I'll Take Potpourri for $1,000, Alex...

I haven't been real good about updating, a lot of which simply has to do with the lack of time, so I thought I'd just touch on some of several happenings in the past week, or several. Since I haven't posted anything about my running lately, primarily since there hadn't been any, I thought I'd start there. I am actually into my third week of doing some consistent running. Yeah!! You can follow my workouts on the right sidebar below, but basically, I started out with some easy 5K jogs about 3 weeks ago. I have purposely not taken a watch or my Garmin, just simply gone out and ran/jogged easily without regard to time or pace. I have progressed up to 4.1 miles a run and have been going out 4 or 5 days a week, and could do more, but won't as I want to build my mileage slowly and not aggravate my right lower leg (RLL), which so far has not given me too much grief over my re-introduction to running. I have had some post run pain in my RLL, usually the following day or two, which is my sign not to run on those days. So far, so good.

I even picked up a new pair of running shoes pictured below, Saucony ProGrid Guide, which I found at Dick's on sale for $69.99 and I had a $10.00 coupon so, I got them for $64.04 after tax! I just love getting good shoes for a good price. I've like them very well so far. We had gotten Lindsey the same pair in women's at Dave's for her cross country season, which I didn't realize when I got mine. We have very similar feet, though she has a much flatter arch than I.
I've ran with Tammy and Lindsey on more than a few occassions which has been awesome. It keeps me from going at too fast a pace and it's just nice running with people you adore and love being with. Ask me who spits the worst out of the 3 of us. Heh! I'm trying to get Lindsey to perfect the snot-rocket, but she won't have anything to do with it. Her loss. So, with all of us running, I thought I would sign us up as a family for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K at the end of this month and have done so. Chelsea's in as well so, Team Velich will be running the 5K Race for the Cure on September 28th in downtown Toledo. How cool is that!?! I am so excited! We're each running on behalf of someone that is battling or has battled breast cancer. I am running in honor of my friend's mother, Helen Deal; Tammy is running in honor of her Aunt Katie Hiller; Chelsea is running in honor of her best friend's grandma, Sixta Contreras, and Lindsey is running in honor of my parents' old neighbor, Kathy Feik. We know so many more people that this cancer has affected, like our former pastor's wife, Mary Cryderman, and you all will be on our hearts in that race. We do have a fund raising goal for the Komen Race for the Cure foundation of $400.00 as a family. If you would like to donate to this awesome cause through our family team, you can do so via the internet or a printable donation page at our family's team website by clicking HERE.


As I posted previously about our annual Ludington trip, my dad was not able to make the trip, which has typically been a father and son camping and fishing gig since the late 70's and early 80's, and I really missed having him and his neighbor, Walt, another stalwart crew member, there with us when we went with the Johnstons last month. So, we booked a charter last week on Catchin', with Captain Myron Gilbert, who also charters for walleye earlier in the summer out of my dad's marina, Luna Pier Harbor Club. I also asked my friend, Vicki's (who's mother I am running on behalf of in the Race for the Cure) husband, Rob, if he would like to join us since I knew of his love of fishing and just being out on the water. We zipped up to Ludington last Wednesday afternoon and headed out on our charter with Captain Myron Thursday morning at 5:15 a.m. As I was assisting the captain in setting the second line out of 14 after reaching our starting destination about a mile north of Big Point Sable, I inquisitively asked him if he ever had a fish take a line while it was being set. He had barely finished his affirmative answer when a fish hit the line I was putting out. That was the start to a fishing melee that lasted about 2 hours, during which time I don't think we even got all 14 lines out. It was an absolute blast and some of the best fishing we have ever enjoyed. Below are pics of my dad with a couple of the largest fish we caught that morning, the largest being 20 pounds, and then our entire limit catch of 15 fish, most of which were between 15 and 20 pounds!

Rob and I with our fantastic catch. I don't think I stopped grinning that whole day! We had such a blast!
Lindsey had her first cross country invitational this past Saturday. It was in Tiffin, Ohio, the Tiffin Carnival, and is one of the largest, if not the largest, cross country invitationals in the Midwest, if not the country, boasting 553 junior high and high school teams from the Midwest and 6,585 runners! Lindsey ran in the Junior High open race, finishing 78th out of a field of 332 in her race and her team placed 6th out of 26! She ran a personal record (PR) of 15:47 for the two mile cross country course, nearly a full minute faster than her previous race! Great job, Linds! She's pictured below just after the 1 mile mark of the race attacking one of the several hills on the 2 mile course. Notice the sea of runners behind her!

The girls are in their first full week back to school. Chelsea is a senior this year and was accepted to dual-enroll, which means she gets to take a college course through the local community college, for which she receives college credit and the school district pays for the course. She is taking an english class this first semester. This will be a good taste of what is to come if she chooses to go on to college next year and, she'll already have some credits under her belt!

We had a massive structure fire this past weekend at a local golf course where the clubhouse caught fire. The building was completely involved in fire before we were even dispatched to the scene so, we were behind the eight ball from the start on this fire. You can see a clip on the fire from a local news station here. Unfortunatley, I don't have any video or photos to direct you to of the fire as it was when we approached the scene. If I do get one, I'll post it as it was a pretty wicked sight. One of the largest structure fires I have been on scene on in my nearly 15 years on the department. We were dispatched about 11:40 p.m. on Saturday night and I didn't get home from the call and to bed until 9:45 a.m. Sunday. Um, I missed church... sorry Pastor Dean. I didn't think he would appreciate someone snoring in the middle of his message, no matter how compelling his sermon.