We'll this is it.  I have been looking forward to this for a year and a half.  I am competing in my first big ultra marathon.  I am heading up to the mountains of West Virgina for a moonlight run on Cheat Mountain.  The race starts at 9pm Friday and we'll run through the night.  Flashlight? Check.  Batteries? Check.  Vaseline? Check(don't ask).

I have competed in five 50k races so far and I have run four or five marathon distance training runs but I never got over 33 miles so this is going to truly shock my body.  Especially since I usually cramp up so bad that I have to hug a tree to keep from falling on my face around mile 20.  I hope to go slow and have as much fun as I can while running 50 miles.  I have also blocked out the fact that when I finish, hopefully in under 11 hours, I will have not had sleep in over 25 hours.  Fun! 

Look for lots of Twitter post this weekend and another blog post about the run.  I am of course going to carry a camera/video camera.  After this maybe running 100 miles in 24 hours will not seem so scary.  But that's something to look forward to next year.  Gotta do one step at a time.

I am complete gadget FREAK (in denial of course).  I just got this SD memory card that goes in any camera (that takes SD cards) and it automatically uploads images to your computer and if you choose it will also send them to any number of photo sharing sites like my personal favorite, flickr.  The card I got is the latest version in the Eye-fi product line and it added geotagging so it not only automatically uploads on one of 10,000 Wayport Wi-Fi networks but it also figures out where the photo was taken based on any nearby Wi-Fi network.  Not exactly as accurate as GPS but very close.  Not bad for something the size of a quarter.

This should be a lot of fun for me because I normally get so bogged down tying to edit all my fun photos that I never get them up.  It's so much better to just take them and immediately share them with friends and family.  I know my in-laws are going to be excited to finally see more pictures of their granddaughter. 

About a week ago I got two numbers for the Peachtree Road Race.  Amy has run it about a dozen times but I have never had the experience.  I always felt that the huge crowd would make it miserable.  I thought 55,000 other runners would make me feel a little claustrophobic. I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was a blast!  We rode Marta with past clients and friends, Karen and Chris up to Buckhead and then jumped in after the first couple of groups came by since our numbers would have had us starting in the way back.  It was cool to spectate as the wheelchairs and the fastest runners went by.  The crowd of runners was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  I even snagged a Moe's and a Chick-fil-A t-shirt that were being thrown to runners.  I almost took a guy out for the Chick-fil-A shirt.  Since Amy is in the middle of training for the Chicago Marathon and I am training for a 50mi. ultra marathon we ran home to get some extra miles in.  It was not too hot and we really enjoyed the run.  We even got to take a nap afterwords since Amy's parents were watching Anna.

Follow me on twitter!!!

I have known about twitter for some time now but I never thought it would be useful to me since I already have a blog...until now.  Soon I'll have a twitter update box in the top right of my blog so you can see what I am doing on a daily basis.  I have always wanted to blog more but I get so bogged down trying to always have good edited photos.  I end up not posting as often as I would like.

Since twitter is a micro blog I hope to fill in all the gaps.  Please feel free to follow me on www.twitter.com/jasonspruill.  You might even see when I am working on your photos!  If you already have a twitter account let me know I'm looking for friends to follow.

Well, I'm off to Tybee Island for Leah and Jay's wedding this weekend.  I might not have internet access but if I do look for some cool pics soon.

Jason  

42 hours and no problems except for one minor incident with someone in the back but all original 20 parents got in.  I know Anna will appreciate the sacrifice we made.  I got a little delirious at registration and I can barley hold my head up now.  I really regret running 10 miles worth of laps around the school during the first night.  Oh well, we're in.

Yay!  

Well, 28 hours later and I am #6 for my daughter's pre-K registration.  There are twenty slots  and it didn't get ugly until all the slots were full.  So far the cops have only been called once.

Here are AJC photos from Mary Lin, they have some serious parents in Candler Park.

11Alive news story

All smiles during the first hour.

The camper.

Here's a little clip of my daughter, Anna riding her wooden Like-A-Bike.  It won't be long before she's racing!