- 22 pounds away from my running weight goal of 180 --- I knew I needed to work out.

At home I had a LifeCycle stationary bicycle. Its difficulty scale went up to Level 15 so I decided to try riding at that Level for a full hour. That once was part of my regular routine --- doing the bike for an hour at a Level 15 setting.

This time I found the ride a bit more challenging than expected. I read newspapers while I rode and listened to the stereo. It was a great way to catch up on my newspaper reading while getting a good workout. When I finished the machine said I had burned 662 calories. I didn't know how accurate that was because there was no opportunity to enter my weight. I assumed a 100-pound person who rode at Level 15 for an hour would burn fewer calories than a 200-pound person who completed the same routine but, heck, what do I know?

The big event for the day was the Bolder Boulder Media Luncheon. It was a wonderful affair held in a large outdoor tent in the backyard of the Millennium Harvest House Hotel in Boulder. Dave Plati, the University of Colorado Sports Information Officer had arranged for us to attend the event, as he did every year.

Today, my chief photographer, Chris Rojas, was with us as were Stephanie Smith and Shannon Woodard. Some others had wanted to attend but didn't make it. They didn't know what they were missing because the highlight of the event were the world-class runners who surrounded you. Most of the international teams were represented with men's and/or women's teams or representatives from Kenya, Ethiopia (last year's winners), Japan, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Tanzania, and Morocco. It truly was an international event.

The USA had a team and there also was Team Colorado --- all loaded with great runners.

I had a chance to speak with USA team member Ryan Hall as well as last year's winner of the men's race, Ridouane Harroufi. During lunch we sat with the Ethiopian Team, which had won the contest last year. I also visited with the Kenyan team and had the opportunity to visit with several other runners. It truly was an amazing group. I felt fortunate to be there with them. These were people who literally ran three times faster than I did (and sometimes ever four times faster).

The Media Luncheon always is a wonderful event because it gives me a chance to visit with Race founder Steve Bosley (now a University of Colorado Regent and Chairman of their Board) and his son, Race Director Cliff Bosley. I also usually get to visit with Francie Bosley, Steve's wife, and the backbone of the family.

This day was no different than previous years and it was great seeing everyone. They were in a celebratory mood even though the Race had yet to take place because everything was almost done from an organizational perspective. Plus they were headed for a record attendance of over 53,000 registrants. That was truly an amazing feat.

One of my team members, Stephanie, was already at the event when I arrived. Chris and Shannon showed up later. I had Stephanie join me at the table reserved for the Ethiopian team. They had won the International Team Race event last year and were poised for a repeat. At the tables next to us were the Kenyan Team, the Mexican Team, and the Japanese Team. It was amazing to watch these world-class athletes with each other. The international teams tended to stay in their respective groups and that seemed to be due to language barriers. Most of them were literally half my size --- often not even five feet tall and weighing under 100 pounds. OK, height-wise, someone who is 4'8" looks tiny compared to my 6'5" frame. I hoped I didn't scare any of them!

The event featured a great spread of food which I sampled quite generously. After a giant turkey sandwich, a delicious bowl of minestrone soup, an array of salads (chicken salad, potato salad, and pasta salad), four iced teas, and a dessert or two, I knew I had enough carbohydrates in me for the Race on Monday --- and it was only Saturday.

During the Luncheon, there was a special ceremony honoring Rich Castro, who had a long history with the Race and was best known for training top athletes and for his organization of the international portion of the Race and his work with the international teams. Rich was very beloved in the racing community in Boulder as well as throughout Colorado and the nation so it was great to see him get the recognition he deserved. He is a very humble man and never sought the spotlight so it was fun to see everyone from around the world give him a standing ovation. He was moved to tears and I could see him choking them back. He was sitting at a table next to ours and it was fun to see his family greet him so warmly when he came back from the podium.

Perhaps the highlight of the event was the announcement that the guest of honor at the Memorial Day Tribute on Monday (Memorial Day) would be U.S. Army General Patrick H. Brady. General Brady and his wife were in attendance at the Luncheon and he was introduced to the attendees.

He was a Medal of Honor recipient who had flown numerous helicopter rescue missions right into enemy fire to save the lives of many U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers. Some of the stories of those missions --- flying bullet-ridden and severely damaged craft --- were spellbinding. It was easy to see how it was a miracle for General Brady (who was a Major at the time of his heroics) to be with us today.

The Memorial Day tribute at the Bolder Boulder was the nation's largest Memorial Day celebration. It also included a military flyover by the U.S. Marines. There would be a 21-gun salute thanks to the University of Colorado's Naval Reserve Officers in Training Corps as well as a Color Guard and the playing of taps. It was a full-fledged celebration held with thousands of people in the stands of Folsom Stadium.

I visited briefly with some of the other Race and Media people at the event, including Fox Sports Network Rocky Mountain's Katie O'Malley, an Associate Producer for FSN. They had taken over the coverage of the Race from CBS4 in Denver, which was news to me. I was surprised to hear that, given the long association the CBS affiliate had with the Race.

After the Luncheon, I headed out to the downtown Boulder Mall. After all, I still had not registered for the Race! The Mall was a zoo, with people milling all about enjoying the gorgeous weather. I found the Registration Tent in front of the old Boulder Courthouse, which now served as administrative offices for the County and housed most of the County's elected officials.

I was able to easily register Angela and myself in a matter of minutes. I got the last E Wave registration and they put Angela in the DC Wave but said she could start with me. Thanks to the electronic radio frequency tags which we would put on our shoes, runners could start anywhere and would still get an accurate time for the Race.

Next I went to visit Matt and Deborah Silverman in North Boulder to say "Hello" and talk business with Matt. They were preparing for a small family dinner which had blossomed overnight into a much larger event. As usual, they took it all in stride. Deb is a gourmet cook and it was always fun to dine with them. They invited Holly and me to dinner but I already had invited family members over to our place for dinner. I regretfully declined the invitation knowing the food at the Silverman's would be ten times better than what I was making.

Next I went home to get Holly so we could go shopping for a dress for her 8th Grade "promotion Event" at her school, Peak to Peak. It was their version of an 8th Grade graduation and she was very excited about it. I couldn't blame her.

We drove to Flatiron Crossing Mall and shopped for what seemed like an eternity at Nordstrom's, Macys, and Dillard's. I was amazed at the difference in selection, assistance, and price at each of these three stores as well as how differently they used their floor space.

Nordstrom's had a very open floor plan with what seemed like minimal inventory. They had staff ready to assist shoppers and seemed very well-organized. The prices stunned me, though. This was no bargain basement store!

Macy's had the most selection and the best deals. I was impressed with what they had to offer. My recommendation to Holly was that she make a purchase immediately. She ignored me, as most 8th Graders soon to be 9th Graders would.

She found something she liked at Dillard's so we made our purchase there. It was a nice black dress and seemed a bit fancy to me but, hey, I wasn't the one wearing it. At this point, I was so tired from shopping for dresses (something not on my list of favorite activities) that I was willing to buy her anything just so we could go home. I sensed she already had figured this out and that was why she saved going to Dillard's as our last stop. Smart kid…

As I was ready to go home, she sprung a new obligation on me --- dress shoes. She now wanted to make a complete tour and look for dress shoes to match her dress. Holy cow! I was taken by surprise and didn't react quickly enough. Soon we were going through all the same stores looking at shoes.

I made her look at the offerings at Payless shoe store and told her she could buy any of the dress shoes they had. The staff offered their help and the store had many shoes in Holly's size. I thought their selection was good but, due to Holly's "shoe conceit," she wouldn't even consider buying a Payless shoe. This was not a good sign, especially after I had been buying her shoes at Payless for more than a decade.

Now it was my turn to be stunned by the price difference at each store for shoes. At one store, you could purchase very nice black dress shoes for $20 to $30 (Payless) while, at another store, the nice shoes (and they all looked the same to me) were $100 to $200 a pair (Nordstrom's). Yikes!

After we looked at what I thought were thousands of pairs of shoes (OK, maybe 50), Holly decided none of them would do so we ended up going home. I was exhausted and she was shoeless… for now, anyway.

We headed home but had to stop at King Soopers to shop for food so I could make dinner. I had invited my sister's family over so we would have three more for dinner --- Leah, her husband John, and their son Joel, Holly's cousin.

After grocery shopping, we got home and started cleaning up the house --- a bit too late --- and making dinner. When the Vandersluis family arrived, I was still in the middle of preparing dinner. Leah and John pitched in, as they always did, and helped straighten up the kitchen and adjacent spaces. Papers were recycled, a floor was vacuumed, and various items were put back in their proper place. From a housecleaning perspective, it was always nice to have them come over. Plus the dogs always were given lots of extra attention and they loved that.

Soon I had most of the dinner ready. The kids set the table and we began our feast. For the first course, I made a massive pile of nachos with tons of salsa, gobs of sour cream, two entire diced onions and a ton of cheese. We were getting full just knocking those down.

The second course consisted of two pounds of shrimp sautéed in garlic and butter. They were tasty but it was hard work removing all the tails… well, not really.

Then I made hamburgers with onions and garlic. Not everyone was hungry anymore but those who indulged also had extra sharp cheddar cheese melted on top. It was an American culinary tour de force!

I drank several glasses of milk and then topped off the meal with a giant milkshake using Breyer's Extra Creamy Vanilla ice cream. Almost everyone else joined me in having dessert.

I was so full I was ready to burst. I knew I had totally blown any weight-loss for the Race but I loved the taste of every bite I had.

Somehow we then managed to go downstairs and play several games of ping pong. It always was better exercise than I anticipated and we all had fun. As the evening ended, the Vandersluis family headed home and I returned to clean up the kitchen.

Winding down wasn't difficult tonight and I was able to get to sleep by 11:00 pm. It had been a full day. I definitely was in "rest mode" for the Race. I hoped that was good.

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside. It was a chilly 40^oF outside and I loved it. The only evidence of yesterday's storm was the damp grass and weeds which wet our shoes as we ran. It was an even slower run than usual, solely due to me. My energy levels were dropping like a rock and I had no idea why.

I joked about my "biorhythms" being low. It turned out my physical biorhythm, for those who believe in biorhythms, had bottomed out the night before. That alone was a good explanation It also didn't bode well for the Race. It meant, if the biorhythm analysis was accurate at all, my physical level ("strength, health, and raw physical vitality" according to one biorhythm Website) would be almost at its nadir.

I didn't believe in biorhythms, which were charted based on a person's birth-date, anyway. I figured if a person built up his or her physical base high enough, then even when he or she was at a biorhythmic low point, physical feats still could be performed at a level much higher than most other people.

So, for example, if a person ran a 10K in 75 minutes and trained to get to 50 minutes, even on a "bad biorhythm day," he or she still should be able to run the 10K in 60 minutes. That 60-minute time might be higher than the runner's normal peak performance but it still was much better than the old 75-minute level. And it was silly to think about. I was confident I could overcome any biorhythmic curse.

As we ran, Angela told me she had thought a lot about yesterday's conversation regarding equivocation. She said she realized she did equivocate a lot and wanted to change. I backtracked a little and reminded her we all used equivocation at times to avoid hurting other people's feelings. She was resolute, however, and felt she had missed certain opportunities to communicate more clearly because she did equivocate. I told her to "Go for it" and see how being more direct might make her more successful, especially at work.

I was noticeably tired the entire run but was glad to do it. I knew I had two days of rest coming so it wasn't a big deal. We finished the full 5½ mile run in 75 minutes and discussed the logistics of meeting on Monday so we would have enough time to get to our parking lot on the University of Colorado campus and then walk to the Start Line.

My post-run weight was slightly over 199 but I was optimistic I could get it to 195 before the Race even though I would not be exercising. I was dreaming.

I took care of all my regular responsibilities with Holly, the dogs, and the house, and then attended to some farm issues. For breakfast, I finished all the Chinese food from yesterday's stop at the Fortune Cookie Café. I worked preparing for my meetings in Denver and then took a call from Al Nelson of the Petroleum Pioneers. They wanted me to make my presentation entitled, "Why Everyone Hates Energy Companies"). Al called to remind me of a promise I had made months ago to give my presentation in less than two weeks. I was terribly busy but I had to keep my promise so I assured Al I would be there.

I corresponded with General Petraeus about his nomination by the President to be the head of Central Command. I was wondering if he would be based in Washington but he said he would be at Central Command's headquarters in Tampa. He also told me he would be in Iraq another four months before heading to CentCom. I was thinking of possibly trying to see him in Tampa, Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Hmmmm. Let's see… which location would be easiest and safest? I had great respect for the General and his commitment to do the best he could with the orders he had been given and the limited resources with which he had to work. He cared deeply about his troops and they both respected and adored him. I had learned that firsthand when I visited with troops in Iraq earlier in the year.

My meetings in Denver started with one of my teammates. We reviewed the work she wanted to do and started to put together a schedule. Then I met with the new Marketing Director of the TV Station, Marcia Simmons. She seemed very sharp and I had high hopes for her success at KBDI-TV.

Next I had a meeting with a prospective sponsor of the television show. While in his office, I downed two small bags of pretzels and two bottles of ruby red grapefruit juice. The snacks were good but I made no progress in the meeting. Getting support was simply a numbers game. We were doing great work but it often took a while for people to see that.

After picking up my daughter from school, I made a large dinner which included a green salad, a rice dish, salmon burgers, chicken breast meat cut into bite-sized chunks, and macaroni and cheese. We drank milk and then I had two pieces of cake and an ice cream bar. I had dangerously veered off my diet course and knew, especially with no exercise planned between now and the Race, I knew this unrestrained caloric consumption was not a good decision. I sensed I would pay dearly for my overindulgence.

I worked while Holly read and stayed up much later than I should have --- getting to sleep at 11:00 pm or so.

Yes, after today there were only 3 more days to go before it was Race Day. That was hard to believe. I wanted another month or two to really train but knew that wasn't happening. My jaw was sore from yesterday's numbness and resulting unintentional grinding of my teeth but I knew it would wear off as the day passed.

Angela and I ran our 5½ mile course but I did it very slowly. I was tired and just couldn't get going. We talked a lot about the concept of equivocation and how so many of us were reluctant to say things directly or definitively out of a fear we would hurt someone's feelings. The problem was, that by being equivocal, the person who needed to hear the hard truth often missed the point entirely because we would be so gentle in our criticism and even counter it in the same breath.

We were using her instructor at the University of Denver as an example so I thought it would be interesting to see if she decided to give him a tough evaluation and actually say he had been totally incompetent. That was difficult for more people to do but if they were mealy-mouthed about the issue, people such as this guy were likely to not hear exactly what was being said. It was an interesting dilemma because it was compounded by her desire to remain in good stead with everyone involved in her academic program.

We also talked a fair bit about religion --- one of my favorite subjects --- and what instruction we could get from our own religions. That was a topic one could discuss ad infinitum.

After the run, I weighed in at 199 and got ready for the morning. After taking care of my daughter and driving her to school, I had several bowls of a cereal called "Curves" mixed in with one of my absolute favorite cereals, Special K. I had several bowls and tried the two cereals mixed together. The combination was good because the Curves was too sweet and the sugar level of the Special K tasted much lower (and better).

I spent a good part of the morning helping friend who had suffered a terrible family tragedy. He and his wife needed a good attorney to help them through a very difficult time so I spent time calling various attorneys I knew who either could help or who would know which attorneys in the Denver metro area were best-suited for the case.

Calls came pouring in all day so I ended up on the phone for a majority of the time. I snuck upstairs to munch on e a few ice cream bars and then headed out to Holly's school --- Peak to Peak --- to attend an awards assembly. She was scheduled to het an award and, despite her claims to the contrary, I knew she would want me there.

This was the day a tornado warning was out so it made the afternoon more exciting than usual. Before I left, it started hailing around the house. I took the dogs for a walk and they each reacted differently to being pelted. Two of the dogs were quite bothered by the hail and wanted to go back inside right away (Velma and Wonka). The other two (Bandit and Wally) didn't seem to mind. I brought them all in anyway. I didn't want them to get hurt and I had noticed the hail was increasing in size.

Driving to the school, the hail intensified. The sound of it hitting the car was distinctive and reminded me of the few times I had been caught in a hailstorm. When I got to the school, only a few minutes later, the hail had stopped.

The school's gymnasium was being used for the awards assembly and already was filling up with parents. The students came in next but, before the assembly could even start, the school's Executive Principal, Tony Fontana (who was an extraordinary leader and a great guy), announced there was a tornado warning in the area and everyone needed to go to a safer location.

The parents and students were split up into different groups and filed out. I ended up with a small cadre which was directed to the school's kitchen. I liked that idea, especially when I found out the kitchen team had been grilling hamburgers outdoors as a special treat for the kids. The staff, however, wasn't interested in feeding me despite my hunger pangs.

After the threat of a tornado subsided, everyone returned to the North Gym building for the assembly. Hundreds of kids received awards. It was wonderful to see. Holly got hers in Theater and was pleased but I could tell she was disappointed to not get one for her English class, where she did excel.

At the end of the afternoon Wally's veterinarian called to tell me he was very ill. He had severe liver disease and, as I had been told yesterday, was in decline in a major way. That made me sad. His vet was Michelle deHaan, who always did a wonderful job with all my dogs and my cat.

Michelle went through the details of severe hepatic disease and explained the antibiotic I had picked up yesterday (amoxicillin, a low-level antibiotic) was to knock out any bacterial infection he might have. The Denamarin was to improve his liver function, even if only temporarily. I already had begun giving Wally three pills a day. He was unenthusiastic about it but I was hoping it would help. In the meantime, the best animal oncologist in the world, Dr. Steven Withrow, had been returning my call but missing me. Steve was at the Colorado State University Veterinary & Teaching Hospital. He simply was the best. People would fly in with their pets just to see him. He had treated two of my dogs who had gotten cancer and did a great job with them.

Later, after working some more, I picked up Holly and her school chum, Kirsten. The girls had been at their school's cheerleading tryouts and had finished at 5:00 pm. They were hungry and wanted to skip the hour of hip-hop instruction at their cheerleading gym. I had to agree with them that it was a waste of time but also told them they weren't "running the show."

They both were hungry so we debated whether or not they should eat before Cheer. Holly actually had homework to do, so I was considering whether or not she should even attend the evening's session. They convinced me they should have something to eat so then we debated where to go. We finally settled on having Chinese food at the Fortune Cookie Café in Lafayette.

The Fortune Cookie was a dive but food was good and the service was excellent. I liked the family who owned the business. They always had been nice to Holly, ever since she was adopted from China. We had a fun meal with the girls ordering their favorite foods. Kirsten ordered lemon chicken and Holly ordered sweet and sour chicken as well as a mixed vegetable dish. We got steamed white rice as well as fried rice (except the fried rice here really was just steamed white rice with soy sauce). I started with a large bowl of hot and sour soup. Then I "assisted" the girls with the three meals they ordered. We all were stuffed by the time we were done.

The day ended with more work, some homework assistance for Holly, and a number of dog-related tasks. What else was new?

It was nice to not run today but, instead of taking a break, I went to the YMCA and did a weight workout. It was a rare event. I noticed my face was sore --- right under my left eye. What was weird was that, if I applied pressure on the skin, it didn't hurt but if I moved my eye or head, it did. I decided to ignore it for now.

The weight workout didn't feel too bad and I was glad to have the variety. I had weighed in at 204, so I not only was not making progress but was losing ground. I now knew there was no way --- short of major surgery --- I would be running the Race at 180 to 185. Right now even 195 seemed out of reach but I would still see if I could get down to that weight. I knew every pound I could take off would help me immensely.

It was the usual routine with my daughter. We had to review some special plans for her to retake some tests in Science and Math but she seemed more than willing to get the job done --- especially with summer vacation starting at the end of next week.

For breakfast, I ate six bowls of KIX --- one of my favorite cereals and one I hadn't had in many months --- with milk. Then I tackled the usual host of topics, calls, and e-mails.

Mid-morning, I took my eldest dog, Wally, for an ultrasound and tried to prepare myself for bad news. He had been losing weight and, for a 12½ year-old Golden retriever, that usually was not a good sign.

I received an invitation from the Aspen Institute to the Aspen Ideas Festival (www.AIFestival.org), so I was pleased to see that finally occur. This would be the third year in a row I attended and took a camera crew. Some of the most interesting people on the planet participated in this event so it was a wonderful opportunity for intellectual discourse which could be caught on camera. Some of my previous guests included Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer, Bob Schieffer of CBS, Senator Arlen Specter, and Queen Noor of Jordan.

As part of my poorly thought-out crash weight-loss plan, I decided to skip lunch. I knew that could be a big mistake but decided to see how long I could hold out against my screaming fat cells --- billions of which were banging their little knives and forks inside me, demanding to be fed.

I worked more and had a nice talk with former State Treasurer and Peace Corps Director Sam Brown. I had run into Sam, after a gap of many years, at the Aspen Ideas Festival last year so I thought I would call him to get ideas on where to house our television crew during this year's Festival. Sam was in Washington but had some good ideas. It was fun talking with him.

By 1:00 pm, I was starving so I gave in and had a giant salad with lettuce, sliced cabbage, carrots, and mandarin orange slices --- doused with teriyaki sauce. Then I had several slices of Monterey Jack cheese, two glasses of milk, and a large piece of matzoh for my cracker. So much for my diet…

I had a really fun dental appointment and ended up walking out with a very numb mouth. While I could speak intelligibly (well, barely), I noticed I couldn't feel myself chewing in a normal manner. I almost chewed a few teeth!

I went grocery shopping, picked up Holly, took her shopping, then went and picked up poor old Wally, and headed home. Eating was a very strange experience but, as always was the case when it came to food, I managed. We dined on salmon burgers, rice, and an onion and broccoli dish. Milk was the order of the day beverage-wise.

I had a conference call for the TV show after dinner at 6:00 pm which lasted until 7:15 pm. That killed the evening. I noticed my jaw was sore --- probably from chewing and putting pressure on my teeth but not knowing I was biting down too hard due to the numbness which had not completely worn off. This was a new experience for me. I called it a night at 9:30 pm, after helping Holly with her homework and taking care of the dogs, and was asleep by 10:30 pm or so. The Race was getting closer and I had to admit, I had not made much progress.

It had been surprisingly hot all night long and none of us slept well. The dogs got me up at 1:34 am and needed to go out so I took them for a quick walk. It wasn't easy getting to sleep but it was far too early to get up so I rested until I fell asleep again --- about half an hour later. I knew I needed the rest.

Two hours after that, at about 4:15 am, I got up and got ready to run. I was tired and sore. If I could have come up with a good excuse to not run (sorry, "tired and sore" aren't good enough excuses), I would have. I worked a while and then met Angela outside.

Starting the run was tough today but I kept going. After 1½ miles, I needed a break and walked for a minute or two. Then we resumed running and decided to go the next 1½-mile segment. My butt was dragging.

I made it down to County Line Road for the second time but was winded. This was not a good sign. I wanted to say I had over-trained but all that would have done was generate guffaws from both of us.

Today's main topic of conversation was about one's purpose in life, what it should be, and how does one find and/or determine it. It always is a great topic because it allows you to discuss what your life should be focused on at a particular point in time. I explained how I tried to make a difference with my work and personal life but knew I could do more. Angela wondered how her job fit into a greater plan and what else she might do.

We argued about the degree of self-determination one has and the role personal belief systems and religion played in these important life decisions. It was a fun conversation and kept my mind off my pitiful performance today.

While running, a neighbor leaned over his fence. It was John Peterson, whose wife worked at Holly's school --- Peak to Peak. The school had just been named yesterday as the 40th best school in the nation by Newsweek magazine so I assumed he was going to say something.

Instead, he wanted to know if he and his son could have permission to ride their dirt bikes on the farm. I gently told him that would not work due to liability concerns and insurance considerations. He took the answer well. I explained that, eventually, there would be trails on the property and I hoped people such as himself would be able to use them for a wide variety of recreation.

Our talk took several minutes and I recuperated during that time. We continued our run, passing a few barking dogs behind fences, and came to a final decision point. We were at the dirt road leading back to the gas well we always passed and then on to my house. Usually, we would keep heading west and run that quarter-mile along with the half-mile around the Thomas Lake Reservoir. With the return adding the quarter of a mile again, this route totaled over one mile.

If we went home now, the entire run would be about 4½ miles. If we took the longer route, it would easily be 5½ miles. Angela prodded me on to do the longer route and somehow I managed to keep one foot in front of the other. I definitely was going slowly. In fact, at one point, I had started power-walking while she ran at a jogging pace.

We made it around the little lake, said "Hello" to a few people walking their dogs or running around the lake themselves, and headed back for the 1½ mile trek home.

We started talking about the Race and I told Angela I wanted her to run as fast a time as she could. She wanted to run with me but I knew that meant she would run a much slower pace than she otherwise could. I told her I appreciated her desire to stay together as a team because, indeed, we were running partners, but that it would be great to see her go all out and see what she could do.

She wasn't convinced and so we debated the merits of my request. Of course, my expectation was my request should be honored simply because I had made it! Angela, being quite independent, wanted to make her own decision.

She said she could bring her iPod with her but I could tell she didn't like the idea of running the Race for time. I mentioned I wasn't good company during the Race because I was so focused on completing it but she didn't buy that either. She figured I was far too loquacious to be quiet during any run. I guess I would have to surprise her.

She said she would think about my request. We finally finished the run when we arrived at my house about 80 minutes after starting. That was pathetic. I knew I was worn out and suggested we go our separate ways tomorrow and do weight or other workouts. She agreed that made sense. It was consistent with her prior suggestions that we mix up our exercise routines.

At home, after the run, I weighed in at a disappointing 200 and knew 190 wasn't going to happen for the Race. It was late in the game and I was in big trouble. Today's run had proven that was true.

For breakfast I ate a salmon fillet which needed to be consumed, due to its age in the refrigerator. I added some extra barbecue sauce to make sure it would taste fine (i.e., all I would taste is barbecue sauce). I was drinking lots of Minute Maid Orangeade again and had a few glasses of milk, too.

I had snacked on Muenster cheese and apple while I had made Holly breakfast and lunch and should have stopped but, while I read the newspaper, I also ate a Spicy McChicken sandwich with extra mayonnaise. Then I had more milk and topped my beverage consumption off with a few glasses of lemon-lime seltzer water. My consumption, by caloric total and physical volume, had been immense.

After working a while, later in the morning, I ate a quarter pound of sliced Monterey Jack cheese, a few glasses of milk, and a few glasses of the Minute Maid concoction. I knew having more dairy products probably was a bad idea, especially given what it did to a person, but I didn't see any chocolate hanging around the house.

Today was filled with television production planning issues. We had a problem with too many guests agreeing to be on one program and I also was looking at the shows we were supposed to do on the Democratic National Convention. Former television producer Norman Lear ("All In The Family," "Maude," "Good Times," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and "The Jeffersons," among others) was being kind enough to suggest some guests for the shows and also agreed to be on the program.

Throughout the day, I continued to deal with farm-related issues as well as parenting and pet challenges. They were a constant every day.

For lunch I ate a double-cheeseburger with a giant pickle. I also munched on a few other goodies --- one of the two-edged swords of having an office at home. It was convenient and too convenient to eat whenever the urge occurred.

As the afternoon passed, I left the house early to go to the Post Office and do some shopping. I stopped at Inta Juice and got a raspberry "tsunami" (their largest size) for me. It probably had 1,000 calories. I got the regular size for Holly. Then it was on to the Albertsons in Lafayette to do some grocery shopping. It seemed I was always working, shopping, vacuuming, doing laundry, or cleaning up after a pet. That was all OK, especially given the lives so many other people lived.

At home, Holly and I reviewed her homework and focused on her English honors project. She was way behind. I worked while she worked. Eventually, she fell asleep. I let her sleep because I knew she was tired. I worked some more and then had her get ready for bed. I was still tired from my morning run --- that's not a good sign --- and wanted to call it a day by 9:00 pm.

I thought I ended my eating day with another double-cheeseburger and a giant pickle, nicely washed down with two glasses of milk. OK, I did precede that with an ice cream bar but no one else was looking. And, later that evening, I had two more ice cream bars. I had rediscovered my weakness… one of many.

Instead of ending my work day, I continued by watching some footage of the guests Norman Lear had suggested and also watched a video of a speech he gave. I was amazed at his vigor at the age of 85. If I could be like him at 85, it would be a wonderful blessing. I began to wonder if running would help me get to 85 or would truncate that goal.

After yesterday's food fest at Pint's Pub, I knew I was in trouble but, at this point, simply adjusted my goals accordingly. Today my goal was to finish the Bolder Boulder without having a heart attack. If I could break 70 minutes in the process, that would be great but, at the rate I was going, it was appearing progressively more unlikely.

My training consisted primarily of a "training table" and I had done a poor job losing weight. I knew I wouldn't be running at 180 to 185 pounds. I would be lucky to be at 195 and 200 was far more likely. Each pound would cost me a minute in the Race so a Race time of 70 minutes might be wishful thinking, too.

Today I had agreed to run in the morning so I dragged myself out of bed and started getting ready for the day. It was hard to believe that at this time in exactly a week I would be getting ready to run the Race. It was the Bolder Boulder's 30th Anniversary and I knew I couldn't miss it.

Angela showed up at 5:35 am and was very apologetic about missing yesterday's run. I told her it was absolutely no problem and how I almost skipped it myself when she called to say she had just awoken. We both were surprised I had the willpower to run --- as opposed to driving quickly back home and jumping in bed.

We went the full route today despite the fact I was exhausted and it was very warm --- easily around 60^oF when we started. That was way too toasty for me. I preferred running at 40^oF. That was warm enough so I wouldn't freeze and cool enough so I stayed relatively dry.

Later in the day, I looked at the forecast and saw the anticipated low for Race Day was 42^oF and the expected high was 69^oF. While I knew a forecast seven days out was likely to be highly unreliable --- especially in Colorado --- I was hoping those numbers (or even chillier ones) would hold up. If I could start the Race at 45^oF or so, that would help me immensely.

Today's run was difficult but we completed the entire route. We talked about work, family, and the movies we had seen this weekend ("Iron Man" for Angela and her husband and "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" for me, my daughter, my nephew, and my sister). It was a great way to pass the time. It took us 75 minutes to do the 5½ run but, at this point, I didn't care. After running the 6.7-mile trail two days in a row, I was happy I could put one foot in front of the other.

It was my usual routine for the morning --- primarily getting Holly ready for school, including making her breakfast and packing her a lunch, and then taking care of the four dogs. I had weighed in at 199, so for breakfast I drank several glasses of Minute Maid Orangeade. That would teach me to be such a pig.

Unfortunately, as the diet experts caution, this strategy backfired. By 10:30 am, I was so hungry I ended up nuking two double-cheeseburgers. I added large slices of red onion to assuage my fast-food-induced guilt. The four glasses of whole milk probably were a "wash," nutritionally speaking but made the cheeseburgers taste great. I knew this wouldn't help my weight but, hey, what's the point of eating unless the food is fun to consume?

I got a call from Dick Wadhams, the Campaign Manager for Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former Congressman Bob Schaffer. Dick confirmed his candidate had accepted my offer to moderate a series of debates between his candidate and the Democratic nominee, Congressman Mark Udall. I now would have to wait to see if Mark wanted me to serve in that role. My guess was any decision was a week or two away. That was fine with me. I figured I probably would be hospitalized for a week after the Bolder Boulder anyway.

I worked all day and focused on TV-related challenges along with other e-mail correspondence. I also spent a lot of time reviewing Holly's homework and grades. It looked like there would be a sprint to the finish if she were going to get decent grades. I knew a major discussion would be occurring after school today. I girded myself for battle!

When I went to pick her up, I discovered Holly had left her lunch in the car. When she climbed in, she attacked it immediately. She said she had forgotten it because she was "made" at me. She also forgot her art project, her Science book, and her glasses today so my checklist review obviously had been flawed. She managed well anyway and told me about her day. Her reports always were dominated by funny stories about her teachers. I had to admit, the teachers at Peak to Peak kept things interesting.

At home we ate a full meal. I had three-quarters of a pound of flounder baked in butter, garlic, and a mix of spices along with a lightly salted sliced tomato and a few glasses of milk. I knew I needed to stop for the day. I made Holly an assortment of foods and then we went to work --- with Holly lacking all enthusiasm and eventually falling asleep.

My time was filled with Website-related work for our various projects as well as working on issues related to a program we were doing which had been expanded to include former U.S. Senators Tim Wirth (now President of the United Nations Foundation, thanks to a $1 billion gift from Ted Turner), Bill Armstrong, and Hank Brown.

The staff for current U.S. Senator Wayne Allard first informed me today we would have to change the taping time for him to be able to join us but I told them we couldn't because the studio wasn't available for any extra time. I suggested we find another day to tape the Senator with others involved in the program. The response I got back was they were going to find a way for him to go with the original schedule so now I had three former Senators and one current Senator on the show. This was going to be a challenge, especially with three of them being Republicans and only one being a Democrat. It was making me a bit nervous so I asked the Dem --- Tim Wirth --- if the arrangement was OK. I hoped to hear back from him in the next day or two.

I listened to "27 Jennifers" by Mike Doughty and Mudcrutch's "Scare Easy" about 100 times during the day. I called it a day at 8:00 pm and decided to try and get a good night's sleep. That probably was the most important action I could take to have a good run on Memorial Day.

Committed to running the White Rocks trail two days in a row, I headed out at 5:30 am to meet my running partner. I thought I'd surprise her by getting there first for the second time in a row. I had done that last week and knew it was a rare event so I thought I'd repeat it.

I had gotten up early but had gotten six hours of sleep. It wasn't as much as I wanted but it was better than five hours! We had done an agricultural burn yesterday and, unfortunately, the smoke somehow had gotten into my bedroom so, in the middle of the night, I got up and slept in another room. I was surprised at how being in your own home but in a different room could be disconcerting.

It was nice out when I awoke --- about 45^oF. I reached the trailhead and guessed it was about 40^oF in the low-lying area by the creek where we usually started our run. As I had planned, Angela wasn't there yet. I started reading the newspaper and didn't realize how quickly time was passing.

My cell phone rang and it was her. She was still in bed and had forgotten to set her alarm. I teased her and said it was no problem. I didn't want to wait for her and told her to just have fun taking the day off from running. The Sun was coming up on the horizon and I didn't want to waste a minute getting on the trail.

It now was 6:00 am and everything was getting lit up quickly as the Sun rose. I hit the trail wondering how I would do. I could tell right away I was more tired and sorer than I thought. It was tempting to simply skip the run. After all, I had just done the 6.7-mile course 24 hours ago. Didn't it make sense to give my body a rest?

Then I started thinking, "Hey, you big doofus, this is the last time you'll do this trail run before the Bolder Boulder, so go for it." Then I countered, "Well, Mr. Smarty-pants, if you run this trail and hurt yourself, you may not be able to run the Bolder Boulder at all." Both arguments were convincing. I had felt some pain in my lower left leg yesterday at the midpoint of my run and wondered if it would return. "OK, Bright Bulb, you began to feel a minor injury yesterday. What makes you think running almost 7 miles is going to make it feel better? Aren't the odds you'll worsen the injury and be 3 miles from the car? Then where will you be?"

I rejoined with, "Hey, it's my last long run before the Race so I'm going to do it. I need the exercise, I need it for weight control, and I can run slowly so I don't get hurt." That argument prevailed and I was off to the races.

I had run the trail in 82 minutes yesterday so my goal today was to finish under 90 and preferably around 85. There was no wind when I started and I liked that. My hands were cold and I wondered if it possibly might be closer to 35^oF in the lowland where I started. I knew, however, I would warm up soon so it was no big deal. I now was wearing a headband to keep sweat from burning my eyes but had pleasantly found it initially served to keep my ears warm when it was cold. What a handy little item!

My pace was languid but I was determined to not stop. I had kept going yesterday and was pleased to have not felt the need to stop and rest. I actually never stopped but would switch from running to walking for anywhere from ½ a minute to a couple of minutes. And perhaps I shouldn't use the word "running" because, admittedly, most of the time I was jogging.
I made it to the small lake at the one mile mark and watched two geese in the lake --- one of which was honking vociferously. I kept going and soon hit the first of two major climbs. I did both and, when I finished the second, saw a man running towards me. As he passed me, at quite a good pace, we exchanged "Hellos." He appeared to be in great shape. I figured, at the pace he was going, he might lap me.

At about 2½ miles into the run, a tall, attractive, solidly-built woman passed me going in the same direction. I was never enthusiastic about being passed by people unless they were riding a bicycle. We exchanged pleasantries and, within a few minutes, she was easily a quarter of a mile ahead of me. Talk about eating dust!

I felt the same way in the Bolder Boulder when I would be passed by 6 year-old kids and 86 year-old grandmothers. That wasn't the way it was supposed to be for a macho guy. Oh well, "Get used to it," I told myself.

Soon the speedy gal was completely out of sight after she had mounted a hill. I saw her briefly afterwards but noticed she took a turn on the trail down a path where I never went. And I wasn't going there today, either. I noticed she had an accent. I guessed it was Australian but our exchange was brief thanks to the combination of her rapid pace and my sluggishness.

I was still headed to the water tower --- my final destination for the first half of the run --- when I next was passed by a bicyclist heading in the other direction. Traffic was increasing. I knew it was due, in part, to my late start --- half an hour later than yesterday.

I hit the big hill leading up to the water tower and convinced myself to not stop. I made it all the way to the top but was so exhausted I had to slow down to catch my breath. At the top of the hill the views were spectacular. The Front Range was gorgeous and the Sun was brightening up everything. The moment I hit the crest, I stopped running and started walking --- gasping for air and taking deep breaths. I told myself I would count to 100 and then resume my run.

Somehow, 100 turned into about 400 as I walked the entire distance around the water tower. As I headed downhill, I felt my time would be terrible today but, at this point, I didn't care. I actually was rested enough to semi-sprint down the hill. I liked going downhill. If I could run an entire marathon downhill, I'd go for it.

As I finished what would be as close to a sprint as I did today, another runner passed me as he headed up the hill. I continued and promised I would not stop or even resume walking the rest of the way back.

The views now were great. The Erie Town Fair's balloon launch from Vista Ridge was beginning its second day and I could see several of the early starters. When I finished the last hill I saw a whole gaggle of runners. Two guys passed me with military T-shirts. They were tooling. Then three women passed by and also were running at a good pace. Another male runner zipped by and then three more women. It was becoming Grand Central Station. I had never seen so many runners.

I was wondering if people were doing last-minute training for the Bolder Boulder. Some, like the woman who had passed me when I was running to the water tower, may have been getting accustomed to the altitude, especially if she had just come from Down Under. Others may have been on a regular run --- i.e., it was yours truly who was running at a different time than usual.

As I crossed the little bridge over Boulder Creek, I saw a blue heron wading in the water. I guessed he or she was fishing. As I ran by the small lake, two geese were honking incessantly. And when they saw me, one of them started trumpeting at a rate I had never heard. This guy was something else. Even after I passed them, they were going nonstop.

As I rounded the path past the small lake, I faintly heard gravel moving. Someone was behind me and was catching up. I was about to get passed again. This time it was a man who looked like he was about 30 to 35 years old and in great shape who had passed me going the opposite direction only several minutes ago. Now he was going right by me.

We exchanged "Hello's" as he passed but I noticed his pace wasn't all that fast so I decided to see if I could kick it into gear and maintain his pace albeit at 100 yards behind him just to be courteous. I struggled to go faster but did it and found I could keep up with him fairly easily.

As I ran with a quarter of a mile to go, I saw my second blue heron. It was flying across my path and was so graceful as its large wings slowly flapped to propel the large animal.

We headed towards the end of the run but had to cross Valmont Road first. He was only 10 seconds ahead of me, based on a rough calculation I made using a stationary landmark (I guess all landmarks, by definition, are stationary). I was cut off by a vehicle and that added 5 seconds to the gap. Being game, and with only 400 yards to go, I accelerated to try and catch up with him. I knew it was unlikely but, for fun, did it anyway.

Then, with only 100 yards to go, he reverted to a cool-down walk. I passed him --- making up for my poor performance --- and finished the run. As I walked around the trailhead parking lot, he made it to his car and we started talking. He was a driver for FedEx and was in great shape. He said he was with the two speedy guys I had seen but just didn't do a lot of long distance running anymore.

He lived in Louisville and seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. We had fun chatting and talked about the Bolder Boulder. He used to do it regularly but no longer participated except on occasion with friends. My guess was he could have run rings around me if he wanted to. He had to be in far better shape than I was.

My cool-down lasted only four minutes. I was eager to get back and felt good. Despite my walk around the water tower --- or, perhaps, because of it --- my time ended up being 78 minutes. While it was far from my best time of 69 minutes and my desired time of a sub-75 minute run, breaking 80 minutes today was a huge surprise. I savored it for a few minutes as I drove home.

My post-run weight was 197 so I hadn't lost a single pound since yesterday and was concerned because today would be a "Big Eating Day," thanks to a planned staff luncheon meeting at my favorite Denver spot --- Pint's Pub. Located just one block west of the Denver Art Museum, Pint's had a great English pub atmosphere, friendly service, and both good food and drinks. They supported my television show and I tried to get there as much as possible.

At home I got cleaned up, took care of the dogs, dealt with some farm issues and worked on preparing for today's meetings in Denver. I drank seltzer water and ate only one banana when I had a late breakfast with Holly. We got her homework organized and then went shopping. She had a list of "necessities" we needed to buy. Most of them were luxuries, as far as I was concerned, but we had a good time shopping.

Then I headed to Denver where I met with my production team to review the status of projects and to critique the initial version of the fifth U.S. Senate show. We made plans for the Iraq footage we had, looked at technical possibilities for the Aspen Ideas Festival, talked about the Democratic Convention shows, considered when we might go to Washington for some special interviews, discussed the U.S. Senate series, and considered how to best move forward with our energy information series.

At Pint's I went hog wild. I was so hungry and thirsty, I just kept eating and drinking. I had six Arnold Palmers, five giant chicken wings with hot sauce and ranch dressing, most of a giant one-foot diameter cracker with Havarti cheese and slices of a Golden Delicious apple, and a huge chef's salad with turkey, lettuce, red onion, other ingredients and lots of bleu cheese dressing.

To make it even worse, I took a hamburger and fries home to Holly and, when we sat down together, I ate an entire club sandwich with extra mayonnaise and a large glass of milk to keep her company. I figured I had easily consumed 5,000 calories in a three-hour span. I knew I had busted my diet but it all tasted so good.

At home I helped Holly, took care of the dogs, and worked a while. Then I decided at 8:00 pm to end the work day. I was tired from running and from eating. I needed to start winding down for the evening and was glad to do so. I was supposed to run five miles tomorrow morning and knew it would be a challenge.

With only eight training days to go before Race Day, I decided to up my training a notch by seeing if I could run the long trail --- 6.7 miles --- twice in a row. Today I felt good and I knew it was nice out because I already had walked the dogs after raising at 4:00 am. Having just 3½ hours of sleep wasn't a plus but, as usual, once I was up, there was no going back.

I got to the trail at 5:30 am and started off at an easy pace. I hadn't run the trail by myself in some time and enjoyed the tranquility. It was light out and the Sun had started its ascent so I knew it might be a factor later in the run. The last time I had done this I finished at 93 minutes and had to walk a good portion of the route. I expected to do better today. I knew I'd get tired quickly but I also felt my slightly lower weight would help.

When one runs alone and there are no signs of human life, the mind can play all kinds of tricks. Mine started thinking about mountain lions and what I should do if one crossed my path. I had seen mountain lions in the Boulder area and was guessing they didn't come quite this far east although there were animals upon which they could prey. At 6'5" and 200 pounds, I figured I could handle any large kitty. Then again, given the shape I was in, I might be seen as a tasty treat.

As I ran, I felt good. I knew my pace was slow but I was moving steadily. Best of all, I didn't feel any of the total body exhaustion and system-wide milieu I had experienced in recent weeks. Maybe I was making progress after all. That would be nice.

There was no wind at all and today I liked that. The temperature was about 45^oF when I started and easily hit 50^oF by the end of the run. Both were OK. I knew I liked it about 10^oF cooler for my best running but this was OK. The path showed some signs of the recent moisture we had but was only muddy in a few inconsequential spots. It was easy to stay on firm, dry ground the entire time --- and I did.

As I climbed the easy and the tough hills, I was pleased at how relatively easy everything seemed to be. "Relative," however, these days meant I simply was able to do it and not die. I'd take that today.

A few runners headed in the opposite direction (i.e., towards me) passed by and we exchanged greetings. On the way back, I saw a group of three women running together and that was it. For how nice it was, I was surprised to see so few people the entire time I was out on the trail.

Two-thirds of the way through the first half of the route I saw a blue heron fly by --- looking like a cross between a giant pileated woodpecker and a pterodactyl. It was so graceful yet looked massive in size.

I made it to the start of the hill going up to the water tower --- usually my Waterloo --- but I dug in and kept going. I wanted to do the entire run without stopping just to prove to myself I could do the slightly shorter Bolder Boulder.

I made it to the top of the hill just as another runner came from behind. Had I not turned to run around the water tower before returning, he would have easily passed me. I had not heard him behind me at all but that wasn't surprised given my heavy breathing -- which covered noise even better than my self-absorption.

In the past, when I was in shape and was running back, I picked up the pace considerably, especially given the fact there were some good downhill segments. This time I had no desire to sprint so I took it easy. I managed the ups-and-downs of the return easily but at a slow pace.

One difference was I noticed some pain, similar to a shin split, in my left leg. I slowed down and tried to "work it out" and that seemed effective for several minutes before the pain came back. I knew I could tough it out for the remainder of the run and was more concerned it could be some condition which affected my ability to run the Race in a week.

With only a mile to go, I crossed a little bridge over Boulder Creek and noticed two large Canadian geese. They were 100 feet away and weren't moving. This was strange behavior for most geese. As I got closer I saw two tiny, fuzzy yellow chicks. It was a little family of four.

My problem was the path was narrow and fenced it. There weren't a lot of places I could go. And I was aware that geese protect their little ones --- as all of us do --- and can be quite physical in their defense. Channeling Dr. Doolittle, I started speaking to the geese and later described my effort as "talking them down." I slowly walked past as one of the geese lowered its head and took a bead on me. "Oh great," I thought. I could see the headline now, "Goose massacres talk show host."

Fortunately, my talking had helped and the family scurried off to safety after I passed by and they concluded I was no threat to them. I stopped after about another 200 yards so I could watch some varmint surface in the small lake adjacent to the trail. I didn't want to stop so I decided to keep running after I realized it would take longer to figure out what the animal was,

Sprinting the remainder of the way would have been advisable but I didn't have it in me. I finished and checked my time. It was a decent 82 minutes --- not what I had hoped to . And I knew I would break 80 soon but tomorrow's run now looked daunting because I knew I'd be tired.

At home I took care of the four pups and got Holly up. We were supposed to go to see "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" this morning. It is the successor to "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." I loved the first movie and was looking forward to the sequel more than Holly.

For breakfast, I ate a spicy chicken sandwich with extra mayonnaise and a couple of glasses of milk. I also drank the rest of the Arizona ice tea. The run had made me thirsty. I made Holly a simple breakfast and then we headed out to pick up my sister Leah and her son Joel.

At the movie, I ate almost an entire large bag of popcorn and put some kind of oily substance on it which was a substitute for butter. I knew it was going right to my arteries --- coating them with some gross congealing substance which would transform into plaque but I kept munching anyway.

The movie was great! I enjoyed it more than the kids did. It was a very emotional film, especially if you were invested in some of the characters, as I was, it was a real tearjerker at points.

Afterwards, we headed to Joel's house for a while and then went home. I made lunch for the kids and had another chicken sandwich slathered with mayonnaise along with some cottage cheese and pineapple chunks as well as several hot biscuits I baked at Holly's request and some carrot. With milk and seltzer water to drink, I was full quite quickly.

I worked while the kids played. Leah kept busy by cleaning up in the kitchen --- mine desperately needed all the help it could get. I worked some more, walked the dogs, and ended up having more milk, seltzer water, and several pieces of Muenster cheese. I felt so full from the junk I had eaten earlier in the day that, by 5:30 pm, I knew I wouldn't eat anything else today.

The big news was a small helicopter had crash landed at our corner --- Arapahoe Road (emanating from Boulder) and North 119th Street. The pilot wasn't injured but it was a sudden reminder of what could happen when one lived near an airport (Erie Municipal Airport). My experience was that most pilots were courteous and careful. My understanding was that, in this case, the problem was mechanical in nature and, fortunately, the pilot suffered only minor injuries.

I spent the rest of the day doing farm chores, answering e-mail, and doing document preparation for the TV show. Holly fell asleep early and before I knew it, it was 7:30 pm when she got up and wanted dinner. I made her meal and then worked some more. I had hoped to see Cedric the Entertainer who was performing in Denver tonight but I long ago abandoned the idea. By 9:00 pm so I decided to call it a day, work-wise. I knew I had eaten too much today and was curious how well I would do on the run tomorrow.

Because it had rained, I knew the route we ran again would be muddy today. I tried calling my running partner but was unable to reach her. I decided she, too, figured it was too muddy to run so I started to head out the door to the YMCA, where I would finish my weight workout. Nothing like spreading a one-day weight workout over three or four days!

Right before I was going to leave, at about 5:45 am, I saw Angela's car at my gate. I met her when she pulled into the driveway and suggested we go to the YMCA. She was reluctant because her membership had expired but she had sent in an exit survey which gave her an additional month. Plus the folks at the "Y" wanted her to come visit, if not come back.

She relented and ended up being pleased at the decision. Tracy and Scott greeted her warmly at the entrance. I could tell their enthusiasm for seeing her set her at ease.

We decided to run on the track. I was sore and my running partner explained that was due to the fact I worked out on Tuesday and Thursday. She said there was usually a two-day delay At first, I was miserable but, after just several laps around the "Y" track, I felt better.

The YMCA's indoor track was terrible. It had a cement-like surface and no cushioning. It would cost about $20,000 to put an extra surface on the track (even painting it with some kind of cushioning material would be an improvement) and I was surprised they had not done it, especially given some of the other ways they had spent far more than that. But, hey, I wasn't in charge and didn't want to be. I was just a lowly customer or, as they said, "guest."

My goal was to do 30 laps but we both agreed, as we neared 30, that 40 made more sense. We completed 40 and Angela said she could keep on running another 40. I told her, if I had the time, I was good for another 20 or so but I had to get home to get my daughter going for school. We both were pleased with our run and agreed to do a final long run on the White Rocks trail this Sunday, starting at 5:45 am. I wanted to run tomorrow but decided to see how I felt.

After taking care of Holly and getting her to school, for breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and butter. It was OK, health-wise, but my biggest success was the low volume of food intake. I would see how I might do today. I had weighed in at 200, which was disappointing after hitting 199 yesterday

I spent the day tackling farm-related issues, television show challenges, doing dishes, and the usual assortment of problems. For lunch I had two McDonald's Spicy McChicken sandwiches with some extra mayonnaise I added to each sandwich. I drank Arizona ginseng ice tea throughout the day. I was consuming my supply and not replenishing it because of the amount of corn syrup in the beverage.

I even took a rare break and watched the movie, "Dan In Real Life," with a friend. I was impressed with actor Steve Carrell's performance. The movie was poignant but also had some very funny comedic moments. People who were parents probably enjoyed it more than others. I had a Monster energy drink and wondered how many calories I consumed. I definitely was alert the rest of the day.

When I picked up Holly, she took me by surprise when she told me there was a surprise party for her friend, Juliana. Juliana was moving to Kansas (or Kentucky, depending on the source of the information), and a surprise "going-away" party had been planned. Holly had been sent an invitation electronically but I had blocked that Website so she found out yesterday. She forgot to tell me and the party started in less than 60 minutes.

We zipped home and, fortunately, I had some gifts stored just for these kinds of emergencies. I found a cute stuffed toy puppy and bath set with some cologne and soaps. Holly liked this much better than the "Tabu" cologne I had suggested. For some reason, Holly thought Tabu was for men and she dismissed the idea that a girl or woman would like it. I quickly wrapped the gift while she took out the dogs and then we zipped over to Superior to her friend Kirsten's house. Kirsten's Mom was going to give both girls a ride and I would pick up Holly at 9:30 pm.

After dropping off Holly, I returned to take care of the dogs and get back to work. I spoke with Mike Dino, the CEO of the Democratic Convention's Host Committee, and suggested a possible way we could help with their fundraising. The concept was to offer advertising and promotional benefits via the television show to prospects they otherwise could not get. This would be a win/win/win because the Host Committee would get revenue it otherwise could not get, the sponsors would get marketing benefits they otherwise would not get, and we would get additional funding to expand the viewing audience of the programs. It was a nice way for everyone to come out ahead.

At 9:25 pm, I headed out to get Holly. My goal was to get to bed by 10:30 am so I could do a long run at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. After all, this was my last weekend to train and I knew I needed another six months. The fact I had not even registered for the Race may have been the biggest statement of all. By the time I had visited with Bailey's Mom and drove Holly home, it was almost 10:30 pm. After getting ready for bed and watching parts of "Nightline," Jay Leno and David Letterman followed by Jimmy Kimmel, I finally fell asleep by 12:30 am. An auspicious end to the day…

Getting up was tough today. I thought I had missed the soreness I deserved from my weight workout on Tuesday. Yesterday (Wednesday), I hardly felt anything so I figured I was in the clear. Wrong, Mr. Once-A-Month-Weight-Workout! I was more than willing to stay in bed for another two hours when 4:15 am hit.

And, on top of the soreness, I had a terrible headache. Headaches were very rare for me. I had no idea what the origin of this one was but drank some water as a possible antidote to the source of the pain. It wasn't a big deal. I knew many people who had migraines and other headache-related challenges. I figured that, if I got a headache a dozen times a year, it was no big deal. And they always seemed to clear up in a matter of hours anyway so I really couldn't complain.

After forcing myself up, I got ready to run. Then, at 5:14 am, Angela called to inquire if I wanted to skip running today because it had rained last night. I didn't realize it actually had precipitated because, when I arose, I looked out the window and didn't notice any moisture on our brick walkway.

I looked at the skylight in my bedroom and, sure enough, there were some raindrops still on it. If it had rained even a small amount, it definitely would be muddy so I agreed to Angela's proposal that we run tomorrow. I knew that probably would make it unlikely for me to run on Saturday but I wasn't giving that up… yet.

Most normal people would have dived back into bed. No, not me… After all the eating I had done last night, I knew I needed to do something. Plus, I still had nine of the 17 weight machines at the YMCA I had failed to do on Tuesday so I headed out at 5:24 am.

The air was as fresh as it could be and smelled great. The rain had cleansed it and, even though I was ten miles east of Boulder, the pine trees of the foothills west of the city had added a delicious fragrance. It was another reminder why it was do great to live in Colorado.

At the YMCA, I gritted my teeth and convinced myself that, if I worked out, the soreness and headache pain would go away. I didn't feel terribly motivated but hit the machines anyway. I was doing OK and actually was completing the same number of repetitions as I had when I worked out regularly. That lasted until I got to the leg press machine. I had worked up to 1,000 reps (my reps were only partial so they actually were quite easy to do) but today I ended up stopping after 300. That was disappointing. I ended up completing 7½ of the remaining 9 machines. I decided I would find a way to return and do the leg press again and the bench I used for mini-abdominal crunches. These mini-ab crunches involved almost no movement so it was easy for me to do a lot of them. Heck, I didn't want to strain myself, right?

At home it was back to the usual routine --- get Holly up, get cleaned up, make breakfast for Holly, make and pack her a lunch, drive her to school, return home and have breakfast while reading the newspapers, feeding the dogs, taking out the dogs, cleaning dishes, et cetera. My weight was at 202 and, although that didn't surprise me, I was disappointed I had regressed three pounds. I resolved to do better… again.

I got to work and answered messages. I was still having e-mail problems and found almost two dozen messages had been sent but never arrived at their destinations so I had to resend all of them. I wasn't making progress booking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but I decided to keep trying. She would be a fascinating guest.

During the day I listened to Mike Doughty's song, "27 Jennifers." I just loved that song. This week, I had been listening to Mudcrutch's "Scare Easy," another great song. I ate a fair bit --- six English muffin halves with cream cheese (2) and butter (4), quarter pound of Muenster cheese, several glasses of milk, some apple and cottage cheese, a carrot, more milk, and three Micky D's apple pies which I nuked. That ended the run of apple pies --- which was probably best for all concerned. I just hated to waste food but it ultimately ended up on my waist anyway so I was wasting it after all.

Much of the day was spent reviewing the first cut of the show with the Iraq War's top blogger, Michael Yon. There were numerous problems but, with the footage of the interview I did having been shot in front of our tent on the desert at a U.S. air base right when a sandstorm was moving in, there was little we could do. The show can be seen at www.HarberTV.com. Michael definitely is an amazing and gutsy guy. I would never do what he has done and what he still does.

Having gone to Iraq definitely reminded me of how much I loved being back home in the United States. I always felt that way when overseas. It just was great to be back and I knew I should appreciate every day I had on the planet.

I also had to deal with the challenge of whether or not Holly should have a special dress for her promotion ceremony at school. Leaving the 8th Grade these days often was a big deal but she wanted a strapless dress and I was hesitant to have her (a) dress up and (b) dress up like that! I decided to consult some other parents and the school's Middle School Guidance counselor. My guess was I would end up buying a dress.

The day also was filled with farm-related issues. That was only one of my six full-time jobs but that came with the territory. The ditches had not been cleared and water was about to start running so it meant, if it didn't get done, I would spend a good part of my weekend clearing the ditch. Hopefully, I would succeed in getting help to do that.

En route to pick up Holly, she called to say she had office hours with her Math teacher. I decided to keep going and run a couple of errands. I ended up getting a regular-size Inta Juice smoothie for her and a giant "Tsunami" Inta Juice for me. I loved smoothies and enjoyed every ounce of my "Cranberry Craze" or whatever it was called.

At home, I made Holly a snack and decided to join her. One thing led to another and I realized I had consumed far too much food. I ate a salad with an entire sliced cucumber added to the half cup of Caesar dressing with which I had doused it. Then I had three slices of pizza --- after I added several extra pieces of pepperoni --- and three glasses of milk. I munched on a couple of pieces of carrot for good measure. I knew I needed to stop and somehow managed to do so.

Later, I took Holly to Cheer and returned home to work. Afterwards, I made her dinner and almost kept my promise to not have any more food. I had some cottage cheese and pineapple and thought that was almost the same as not eating. I knew I really needed to be good.

OK, with only 11 days to go before the Race, I decided it was time to get serious about training. I told this to Angela while we ran and she almost fell over laughing. It was another beautiful day with the temperature at about 30^oF where we were running. I felt much better than when we ran on Monday. I also was surprised at how sore I wasn't. That is, I expected to be very sore from yesterday's weight workout but I was only mildly sore. That was a good sign.

And my running was much improved over the sense of imminent collapse which had enveloped me 48 hours ago. Today we ran about 5¼ miles in 70 minutes or so. We never stopped to walk. That was another good sign. I could tell I had lost a little weight and definitely noticed a difference. Every pound really counted when you were going 4 or 5 miles.

It was muddy and neither of us liked that but I knew muddy days would be far and few between. Colorado's semi-arid climate didn't offer too many muddy days so we slogged through it. We looked up at the mountains and saw the Front Range covered with fresh snow and the sunlight blasting against it. It was spectacular.

Later on the run, we came across five sandpiper-like birds. The mom and dad wanted us to go away because the little ones could not fly. Instead they ran in front of us. We could have picked them right up. We didn't, of course, and slowed down so they could escape the movement of what must have looked like giant, moving trees to them. It was quite an experience to be so close to these adorable little birds who were great runners but couldn't fly.

As we returned to my house, Angela suggested we start rotating our runs with other kinds of workouts such a bicycling, weight-lifting, et cetera. I told her I thought I would rather run hard for a week and then take a couple of days off before the race. I really wanted to use running to lose some weight and I knew weight-lifting wouldn't do that as quickly.

I even talked about running the White Rocks trail on both Saturday and Sunday. She couldn't run on Saturday because she and her husband, Brett, were taking their three year-old son, Jacob, to the hot-air balloon launch for the Erie Town Fair. I knew the little guy would love that event. When she heard I might run Sunday, she said she'd like to do that so I told her I would see how I felt after Saturday's run.

At home, it was my usual routine: I woke up Holly, got cleaned up, I made lunch for Holly, prepared breakfast for her, reviewed her homework assignments and daily schedule with her, lost the negotiation for her to attend Karate tonight, and took her to school. I then went to the main office to drop off a photo for her promotion (i.e., graduation) ceremony. These days, going from 8th Grade (Middle School) to 9th Grade (High School) was a big deal. That was OK with me. I think I was as apprehensive about her entering High School as she was but for different reasons.

I came home to have breakfast, cut out the comic pages for Holly from four newspapers, and then read the newspapers. I ate four McDonalds apple pies and two glasses of milk followed by three servings of the leftover tilapia which I had baked in butter and garlic. I also ate a small salad with Paul Newman's vinaigrette dressing along with more milk. I figured this gigantic meal would last me until dinnertime… right.

Today, when I weighed in, I was pleased to hit 199 pounds on the button. Even though I was 9 pounds off my target at this time and 15 pounds away from my goal of being 185 for the Race, being under 200 gave me a good feeling. If I worked hard, I could see being 195 sometime this weekend. I began to think that, although 185 would be an impossibility for the Race, 190 was still within reach. Hay, we all can dream, can't we?

I knew that I needed to be at 190 to finish under 70 minutes. Every pound I added would add one or two minutes to my finishing time. It was an easy conversion for me because the extra weight slowed me down, consumed more energy per step, and indicated I was out-of-shape to begin with so weight was a big deal for me when it came to running.

The rest of the day was taken by mundane tasks such as writing the credits for the next Iraq special we did, writing ID taglines for the Iraq show with blogger Michael Yon (www.MichaelYon-online.com), writing credits for the next U.S. Senate show, contacting Senate guests for the next taping, seeing if former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would join me once again later this month, asking Secretary Condoleeza Rice if she would, too, answering e-mail, and preparing an early dinner for Holly (I decided to bake chicken breasts with my own special mix of spices). It was easy to understand how the day went by so quickly.

Holly loved dinner and devoured the chicken dish as well as the corn I made. I did the same and still was hungry. I knew it was a mistake but I made a giant, Dagwood-like turkey sandwich with a slice of red onion so large and so "hot" I choked on it. So I started drinking milk and then developed a desire to have some Cheerios. Five bowlfuls later I knew my diet was in trouble.

Despite calls from the TV show's team members throughout the evening, I managed to call it a night by 10:30 pm. Maybe I could get a good night's sleep tonight…

What crazy weather. It was cold outside when I awoke at 3:30 am. It had rained last night and was still drizzling. I knew running outdoors was not in the cards and, admittedly, was happy to see the wet weather give me a break. And having had only three hours of sleep would have meant I probably would have croaked after a mile anyway.

Despite knowing I should go back to bed, I got up, took care of the dogs and got ready to go to the YMCA. I decided that I needed to get back to some weight training just to vary my routine. This is exactly what my running partner had suggested.

Tracy greeted me at the YMCA and kidded me about not having been there for a while. Mike later came over to chat and said the staff was worried my running partner got me to "defect" to the Erie Recreation Center. I told him I was loyal to the YMCA but didn't have a problem being a member of both facilities.

My workout was a challenge. You can't do a hard weight workout once a month. You need to do it three or four times a week to get in shape and at least twice to maintain it. I was so out of shape it was pathetic. Call me "dough boy." I weighed in at the YMCA at 208 and knew that was not a good omen.

There were 17 weight machines I used in my "routine" (that was an abusive use of the word, given how little I had been using the machines these days). I despised five of them and always tried to do them first to get them out of the way. It was similar to children who eat the food they don't like first (such as vegetables) so they then can take their time savoring the good stuff --- and not have that taste ruined by the crummy food.

I did one machine (an arm curl) and was surprised to have been able to do all 60 repetitions at the same weight I usually did. Then I tried a leg curl of sorts and found that killed me. I eventually did four sets totaling 100 reps at my "usual" weight. I then went on to do a total of eight machines, including the five I liked the least. That left nine machines for "next time."

Several people knew I hadn't been there a while and guaranteed I would be terribly sore tomorrow. I was hoping they were wrong but knew better. Nevertheless, I was pleased to have accomplished so much even though it took me over an hour to do just the 8 machines.

I started the food-day well with a banana. It was downhill from there. Next I had three hot apple pies from McDonalds last night and a glass of milk. Still hungry, I nuked a double-cheeseburger from Mickey D's and soon was quite full.

After working, I drove to Denver to review tapes. One of my team members, Ford North, was trying to log all our tapes so we could get shots of guests He was hoping I could look at a date --- such as January 12, 2003, and remember what the program was about and who the guests were. Fat chance. We did find some gems, however, and I started to remember some of the fun programs we did as well as some of the great guests.

I remembered how comedian Josh Blue had his television debut on my show as did a number of local political analysts, experts, and elected officials. Today we were looking for people who were known nationally and we found some footage of conventions, conferences, and other events I had attended with a camera crew.

Our purpose was to create a new "Open" for the TV show. Chris Rojas already had patched together a temporary new Open but, with Ford's help, he would be able to make two new Opens which we could rotate. It would be a fun way to introduce the show.

While we were going through tapes, the Station employees had gathered to discuss the strategic plan for the organization. They were in breakout sessions and one of them invited me to join them. They asked if I had seen the plan and I said I had not but would be willing to review it, if anyone wanted me to do so.

I then suggested they consider permanently putting a mechanism in place which allowed the Station to reach out to viewers when there was a disaster anywhere in the world. With the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China --- and the death total in the tens of thousands in each country --- I thought we should produce some public service announcements (PSA's) which informed viewers how they could help.

I believed most Americans were at a loss in terms of what to do because both countries were not exactly open societies. In Myanmar, the ruling military dictators were preventing assistance from reaching victims. In China, the government initially was slow to accept help but then had opened up completely. I offered to cut a PSA if that would be helpful. Everyone in the group liked the idea and, on that high note, I left.

At the TV Station, I had some green tea but decided to wait to eat until I got home. When I did, I had a quick snack (yes, I was naughty – what do you expect with all the McDonalds food I had brought home last night?). I worked on Website issues and made phone calls while returning e-mail and then taking out the dogs.

I had a dental appointment and then did some grocery shopping. At Albertsons I tried some delicious brie and other cheeses offered to me along with some crackers. At Kind Soopers, I bought about seven pounds of cheese so we were well-stocked. Due to high dairy prices, cheese was rarely on sale any more at the kind of discounts they had for years. Unfortunately, that now seemed to apply to a very large number of items. My guess was everyone's food bill was going up 10 to 20% across the board this year.

At home, I made Holly a turkey sandwich for a snack and then made a giant one with red onion for myself. I decided that would be the last foodstuff I consumed today. I knew I didn't need any more. I was curious to see if I could pull off that plan.

Work ended at 8:00 pm and I decided to unwind. I knew I was going to have a rough time running tomorrow and found myself praying for rain.

I came close to not eating but wasn't too bad. Later that evening, at about 9:00 pm, Holly wanted a snack and suggested cottage cheese and pineapple chunks. I was pleased at her proposal and made a bowl for her. In the process, I have to admit, I had some myself but didn't feel too guilty. If I was going to renege on my no-eating-late-at-night commitment, this wasn't too bad a violation.

What a beautiful day. It was 40^oF or so early in the morning and the Sun was rising earlier every day. I just loved that. The rain we had a day ago had cleaned the air and it seemed to still be fresh. I got ready for my run, took the dogs out, and fought with my OUTLOOK software. Once engaged with the computer, time flies by for me and suddenly I heard the dogs barking.

Angela had arrived and I was not quite ready to shoot out the door so she got to meet the four dogs. That always was an experience. We headed out as the Sun was just about to begin its ascent over the horizon. There was a gentle wind --- enough to cool us down but not enough to hold us back. It felt chillier than I had expected but that was fine. Overall, the conditions were perfect for a run.

The problem was, again after one mile (and it was primarily on a downhill slope), I was exhausted. At the 1½ mile point, I slowed down and started to walk. We were laughing about the instructor in one of Angela's graduate courses and, between being tired and laughing, I could barely move.

Unfortunately, that set the tone for the rest of the run. I managed to somehow keep going but, at different points, I stopped and walked until I felt better. This was disappointing, especially after having had yesterday as a day off from exercise.

We had run almost 5½ miles on Friday but did so at a slow pace. On Saturday, we had gone over 6½ miles but had done so lethargically. With Sunday as a day of rest, I should have been tooling today. Instead, I felt the same malaise I experienced on Saturday --- an overall body exhaustion and a high degree of discomfort in my stomach and chest.

My running partner didn't object to walking some of the time. She said she, too, was tired but I knew she could have sprinted away of she had been running with someone better. I apologized for holding her back but she said she didn't care.

We then started talking about how it may be possible we needed to do other types of exercise. Perhaps running all the time wasn't best and it would be better to do some cross-training so we started discussing some possibilities such as the stationary bike, outdoor bicycling, weight training, et cetera. Right now I just wanted a couch to flop onto.

Somehow I finished the run. We ended up doing about 4 miles and it took us an hour. It was pathetic but it still was good exercise. I knew one of my problems was my weight --- I was back at 206 today --- and vowed to be a "good boy."

I got Holly up, got cleaned up, made breakfast, took her to school, and then went back home to eat a bite and read the newspapers. The "bite" turned into four fried eggs, five honey and butter biscuits, and some milk. I knew I needed to buy some fruit today. And I knew I needed to try and avoid eating much more if I didn't want to swell up like a balloon.

The day was spent dealing with e-mail software problems, doing prep work for tonight's "live" show, reviewing the Websites and the Senate shows, and the usual host of daily crises. Dick Wadhams, the Campaign Manager for Republican candidate Bob Schaffer sent their acceptance of my offer to serve as a moderator if the campaigns agreed to have debates. I was waiting to hear back from Mark Udall's campaign but hadn't heard a peep yet. I did notify them of Bob's acceptance.
During the day, one of Holly's teachers called and told me she had gotten upset with the teacher. This was a "first" for Holly so the teacher, Holly's art instructor, and I talked for a while. I thought it was great that she would call out of her concern for Holly. It was another example of what a great staff taught at Holly's school, Peak To Peak K-12 Charter School.

I assured her art teacher that Holly had a long weekend with a friend and her cousin, was tired, and felt overwhelmed at times. I guessed a convergence of events and conditions resulted in her abnormal behavior. That afternoon, when I picked up Holly from school, she confirmed my analysis. It's tough being a pre-teen or a teenager these days. Of course, it's tough parenting one of these young people, too. But that's part of the deal when you become a parent. You get the tough times with the easy times and the fun times with the terrible times. And you never know what that balance is going to be.

I had to go shopping and do some housecleaning as well as write up questions for the show with Governor Ritter and print them out on the special cards we used for the show. The usual myriad phone calls dominated the day but I was making progress.

When I took a break for lunch, I decided to be good and ate one tangelo along with some lemon-lime seltzer water. I decided that was going to be it until I had dinner with Holly. It would be a test of my willpower. An hour later, however, I wasn't going to bet on myself. I was hungry and my fat cells were up in arms. I imagined them all being agitated with tiny, upraised forks and knives.

After getting Holly and helping her with her schoolwork, I went back to work myself. Then I made dinner. We had steamed broccoli, tilapia with garlic and butter, and curly fries lightly flavored with garlic powder and salt. It was one of the better meals I had prepared recently.

At 6:00 pm, I left for the TV Station in Denver. Several students from the Ohio Center for Broadcasting were coming to observe the show. After making arrangements to get everyone food (yes, it was McDonalds), I talked with the group for a while. They had good questions and were excited to see the behind-the-scenes process of doing a "live" call-in show.

They were especially intrigued by my discussions with my team and the KBDI staff about how we needed tougher questions. In the previous program with the Governor, he barely got one or two difficult questions. Most were so easy even the Governor was embarrassed.

Call-screening is a tough job, especially because I take so many calls compared to most Talk Television or even Talk Radio shows. I like the connection with citizens and the opportunity to hear what concerns them the most. And the excitement of not knowing what a caller is going to say adds an element missing on taped shows.

Our goal today was not to just get each caller's name, municipality of residence, and subject matter but to try and put on the air those callers with questions which would give the Governor the opportunity to address a difficult or complex issue --- preferably one which was of major concern today.

This was the only television call-in program the Governor did quarterly (or at all) as far as we knew. We usually put the program on our Website right after the show so people who missed it still could watch it (www.HarberTV.com). Bill Ritter always did a stellar job and tonight was no different.

When he arrived, I noticed he had more security than usual. Two rather large men accompanied him and I assumed at least one was a State Trooper. When he joined me in February, he had come to the Station alone so this was a noticeable difference. I didn't get a chance to ask him if there were some new security concerns but I also had noticed his daily schedule, sent to the Press, recently began having less specific location information.

I hoped there had not been any threats or problems but, when you're a Governor, all kinds of concerns arise. Later, on the show, he mentioned how an armed man had been shot and killed by a State Trooper a year ago right in the State Capitol. It was a vivid reminder of how vulnerable elected officials can be.

The show went well. I took a record number of calls and the call-screening was greatly improved. Nevertheless, we had two glitches. The initial problem was the first call came from a disabled person using an operator to assist him. Unfortunately, the operator garbled the message to the point it was unintelligible. In the meantime, precious seconds and even minutes were passing and none of the other calls were getting answered --- and I wasn't getting any caller information to be able to start taking calls.

Of course, viewers had no idea there was a problem. They saw the Governor and yours truly conversing normally so, as far as they were concerned, everything was hunky-dory.

Then, when we did get calls on the board, the phone system seemed to go haywire. I assumed the tremendous call volume had overwhelmed the system and calmly said we needed to reset the phone system. It turned out the system was working just fine. It had been rewired and, as a result, gave a different sound when a caller gave up waiting and had hung up. We quickly overcame that problem and I began taking calls again.

After the show, the Governor visited briefly and then left. He was a great sport to do the show. I knew he had a long day and was scheduled to travel to Colorado Springs early the next morning. On top of that, I knew he felt his family time was sacrosanct and had given me his evening to do the program. I appreciated his willingness to do that.

The OCB students wanted to ask me more questions so I stayed for almost an hour after the show and got home by 10:30 pm. I was wired, however, and didn't get to sleep until 12:30 am. I knew I'd be dead meat for the run tomorrow but figured I'd do the best I could.

Taking a day off from exercise after the terrible run I had on Saturday was inexcusable but I easily convinced myself that, although my time was horrendous, I had completed the route and deserved a day off. I got very little argument from myself and didn't run or do the LifeCycle.

I had only gotten 3½ hours of sleep because I fell asleep at about 12:30 am and got up before 4:00 am. I had planned to go back to sleep after putting laundry in the dryer and doing another load. Once I opened my office door and started working however, there was no chance of my going to sleep.

I worked on show-related assignments, spoke at length to my sister in Ithaca, New York, wished my Mother a Happy Mother's Day, and took care of the dogs --- all before getting up Holly and her friend Kayla. The girls had to finish some chores while I made breakfast and then I had promised to take them to the Mall. It never would have occurred to me, while growing up, that a trip to the Mall or to any store, could be construed as a reward but, hey, times change.

After driving Holly and Kayla to the Mall, I sat inside and read newspapers while they shopped. At first they seemed to not be getting along but, as they went to different stores, they began to have a good time. They were done early and we were about to leave when they decided to shop some more.

At first Holly only had $2 and initially refused the $20 I offered her for doing her chores (poorly, I might add). She was amazingly stubborn --- to the point of harming her self-interest. She wanted me to pay her more and Kayla lobbied hard for her (Kayla had come with $80 from money she had earned babysitting) but I wouldn't back down. They started at $80, got all the way down to $25, and eventually took the $20. That was good for another hour of shopping.

The girls were hungry so we ended up going to the food court. I wanted to go to another restaurant but this ended up being better anyway because Kayla's parents came to meet us at the Mall. This was great because it meant I didn't need to drive Kayla home to the Lowry neighborhood --- a good 35 minutes away from the Mall.

At the food court, the girls wanted to get food from Subway so I ended up eating a ham and cheese submarine sandwich with American cheese, lettuce, mustard, and mayonnaise. This was the second half of a foot-long sub I ordered per Kayla's instructions. I also got some chips and two large cups of lemonade. The oatmeal raisin cookie was fabulous. So much for Jared's dieting…

We finally got home and I went back to work. Holly took out the dogs and was hungry again. At Holly's request, I made yet another pizza --- that was a record three in less than 30 hours and we waited for Joel to arrive. We all ate pizza together. Then the kids played outside with the dogs while I worked some more. I had to prepare some materials for tomorrow's "live" call-in television program with Governor Ritter and also get ready for an unusually large number of visitors we expected to have.

The day ended with a giant milkshake made out of Breyer's Extra Creamy Vanilla ice cream, powdered walnuts, Dannon vanilla yogurt, and whole milk. I knew the extra 2,000 calories was a bad idea but it was such a nice way to end the eating day.

Although I had a lot of work to do, today was a family day. I got up too early and was tired but ready to run. I worked for a while primarily answering e-mail correspondence. Today's running goal was to break 80 minutes. I also was supposed to be at 195 pounds and was at 202 instead. It appeared progress had come to a halt. And, as far as the 80-minute goal was concerned, I had no inkling how far away from that number we would be at the end of today's run --- and it was all my fault.

It was a chilly but gorgeous day. I arrived at the trailhead ahead of my running partner for the first time in recent memory. I was tired and sore from yesterday's run and knew today's goal would be a challenge because I usually took Friday off if I were planning to do a long run (i.e., almost 7 miles was a long run for me --- not for those training for a marathon who might do 10 to 20 miles).

Angela started us off at a very fast pace and, in a matter of minutes, I knew I didn't have it today.
The path was muddy right from the beginning of the trail due to a sudden downpour which had occurred last night. I didn't expect to see much mud but our shoes were totally caked within a matter of minutes. While the actual weight of the mud was marginal, today the combination of the suction of the mud and the weight of the mud seemed overwhelming. It shouldn't have been a big deal but both of us allowed it to bother us. For me, it was the proverbial straw which broke the camel's back.

We ran a mile and I was ready to collapse. We crossed Boulder Creek and Angela pointed out five young deer, with the closest one only 25 feet away. We stopped to watch them and I was happy to have the break. For some reason, they were not frightened by us so I chatted with them. They continued to look at us and graze as if we were part of their family. We both were amazed.

With only one mile down and almost six to go, I was a hurtin' cowboy. I knew I was in trouble and that the sub-80 minute goal wasn't going to happen. I started to walk instead of run and ended up doing a combination of walking (60%) and running (40%) for most of the remainder of the path to the water tower at the end. The wind was brisk and blowing against us but it wasn't enough of an excuse to justify my pathetic pace.

My running partner was a good sport about my state of exhaustion. I knew I had been running on reserves for several years and today was evidence, once again, those reserves were now gone. That wasn't a good thought.

We saw several people going the opposite direction as we walked and ran. The sky was overcast so the sun never was a factor and one result was we stayed quite cool the entire run. I had forgotten the headband I had been wearing to keep sweat out of my eyes but the wind was strong and constant enough to keep me relatively dry. I also was wearing only a T-shirt, shorts, and shoes so that meant I had a lot of evaporative potential anyway due to so much exposed skin.

As I stumbled towards the end of the first half of the run, I decided to try and run up the final and longest hill at the halfway point. That ended at a water tower where the views were spectacular. I somehow managed to do it and, at the end, was breathing so heavily I probably sounded as if I were going to die. And I felt like I was about to croak. It was muddy in the area and I was so exhausted I didn't care any more --- I was ready to lie down. If anyone had gently pushed me, I would have fallen and gone to sleep.

I was pleased to have made it up the hill but now didn't even feel ready to walk back downhill. We started to circle the water tower and, after getting halfway around it, broke into a trot to head back. The path was easier going back because there were more downhill than uphill runs.

With high hopes of running the entire way back and regaining some of the lost time, we shot downhill. Unfortunately, after just another quarter mile or so, my body told me to stop running and I did. I knew this did not bode well for the Race. I was seriously considering whether or not I should even run it. At this rate, my time would balloon to 80 minutes or more. That was a depressing thought.

Somehow I managed to keep going. This time my estimate was I ran most of the way back (70%) and walked the rest (30%). Towards the end, I totally lost it and walked more than I ever imagined.

With only a quarter mile to go, we saw two geese in front of us on the trail. They waited until we already had started walking slowly so as to not frighten them before deciding to leave. They were only 10 feet away when they took to the air. If you've seen a full-grown Canadian goose (they are large) take off, it's a miraculous sight as they somehow lift their large bodies off the ground. They somehow managed to hover in mid-air in front of us for a few seconds so we got an extraordinary view of their wings as they were spread out to raise them above the ground and maintain their altitude of only about 15 feet at the time. Then they accelerated and gracefully flew away.

Towards the end, Angela admitted she was tired, too. We were walking with only about 300 yards to go. She had been encouraging me to get moving the entire time. Now I turned the tables and encouraged her to run the last tiny segment. She was game and we both took off for the end of the trail. That 300 yards, although a pitiful distance, was the fastest part of the run for me. What a joke!

Angela told me to not even check the time but I couldn't resist. The run had taken 93 minutes. That was our second worst time ever and we had no excuses. Sure, the wind didn't help and, yes, the mud slowed us down, and yes, we were tired from yesterday's 5½-mile run, but we knew we should have done better. She could have run the trail in under 80 minutes today. I was the one who held her back and I felt badly about that. I guess I just needed to train more, eat better, and get more sleep but I knew that, with two weeks to go, I was in serious trouble.

At home, I thought about going back to bed but my daughter was up and ready to get going. I started a long series of laundry-related tasks, worked more on issues related to the television show, made breakfast, and coordinated arrangements so Holly could have her friend Kayla over for the day and night.

We then headed out to pick up her cousin, Joel, who I had promised to take to see the new movie "Ironman." It was a Marvel Comics production and I was looking forward to it. I had collected Marvel Comics and still had a good part of my collection. It had been decades, however, since I sealed them in paper and plastic bags so I didn't know what I had. I never focused on collecting "Ironman" comics so I doubted I had any at all. I knew I had issues of "Spiderman," "The X-men, and "The Fantastic Four" and a few others but I didn't recall keeping any "Ironman" comics. I began to wonder what my collection was worth or if all the comic books would disintegrate into dust after being kept in a box for almost four decades.

Holly and I headed out to pick up Joel and then we drove to southeast Denver to pick up Kayla. Once Kayla was onboard, the kids were hungry so we stopped and grabbed some food at a Burger King en route to the movie theater. It was the first time we had been to a Burger King in three or four years. I was naughty and consumed a few items whose description shall remain unspoken. Let's just say none of it was organic.

We got to AMC Westminster Promenade Theaters half an hour before showtime so we watched all the features, previews and advertisements in theaters these days. I enjoyed it. Then the feature presentation began. The movie was great. I enjoyed it more than any of the kids. The girls were determined to not like it but I could tell Joel enjoyed it almost as much as I did.

The movie's plot was decent and the special effects were very well-done. It had received a "Rotten Tomatoes" Website rating of 93% or so, which was extraordinarily high, especially for an action flick. The humor was excellent and the performances by Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow were quite good.

Afterwards, we took Joel home and the kids played on his Nintendo Wii while I visited with his parents (my sister and my brother-in-law). Then we went home and I made the girls a pizza for a late lunch. I worked, took care of the dogs, and then went to the store to buy roses for my sister and my Mother.

Next I picked up Leah and then we drove to Boulder to pick up my Mother. I was taking them to Dolan's restaurant for a Mother's Day dinner. Dolan's was one of my favorite restaurants. It was owned and run by Mike Dolan, one of four Dolan brothers. His older brother, Jeff, and I had played together on the tennis team at Fairview High School in Boulder. Jeff was a City Manager and now was at Manhattan Beach, California. He had been the City Manager for Longmont for a while before leaving Colorado for a better opportunity.

The meal at Dolan's was superb. The place was packed because it was Graduation Day at the University of Colorado so we were lucky to have gotten a table. I had the Crab Louis Salad and enjoyed every bite. We had ordered the crab cakes dinner and I ended up eating almost that entire dinner, too, because Leah's sole dinner filled her up and my Mother had ordered the fish stew, which could have fed three people.

I ate too much bread and butter and also downed six Arnold Palmer's, so I knew I was in trouble weight-wise. Mike Dolan stopped by our table to chat and we learned he had almost died a year ago from an incident related to diverticulitis. He had been hospitalized and almost didn't make it out. He looked and sounded great today, so it was wonderful to see he had made a full recovery. I had known one person who had died in a similar situation so I appreciated how close he had come to leaving this world.

At home, I made the girls another pizza at their request, did some work, and called it a night at midnight. It had been a long day. I was unhappy with my running time but looked at the Brightside --- I had gotten 93 minutes of exercise instead of the anticipated 75 or so. My problem now was I had only 10 days or so to really train for the Race and I was in a worse position, in terms of conditioning, than I was several weeks ago. Darn it, I just can't resist temptation.

The training run today was longer than usual. We went 5¼ miles and it took us over an hour. Our pace was slow but methodical. I was glad to finish and knew I'd be tired today.

For breakfast I had a bowl of leftover spaghetti and meat sauce along with a tuna salad sandwich and a large pickle. I drank milk, lemon-lime seltzer water, and Arizona iced tea (which was sweetened with high fructose corn syrup --- defeating the health purposes of the green tea). I also stole some Cheetos from the bag when I made my daughter's lunch. I couldn't resist their bright orange allure.

My weigh-in went well at 200 pounds. The scale actually ready 199.8 so that was exciting. I continued to eat all day, however, and knocked off three pieces of fried chicken with honey-mustard barbecue sauce. I was an eating machine today. My fat cells were demanding to be fed. They didn't like the direction of my weight-loss.

The day passed quickly with fundraising calls, some writing, e-mails galore, and Mudcrutch's "Scare Easy" playing 100 times or so. I may have been developing an obsessive-compulsive disorder given the number of times I was repeatedly playing the song. What can I say? I really liked Tom Petty's work.

Issues related to the editing of a series of shows with the two U.S. Senate candidates took up a large part of the day as did work related to the Senate Website (www.SenateCO.com) and the farm. I dealt with Cheer issues as well as plans for Mother's Day weekend.

I did sneak some more Cheetos and knew I would regret demolishing almost the entire bag. Later, after picking up Holly, I was munching on a bowl while reading over her shoulder as she was on the Internet. She had invited me to see what she was doing as proof it was all harmless. After watching, I started to walk away and dropped the entire bowl of Cheetos. She broke out in hysterical laughter --- thinking that was the funniest thing she had ever seen with my face showing my terrible loss and my being framed by orange Cheetos all over the floor. I quickly cleaned up the mess before the dogs moved in and then finished the rest of the bag myself. I promised to not buy any more Cheetos until after the Race.

The eating day finished with some sliced turkey and a glass of milk. I knew I had consumed a lot but promised to be better tomorrow. Weekends were tough for me, food-wise, but I knew I was running out of time.

Today was scheduled to be a major work day but I ended up doing things such as making plans for Mother's Day weekend, arranging to take my daughter and nephew to see "Ironman" on Saturday (it's about a Marvel comic hero about whom I once read regularly when I was a young comic collector --- and, yes, I wanted to see the movie more than the kids), catching up on correspondence, fixing a computer problem, being despondent about the disorganization of my office (and, sadly, I had no one I could blame for the mess except myself), making an ultrasound appoint for one of the dogs, vacuuming, washing dishes, and doing everything one does when taking care of a household, a child, and four dogs. I needed some fun.

An early morning start allowed me to get some work done before going on a run. Angela met me at my place and we took off at about 5:45 am. The area was wet from a brief but solid downpour only a few hours ago but the temperature was nice --- easily 50^oF.

We talked the entire way and that helped pass the time. I was tired from challenges with my daughter the night before. She no longer wanted to do her homework and I couldn't blame her but she needed to get it done. We spent more time debating courses of action than getting anything done. Angela had been awakened at 2:30 am by her little son, who is three years old, so she hadn't had the perfect night either. We kept going, however, with both of us knowing the workout was a good way to start the day.

Plus, I loved the concept of working out early in the morning so I felt I had my exercise and could be a slug the rest of the day. We ran about 4 miles or so and did it at a slow pace. That was fine with both of us. We decided we would not take off tomorrow and would run again --- before our "big" run on Saturday. When we parted, I mistakenly mentioned we only had three weeks left to train. Later in the day, I realized the Race was only two weeks from this coming Monday. Yikes!

My weight was at 203 so I still needed to lose at least 18 pounds. I now had only 16 days to do this. I was beginning to question the likelihood of achieving my Race weight goal of 185. Two weeks ago, I had been 100% certain I could do it. Last week I still was at a certainty level of 80% or so. Today my confidence level was at 50% and I knew even that was optimistic. If I were going to be realistic, at best the probability was only 20% at this point.

I was fairly good food-wise --- well, for me, anyway. For breakfast I had three pieces of fried chicken with honey and a few cups of milk. I drank seltzer water all day and had two organic carrots for lunch. For dinner I had a little leftover spaghetti. I skipped ice cream completely today and was curious how I would do at my weigh-in tomorrow.

My evening was spent at Xtreme Altitude Cheerleading & Gymnastics, a fantastic organization at which Holly did competitive cheerleading. She loved it. That staff was great and the girls all had a good time. There was a parents' meeting so I attended that. By the time we got home and I had made Holly dinner, I was ready to fall asleep standing up.

With thunder and lightning in the area as I got ready for the day at 3:40 am, I began to have doubts about running outdoors. My running partner no longer had a membership at the YMCA but had enrolled at the Erie Recreation Center --- a brand new and absolutely gorgeous facility. I still had my YMCA membership (and would keep it as a way to support the "Y") but hadn't yet purchased a membership at the Erie Rec Center.

When I took the dogs out at 4:15 am, still was dry out but the wind was blowing and both lightning and thunder were in the area. As I walked them, a very light drizzle --- almost mist-like --- began to fall. It looked like a storm was brewing and, as we progressed, the weather gradually worsened. Velma, our German Shepherd, uncharacteristically stayed close to me and that told me it was time to go back.

I worked for a while and completed the e-mails to media colleagues about our upcoming "live" call-in program next Monday with Governor Ritter. Then, at 5:09 am, Angela called and asked if we should cancel our run. I jumped at the chance and we agreed to try tomorrow.

While listening to "Scare Easy" by Tom Petty's band, "Mudcrutch," I continued to work. "Scare Easy" was a song I could listen to 100 times --- especially with lines such as "I don't scare easy… don't fall apart when I'm under the gun…" and "Yeah, I'm a loser at the top of my game…" My television show's theme song was Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and I admittedly was partial to his band, "The Heartbreakers."

Thanks to the Governor's Press Secretary, Evan Dreyer, I was able to verify that about 250 bills remained on the Governor's desk for his signature or veto after yesterday's close of the General Assembly's 2008 Legislative Session. I was including that information in one of the many e-mails I was sending out this morning. I knew I could count on Evan to be working early in the morning. His days seemed to start at bout the same time as mine --- around 4:00 am. He was one hardworking guy and he did a great job for the Governor.

My plan was to wake up Holly at 6:30 am but I didn't notice the time until in was almost 7:0 am. I awakened her with the help of the dogs and went back downstairs to make her breakfast and pack a lunch.

For breakfast, I made a smoothie for Holly which was really a milkshake. It included three aging bananas, a pint of not-too-fresh organic strawberries (the last carton I had left in the refrigerator), a few tablespoons of vanilla-flavored protein powder, an even greater amount of powdered walnuts (also aged), a cup and a half of whole milk, and six scoops of leftover butter pecan ice cream. The concoction actually tasted good although Holly had an opinion to the contrary. I ended up consuming about 70% (two large cupfuls) of the mix and Holly drank less than a third (one cupful).

We both ate on the run --- during the drive to school --- and then I returned to finish breakfast, feed the pups, read the newspapers, do the dishes, and then get back to work.

It was Wednesday so that meant the food ads were in the newspapers. While this normally was the weekly height of culinary excitement for me, today there was very little for sale which interested me. I realized this was good because I would not be motivated to go shopping as much as I otherwise might have done. Maybe a bad food ad week actually was a good omen.

As the day progressed, I kept postponing my plan to at last ride the LifeCycle for an hour. I was tired and not motivated. I had a snack of pepperoni, Monterey Jack cheese, and milk. Then I went downstairs and got on the bike. I rode for all of two minutes and did something rare for me --- I quit. I simply was tired and already had been up 7½ hours. I liked exercising in the early morning. For some reason, exercising during the day wasn't for me. I decided to treat myself to a day off and climbed off the bike.

After working a little more, I decided to have lunch. What a trade --- lunch instead of a one-hour workout. I wondered how much that would help me tomorrow when I ran.

Afterwards, I continued my writing binge and did a three-column series on the implications of the Indiana and North Carolina Democratic Primary results. I also showed how Hillary Clinton could still win the nomination. It was a fun exercise although it was unlikely to happen.

The rest of the day involved booking the show, getting a computer fixed, going to Holly's school, taking out the dogs, and the usual mundane elements of life. For a treat, I made nachos for Holly (30%) and myself (70% --- that familiar split) and also finished the Breyer's Waffle Cone Overload ice cream. Yes, I was being naughty again but loving it all.

The weather was perfect for a run at 5:30 am. It was a balmy
40^oF and only a light wind prevailed. After my morning routine of getting cleaned up, taking care of the dogs, and answering e-mail, I went outside to meet my running partner as she drove up.

We decided to run around my neighborhood and easily went over 4 miles. The pace was slow (OK, languid) but I enjoyed it. Other than stopping to talk with a woman walking a beautiful German Shepherd in a neighboring subdivision (her family had moved from Dallas and loved Erie), we ran the entire route.

The run in the immediate area was beginning to be very attractive to me. The terrain was gentle and the route was long enough to get a good workout. I especially liked the fact I wasn't driving anywhere and I was close to home the entire time. My sense was it wasn't challenging enough for Angela but I would see if we could do it once a week. And I knew I always could run it alone.

The day was filled with work, writing, phone calls, e-mails, the dogs, and my daughter. Holly had Cheer starting again at Xtreme Altitude Cheerleading and Gymnastics in Lafayette. It was a great, family-oriented gym and the staff was fantastic. I had known nothing about Cheer until nine months ago and was now a Cheer Dad. Holly was having a great time. It was her first experience doing a team sport so I wanted her to enjoy it.

While Holly was at Cheer, I went grocery shopping and noticed how the prices of a number of items were edging up. I wondered how some families were coping with the way energy costs were impacting their budgets.

Next I went to Holly's school --- Peak to Peak, a Boulder Valley School District charter school --- for an evening event focused on how to communicate with Middle School students. Holly was about to leave Middle School in 3½ weeks but I was always open to learning more.

I arrived late due to the grocery shopping and sat down at the edge of a group of about two dozen parents. I enjoyed the discussion and the use of clips from the movie, "Dan In Real Life" with Steve Carrell to promote discussion. It was an interesting group of parents and I was intrigued by many of their comments and how their perspective of the movie was so colored by their own experiences --- sometimes to the point of misinterpreting the motivation of Carrell's character.

I was happy to know my daughter and I communicated well but also knew the next four years were likely to be very challenging --- especially given she didn't have what so many of her friends did have. These materialistic items she desired ranged from an iPod to a computer and television in her room to the cell phone she wanted (she had a good one but it wasn't good enough). And, having only an hour of television available per week with no cable or satellite available made me Neanderthal, as far as she was concerned. I knew much, if not all, of this would change in the coming months as she became more independent but I'd continue to do my best. I had to admit peer pressure was tough competition.

That evening, I made spaghetti sauce with tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, Italian sausage, celery, chopped onions, garlic powder, other seasonings. I made angel hair pasta and considered it a complete meal. Holly surprised me when she told me she liked the sauce.

I made the mistake of having seconds and thirds. That meant I wouldn't sleep well and I wouldn't make any progress on my weight. It did taste good, however, so I figured there always was tomorrow. Not surprisingly, I didn't get to sleep until 11:00 pm and knew I would be tired tomorrow. I was.

Our plan today was to see what our options were for running in the Erie area. Angela came by my place at 5:45 am and we headed out to run in the area. It was almost eerie because I had not run on some of the dirt roads we were using for as much as ten years. Houses had sprouted all around my place and I had not seen many of them close up.

We ran for a half a mile to the east, went around an irrigation pond, and then headed back west before turning north for another half mile. Then we went west for half a mile and eventually found our way onto a public trail around a small lake not far from my place. We then took a route on a sidewalk for half a mile or so. I was unenthusiastic about being on concrete and my knees screamed, "No, no, no, you moron" repeatedly. I promised them I would try to not repeat this concrete feat.

Soon we were back on the farm and decided to head east again. Once we reached County Line Road, we headed back for the more than one mile return to my house. We ran for about an hour and easily covered 4½ miles. I liked our easy pace and it was fun to see the area.

At home, I woke up Holly and got cleaned up for the day. I made Holly turkey sandwiches for lunch and, simultaneously, I scarfed down a few pieces of Monterey Jack cheese and delicious sliced turkey from Sunflower Market. The latter was expensive but tasted great. That was my breakfast. Now, if I could hold down my appetite today, I would have a shot at hitting 200 or less tomorrow.

All morning I worked on the television program and various e-mail correspondence. Between e-mails, proposals, and phone calls, time passed quickly. We had a crisis on the farm with an agricultural burn ("ag burn") that got out of control. The Fire Department helped and put it out in about 60 seconds. When I saw the tiny area involved (perhaps 2,000 square feet), I was amazed there was a problem. This was typical of farming, however, in that every day there was a new challenge. Long ago I had gained great respect for anyone who tried to make a living in agriculture. It was a tough business and I was always finding news ways to lose money in it.

After all the excitement, I headed to Denver to meet with the CBS4 team and the KBDI producer who were all working together to plan our Democratic Convention coverage. I had agreed to be the "color commentator" for four 2½ programs --- one each night of the Convention --- from August 25th to 28th. Only my KBDI compatriot made it due to a scheduling snafu and we had a good time talking about our projects, the upcoming show with Governor Ritter, and the Convention.

Having attended a number of both Democratic and Republican National Conventions, I was one of the few people around who had on-site Convention broadcast experience. Conventions were great --- one party after another --- but this one, of course, had the potential to be far more exciting than usual.

At Pint's, I ordered my usual Arnold Palmer. I wanted to order a natural beef hamburger but was going to go with a salad instead. I was planning to be good but, when I saw the opportunity to have a all-natural beef burger with Texas chili on it along with melted cheese and French fries, I couldn't resist. I ate the piece of lettuce and slice of tomato pretending that balanced out the other 99% (by weight) of the meal. Heck, if I couldn't I eat good food and find a way to lose the weight, I figured I might as well enjoy the bad stuff. I knew I now needed to go for another four-mile run but that wasn't going to happen.

I headed back home to the farm, worked a little, picked up Holly, made her a snack, took out the dogs. I ate a large Caesar salad with grilled salmon and smoked salmon --- a great combination --- and decided to call it a day eating-wise. I was ready to burst. That didn't last long though because at about 8:00 pm, after helping her with homework, I started eating directly from a tub of Breyer's "Waffle Cone OVERLOAD." Wow, was that ice cream good.

That evening, my former occasional running partner, Bill Jones, called to see what I was doing exercise-wise these days. He asked, "Have you started training for the Bolder Boulder?" I responded, "I've started my training table…" My weight and inability to lose any more pounds reflected my statement.

The order of the day was an early workout on the LifeCycle. I read newspapers as I rode to nowhere and got a great workout. It was much more difficult than I had expected and made me realize I really was out of shape.

It appeared that "getting in shape" could mean achieving a number of different goals. I could be "in shape" for running but not for cycling or for lifting weights. I knew I needed to do all three to truly be in shape --- and probably needed to toss in some yoga for good measure.

As I rode and passed the 35 minute mark, one of the covers came off the front end of the cylinder which supported the LifeCycle. The result was the bike started to wobble. This was a tad disconcerting because (a) the bike felt like it might topple over and, more importantly, (b) it made it very difficult to read a newspaper which was now jiggling madly.

I waited until I hit an easy 30-second point in the repetitious routine and revved the RPM's up to 150 or so. That gave me time to take one foot out of one of the stirrups and lean over to pop the cap back in place. Unfortunately, it did not snap back in because it was meant to be glued or otherwise secured.

My 30-seconds was up and the RPM's had fallen to 85. The objective was to not go below 80, so I had to wait for the next opportunity. That came a couple of shaky minutes later. This time, after revving the bike to 160 RPM's or so, I totally dismounted and tried to secure the cap.

I remounted the bike and, within 60 seconds, the cap started to wobble. Then it started to vibrate madly --- striking itself against the cylinder like someone who had totally lost it and decided to start hitting their head against a wall. Even the dogs wanted to know what the heck was going on.

I was resigned to another 20 minutes of insanity and did my best to ride the bike normally, read the newspapers, and ignore the noise. Somehow, I finished the 60-minute workout. I also weighed in and was somewhat pleased to be at 202 pounds. Now, if I could exercise some restraint on my big mouth…

I then rushed to get ready and met some friends at Dot's Diner on 28th Street in Boulder for breakfast. We talked about the Bolder Boulder but Deb had recently had foot surgery, which would slow her down, and Matt was waiting to see what she decided to do. I was confident they would be in the Race.

I had a large spinach, Swiss cheese, and mushroom omelet, hash browns submerged in ketchup (hey, it's a vegetable, right --- isn't that what President Reagan told us? --- and I know a tomato is a fruit but ketchup is mostly corn syrup anyway) along with a large biscuit smothered in grape jam. So much for my diet…

I returned home to work and take care of the pups. Then I headed to Denver to meet some of my production team members at Pint's Pub --- just a block west of the Denver Art Museum. Parking was a nightmare thanks to the giant annual Cinco de Mayo celebration being held in the area. It took me ten minutes to find a parking spot so I was happy in the end.

At Pint's Pub, we planned the U.S. Senate shows we were doing and went over the details of other programs, including our upcoming "live" call in show with Governor Bill Ritter. I always ended up getting a slew of assignments at these meetings because so many people needed me to do something but that was OK. I was glad to be able to help my teammates.

Pint's is a great place to eat because the menu is so diverse. At first, I was fairly good this time because I ate some of the Havarti cheese and giant water cracker (over a foot in diameter) we ordered for an appetizer. Then I had a chef's salad and downed six Arnold Palmers.

I went from my team meeting to the next table to meet with a new colleague from CBS4 and had two more Arnold Palmers and half an order of "Bisto Chips" --- French fries with melted cheese all doused with brown gravy. Talk about naughty.

After getting home, I took care of the dogs, worked some more, welcomed my daughter home, made her some dinner, talked with her and heard all about her weekend, and then finally made it to bed by 10:30 pm. It had been a good day but I knew I hadn't helped my weight goal.

The plan was to get a great night's sleep and see how it positively affected my long run but the smoke alarms went off at about 2:54 am and that killed the plan. The system was wired so all the alarms went off if just one did. The advantage of this was anyone located anywhere in the house would quickly become aware of the possible need to evacuate the building.

The downside was all the alarms were sounding simultaneously --- creating an unbearable cacophony. Even worse, the system did not identify which alarm unit had sounded --- they all were screaming at the top of their little electronic lungs. And at 2:54 am, even a small sound can sound loud.

After fetching an ear-protection headset from my closet --- talk about being prepared (actually, I used the headset for airline travel due to the high ambient noise level in jets which has been proven to be injurious to one's hearing --- ask all the flight attendants who have just about gone deaf about this) --- I began making my way through the house on a mission to (a) silence all of the smoke alarms by disabling them and (b) find out which one was the culprit.

Of course, there actually could be a fire in the house or someone could have broken in and set them off on purpose but I knew the odds of either scenario asymptotically approached zero so I didn't grab a fire extinguisher or a baseball bat (or a fire extinguisher the size of a baseball bat). Instead, I put on some shoes and started my trek through the house.

Despite the high-pitched scream of the alarms, the dogs were not flustered at all. They faithfully followed me around the house and reassured me they would take care of any intruder. Right…

The scene started to become even more comical. I began the disabling process with a two-stair metal stepladder. I was able to reach a couple of the smoke alarms. Then I had to get a multi-rung stepladder so I could reach the other units. Unfortunately, even that eight-foot ladder was inadequate for the task so I had to go back to the garage and get a 12-foot ladder.

The dogs were shaking their heads, wondering, "Why does this moron need three ladders to do this job?"

I finally found the culprit. Naturally, it was the last smoke alarm I disabled. The battery inside was a "heavy duty" type which, anyone who knows even the minimal amount regarding batteries understands is not "heavy duty." "Heavy duty" batteries are the inexpensive versions which barely carry a charge and which shouldn't be on the market. The person who had assisted me by replacing the nine-volt batteries in all the smoke alarms had somehow decided to use the wrong battery in just this one unit. I was confident I had solved the early morning mystery. What fun!

By the time I was done and had returned all three ladders to their rightful places, it now was 3:30 am. I decided to take out the dogs because they were more than ready to go. And I owed it to them after how patient they had been through the early morning auditory debacle. They had a good time and I was exhausted.

Having now been up for three hours, I was unenthusiastic about running and, instead, was ready to take off the entire day. I made it to the trailhead at 6:02 am and both Angela and I noticed it was biting cold. The ambient temperature was about 25^oF near the creek-bed where we started our run. Our goal still was to break 85 minutes and, when we started, I didn't think it would be a problem. The brisk air would keep my system cooled and I liked that.

Some deer greeted us as we ran the trail in the early morning light. The great aspect of this time of year was it was light enough to run at 5:30 am and would continue to get better and warmer.

As we ran, we saw geese and ducks in addition to deer. The sunrise was gorgeous and all the mountains were fully lit. We were surprised by how many people we saw this time. A few runners went by us, going the opposite direction when we were heading up to the water tower.
Then, on the way back, we saw a few more.

We also saw a few people with their dogs. That was forbidden on this particular trail but we didn't care. We even saw some of the folks we knew from the YMCA who happened to be on a run. Overall, we saw more people than we had in several months. It was more social to see people but it also was fun to have the trail to oneself --- as if it were a private preserve.

After the first two miles, I started to slow down noticeably. The stationary bicycle workout I did yesterday was coming back to haunt me. Angela was ready to increase her speed but was a good sport --- slowing down to accommodate me.

By the time we hit the Big Hill at the end of the run --- heading up to the water tower --- I was a hurtin' cowboy. I ended up breaking the promise I made to myself and walked most of the way up the hill.

Then, on the way back down, I went at a decent pace but Angela was flying. She got to the bottom of the hill before I had even gotten halfway down. I finally caught up with her and somehow managed to run, albeit at a slow pace, the remainder of the return route.

It was a disappointing run from the perspective of having walked so much. Last week's time was 87 minutes and our goal was to break 85 minutes. Much to the surprise of both of us our time was 83 minutes. I knew that, without smoke alarms going off, more sleep, and better eating, I would meet our goal of breaking 80 minutes next week. I felt better already --- and was ready to celebrate.

Once I got home, I was dead meat. I got cleaned up and surprised myself when I weighed in at 202. Then I headed straight for the kitchen. First I drank some juice and some lemon-lime seltzer water. Then I ate grapes and entire box of eight Toaster Scrambles for breakfast. My food consumption the rest of the day wasn't much better. I finished a two-liter bottle of root beer and ate a package of orange-dyed crackers with peanut butter. They did taste good, though.

I worked a while and then took my eldest dog, Wally, to his veterinarian, Dr. Michelle DeHaan. He had been losing weight and, at the age of 12½, that was worrisome. I was afraid he had cancer and, after previously having lost four dogs to cancer, many bad memories began to resurface.

I always had taken great care of my pets and went to extraordinary lengths and expense to help them. But I also had learned that prolonging their lives with exotic treatments and experimental surgery wasn't always the best for them. Wally was my baby, however, and had been part of the family for a dozen years. He was the gentlest, non-hyper Golden Retriever I ever knew, with the sweetest disposition. Michelle checked him out thoroughly and took some blood for tests. I knew he and I could be facing a long road ahead of us but, hey, that's what families are all about.

After working some more, I ended up stopping by to see Holly after her Cheer tryout. It went well but she was tired and crabby. Before seeing her, I had downed a raspberry smoothie at Java Java in Lafayette. It was quite good, although smaller than I normally liked. Given my "weight problem," however, I couldn't complain.

Once back at home, I spent the afternoon working on various television projects and answering e-mails I had set aside --- some for a week or more. I finally wrote Norman Lear the follow-up letter I had promised when we talked a few weeks ago. I was seeking his help getting guests for the four special programs I was doing on the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver

For dinner I had three pieces of fried chicken smothered in salsa. I had never done that but decided to experiment. I was tempted to go see D.L. Hughley at Comedy Works but decided to keep working instead. Plus the dogs needed me to feed them dinner, go for a walk, and converse.

I finished the day working until 9:00 pm after being inundated with text messages from Ms. Holly. Some were amusing --- such as the one with the word "Bunnychow" followed by 100 or so exclamation points all in a row (i.e., appearing to be blades of grass). Others exhorted me to make purchases of items she was seeing on television --- such as a special piece of equipment for washing dogs. And yet others consisted of complaints --- such as my failure to give her enough money before she had left the house (she had failed to do her chores and, therefore, did not get the anticipated funds). It was all part of the fun of being a parent.

I finally headed to bed after hearing Mike Doughty's new song, "27 Jennifers" --- which always put a smile on my face --- and taking the puppies out one last time. Tonight I was going to get a goodnight's sleep if it killed me..

It would be too easy a day for me today. No run was scheduled so I planned to "sleep in" all the way to 6:00 am and get seven hours of sleep. Getting up at 4:00 am, however, ruined that plan but I did get five hours anyway. It was nice to not have to worry too much about the time. Holly didn't have school and wasn't heading out until after 10:00 am.

I decided to go to the YMCA to give Deanne some "going away" gifts. She and her family were headed to South Carolina and today was her last day at the "Y" so I wanted to say "Goodbye." She had done a fabulous job for all of us --- warmly greeting us at 5:15 am every morning with a big smile on her face. No matter what the weather was or whatever private tribulations she faced, she always came through.

I put together a bag of goodies --- ranging from a bottle of wine to a bag of jellybeans along with a stuffed toy for her new child and some other goodies. She was very appreciative and knew she would be missed.

It had been a long time since I tried my luck on the LifeCycle at the "Y" so I decided to take a spin to nowhere. I had weighed in at an unsurprising 206 and knew I needed the workout. I read newspapers while I rode and was taken aback at how difficult it was at my usual Level 15 setting. It was becoming obvious I had a long way to go to get in shape. I wanted six months but had only 23 days. Hmmmmmmmmm… That wasn't good.

At home, I had a nice breakfast of one biscuit with butter and a bowl of strawberries. That was a great start. I made breakfast for Holly and made sure she was all set for the weekend. That meant I was filling our Cheerleading tryout forms, packing food, and verifying plans.

I was focused on work today --- I had an enormous amount of farm-related paperwork to tackle --- but I took a break for an early lunch at which I downed a giant Dagwood-like turkey sandwich with mayonnaise, mustard, and sliced tomato. Holly could not believe I could open my mouth wide enough to even have a shot at it. I was a bit surprised at my success myself. Holly headed out at noon, had a sleepover birthday party to attend, and wasn't going to be back until Sunday.

I snuck a large mug of root beer and had to dodge her questions about what I was drinking. I wanted her to avoid soda but gave in to temptation myself. Later, I would end up eating half a tub of Breyer's "Wafflecone" ice cream. Wow, that stuff was good.

It went downhill even from there as far as eating was concerned. I had more ice cream, at some delicious Monterey Jack cheese from Sunflower Market in Boulder, and made a unique dish consisting of a can of Hormel chili, a dozen chopped scallions, half a pound of leftover already-cooked garlic & butter salmon, some garlic powder, and more butter. It was prepared to serve four people so it was a perfect meal for myself when dining alone.

Except for taking out the dogs a couple of times, my only time outdoors was at the end of the day when I went to the Post Office and Heritage Bank (now First Community Bank). With a long run planned tomorrow morning, I decided to end my work day at 7:30 pm and try to get a goodnight's sleep.

When I arose at 2:30 am, it was blustery but dry. I got up not knowing what to expect. My weight was at 204 so I knew I didn't make my April-ending goal of 200. I also knew I would have trouble getting to 200 by Saturday. There were just too many good things to eat.

At the YMCA, I shot a few baskets and then Angela joined me. We had come in only seconds apart so I pretended to run ahead of her. We hit the trail and I felt better than I had yesterday, After just 10 minutes, we noticed it was raining lightly. It wasn't enough to bother us and I actually liked it.

Then, after another 10 or 15 minutes, tiny hail began to sputter around us. The pellets were so small they almost were unnoticeable. I managed to run the initial length of the route and felt OK. Then, on the return, I started feeling poorly again. Now it was snowing albeit very lightly.

The temperature was a brisk 35oF or so. With the wind-chill factor, it felt colder but I liked that a lot. After doing a majority of the run, I started my "interval training." No, I didn't speed up by sprinting and then return to a normal pace. Rather, I ran a normal pace and that, at times, slowed down. Perhaps that might be called "Reverse Interval Training" or something such as "Anti-Interval Training." The acronym could be "AIT" and pronounced like "ate" --- as in "I can't believe I ate the entire birthday cake myself."

Today we saw no foxie and that was disappointing. With nearly daily sightings for a week, we had become spoiled. Somehow, I completed the run although I knew my running partner could have finished well ahead of me.

While I was getting Holly up and making breakfast, it was a full-blown snowstorm. The ground was covered with snow despite the relatively warm temperatures. It was amazing to have run without a flake of snow initially and now be surrounded by a winter wonderland in May! This was the epitome of Colorado weather. Part of that equation was the fact it would all melt by the end of the day --- which it did --- and one would not be able to tell it had snowed at all.

It was a full day with Holly having school followed by an orthodontist appointment in Boulder with the esteemed Dr. Richard Fronczak. After the orthodontist we went grocery shopping at the newly-opened Sunflower Market in Boulder. I liked the store and had added it to my list of favorite grocery stores --- the Erie Safeway, the Lafayette King Soopers (with a very helpful staff), and my favorite --- the Albertsons in Lafayette, which was staffed by the nicest people in the grocery business.

We also had to go shopping for Holly's friend, Emily, who was having a 14th birthday party sleepover at a hotel in Boulder this weekend -- that was a new one for me but I had spoken with Emily's Mom and it sounded totally under control -- so we went to Target as well. Holly wanted a smoothie so we also stopped at the Jamba Juice in Boulder. I was happy to spend money in Boulder and help the local economy. After all, my favorite trail was on Boulder Open Space property so I felt this was the least I could do.

By the time we got home, I was exhausted. I made dinner and we dined on salmon and rice as well as a variety of goodies I had recently purchased. I also snuck in a mug of root beer and didn't tell Holly.

After working and helping Holly with her homework, I caught a few minutes of the television program, "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" on FOX and deemed it one of the best programs on television today. It was fun and instructional --- as well as humbling. I watched as a Yale-trained doctor got eliminated when he could not name the state which borders both Kansas and Utah. The poor schmuck guessed "Wyoming" after trying to paint a mental picture of the 50 States. My guess was once he got to the Mississippi River from the east, he was lost.

This was a program families could watch together. I tried to get Holly to join me but she was doing serious work. The answer, of course, is "Colorado." That made the question even more fun for me. I worked some more, spent some time with my daughter talking about her plans for the upcoming weekend, and finally got to sleep by 11:00 pm.

Warmer than ever, it was 45^oF when we started our morning run. I was exhausted and got heated up within minutes of starting. We had shot a few baskets before running as a token gesture to the hapless Denver Nuggets, who had just been swept out of the National Basketball Association playoffs 4-0 by the Los Angeles Lakers. Like the Nuggets, I missed most of my shots. I was so tired Angela could have beaten me one-on-one today.

My sleep deprivation had me so run down I simply didn't have any energy today. My reserves were gone. And the caloric gorging yesterday didn't help either.

After running less than a mile, I knew I was in trouble. In the past, when I was tired, I simply slowed down. I would "gut it out" and keep going until I got a second wind. This time, I knew the situation was different when I started to not feel well from a whole body perspective. I was being told, in less-than-polite-terms, to stop.

It wasn't as if I decided to be prudent and listen to my body. It simply wouldn't let me keep running so I started to walk at certain points. My running partner, Angela, jogged alongside me as we debated whether or not there should be a death penalty. She didn't believe in it and told me a humorous story about how, when on a business trip, she had accidentally almost pinned a coworker against a brick wall. She speculated whether or not she could have gotten the death penalty for killing her coworker. I assured her that, because it would have been an accident, it was unlikely she would have faced anything severe at all.

I was unenthusiastic about the death penalty but was concerned about the cost of housing prisoners for decades (i.e., potentially more than a million dollars per lifetime incarcerated convict). I also wasn't certain if I would be against the death penalty if a love one were brutally murdered. I knew a part of me would want the perpetrator and his or her genetic material off the planet permanently.

The run was the most difficult one I had in a long time. I stopped frequently and would break into a walk. My long stride made it possible for Angela to keep running, albeit at a slow pace. Somehow, I managed to finish. The temperature had skyrocketed and it now was 60^oF according to a nearby electronic sign. That was amazing.

After the run, I made it back home to get going for the rest of the day. It was no surprise when I weighed in at 205 after my semi-bacchanalian food orgy yesterday. I now was 5 pounds off my target and asking for trouble. I still had a shot at being 200 on Saturday but it would require willpower I hadn't yet found. Somehow I always was able to rationalize not just that extra bite of food but that extra platter of culinary delights.

For breakfast, I had three fried eggs with tons of salsa and three heavily-buttered English muffins and some organic milk. I knew this wasn't a good way to begin the eating day but I promised to moderate my intake after that.

For lunch I had a bowl of strawberries (good) with whipped cream (bad) and a mix of hot chocolate and instant coffee. I almost never drink coffee but today I was so tired I was falling asleep at my desk. Because I rarely drank coffee, the few times I had it resulted in my eyes popping open thanks to the caffeine.

The rest of the day was nonstop. The lowlight were the battles I was having with my computer and a host of crummy Microsoft products. It was frustrating but the idea of switching to Apple products entered my mind on a serious note for the first time. As seemed to always be the case, I got to sleep two or three hours later than I had planned.

After shooting a few baskets at the YMCA, we hit the trail. The weather was perfect and I had gotten a solid 5 hours of sleep --- less than I wanted but more than usual. I could tell, however, I was tired and knew this would be a tougher run than yesterday when I had felt quite good.

It was a balmy 40^oF and I liked that temperature. That was my ideal running temperature --- warm enough so I didn't freeze but cold enough to keep me cool for most of the run.

We saw "our" fox once again and were amazed at how he or she seemed to always be around. Once again it was too near the street for our comfort. We were concerned it might get hit by a car. I ranked foxes in-between coyotes (who seemed very smart when it came to avoiding vehicular traffic) and dogs (who needed to be far smarter). The fox disappeared into the bushes and I wondered if we would see it again.

The run was difficult. We talked the entire way and that helped pass the time. I kept going even though I was tired. I was a disappointed I was not doing better.

At home, I got Holly up for the day, made her lunch, and made her breakfast. While I was doing the latter she told me I needed to print out her Spanish project Power Point because her printer wasn't working properly. We were almost out of time so I rushed to do it and then, after handing it to her, was told I had printed out "the wrong version." Evidently she had e-mailed me an old draft. I didn't have time to find the correct one so we headed out the door to school.

On the way, I agreed to find the correct version and bring it to school. She told me where to find it so I knew I could get it down. Between conversations with the White House about my request to interview the President (that was going nowhere right now but I remained hopeful) and the McCain campaign (the Senator was scheduled to be in Denver this Friday), I found the correct version of Holly's Spanish project. It had a formatting error so, after correcting that, I printed it out and drove to Peak to Peak again. My carbon footprint was growing today…

I knew I was backsliding because I had a giant turkey sandwich and several "sides" for breakfast, knocked off most of a two-liter container of root beer, and eliminated almost all of the triple chocolate ice cream in the freezer. I did have a few slices of apple, however, to assuage my guilt.

After picking up Holly, we went to Inta Juice where I purchased two "tsunami" smoothies --- their largest size. Then, for dinner, I made cheeseburgers with fried onions and a big salad. It was the curly fries and ketchup, however, that really did me in. I knew I was in trouble for tomorrow's weigh-in but my tummy was smiling.

Maybe I Do Have A Shot At This After All, I Can See Some Progress But It May Not Be Soon Enough…

Today started well because I slept in all the way to 4:30 am, hence giving me 5½ hours of sleep. I got through my usual morning routine, walked the dogs, and headed to the YMCA to meet Angela. We hit the trail and I felt pretty good.

We saw a fox near the road and were concerned for its safety. It was at the beginning of our run --- we had run only ½ a mile or so at that point --- and the fox was on the sidewalk next to 95th Street (Colorado Highway 42). It saw us and ran away, safely into the bushes. While we both hoped it was the same fox we had been seeing, it was interesting talking about the fox because we both were uncertain if it was the same creature. This one could have been the same but appeared to be tinged with a little more gray.

We talked as we ran, with each of us going over what we did for the weekend and then discussing our work challenges. Angela's discussion of looking for a new car reminded me I needed to get another vehicle soon. Mine was ready to disintegrate after having being driven hard for over 200,000 miles.

Except for stopping to watch the fox, this time we ran the entire distance without stopping. My estimate was the route was about 1½ miles each way or 3 miles roundtrip. I wore my new plain white headband for the first time and it worked marvelously. It not only kept the sweat from going into my eyes and blinding me but also seemed to keep my head and ears warm. I was surprised such a little band could do so much. It was the best $1.75 I ever had spent.

My weight was now at 203 so I felt I still had a chance to hit 200 by the end of the month --- only two days away. Discipline and willpower had to be my watchwords.

At home, I got Holly up and made her a smoothie out of Dreyer's butter pecan ice cream, milk, a banana, and tons of blueberries. It tasted great. She hated it so I ended up consuming almost all of it after I took her to school.

It was a day filled with work-related calls, messages, writing, and the usual juggling of seven different projects. That's my life and I'm not complaining.

For dinner, I made smoked sausage as the entrée along with some vegetables. Holly liked the sauce I made from mustard and mayonnaise with a few spices tossed in for good measure. After homework, we both called it a night at 10:00 pm.

Maybe This Is The Year I Should Take A Break? I'm In Worse Shape Than I Thought…

It was time to admit my willpower was nonexistent. I not only was having trouble losing weight but I was finding it difficult to keep it off. The longer runs (+/-7 miles) definitely were good for me but I was tired and unmotivated the next day. For the second Sunday in a row, I took the day off from exercise.

That didn't stop me from eating, however, and I knew the triple chocolate ice cream wasn't helping although the taste admittedly was delightful. I did more laundry, went shopping, wrote a few columns, prepared plans for the television series we were doing on the U.S. Senate, and then went into Boulder to have dinner at my Mother's home so Holly could see her Grandma.

I started the day at 204 pounds so I was on target with my weight but I knew the next 10 pounds would be tough to lose. I was committed to running tomorrow so I would see how my weigh-in went. I thought to myself, "Maybe I shouldn't take the day off, after all?" but I did anyway.

The temperature was a nippy 25^oF when I arose and got ready to meet Angela for our now almost regular Saturday morning run. After taking the dogs for a walk at 5:00 am and doing some work, I headed out. I had weighed in at 208 so I had missed my target of 205 by three pounds. It already was light out and the sun hadn't risen when I arrived at the trailhead. Angela was tired from her workout yesterday and the fact her young son had been wakening her almost every night all week. I was tired due to a lack of sleep and the food overconsumption late at night at Wendy's where I knocked off multiple burgers, French fries, and a giant chocolate Frosty. The latter was especially good. You might as well have painted all the food on my waist because, as I ran, I could feel every extra ounce. The resulting indigestion also hadn't helped me get much sleep but, hey, I made those choices and knew better at the time so I'll shut up. Today I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants instead of my parachute running suit. It was a heavier combination but kept me warm. Only my hands and face froze today. We didn't see much wildlife this time but we talked the entire way. Because we didn't take any major breaks, as I had required last week, I knew our time would be better than previous embarrassing total of 94 minutes. My goal today was to break 85 minutes but it didn't happen --- we ended up at 87 minutes. Nevertheless, that was a seven-minute improvement and breaking 80 minutes next week seemed to still be within reach. All I had to do was eat better, eat less, and get more sleep. I was beginning to doubt, however, my ability to run the Bolder Boulder in less than 70 minutes. I started to be convinced this year would be my worst time ever. There were surprisingly few people on the trail today. We saw only a couple of cyclists when we were almost half done and then saw them returning on our way back. There may have been one or two other runners but the trail was sparsely populated today despite the clear albeit chilly weather, the dry trail, and the high level of ambient light early in the day. The moon and sun were out at the same time so that was fun to see. Angela told me she was leaving the YMCA and had joined the Erie Recreation Center. She wanted me to do the same or at least join the Erie Rec Center so we could run there in inclement weather. I had just visited the Erie facility and thought it was fantastic --- one of the best recreation centers I ever had seen. Erie is my community so I told her it was likely I would join. I had been thinking about it for some time but she was really putting the pressure on and was a good salesperson. I would remain a member of the YMCA, however, although I was disappointed they never decided to open officially at 5:00 am rather than 5:30 am. The Y's staff was great, however, and usually opened the facility on weekdays at 5:15 am but that extra 15 or 30 minutes meant a lot to those of us who have to return home to somehow get a teenager to wake up. These days every minute counted. Once I got home, I felt tired but was glad I had done the run. I worked the rest of the day doing laundry (it's amazing how much laundry two people can generate each week). I had heard President Bush was coming to Colorado in May so I tried to reach a contact at the White House to see if there might be any way the President would grant an interview. I knew Josh's likely answer was "No" because the White House's perspective about granting me an interview in the past was, "And Mr Harber, what exactly is the upside for us?" But that didn't stop me from trying. I called too late and just missed my contact but the gentleman in the Situation Room who answered the call promised to give Josh my message. After dinner, at nighttime, I had to drive to Denver to pick up some tapes for the U.S. Senate television show from my producer, Chuck. I didn't get back home until 9:45 pm and decided to call it a day. The run had made me tired and I needed a break.

Despite my intent to get a good night's sleep, it didn't happen. The dogs were ready to go out at 4:00 am so I arose and got ready for the day so I could take them out. I weighed in at a still paunchy 206. I didn't feel as if I were making much progress on any front.

Although I needed the exercise, I had decided to take off the day so I would be well-rested for tomorrow's trail run on City of Boulder Open Space. The White Rocks trail was my favorite due to the variation in topography and vegetation. So, instead of exercising, I ate. What a lovely choice for someone allegedly in training.

The only time "training" truly played in my vocabulary was if someone used it with the word "table" --- as in "training table." I remembered seeing training tables for athletes which were laden with piles of food. The team members would devour extraordinary amounts of food. Some wanted to bulk up but most of them worked so hard, they didn't gain a lot of weight. My problem was that, if I had a training table, I'd stay there all day.

The day was filled with show-related work and a series of problems which seemed nonstop. I also had to try and find a way to get the current and former U.S. Senators together for a taping of our U.S. Senate series. That was like herding cats. The schedules for former U.S. Senators Bill Armstrong (R), Hank Brown (R), Gary Hart (D), and Tim Wirth (D) were challenging enough. To add the current U.S. Senators, Wayne Allard (R) and Ken Salazar (D) to the mix along with the two candidates seeking to succeed Allard, Bob Schaffer (R) and Mark Udall (D) transformed the process into "Mission Impossible." That didn't stop me, however, from trying.

We also had been exploring the possibility of doing a program on Down Syndrome and had asked for advice from Michelle Sie Whitten, whose daughter, Sophia, had Down Syndrome. How our nation addresses developmental disabilities was a keen interest of mine.

The remainder of the day, once school was out, was devoted to Holly, the dogs, and household chores. It was nice to have a day off from exercise. I was interested in seeing how well I would do on tomorrow's long run.

It was another day to run around the trail near the YMCA but I was unenthusiastic about it. For whatever reason, I continued to not seem to be gaining any speed or stamina. Of course, my high caloric diet --- featuring lots of sugar and processed foods --- probably didn't help. I just couldn't resist anything which tasted good but I knew it wasn't helping me become a better runner.

The weather was very nice today. The temperature was above 35^oF when we started and seemed to warm quickly. The path was so well-known to us, we could have run it blindfolded yet it was difficult for me to do today. Whatever happened to the concept of "muscle memory?" Why couldn't I just go on cruise control and do the run?

Instead, I always found the first mile to be exhausting. I was enervated by the time we had gone the length of the route and wanted to crawl back to the YMCA. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. And, being macho, like most guys, I didn't want to admit what bad shape I was in. I somehow toughed out the last mile and was relieved when we started walking the final 300 yards or so for our "cool down." I hurried into my car so I could have my heart attack in private.

The day was a whirlwind. I was in contact with the Governor's staff and they finally formally confirmed Bill Ritter's next visit to the show on May 12th. The program would be a "live" call-in show --- one of only four I would do this year.

I had to deal with negotiating the renewal of our office space lease and got that done. I also followed up on some farm-related property rights issues which had been taking up too much of my time. Next I worked on arranging an interview with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. It would be interesting to see if her team members kept their promise to have her join me at the studio the next time she was in town. I had gotten advance notice of her upcoming visit so I figured I needed to move quickly.

Throughout the entire day I noshed and kept returning to the refrigerator after the beginning or end of every mini-crisis which popped up. It wasn't good having so much food within an easy reach --- especially given my total lack of willpower when it came to food.

Most of the workday was spent addressing issues related to the Senate series we were doing with Republican Bob Schaffer and Democrat Mark Udall. They were both easy guys with whom one could work and I enjoyed being with each of them. Negotiating taping times, however, often got far too complex and time-consuming. And we already were dealing with a long list of production issues which also took much of my time today as I worked with my producer, Chuck Fiorella, to solve our many problems.

We also were having Website access problems and had to work with our Internet Service Provider who hosted our Websites --- CH2MHill Managed Services. They were great folks but often took days to make a change when our previous experiences were measured in hours or even minutes.

I also had a meeting in Denver with a foundation helping fund the U.S. Senate series so I ended up spending three hours driving back to the session, spending time at the meeting, and then driving home. It was time well spent and we covered a lot of ground. While the television show's content could not be dictated or even influenced by sponsors, I always solicited opinions from anyone interested in making suggestions for the show so it was fun to hear people with different ideas. Everyone knew what we were doing this year but I'm always trying to think ahead, too. Today was no different. I headed back pleased with how everything went and humbled that people wanted to support my work. It was a nice feeling.

Holly and her friend Kirsten stayed at school for Cheerleading tryouts so I went to pick them up at 5:00 pm. The school was having a pasta dinner fundraiser for the track team and I had purchased some tickets so we ate right at Peak to Peak. My sister, Leah, and her son, Joel, joined us so I treated everyone. We noticed the attendance at the event was low so I purchased some of the leftover food so it wouldn't go to waste (except I knew it would go to my waist) and as a way to give the track team a little more money.

The pasta dinner with meatballs was excellent. I ate and drank to my heart's (and stomach's) content. There was Italian bread with butter, a lemonade-like beverage, and salad with dressing to accompany the pasta. I bought three dinners for myself along with the dinners for others. Heck, the track team needed the money. I justified my pigaholicism by concluding I was just "carbo-loading" for tomorrow's run. Yeah, right. I continued to be amazed at my ability to justify bad eating behavior. It only proved the stomach was mightier than the head --- well, at least in the case of my brain.

Afterwards, we took Kirsten home to Superior and then returned to do homework. My role is purely advisory and instructional in nature, of course --- this infuriates Holly because she believes we would have more time if I applied myself more diligently to her homework!. I did dome more work, took care of the dogs, and, naturally, munched on some goodies we brought home from the pasta dinner. I patted my now very full tummy and got to sleep by 11:00 pm. Ah, even if my weight and condition were bad, I knew life was good. Urp…

The event with Robert Reich last night did prove to be my downfall for the day. My weight was back at 214 and I had no motivation to run when I awoke in the morning. I ran anyway but my pace was slower than ever. "Glacial" came to mind as the best descriptor...

I was terribly unmotivated and the fact I was tired didn't help. I could see how people so easily felt overwhelmed with everything they needed to do in each day. I really couldn't complain because so much of what I did was by choice. Plus, unlike so many others in the world, I always had a roof over my head and food on the table. I had my daughter and my four dogs as well so I knew I was a lucky guy in many ways.

Still, not performing athletically at the level I should be was disappointing. I thought I would use these facts as motivation to do better but, for the first time, I was questioning whether I still had the ability to whip myself back into shape. I decided that, if I succeeded, I would keep up a routine so I didn't have the problem again.

I felt better already and started thinking about celebrating my decision and resolve. Now, about that extra bag of Cheetos…

Angela and I ran today but I was slower than usual. The Reich buffet and the short night's sleep were a deadly combination. I felt good, all things considered, and decided to keep at it.

The day was jam-packed. I watched the complete version of the second Senate show (this one was with Congressman Mark Udall), fielded a detailed and justified critique from COMCAST of the first program with Bob Schaffer from COMCAST, heard from a friend needing a place to live and communicated with her to make sure she was OK, communicated with General David Petraeus about his promotion and nomination to head the U.S. Military's Central Command (it was a good move for the country no matter who the next President was), and dealt with a wide range of Website access problems as well as took care of my daughter, the dogs, and the house. In other words, it was another typical day for me.

Getting to bed late was a bad idea but it seemed the crises were piling up on each other. I especially was working harder because the Senate series needed a tremendous amount of attention and I was the only one who could address all the challenges we currently faced. I dreamed of Hawaiian beaches but knew none were in my immediate future.

Perhaps this was going to be a greater challenge than I had anticipated. It was nicer today compared to yesterday but I found I was like a sloth on the running trail. And, at under 4 miles of a relatively even surface with minimal changes in elevation, I should not be as tired as I was running.

Today's weather was even nicer than yesterday. It felt slightly warmer and there was just a little wind. We hit the trail after shooting a few baskets and, as usual, I let Angela set the pace. I would do my best to keep up.

Although the route wasn't that tough, it felt difficult to me. That was disappointing. I also knew my pace was not going to win any medals. Fortunately, we talked the entire way and that kept me distracted from the tiredness I felt. I knew I needed more rest but didn't have a plan to get it.

It was a typical day for me. I spent it advising two people who called for business advice, took care of the dogs, worked on the television show, and spent time with my daughter. What more could one ask for?

That evening, I attended a talk by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. The event was held at the Stadium Club. The Club was housed atop Folsom Stadium --- the football stadium for the University of Colorado. It was a great place for an event.

The sponsor was First Western Trust Bank. They did a great job and had the event catered by Centerplate, a local firm. Centerplate had a great line-up of food and provided superb service. I was very impressed with the catering company.

Just as impressive was my capacity to eat a wide variety of goodies offered by wait-staff circulating through the crowd. A shrimp appetizer wrapped in a narrow cone shell made of some kind of flaky but strong pastry was fabulous. That was only the beginning. By the end of the event, I had tried a wide variety of appetizers and also had gone through the buffet line. My diet plan was totally shot. At least I drank a mixture of orange and cranberry juice for my beverage. That partially assuaged my guilt.

Reich had been Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. He had appeared on my Talk Radio program when I was in that arena (I no longer am). He joined me when I did my Talk Radio program one week from Washington, D.C. He was very smart, articulate, and funny.

At 4'10" tall (and even that measurement may have been an exaggeration but it's not like you could go up to him with a tape-measure in hand), he was a stark contrast with my 6'5" height.

Reich also had been my professor for all of one week when he was teaching at Harvard University 19 years ago and I was attending the John F. Kennedy School of Government. I had signed up for his course and was promptly critical of his major argument made the first day of class. Reich was taken aback and, for the next two days, we had a bit of a "back-and-forth" going. He then announced the class was oversubscribed and said a dozen or so people would be randomly selected to "leave the class." I was ready to drop it anyway so I was willing to volunteer to leave the class. He didn't seem upset at my suggestion.

The following Monday, after I already had informed the School I was changing courses, I saw the listing of "random" names who were being booted from the course. I noticed my name was on the list and chuckled. I figured Reich wasn't taking any chances I would renege on my commitment to leave.

Reich gave an interesting, informative, educational, and humorous talk to the crowd of about 150 people. He had his new book with him entitled, "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life." That was an inclusive title if I ever heard one. Who wouldn't want to buy the book? The crowd thoroughly enjoyed his take on the Economy, the presidential race (he recently had endorsed Senator Barack Obama), and his stories about life as the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor.

After his speech, he took a number of questions and handled them all well. I could tell people were very pleased with his performance. Once he was done, I had the chance to visit with him. It was fun to see him again and we had a nice talk. He promised to join me on my show at a later date and I told him I looked forward to that.

That was the end of the workday for me. I stayed and talked with a number of people I had not seen in months and even years. It meant I got home later than I wanted but it was nice to get out for a while. I knew, however, the great food from Centerline was going to be a setback but that had not stopped me from devouring the goodies they offered.

When I took the dogs out at 4:30 am, it was breezy but also seemed fairly nice temperature-wise. It was a nice way to start the week.

Being serious about losing weight always was a challenge for me due to my love of food. Whether it was fine French cuisine or McDonalds, I was happy dining almost anywhere. That also was why daily weigh-ins were good for me. They kept me on track.

They also were encouraging because I knew I could lose weight easily at first. Today I came in at 211 so I was making progress. I had the sense, however, shedding pounds easily may not be in my future.

At the YMCA, I joined Angela for a run outside. It seemed cold but it really wasn't. The trail we took was north of the YMCA and wrapped around a housing subdivision. We then headed across 95th Street (Colorado Highway 42) around another subdivision, and continued between a fence and a row of trees separating two subdivisions. The path we were on appeared to be marked as an official City of Lafayette trail. It paralleled an irrigation ditch and then went through yet another high-end subdivision. The homes were beautiful. I noticed the home of a friend was for sale and wondered what was going on in his life.

The run was challenging for me. I was tired right from the start and, at times, slowed to a crawl. The most exciting part was when I spotted a red fox ahead of us. It scampered away but we had gotten a good look. We wondered if it lived in the area and whether or not we would see it again.

It also didn't help my run that it was windy at times and it seemed the wind changed directions --- always blowing towards me instead of fulfilling my wish of it blowing me along the route at 50 miles per hour. The temperature was about 3^oF and the wind-chill factor probably was dropping that by 5^oF or so, so I couldn't complain too much.

Something didn't seem right, however, but I continued to stumble along and complete the run. It was only about a 3½-mile route so I knew I shouldn't be complaining.

My mornings almost always consisted of waking up my daughter, making her breakfast, making her lunch, reviewing her homework and discussing her assignments with her, and taking her to school. Then I would work the entire time she was in school.

Today was devoted to work related to my television program but I also had to address several outstanding issues related to the farm. Between the TV show, the farm, my daughter, the four dogs, and other projects, I figured I had the equivalent of five or six full-time jobs. I wasn't complaining, though, because they all were my choices and I felt fortunate to have so much. Now, if I could figure out how to stop enjoying so much food…

Saturday had been a good day for me, despite my atrocious run in the morning. I ate less, supported the 9HealthFair at the stunning, new Erie Recreation Center by attending, got some work done, spent time with my daughter, and went to bed at a decent hour. I also skipped the chips, soda, and ice cream --- unlike Friday when I indulged in Goodtimes burgers, fries, onion rings, root beer, and custard (not exactly a training table meal) --- but I did knock off a bag of Cheetos. I swore it would be my last.

Surprising even myself, I had gotten six hours of sleep and already felt noticeably better. Even with the poor run I had completed yesterday, when combined with eating fairly well, my weight had gone down from 221 on Friday to 217 on Saturday. Today I was at 214 so I was making good progress. I was pleased with the drop but reminded myself I was in the "easy zone" when it came to weight loss. The first 15 or even 20 pounds should be easy. Then it would get tough.

Today I decided to ride a stationary bike for one hour and rest. I had a cast-off LifeCycle bike I had purchased from the Boulder Valley YMCA but rarely used it. I figured I would try to ride it for 60 minutes at its top level (Level 15) on days I did not run. I was tired from yesterday's run, however, so I didn't have a hard time convincing myself to take the day off so I did.

The bike was fragile though so I had to use it gently. It was about to break in two different places and also was making a loud "clicking" noise. These were good reasons for the Lafayette YMCA to pitch the unit. I felt sorry for it and thought I could make it work so I bought it and took it home as if I had rescued it from the Humane Society.

My major activities of the day were helping my daughter with her homework, caring for our four dogs, and getting organized for a three-hour meeting of my television research and production team in Denver. We met at Pint's Pub a couple times each month and that definitely had the potential to be my Waterloo. The menu at Pint's was fabulous. Located just a block west of the Denver Art Museum, Pint's was a great place to meet people and enjoy the food and beverages offered by the establishment.

Typically, I would have chili cheese fries, a special hamburger, and seven or eight large glasses of iced tea and lemonade. With a few other items, I often would have to be rolled out of the restaurant after a 10,000 calorie "meal." Today I was good. I had their cheese and cracker platter (sliced squares of Havarti cheese, a sectioned Granny Smith apple, and a giant one-foot diameter water cracker) and a large salad. I even moderated the number (4) and composition of the Arnold Palmers to make them 75% tea and only 25% lemonade rather than 50-50. I was a good boy. We would see how good my weigh-in is tomorrow. I wasn't holding my breath…

With just 36 days to go until the Bolder Boulder 10K Memorial Day Race in Boulder, I figured it was time to start training. Better late than never, right? Well, I may be wrong this time.

My running partner, Angela, and I hit the White Rocks trail off Valmont Road at 6:00am on the dot. My best time on this 6.7-mile trail had been 69 minutes and my worst time was 103 minutes, thanks to snow drifts and an otherwise ice-covered path.

Recently, my sporadic running had resulted in times for this trail ranging between 75 and 88 minutes. To run the Bolder Boulder in less than 70 minutes (my worst Bolder Boulder time was 67 minutes) meant I needed to run the trail in about 70 minutes. Unfortunately, I hadn't been close to that the few times I had run it this year. In fact, I was regressing.

One of my biggest problems was I had been gaining weight all winter. Too many opportunities to eat wonderful food (and not-so-wonderful food) and a relative lack of exercise had conspired to allow me to go from my normal 190 pounds to today's 221. At 6'5", I carried the extra weight easily but I knew it wasn't good for me. And when I ran, it was as if I were carrying a 15-pound weight in each hand. I could barely move.

I was determined to run the Race, however, and decided I needed to lose at least 25 pounds and preferably 36 if I wanted to get down to a running weight of 185. I knew it usually wasn't good to lose weight quickly but I had gained about 20 pounds quickly so I figured I could shed that in a couple of weeks. It would be that next 15 which would be tough to lose.

My other problem was my lack of sleep. I needed at least six hours a night but averaged only four. In the past, I could get away with this but I no longer could. I was lethargic and doing anything physical was getting more challenging every day. I resolved to try and get six hours of sleep starting tonight. In the past, when I made such a commitment, it usually lasted one day. This time, I decided, it would be different. (Does anyone believe me?)

Of course, eating foods such as an entire bag of Cheetos or a half gallon of ice cream (Rocky Road, please) on a daily basis also didn't help but, hey, you only live once, right? OK, I admit, I am very naughty when it came to food. I love to eat and constantly indulge myself. This, too, was a critical factor I knew I needed to control.

That's enough self-reflection on this beautiful morning… Now it was time to run. It was 30oF when we started and absolutely gorgeous out as the Sun began to rise. I was a bit cold and could tell I was tired from the start. Nevertheless, I put my left foot forward and began the run. After just 100 yards, I wanted to die. I already was sweating (not a good sign) and the expectation of a Second Wind was obliterated by the realization there was no First Wind.

I tried to keep going but my body screamed, "No way, buddy --- Let's get back to bed." Usually I could tough out these situations but today was different. In unison, my legs shouted "Just say 'No.''' After the first half mile, Angela was ready to pick up the pace and I was ready to go home.

We passed ten deer grazing on City of Boulder Open Space and chatted with them as we went by (yes, I talk to animals). At this time of day, we also saw a hawk, some ducks, and cattle. Except for the excruciating pains in my chest and legs, it was idyllic. I needed an emergency rocker --- fast.

After just one mile, I knew I was in trouble. I was exhausted and sweating. This was not a good start. I slowed my pace and soon was walking. Fortunately my long strides allowed my running partner to continue to jog but my condition kept deteriorating. I knew I wouldn't be setting any time records today or, if I did, they would be bad ones.

At the two mile mark, we continued our run and saw two more deer nearby. One person hiking came towards us and passed us heading back towards our starting point. We later would encounter progressively more people --- for a total of about seven during our outing --- and more deer (a record 15 for the run).

I despised myself for having to walk much of the time but my body was screaming at me so I paid attention (not that I had much choice) and kept walking instead of running. At different points, I would resume a light trot but it never was at a decent pace. I was resigned to my descent.

Angela explained the bright side was I "had hit bottom" and from this point on, everything would look, be, and feel better. Assuming I didn't die first, I told her I was certain she was right. This condition wasn't anything which good rest and better eating couldn't solve, right?

We saw more deer and were amazed at the sunrise's effect on the mountains. The Front Range lit up as we returned to our starting point. I checked the time and saw our "run" (which really was a "hike") had taken an extraordinary 94 minutes. This was the second worst time I ever had for the trail and this time I didn't have snow drifts as an excuse.

With so few days left before the Race, I knew it was time to get serious. Assuming we did not run the Saturday preceding the Race, meant we only had four weekends to train. I decided to set my weight and time goals for next Saturday at 205 and 85 respectively. The following week would be 200 and 80. Week 3 would be 195 and 75 while Week 4 would be 190 and 70. Then I would run the Race in under 70 minutes and collapse afterwards! Anyone want to bet on if I can do it?

If Aaron can do it you can, too. To run the 31st Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day, May 25, 2009 with Aaron, register online now by clicking on the Web location below:

You also can get more information on the Race by going to www.BolderBoulder.com. You also can register in person at most Dick's Sporting Goods locations and most Saturn automobile dealerships.

Send an e-mail to Aaron to tell him you are running the Race. --- Aaron Harber. You also can catch him afterwards at the Expo.

On Saturday, May 26th, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bolder Boulder Race Director Steve Bosley and his father, Race founder and former Race Director (and University of Colorado Regent) Steve Bosley. They were aghast I hadn't registered for the Race and shamed me into going to the Pearl Street Mall to register,

www.BlindJusticePBS.org - Blind Justice (A PBS TV Show Hosted by Aaron Harber)
www.TIPAP.org - The Truth In Political Advertising Project
www.DMEFD.org - The Democracy & Media Education Foundation