The planet Houston

I can't help but think of all the fun references to Houston in movies and such. I got off the plane and the first thing my wife said to me was "I take it you made it to the planet Houston". In case you don't remember, the planet Houston was introduced by the crazy villains in one of the Superman movies. I don't remember which one.

Anyway, my first full day in Houston was fun. I had a relaxing morning reading up on some news and a few fun journal articles from Quality Progress, Environmental Health and the Journal of Veterinary Research. I checked in for the American Academy of Science Environmental Science and Technology conference and started networking. It didn't take me long to make some friends as the more you travel the world the easier it is to connect with people from around the world. It's amazing when you find out someone is from a country and you've been there and can even exchange greetings in their native language how quickly the ice is broken.

I discovered also yesterday just how hard the relay I'm doing next week is going to be. I ran at about 4 miles at 9PM on Sunday night and then woke up and did 3 on Monday morning. It really hurt. Now I've run 7 or 8 miles straight before but never split it up like that and now I'm worried about next week because I have to do 8.8,3.8 and 3.5 each about 8 hours apart. I suppose yesterday was more of a challenge because of the time change and not eating much but it still has me a little worried. I think I'll be fine if I just slow down and don't try to race. My guess is that I'll probably average between 9:30 and 10:30 miles which is waaaay slow running but it'll allow me to get through the race without keeling over at the end.

Heading downstairs now to see if I can meet some more interesting people.