There has been some craziness in the shop, including almost losing the tip of my finger, as well as a few rush orders (i.e. - will you make this dresser while I wait?")...
WTF?
As always, I'm grateful for the business, but working one handed isn't one of my best skill-sets.
Anyway, I want to write about something completely unrelated to wood today - being inspired.
Did you ever meet someone and you just know you're a better person for having met them? In this case, I had the opportunity to have dinner last week with four amazing people who were all in town for the Zappos.com Rock and Roll Marathon in Las Vegas last weekend.
It was their carb loading dinner, as all were running the half-marathon the following morning.
Meeting them got me thinking about what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it - in this case, all were amazingly calm and almost nonchalant about what they were about to do the next morning... run 13+ miles. I can't even imagine that!
I managed to get up early the next morning and get down to the Strip to cheer them on, thinking to myself - how the hell does someone strip down to nearly nothing when it's only 40˚ outside, let alone run for two hours?
Here are some of the amazing photos of that morning.
Who knew that Elvis was a runner? There were many impersonators in the crowd - what's the plural of Elvis? Elvi?
A SpongeBob Elvis? Nice.
And there were some great costumes in the crowd. I had no idea!
There were quite a few brides and grooms.
And caped crusaders.
And a "coach" who was cheering everyone along with a martini.
My friend, Kristi, motivating everyone with her cowbell.
There were bands set up every few miles, playing music along the route for the runners.
Very cool.
It was literally a sea of runners, as far as you could see down the Strip.
And here are my friends, about three miles from the end of the run. They were actually smiling!
I don't know if they were pulling my leg or not, but they said there were beers available for the runners along the way.
Hmmm... that might not be enough enticement for me.
And finally, the finish line at Mandalay Bay, where Bret Michaels was performing a free concert.
Runners and supporters were everywhere, and I was just proud to be there, watching everyone celebrating. Honestly, it was quite moving.
Best of all, it almost inspired me to strap on my running shoes and take a shot at it next year. This page has a training schedule, in case these photos inspire you, too.
Another very cool thing - copies of the book "Delivering Happiness" written by the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hseih were being passed out to everyone. This book details the beginnings of Zappos, and outlines his thoughts about running a business. It was quite compelling, I devoured it in two nights.
It might be one of my more favorite books on running a business, and I plow through a lot of those. Congrats to Tony for developing such a great management style, and a fabulous company.
Congrats to all the runners, you were awesome!
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