Okay whew I finally got done scanning to catch up--lotta typing been going on this week.
Shorts discussion: (yes I'm too lazy to look up who

) Definitely, the shorts can change your stride. The only kind of shorts that I can wear that don't bunch up are Umbro shorts with the checkerboard design. Any other brand-nope! Any other style of umbros--Nope! I have to wear those spandex/cotton bike shorts under anything other than checkers Umbros. I just about died a few years back when they stopped marketing in the US. Then they stopped making checkerboard style. Thank heavens that they started making them again and that my uncle just happens to make semi-frequent trips to London

And it isnt just chubbiness, b/c like I said any others will bunch but the c.b. style doesnt.
Anne: 
I'm sooo ready. I really hope that its good weather that day, right now its not bad temp-wise, but it is nasty-humid out there--you feel like you are swimming instead of running! I'm trying to figure out my running schedule for the week leading up to CCC, since I'm thinking that doing my 14 miler LR on friday is not gonna fly!
Dave: The socks sound great! I wonder if we could do a penguin holding up a feather....

I think I have an idea of one accessory I will be carrying during the Goofy *tiptoes off to go find a lime green feather*
Kristi: Here's a page on lacing tips:
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/cgi...@@@@&BV_EngineID=iaddgfeldlimbekgcgecfeedgf.0 And my hands tend to swell up if I am walking for a long distance with them down near my sides, as long as they are even with my heart they are all good.
Cam: Say "HI" to the Mouse for us! Have a super trip.
Kevin: Puppy!!!

That is soo neat to do fostering. And btw our female black lab (a runt when she was a pup) is about 65 lbs but she didnt reach that weight until she was 2 or 3 yrs old.
On warm up/stretching: I have a good 5 min walk to get to the running trails so I consider that my warm up. I *try* to start my workout jogs slowly. I always stretch after I run so that I know that my muscles are good and warm.
I've had a rather hectic past few weeks with school, but my runs have been going quite well. I love love love

Cricket (garmin). Today I had a 12 miler. I was a dorcas and forgot to program my intervals to repeat more than twice so I ran into the third interval and was wondering what was going on....stopped, fixed it, kept going though it messed up having one coherent workout report --grrr. Overall I went 13.1 miles (gee isnt that convient

) including my cool down walk at the end. It took right at 3 hours which I am happy happy about.
I tried using granola bars during my run but I think I'm going to switch to gatorade, b/c the bars were just too sweet and I sweat like a horse, so I really need to be replacing salt/electrolytes in addition to fuel. Guess that means that I need to go shopping for a fuel belt

gee golly darn!
I've had some nice short runs where I got a 12 min/mile pace going and that makes me

.
My best friend's DS1yr had to be put in the hospital a couple of days ago b/c he hadnt been putting on weight and then he stopped eating and drinking and dropped from 25 lbs to 16 lbs in four days. They have been running tests on him but dont have back any conclusive results yet. They think it might be Cystic Fibrosis, which is very scary for my friend. Good news is that they have him on an IV AND he has started eating and drinking again. Her husband has had to miss work which is even more stressful, plus Child Protective Services were called in (b/c he dropped weight so much) which is another headache through all of it. Her other two kids DD6 and DS3 are both healthy and happy, plus she has many many people (including her doc who had just seen DS1 just before he started dropping) who can vouch that she does feed her children, so its more just a headache than a problem. So please keep her and her DS in your prayers and thoughts this week.
I'm going into NOLA tomorrow to help clean/gut/rebuild houses, so I'm gonna call that crosstraining.