Sometimes it's not about how good your run is. Sometimes it's all about how much money you find.

Yesterday's run home from Zappos was the most sluggish I've had in a while. I was actually looking foward to running home - I felt good almost all day, ate a good sized portion of pasta for lunch and stayed nice and hydrated all day long, so I'm not too sure why I was so beat. Things were really sucking until I got about three miles into the run and suddenly my eyes were blessed by the wonderful sight of a shiny dime! It's amazing how finding money revives a tattered mind and body. I was feeling a little better.

Another block and what do you know - Another dime! At this point I'm considering retirement from Zappos. I was feeling a lot better.

Another mile after and guess what? A whole dollar bill!!! Even though it was only about ten feet off a crosswalk, it felt like it was laying in the sun all day long. As brittle and torn as it was, it was the most beautiful thing I ever picked up on a street corner. I picked it up and needed to share this with SOMEONE! I looked around and lucky me - A guy stuck at the red light had witnessed my newly found fortune. I raised the dollar in the air in excitement and he gave me the thumbs up and a smile

Damn, this is a great run.

I was feeling much much better. Another mile down the road and another penny! I mean, seriously. This is the best run ever - That is until I got another block down and I found another penny...It's now official - The best run ever.

Hansel and Gretel ain't got nothing on me and my scrilla!!!

The Coin Count

SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Running Total: $2.09

Why do I run? Why do you run? The more similarities we have, the more you and I would probably get along. Wanna have coffee?

10) You don’t need to go to a gym - yuck
9) You don’t need space at home for exercise equipment, a.k.a. ‘clothes hangers’
8) You can run anywhere, at any time, in any kind of weather
7) You find money!
6) You can wear any kind of clothes, or no clothes - really
5) Hey - It’s free! Well, at least the run itself
4) You can exercise the dog or the kids at the same time
3) You get away from your significant other - just kidding.
2) Stress reliever
1) You can drink more beer

Welcome back to Las Vegas! It’s really starting to get hot. I left the house and it was 87°. When I got home it was 89°. Dang, it’s getting hot! I really don’t think it was fair that we only got in three months of nice running weather before I have to throw on a hydration pack for a short run. Can someone please write a letter to the Weather Gods and complain for me? I would, but my hands hurt from wiping the sweat off my forehead.

So, I sent a tweet out to everyone asking, ‘Hot or Dry’ OR ‘Hot and Humid’? The overwhelming reply was ‘Hot and Dry’. After running in Nashville (69°/70% Humidity)on Saturday and running in Vegas today (89°/4% Humidity), I think, not that 69° is hot or anything, but I almost like the ‘Hot and Humid’ feel a little more – no chapped lips, no dry skin, no dehydration. Either way though, I think I’m stuck with the swamp butt.

A Tweet is a response that is instantly zapped to all your ‘followers’ on Twitter.com, follow Zappos.com (http://twitter.zappos.com/start) and/or follow me (http://twitter.com/SuperPeake) on Twitter!

The Coin Count
No luck in prosperity
Running Total: 87 cents

We got to the finish line about twenty-five minutes before the winner, Kenyan Sylvester Chebii, crossed. We stayed around and watched the finishers for a good hour or so before we zoomed off to check out the post race events. It’s always so inspiring to see so many happy people after a half and full marathon smiling and laughing away. The vibe in Nashville was seriously incredible after the race! We chilled at the expo until 11:30 or so then took off back to the hotel to get some work done and to get in a little run. I took off on West End Road near Vanderbilt and ran about 3½ miles up the road past where the start line was and back (7mi total). It was a great outing and Nashville is such a cool city. I love running in places I’ve never run before – time goes by quickly and it’s so cool to explore new places. I got back to the room and got some New Balance orders completed then went out to the post-race dinner and concert (Music Hall of Famer, Steve Cropper). The highlight of the night: Being back stage to watch the marathon awards presentation. We got to take an elevator ride down to the stage area, stuffed like sardines with top nine winners from the race. WOW! These are amazing people and it was such a great honor to be in the stuffed in the same space for a couple minutes.

A special thank you AGAIN goes out to John Smith from the Competitor Group, Inc. for showing us around and Elite Racing for your amazing hospitality – You guys R O C K! It was a load of fun and a great learning experience!

The Coin Count

Nothing in Music City today – both times

Running Total: 87 cents

Today was a busy day! We woke early to get to the start line – which was only a half-mile away (Between Centennial Park and Vanderbilt University). I looked out the window at 5am and it was raining cattle out....goodness it was coming down – NOT a good start to a marathon, but the rain settled down just in time for the start of the race. It actually turned out to be remarkable weather for a marathon!!! We had just enough time to run out two miles on the course and back. The way back was definitely tougher as we had to weave our way through the oncoming marathon runners. We cut our way back through a side street and suddenly found ourselves running on the race route between miles 8 and 9, well ahead of the elites in the race – Yikes!!!!

All the volunteers thought we were the leads in the race!!!! What a completely weird feeling! We ditched the thought of running this route VERY quickly. Soon we found ourselves weaving thru bystanders (We kindly didn’t get in the way of the runners - promise!), looking for wide sections of the street to get back to the hotel for the shuttle ride to the finish line. It what pretty funny the amount of stares we received from people thinking that we were completely insane, not too mention the MANY comments we got, ‘You’re running the wrong way!!!!’ We were laughing the entire way - A COMPLETE blast. We made it back to the hotel and caught a ride over to the finish with plenty of time to watch the elites cross the finish line.

Kelly (our resident running stud) and I had the opportunity to make a trip to Nashville this past weekend to check out the inner workings of the Nashville Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon, put on by Elite Racing. We landed in Nashville and went immediately over to the Health and Fitness Expo. Since the race was on a Saturday, Friday afternoon was absolutely crazy with floods of people. The race itself would have a record 30,000+ runners in attendance and trust me, it seemed that there could’ve easily been 20K people at the expo itself when we got there! Whew!

I don’t know how, but the Expo peeps did a great job funneling people through, without a doubt! After the expo, we headed over to watch the Kids Marathon - How inspiring this event was for the future of all kids – Get them kids off the couch and enroll them in a running event ASAP! Those kids were so cute!!! Ahhhhhhhh! I can just throw them all in my pocket and keep ‘em forever! We were told that we can run a little in the marathon itself to check out the ‘Rock N Roll’ feeling of the marathon – We’re looking forward to this – All the remarkable feelings of running a race with none of the stress of performing, BRILLIANT!!!

A special thank you goes out to John Smith from the Competitor Group, Inc for showing us around and Elite Racing – You guys R O C K!

After my Zappos.com softball game (we won!), I headed out for a five-mile run. It was fairly late, around 10:30pm. When I turned a corner I saw a guy about a quarter-mile down the road, across the street running in my direction. It's cool when I see fellow runners out at the same time I run. As we passed from opposite sides of the street, we both raised our hand at the same, waving in both greeting and recognition. There's something cool with having a connection with someone through running without knowing that person's name, face or anything else besides the fact that they're probably as passionate about running as I am.

The Coin Count

Uno Pennyo.

Running Total: 87 cents

I went on my long run tonight, since I was insanely lazy yesterday. Hey! At least I'm in the mood for a long run at 9pm! I threw on my reflective gear and hydration pack and hit the road. It was literally a mile into my run and my iPod died. "Are you serious?!??!?!", I asked my iPod - of course it didn't answer. I spent the next 13 miles thinking about how this run is gonna suck butt because I don't have my tunes. At the end of my run I realized it wasn't really that bad after all! I mean, I got in a ton of thinking about stuff like my work, family stuff, future plans, The Smurfs, PBR and Tang's crazy comebacks, what I would look like in a really tight fluorescent wrestling costume, bunny slippers and of course, Twitter (check me out on twitter: http://twitter.com/SuperPeake or check out zappos on twitter: http://twitter.zappos.com/start ).

I guess the biggest advantage of my iPod dying though was for the people I passed - No one had to hear me sing...HA! Look at ME improving fellow man's standard of living. I feel great about myself!

The Coin Count

A penny and a dime to my delight!

Running Total: 86 cents

This is an email from Maura, one of our Customer Loyalty Manager's, which put my coin collecting wisdom to shame:

Hi CP!

I just had to share this running story with you. I went on a run this morning (9 miles!) and as I was doing my cool down around my neighborhood I spotted a 20 dollar bill! It was against a wall and not really around any houses and no one in sight so it became mine . I have yet to find any coins on any of my runs but this definitely makes up for it :)my running total quickly jumped from 0 to $20.

Hope you're having a good weekend and next time you're on a run keep your eyes peeled for green paper not just metal

-Maura

It's very apparent that I have to improve my skills if I wanna stay in the game! Thanks for sharing, Maura

So, I'm still kind of recovering from being sick all last week. This week has been good both mentally and physically, despite the crazy winds in LV. Every time I stepped outside it seemed the wind was going to be my running buddy. Today's run with Mr. Wind proved to be the windiest of the year. I had the tailwind going out and the headwind heading back to the house. BLAH! The crazy winds in Vegas create just a couple issues for the runner. Here three I dealt with today:

1) There's just so much dirt and grit that flies up into your face. I think all my running glasses have completely scarred lenses, not to mention that I had enough dirt in my mouth to make a sand castle.

2) The wind blew around a good supply of natural smells. An enhanced sense of smell sample included a little something special from the Horses and Horse manure from the stables along my route.

3) I felt like Mary Poppins, all I needed was an umbrella. Well, it might have been more like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Yes, I almost flew away. No, I wasn't wearing a dress or sparkly red shoes.

The Coin Count

A penny for my thoughts!

Running Total: 75 cents

Remember the Toy Fairy Blog? Today I found a kids baseball glove. It was practically new, maybe used once. It was so sad because it was in the gutter in the middle of nowhere - no houses, no yards - I figured it was left on a roof of a car and just eventually flew off and now lost forever. I picked it up and found a home for it snuggled under my arm. I was debating putting flyers all around the neighborhood, but though that would be a waste of paper and some good quality telephone poles. Oh well.

Thinking about the glove brought me immediately back to my childhood in New York; Spending all summer playing ball from when the sun came up until dinner time. Maybe Jacey or Abby will pick it up one of these days and find the same kind of fun in that good ole piece of leather that I did. The only bummer about this glove was that there's no pink on it to make it a lot easier for my girls to find any kind of interest in it.

The Coin Count

No coins, but a glove worth a ton of pennies!

Running Total: 74 cents

I ran my first run in like a week and a half today. I actually went to the Las Vegas Corporate Challenge 5K this past weekend, but pretty much passed out immediately after starting the thing (but I'm not counting that) - THAT was dumb. I only ran about three today and it felt good overall - but I was seriously drained afterward. Man, I haven't been this sore in a long time. I spent the rest my night on the couch watching TV - What the hell is wrong with me? Peake is so lazy right now...

The Coin Count

My first run back and I find a penny! Very nice!

Running Total: 74 cents

It's always inspiring when you go to any race and watch. These girls are absolutely incredible. I want to do a Tri at some point in my life, but I'm not a swimmer so it's gonna take a lot to get me to do one. I will though...One day. It was a really nice day for a race and I'm feeling soooooooo much better than I felt all week. Although the expo was still open for business (it shouldn't have been), I still had the opportunity to check out a good portion of the race (Thank you to Zappos Zealot Gayle for workin' the booth). Zappos' very own, Kelly Bennett, came in third overall in the sprint! She rocks! We're VERY proud of her - She's worked really hard over the last bunch of months training for her big race in Florida's Half Ironman in May. GOoOoooooooooOoOooOooooo, KELLY BENNETT!

She's also one of our athletic buyers - Passion for shoes and the sport...I love it

Zappos.com did a little last minute sponsorship at the AFLAC Iron Girl Triathlon at Lake Las Vegas this past weekend. I managed to pull myself out of bed for the first time all week to help out at the expo. We asked Zoot Sports to come out and help represent Zappos as our vendor partner for this expo. Zoot is such a great company (even though they won't allow us to carry their running footwear yet - I know, low blow, but I had to say it!) with huge roots in Tri.

My athletic buyers and I here at Zappos are big fans of their story and product. Mike and Kevin, our representatives for Zoot, spent the whole weekend helping us out at the booth. Mike and Kevin are great guys and a lot of fun to hang around with. I love race expos. It's always great to get out there and hang with people in the industry and chat it up with the people doing the races...always cool and always inspiring. I wasn't feeling it this time around though. Being sick all week really put me in a lazy, pile of rocks mode. I really wasn't helpful at all during the expo - Thank goodness for Kelly, Gayle (Zappos.com Employee Extraordinaires) and the Zoot Sports reps being there!

Sorry Folks, park's closed. Ever feel like the world is coming to an end, but it's all occurring inside your body? Welcome to the first of two times I'll get majorly sick this year. I can't move and it stinks.