I have awesome friends (and an awesome weekend)

Sometimes it's easy to take people for granted, especially people in your life you don't see every day. I know I'm guilty of this as much or more than anyone. That's why I was happily reminded this weekend just how great the people in my life are not only to me. but to others and just in general.

First of all, thanks to all of you who read Friday's entry and helped John Young win a free entry into the 2012 NYC Triathlon. John won going away, and deservedly so. You won't find a tougher or more optimistic triathlete out there, and if by clicking "like"a few times we were able to help make next season more affordable for him, so much the better. Triathlon is an expensive sport, I wish I could help more of my friends make their racing less expensive.

Next up is Derek, who I mentioned is doing a fundraiser. As all around good guy and friend of the blog, Derek is working to help Habitat for Humanity raise the $75,000 they need in order to build a house. His personal goal is to make a $5,000 donation through sales of the Habitat Calendar he created with the help of a terrific nature photographer. They're $20 each, and the proceeds go towards making the donation. Plus, everyone who purchases a calendar before 1/1/12 gets entered into a raffle to win their choice of a Kindle Fire, or a $200 Apple Gift card!

Then there's our teammate Jordan, who ran the Marine Corps Marathon yesterday in 3:00:40, which if you're unfamiliar with my personal race experience is about 15 minutes faster than my fastest HALF marathon. He made sure to let me know how much work it was to get there; which serves a reminder that the suffering I do right now when I run is and will be worth it, even if I may never be nearly that fast. He's one of the nicest people we met in Boston, and he just happened to be on our Tri team. So nice, when he has a great race, he gives to other peoples charities, having them guess what his time will be, and the closest folks win. The better he does against his goals, the more people's charities he donates to. Next time, he'll be sub-3 hours, I'm sure of it.

Closer to home, ok actually at home, Rachelle and I raced a local race on Saturday, the Healthy Harvest 5k. It was the centerpiece of a day long town festival in a small town near our house. Rach kicked butt and won her AG, and I did pretty well, especially considering where I am in my running training. I was last in my AG, but not last in the race. I kept to my 1:30/3:30 splits, and I was able to run the last 3:38 continuously. More progress to be made, but I'm getting there. There will be a 30 minute 5k in my future. Not sure if it will be 2011, but definite 2012.

Aside from the race, I got in a nice 10 mile ride yesterday, further improving my Strava KOM on the 2.7 mile climb to our house from Rach's work. As I'm the Strava user riding this segment it's a bit of a false positive, but it lets me track my progress, so I'll take it. If you're on Strava follow me, and I'll follow back. I love looking at other peoples rides. Today I've got a run and a swim, as the Shipwreck Tri gets closer. I've been having problems with the registration process, so hopefully I can get that fixed today.

Finally, on the dog front, he's officially been renamed! His name is Stanley (as in Cup), and he's growing so fast! Thanks to the assists from my twitter friends Stephanie and Lesli, we learned the proper way to get Stanley to sleep at night, and he's been doing much better in his crate, and we've mostly been able to avoid potty accidents with him so far. He's also found his big boy voice barking a couple of times while playing this weekend. To say it's adorable watching our little dog bark loud doesn't do it justice. Tonight is his first bath, and that will be fun to see Rachelle try to do. I will definitely post pictures tomorrow!