Since I’ve gotten back in to mountain biking, I’ve been following the local boards on a close-to daily basis. I recently saw a post from a guy who wanted to team up for <a href=”http://www.ex2adventures.com/12-hours-of-cranky.php” target=”_self”>12 Hours of Cranky Monkey</a>, a 12-hour mountain bike race down in Quantico, VA. Intrigued, I contacted him, we settled everything up, then after a few days of talking he shared his name… and I know him! I’ve had lunch with him a dozen or so times and we meet at the track regularly. Goofy small world… Here I was worried I’d have to deal with meeting new people on top of riding/maintaining my bike for an entire day, but instead we’re already well-acquainted. Sweet.<br/><br/>Annnd since <a href=”../index.php?misc=search&amp;subaction=showfull&amp;id=1199409726&amp;archive=&amp;cnshow=news&amp;ucat=2&amp;start_from=” target=”_parent”>one of my goals for the year</a> (#1 isn’t going to happen, #2 is in progress, #3 is in progress, #4 is happening in less than a month, #5 needs to be planned, #6 needs to be planned, and the 100-mile bike ride [not on my yearly list, but on my life list] will be cake) is to run a marathon, I just signed up for the <a href=”http://marinemarathon.com/mcm/static/mcm-splash-now-open.html” target=”_blank”>Marine Corps Marathon</a> with a target time of 3:30 (8 minute mile pace). I will likely go faster than that, but a) running an uberfast marathon is not my goal this year, b) I just want to finish, and c) this is just going to be a secondary benefit of my hard 5k training; I’ll be in great shape at this time, but not training specifically for a marathon. So next year will be fast marathon year in which I’ll hopefully qualify for <a href=”http://www.bostonmarathon.org/” target=”_blank”>Boston</a> so I can cross another item off my <a href=”http://www.elifelist.com/list.php?action=homepage&amp;user_id=528&amp;all=1″ target=”_blank”>Life List</a>.<br/><br/>Tidbit: Since I got serious on April 1st, I’ve run 75 miles (3 miles less than my highest ever) and biked 47 (highest ever by 5 miles AND I did all that in only half the month). I’ve also settled my weight down to the lowest point since I’ve been keeping track (3 years). Hurrah! Time to shave the head again…<br/>