Happy 12th Birthday to Waverly!

It is really just hard to believe that Waverly is 12 years old today.

I remember holding her first at a little after 3 a.m. twelve (12) years ago, and running a little over two (2) miles around the track at Knox Junior High with her last night is special too - just in a different way. (I had to edit the previous sentence because her birth was the most incredible moment and I had written that running with her Tuesday night was greater. It wasn't.) But the incredible things that she has been able to experience so far in life isn't extravagant by any means, but I would describe them all as "unique" and "special".

I don't keep track (isn't that a surprise), but she wiped out Dad's achievements in the 6th grade with all A's and one B.

She did a half marathon at the age of 10.

She sang a solo less than two weeks ago at school. (Oh, my plan was to share the video with you here; however, before I could get over to my parents and help my Mom get it off the recorder, she accidentally taped over it. My Dad, who was in Pennsylvania to see his parents, wasn't the most happy individual.)

She's had the opportunity to do so many things, but the most remarkable thing is that she's a very good, well-respected young lady.

I did help Bill Dwyer exact a little fun and embarrassing revenge last night. Waverly helped coordinate with Gena, Debbie Tripp and Kim Hager the surprise birthday event at Run The Woodlands 5K #169 on January 6th for not only me, but also Bill after she overheard him talking about his birthday the week before at track night.

I called Bill with enough time for him to positively, of course, embarrass her in front of the Luke's Locker Beat programs folks as well as Kim Hager's tri group. Many in both groups already know Waverly. Once everybody was done with their track workouts, everyone sang "Happy Birthday!" to her.

We're taking her out to eat later tonight.

She and I did our usual thing. Walk one time around the track, in the outside lane, to warm up and cool down, and then eight (8) laps.

She did the eight (8) laps in 26:51.20, which was 2.217 miles (3,568 meters) for a 12:06/mile pace. We only ran it hard the last lap. (I told her that Ken Johnson, president of the Seven Hills Running Club, who shares her birthday today, was expecting her to run on June 9th in the competition against The Woodlands Running Club at Run The Woodlands.)

I just tried to have her run steady (and we carried on a conversation most of the time) and these were her splits: 3:11, 3:25, 3:26, 3:25, 3:26, 3:31, 3:26, 3:02.

I then added another 1.108 miles (4 laps in lane 7) in 11:24.19 for a 10:17/mile pace.

I had done 50 minutes on the stationery bike late Monday night at Bally's after the weekend of back-to-back half marathons.