12,000 views!

First thing, first - THANK YOU!

For as boring as my story is (guy gets fat, guy gets fit), it seems to resonate with many.  The number of folks that have contacted me in search of assistance and motivation makes it worth it.  (And being in decent shape isn't bad either)

Also, I've added another race to the calendar.  Thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Schoonover for allowing Indiana Vein Specialist to once again sponsor my entry into the Carmel 8k on April 12.  After doing the Carmel marathon last year, I've become a fan of this event, and just wanted to be a part of the weekend again this year.  By doing the 8k, I'll be eligible for an additional medal as part of the Triple Crown Series when I compete in the Hoosier Park 8k on May 24.

Sadly, I have opted to decline my entry to the RnR USA half in Washington DC on March 15.  It just hit to close to Spring Break to try and pull off that much travel away from the kids.  No worries here though, this allows me to keep working on my base work as we're just about a month away from the serious training schedule.  The back is feeling decent, but I will once again have to be careful this year.  Thanks as always to my sponsors Got Chocolate Milk/Team Refuel and Team X-1 Audio for the ongoing support.

Finally, thanks to my readers.  I will hit 12,000 lifetime views with this post today (my 141st post)  Pretty cool.  My blog has really taken off this last year with 8,000 of these 12,000 views in 2013. Here are some more interesting stats:
*Only 9500 of these views were in the US - Apparently I'm also popular in Russia, Latvia, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, and Romania!
*The most popular post was "What is the Price of Being Healthy/Molly's Story" with almost 1000 views
*The second most popular was my Ironman Louisville race recap with barely 500 views (puts things into perspective - perhaps an update on Molly should be in the works)
*August 2013 was the biggest month with over 1500 views

Again, I'm so thankful to stay healthy enough to share my story, and I appreciate you all taking an interest in my life.  I welcome your comments and suggestions for improving this blog.  While it is my "public diary", there are surely ways to make it better.  Currently the kids and I are home on a "snow day" with a forecast high of 0 degrees today while Molly is "working" in Tempe, Arizona.  Looking forward to getting back to routines and seeing what we can all accomplish in 2014!

Cheers to making this a great year!