I am a little more than 3 1/2 hours away from starting my 6 day race. It is already quite warm out there and will be around 88 F ( 31 C ) this afternoon. I try to stay at home relaxed for as long as I can and will arrive at the race site an hour or so before the start.
I feel pretty good so we will see what the week brings.
I will write up some kind of report when I get back. Wish me luck !

At this time tomorrow I will probably be out at the race trying to relax before the start. This is my 26th multiday race I think ( you kind lose count after a while ). After all these years I still get a little nervous, but I know that will all go away once the race starts. The trick is to not use up too much nervous energy. As a veteran of these things people tend to ask me for advice and the best thing I can say is; just relax and enjoy the experience, whatever it brings.

Two weeks from today after a week of recovery I will be heading out to Slovenia and a new adventure. I like to think that my race experiences have given me some ability to deal with new situations as they crop up and that this will help me to adjust to my new life in Europe.

The weather has turned quite warm and it almost feels like summer here in New York. Today is not so warm 65 F ( 19 C), but for the next few days it will be in the 80's and the evening temps will be like the daytime temps from a week ago.
I will take some more of my things out to the race site this afternoon, only 2 more days to go.

Today is St George's Day in England, the national day. It would also have been my father's 83 rd Birthday had he still been alive.
It was also my last day at work, it was pretty uneventful and as the day came to a close my boss said that it was the end of an era. There are just 3 more days before I start my 6 day race and 16 more days before I start my new journey, so things are getting interesting.
I went out to the race this evening for a couple of hours, unlike yesterday when it was rainy, today was dry but windy. I got a chance to talk with a few of my friends out there that are running in the 10 day race and get a feel for the new course changes.

It was on this day in 1978 that my Meditation teacher gave me a new name. It was this new name that gave me a spiritual purpose. So today on the way to work I bought donuts for all the guys, it's like celebrating a birthday.

Last night I went out to the race site to help a friend put up her tent, it also gave me a chance to see how things were out there. Today I took out my sleeping cot to reserve a space in one of the dorms. It is already getting crowded, the 10 day race started today and there are 45 runners. I will probably go out every day for a couple of hours, until I start my race.

As I walked to work this morning with a light rain falling, I realized that these are my last days of work before I run in the 6 day race. Also before I leave for Slovenia.
By the afternoon the rain had stopped and it was just overcast, it feels strange to think that in just a few days I will no longer be working at Victory Factory and my life in New York will be drawing to a close.

When I went out for my run this morning it was overcast and looking like it would rain. I ran an easy couple of miles and on the way back saw Utpal and ran another 3 with him.
I had to run a few errands and then I watched the Boston Marathon on the internet. The women had a very close finish with only one second separating first and second places.
In the afternoon the rain came and it got quite stormy as it went on. I was supposed to help a friend set up their tent out at the race site, but that was changed because of the rain.

Nice cool morning to run and I was on my own today, Utpal went to play golf. With just a week to go to the race I am just running easy miles, but after my 2 mile race yesterday my legs felt a little heavy.
I went for breakfast with some of my Serbian friends and then came back and watched the FA Cup semi final between Man U and Everton, they palyed for 2 hours without scoring and then Everton won 4-2 on Penalties.
Went to see my friend Sadhak perform at Panorama cafe, which is 2 blocks from me. Made some video's and spent the rest of the afternoon up loading them to youtube.

With only about 70 runners at the 2mile race this morning, I was able to run the race. The temperature was 60 F and it was sunny with a light wind. I felt quite comfortable while I was running, though my breathing did feel a little laboured in the second mile. A friend of mine passed me just before the end and was just in front of me, so I raced him to the finish line. My time was 15:32, which I am happy with.

In the orthodox world it is good Friday, in Serbia it is called veliki petak of great Friday. It turned out to be a really nice one here in Queens, New York . A warm Spring day with the temperature climbing up to 70 F.
I have a couple of friends from Slovenia who have been here for a few days and are leaving today and I was able to give them a few items to take back for me. Things that I thought might be safer with them than when I travel in a few weeks.
I am happy with the new shoes I got yesterday and may just get one more pair before the race starts next week.

Such a beautiful day today. All the rain that was around has now gone and there is sunny blue sky above

I stopped by a local sports store on the way home and bought myself a new pair of running shoes. it is just 10 days to the 6 day race and I feel I need one more pair to take with me. It would be nice if the weather was like this during the race, but at this time of the year it can change quickly. One of my running friends from India who is running in the 10 day race, contacted me this morning to say that he is in Jersey city. So he has arrived a week early to acclimatize before the race begins.

The rain continued this morning, but at least the temperature was mild. I woke up with a bit of a stiff neck, which kind of bothered me during the day, but I survived.
At least 3 people that I know got sick with the virus I had, though hopefully they did not get it from me. Neither of them got it as severe as I did.
In Champions League both Arsenal and Man U got through their 1/4 final second legs and will now meet each other in the semi's. So for the second year in a row we are guaranteedan English team in the final.

Oh! and it is tax day here in the US.

This morning it was actually quite mild and as I walked to work there were the sounds and smells of Spring. I think it got just a little bit colder by the afternoon and it started to shower rain.
It has been a while but today our resident chef at work decided to make chilli. It made a pleasant change from our usual fare. I had also consumed a breakfast burrito earlier, so by the afternoon I was a giant gas bag.

The last 2 nights have been quite cold, with temperatures dropping close to freezing.
Utpal and I were out there this morning running 6 miles once again. I felt quite comfortable running and feel physically recovered from my virus.
The rest of the day was a relaxing one for me.
It is Easter Monday in the UK and there were football games in the Championship. Wolves managed an ugly win and the main teams chasing them all drew, so now they are only 2 points away from securing promotion to the Premiership.

Happy Easter to everyone that celebrates this week. It is a bit of a cold one here in New York with strong winds, but there is bright sunshine and blue skies.
There is an annual 12 hour walk going on around a school in my neighbourhood. It started at 7 am this morning. So Utpal and I went to the start and watched them get going, probably 200 walkers. Then we went for a nice run, about 6 miles, which was nice to do after barely being able to run last weekend.
This time in 2 weeks I will be running in the 6 day race. So anything I do now is only helping me to recover from last week and prepare for that.

It is one of those weekends when there are a lot of people in town and over 250 of them come out to the 2 mile race. So I run early and then help out with the organization of this weeks race.One of my friends from the Pacific North West wins the race with a time of 9:42
Later in the day it started to rain and has been doing so for a while. I spent some time with friends, partly talking about my move back to Europe and the new adventures that will bring. A couple of my running friends are already talking about a race in June in Austria, so we will see.

It's Good Friday, well except for those of the Orthodox Christian faith. That will be next Friday.
A nice Spring morning, with a bit of chill in the air. Ran a couple of easy miles and met and talked with a few friends. After breakfast it was home to watch some Good Friday football from England. My team Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Wolves, were playing. I got to watch it on the internet. I was so happy they won 3-0 against Southampton. They remain on top of the Championship and only 4 games away from being promoted to the Premiership.

Last night was the season finale of Life, so one of the things I wanted to do was watch this online. However this got a little delayed when I came across some friends on the way home. I then stopped in to my local eatery and had a veggie steak burger, which was such a treat after being sick earlier in the week.
Then it was time to sit down and watch the show and what a show it was! Probably one of the best season finales I have ever seen. The show is so well written and seems to get better every season. They always manage to leave you wanting more.
Oh yeah! I went out for a run this afternoon the first one in 4 days and it felt good and I now feel stronger

Went to work this morning, though I did feel a little shaky, it did get better as the day went on. It was nice to sit down and have a big bowl of soup for lunch. By the end of the day I was starting to feel tired, so when I got home I crawled into my bed for a couple of hours. Once that was done I decided to go out and get pizza for dinner, when I got there 3 of my friends were actually doing the same thin. For the last few days I have been talking with a very strange voice, or so I was told. Well by this afternoon it got back almost to normal.

For the first time in a while I called in sick to work today. I woke up at my usual time, but realized quickly that I was still a little spacey from my sickness. Working with machinery is not a good thing to do when you feel like that, so I decided to spend another day in recovery.Quite a few of my friends asked how I was, it seems that news of my illness had been shared among them. It's good to know that my friends are concerned about me and happy that I am feeling better.

After 2 days of not being able to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time and sometimes even less, I finally managed to sleep for about 4 hours in one stretch last night. I finally woke up and was feeling a little weak, my digestion has improved and my eating is still not great. When I weighed myself I discovered that I had lost 7.5 lbs over the weekend. This is probably the reason I am feeling weak.I am gradually getting stronger, I know this will take a few days, but I am glad I have finally reached that point.
Part of me wanted to go out for a run this afternoon, but I just took several short walks and found these were quite tiring. Whatever it was has taken it's toll, but as the old saying goes, " If it doesn't kill, it makes you stronger" and so it will be.

After whatever it was that hit me on Friday nigh I am slowly recovering. Food poisoning or stomach flu, whatever it was can take a lot out of you. I have had very little appetite for the last 36 hours and have lost about 3 lbs in weight. I did go out and run 2+ miles this morning, but quickly realized that I was quite weak. I have to build up my strength over the next few days and be happy with any training I can get in.

Went to bed last night with a bit of a sour stomach. Kept waking up and finally around 1am, I had to make a dash fro the bathroom. In the beginning I thought it was just a bad case of diarrhea, but then the vomiting started, This went on and off for about 6 hours, with the occasional nap. I thought that maybe I had food poisoning, but I was also getting hot and cold flashes. So maybe it is a stomach flu.
Needless to say there was no 2 mile race for me this morning. I did manage to get out there with Utpal in the afternoon and run an easy 3 miles. Luckily I have 3 weeks to recover before the 6 day race.

I ordered an external Hard drive from Newegg.com the other day and it arrived last night. I have been wanting to get one for a while, since I will be leaving my desk top in New York for now and taking my laptop with me. I got a Western Digital passport and it's amazing, it's about the size of an i phone and 320gb. It would be nice to get a case for it.
Rain this morning, but got out there and ran. By this afternoon when I went out again it had stopped. feeling a little tired, but I am not sure if it is because of the events earlier in the week, or the increased mileage.

My day started with me seeing a raccoon walking on the street towards me as I walked past the park. It seemed a little surprised to see me and quickly ran into the park and started to climb a tree. It then realized I was not going near it and climbed down and walked off into the park.
The walk home was very pleasant this afternoon, I walked home in shirt sleeves, with my coat over my arm.
For the first time this year I saw the city planting new trees on some of the streets that I walk by to and from work

I got home this afternoon just in time to see the England v Ukraine World Cup qualifier. The final score was 2-1 England, they are undefeated in their group.
After the game I went out for my run and managed to do my 5k loop. I am still not 100% internally, so when I saw Utpal just before I reached home, I had to decline his invitation to go further.
The warm weather of the last few days has meant that some of the Magnolia's are staring the flower. I saw some nice Stelata while out on my run.