Tomorrow is a 5 hour run with good friends. It will be a good test for my injured knee, that's for sure. I've been going to physical therapy 3x per week, and I think it may be helping. My knee is certainly better than two weeks ago and I am hoping that it will be 100% in another two weeks.

Last night and tonight I practiced putting up my tent and then taking it down. I will have to be comfortable taking it down in the pitch dark in Costa Rica, so I figure it is time to practice. Lots of things to get together for The Coastal Challenge and I am starting to get really excited.

I am frequently asked about the spiders and snakes in Costa Rica. I absolutely hate spiders and I'm not exactly happy to think about the possibility of getting bit by a snake in the Rainforest either. Two years ago while racing there, I just didn't let myself think of such things that slither in the jungle. Over 130 different snake species make Costa Rica their home, and this includes some of the world's most deadly. Bushmasters, coral snakes, and the REALLY dangerous fer-de-lance are famous. The scary thing is that these fellows generally live in the jungles hot spots and are generally shy, but there is an exception.

There are also boa constrictors which I am told are not venomous and thus not so dangerous. Still, anything that can squeeze me tighter than my boyfriend is never going to be on my favorite things list.

The fer-de-lance is absolutely deadly, and even if you survive, it inflicts a permanent necrosis to tissue that can be life crippling.

Like most snakes, it prefers to be left alone, but it does sometimes bite humans with little provocation. The fer-de-lance bites several hundred people each year in Costa Rica, mostly those agricultural workers who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only about six people in Costa Rica die from the fer de lance.

Because of the ready availability of antivenin produced at the Clodomiro Picado Institute, which makes much of the antivenin used in Central America, deaths from snake bites are low. At the Clodomiro Picado Institute, over 200 snakes, including the fer-de-lance, are "milked" to produce antivenin.

Today is my son, Calebs 25th Birthday. Hard to believe that 25 years ago today, such a beautiful, perfect, little boy was born to me. I will be forever grateful that I was chosen to raise him. An amazing young man and such a loving, responsible 25 year old. I am so lucky!

Enjoy the three day weekend, everyone. The weather here is suppose to be great. I am sure looking forward to it. Get out and do something fun. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life.