In brief....

Yesterday the running jumped to nine miles. Today, the soreness increased tenfold. I don't expect to leave my desk much today. But training now lies just 4.1 miles from the finish line with five weeks to go. I can't wait.

Other random bits:

I locked my keys in the car Saturday, and the locksmith's handiwork now means I can only open my driver's door from the outside. Unfortunately, Nashville sees too much rain for me to go the Duke boy route with the Corolla, so it might have to be fixed.

Go watch "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." Now. Brad Pitt is a great, menacing Jesse James, but Casey Affleck is even better as the man willing to gun down his idol in pursuit of fame and glory.

My sister considers me unready for a move to the big city, but urged me not to unload the cat whose favorite pasttimes are 1. biting me; 2. clawing me; 3. swatting me; 4. pouncing on me; and 5. eating bugs.

I'm staying dry for St. Patricks' Day. In honor of the 9-mile run, I drank a fine bottle of microbrewed stout from St. Louis last night and quit while still far ahead. If you must drink, by all means skip the putrid green beer trend - there's not a trace of Irish in it, just copious amounts of food coloring.

On St. Patrick's Day stick to a simple rhyme - "if it's brown, drink it down, if it's green, vent your spleen."

I'll leave you with two reasons to go for Guinness - it has only 120 calories a bottle, as much an average light beer, and is only 4.3 percent alcohol by volume, so you can imbibe a lot without getting rip roaring drunk.