This one is dedicated to Niki, my favorite training buddy

Some of you might know that my goal after surgery last year was to run a marathon one year after surgery. Instead, I had surgery again one year later. Well, I have made it my goal again to run a marathon in February 2008. My best friend from dental school Niki was patient with me last year when I could not train and is currently training with me now. Yesterday, after work, I decided to check out the gym facilities here in Barrow. Without going into too much detail, I decided to run outside instead of utilizing their "treadmill in a closet" set up. As I was running down the frozen tundra 5 feet from the frozen Artic ocean with my breath visible on each exhale, I couldn't help but think of the Rocky movie when he fights the Russian. Pretty sure everyone will get that reference. So while my training buddy Ivan Drago is home in Houston utilizing her eliptical and track, I will be up here training like Rocky. I was thinking about carrying a piece of wood later for dramatic effect. I'm pretty awesome.