I went to Weight Watchers again this morning. I'm down to 194 lbs. I'm stunned. I feel good but it's taken a lot of work. I'VE BEEN BUSTING MY ASS. The funny thing is - - I feel like I look decent in clothes. Unclothed...totally different story. I want to look like I'm in a P90X infomercial (http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do?code=P90XDOTCOM)
Still. I'm making progress. As cliche as it sounds - - I am making it happen...

What my friends said about running (/training for) the Boston Marathon:

Hey man,Thanks! It was pretty wild to actually do it. What are you up to these days? That's cool that you've run a marathon! Did you do it in NYC or Houston? Don't knock your time - just finishing is a big deal. I finished my first one in 5 hours and was very happy. I never planned or even dreamt of being able to qualify for Boston, but each year I worked a little harder and gradually improved on what I'd done before, and somehow I managed to do it. I wrote about my run in my blog:(DELETED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT) Anyway, to give you a serious answer to a serious question, I think it just comes down to training and committment. Did you follow any sort of training schedule when you ran before? If you'd like I can send you one I made for a friend who ran her first marathon last year and second this year, and is still around the 5-hour time but improving and enjoying it.I try to run at least 4-5 days a week all year round. I usually start a training schedule about 4-5 months before the marathon, and it basically consists of a short, medium and short run during the week, then a long run on the weekend, and sometimes an extra short run on the weekend if I have time or feel like it, which usually doesn't happen to be honest. The long runs start at just a little more distance than the medium runs and gradually build every weekend until I'm doing 18-20 mile runs. Two weeks before the marathon I start to taper those back down.I've been using that basic format each year, and then kind of bumping up the distance of my short and medium runs slightly each year, as I grow comfortable with them. When I started, my short and medium runs were 3 & 5 miles, and now they're 6 & 8 miles.Another thing I tried this year which I think really helped was doing some light strength training. I fucking hate doing sit-ups and push-ups, but I've read that your overall core fitness helps with distance running, so I tried to do some of those 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes I felt like I was exercising nearly every day, which was really annoying, but it doesn't really take much time to do a few sit-ups and push-ups, so I just tried to force myself to do them, and I do think it helped.Anyway, I hope that helps. I don't think I'm a hard-core fitness dude, but somehow I really took to running. I don't belong to a gym or anything. It's kind of embarassing talking about exercising so much, but since you asked, I wanted to give you a straight-up answer. Here's another blog post where I talk about my first forrays into running and how embarassed about it I was: (DELETED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT) Maybe you'll relate. Anyway, good to hear from you Sean! Good luck with the running!

I would actually like to go see him run it this year. He lives in California and I haven't seen him in a few years. As he mentions, he was never known as a runner (or an athlete, for that matter...) Qualifying for Boston is huge.

My roommate is back today, but only for the weekend. She's been traveling for work. I didn't see her though. She went out and I stayed home and did what I do best: watch the Office and 30 Rock while knitting. I finished the scarf I'm sending to my Nana. Well, as much as I can finish. My co-worker will have to help me "finish" it. I don't know how to complete it.