Cranked out a 9-miler in the midst of a workday

Do you know what I realized today? My life is easy. I mean, seriously, what major problems do I have in my life? Virtually none.

It was in the midst of my 9-miler at 12:30 PM that these thoughts hit me over the head. It's not like I have not realized I am blessed before, but I think about this a lot lately.

I work for a major consumer products company -- in the adult beverages industry. Yes, that's right -we make alcoholic beverages. It's a great gig. I am doing pretty well there for my experience level. I love what I do. I work in a fun company. Somehow, I have been able to balance my running, job, interests all without any major difficulty.

Today, for instance, I left my office -- really with no announcement to anybody -- to go to down to our gym and prepare for long 9-miler over my lunch. Why not? It's marathon training, right?

The kicker is that I had a 1PM meeting. So, at around 11:25 AM, how would I drop everything, get dressed for the winter weather, run a 9-miler, catch a shower, and appear for a 1PM meeting?

I pulled it off. OK, maybe I came up slighltly short. My Polar tells me I hit 8.77 miles, but that's no big sweat.

The point is I am 30 years old, happily married, in good health, in a good career, in a good financial situation -- and overall, life could not be better.

By the way, I did my "almost" 9 miles after a late night hockey game last night. I arrived home at 12:10 AM after a 7-5 win. I even pulled off a hat trick.

I need to express the amount of hills that I ran today over lunch. It was crazy elevation here in Norwalk, CT. It was the hardest run I have done in a long while.

I did my run in just over 1:06 -- quite a rapid pace -- given the elevation challenges.

Happy Holidays!