A champion to the end.............

It is with very mixed emotions that I have just heard the fate of Barbaro. Barbaro was put down today after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness. He was truly a champion until the end. He had reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain. I was an avid horse fan in my early teen years and we even acquired a horse when at 14 we moved to an acreage outside of Albert Lea. Since, one of the first "real" dates I had with my husband was watching (on tv) the Kentucky Derby way back in 1972, I have always had wistful thoughts when May rolls around of days gone by and still find myself tuning into the Kentucy derby on many of those racing days. Getting back to my having a horse days, Star was a most peculiar horse since we could be galloping down the road and all of a sudden he would see a patch of soft, green grass and head straight for it. Trouble is there were way too many patches of soft, green grass and he gave no warning of when he was going to stop. So, needless to say as time went on he was rode less often and eventually ended up at my Aunt Carol's farm in Roger's where he roamed eating mutitudes of soft, green grass for many years amongst the milking cows.

Yesterday, was supposed to have been a day of rest from exercise but it ended up being a running day after all since I have plans for after work today. It was harder to run yesterday since it was so cold but I was pretty well prepared so I ran the whole mile and even upped my time by 3 minutes and then spent 20 minutes on the elliptical.

Hope all is going well with those of you training and to those of you who are not, I have found the hardest part is getting started.