No race for me today :( I don't feel like running is in my immediate future. My leg is still very sore. On a happy note, BT kicked ass once again on race day. My man Dills simply killed the amateur field at the Barking Dog Duathlon. KILODAVE also represented well. He not only looked good on yet another fancy bike, but took the 3rd spot in his very competitive age group... But today it was all about Mark Dillard! He ran with the leaders on the first 5k run leg and smashed the field on the bike opening the lead on some very heavy talent and then putting in another solid 5k split to win. I would have loved to mix it up today, but the truth is... Dills might have spanked me! For an old guy he sure is fast! Oh, Top 3 amateurs today were all over 40! I'd like to think that if I could have raced, I would have made it the top 4 amateurs were over 40! Note: Only 7 elite racers beat Dills today! He was that good! WOWZERS

This shot was stolen from Katie's blog (she is the superb photographer)... taken shortly after finishing the Colorado Marathon! How rad is that sign?! Thank you for being there: Katie, Bridget and Sara! As Bridget likes to say, you girls put the "RAD" back in Colorado!

A poem to share on this bleak rainy day:

Well I'm feeling a little more "normal" today. My calves hurt like the dickens and my quads are screaming (in fact, my calves are worse today). I'm 99.9% sure that I will not be doing the Barking Dog Duathlon on Saturday. I am going to need more time recover for sure. The Meralgia Paresthetica region of my thigh is tight, but I am not feeling any burning or tingling just fatigue. During my easy ride last night I could feel tension and a tired sensation there but no burning. I think if I'm patient, this thing will just work itself out. In the meantime there are politics and shit to worry about!! For instance: George W. Bush. The Worst President in the history of the United States. This is not an arguable point - this is fact. I would go as far as saying the guy is a full on traitor and is guilty of crimes against humanity and more! Perhaps debatable, but only if one is blind and sports a double digit IQ. How did it come to this? Why? Well, it is our own damn fault. All of us, the citizens of this grand experiment known as democracy. We let our guard down, we didn't pay attention to the details, we forgot how to read, we watched Fixed (Fox) News and believed that a stain on a dress was more important than a rational and humane foreign policy and a rational and humane domestic policy... Yep we were all just too plain busy "Putting food on our family" to read George W. Bush's resume. Shame on us. And isn't it ironic that shortly before 9-ll GWB forgot to read the Presidential Daily Brief that stated clearly that Bin Laden was determined to attack (instead taking another much needed vacation)? Oh yeah George no read; but that is another story. Yep, we hired this guy... if you believe the media. We voted for this man two times. WE HIRED HIM. No background check, no lie detectors, no aptitude screening nothing... Hell, we didn't even read the resume! His offical college transcripts are out there but they are not very impressive. Yale, Harvard... GWB was a beneficiary of some arcane form of affirmative action for the rich and connected known as Legacy Admission; which for some reason Bush now opposes. Perhaps he read his resume! You should too. Would you hire this person to run your company? USACO Did! OUCH that has got to hurt! George W. Bush Resume Past work experience: !>Ran for congress and lost !>Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie. !>Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. !>Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox. !>With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. !>Accomplishments: Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history. !>Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court. Accomplishments as president: !>Attacked and took over two countries. !>Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury. !>Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. !>Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period. !>Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. !>First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. !>First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. !>First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. !>After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history. !>Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history. !>In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job. !>Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history. !>Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period. !>Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history. !>Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television. !>Signed more laws and executive orders circumventing the Constitution than any president in US history. !>Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. !>Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have. !>Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans. !>Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. (http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/) !>Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history. !>My presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history. !>Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleezza Rice has an Chevron oil tanker named after her). !>Had more states to simultaneously go bankrupt than any president in the history of the United States. !>Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world. !>Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States. !>Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history. !>First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission. !>First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board. !>Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history. !>Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant. !>Withdrew from the World Court of Law. !>Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions. !>First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections). !>All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations. !>My biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation). !>Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history. !>First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community. !>First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1) !>First US president to establish a secret shadow government. !>Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history). !>With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years. !>Fist US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability. !>First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea. !>Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. !>Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts. !>Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'. !>Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects. !>In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States. !>Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history. !>In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war. !>Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down. Records and References: !>At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available). !>AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war. !>Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use. !>All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. !>All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. !>All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. !>Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review. !>For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.) --Thanks to Kelley Kramer for compiling this fantastic list of achievements!