4th Annual Mackinaw Memorial Bridge Race

Last weekend was a blast! J *finally* got to run over the Mackinaw Bridge, and we actually had time to relax and enjoy ourselves.

As usual, we did little to nothing to train for this event. J stuck with me for the first mile and when we got to the first mile marker and his watch read 11 mins, he freaked and took off. I forgot to put gum in my mouth so I was unhappy to have a dry/pasty mouth.

The online results don't give a pace, since the actual mileage of the run is semi up-in-the-air J and I choose to go with a guy we overheard saying his wrist GPS read 5.08 miles. Sounds good to me. The paperwork we received from the event coordinator says "The course is approximately 5.4 miles from start to finish." That would bump my pace up from a 11.23 for 5.08 miles to 10.43 for 5.4 miles. I'm not sure I was doing a 10.43 pace, since my first mile was closer to 11.23 by J's watch. I guess we will never know for sure!

We stayed at a hotel which is located at the base of the Mackinaw Bridge, Mackinaw City side. That was nice because we were able to walk around downtown instead of trying to find a parking spot. A couple of things could have been a little nicer though - the pool was across the parking lot and Mackinaw City in May isn't exactly steaming hot. Also there was some sort of water leak (I'm thinking since we were near the elevator, we had an ice machine right above us), so we had to keep the bathroom door closed to quite the noise. Also, no Food TV channel! Other than that, we were very happy with our accomodations.

Here are some of the pictures we took:

This is us (duh!) before the start of the race. It was around 6:00am and the sun had just started to come up. The weather was in the high 40's, but we were so excited to be there that we didn't care!

This is me being goofy before J took off ahead of me. I ran up ahead a bit and then turned around and was running backwards to the best of my ability. I remember asking him (jokingly) "I'm not going to run into anyone, am I?"

Here we are after the race at the ice arena after breakfast. We didn't stay for the results, because . . . we just aren't that fast. I did sprint past two gals at the finish who were in my age group, so I feel pretty good about that!

05/16/07

Call me a slacker - call me whatever will make you feel better. I'll call myself fat. Got on the scales this morning and saw 141.2 pounds.

I did run today - a 1/2 of a 5K. I need to start taking my vitamins again, and running more, and eating better. The list goes on and on.

Since I just started training for my new job, I think I have enough on my plate right now to keep me busy. :-) Baby Steps! I thought updating my blog was a good start!

04.22.07

Did pretty darn good at the Flushing Tax Trot. Wish I was in better shape that I could have ran the 10K or 15K, but right now I'll take what I can get. It was another hot one, just like last year. Finished with the temps in the mid-70's - and last weekend at Beach Wellness (or was that two weeks ago??) it was in the mid-40's. Kinda hard for a body to get used to that kinda shock!

I finished in 33.00. My first mile was around 10.22, my second mile around 21.18. At least I'm fairly consistent. :-)

What's next? I have to check the calendar! J & I would like to add the Detroit Free Press 1/2 marathon to our list for this year, it will be a nice warm-up for the Disney.

That's it for now!

Life update

Yes - I'm still here. Barely.

As of 04/02 we have our house up for sale (no bites yet), so that had kept me busy. Other things have been brewing as well that have been keeping me from my running and blogging. Excuses, excuses! I know. Lame.

Yesterday we did the First Annual Beach Wellness 5K Race out at the State Park. I enjoyed it, because it was the same course for Run By the Bay so I knew it. Didn't set a PR, but it was good to be out running! Ran into my trainer JH - always good to see her. Hopefully the weather will warm up and we will be able to resume our workouts like we want to.

Next weekend is the Flushing Tax Trot. Another good race. Nice residential run through a pretty neighborhood. My mom will be there to race also. Last year the Tax Trot was my first run ever. I finished in 35.22 (11.24 pace), I see no reason why I can't beat that! (keeping fingers crossed)

Off to do more laundry!

Bay City St. Pat's

If you have been checking here every day, wondering how the race went . . . wonder no more. I even have pictures!

For starters, I did not beat my best time. I was 5 seconds off. Will try again next time. J on the other hand, smoked his previous PR with a time of 25:21! I finished with a 32:32 and mom walked across the finish with a 52:29.

Here we are after the race. Thanks to our friend B for taking our picture!

Next is a picture of me, far left. The best part of this picture is the fact that J wasn't taking a picture of me, he was shooting the girl in front of me who is our friend B's niece.



J didn't even see me, nor know I had finished the race until I walked up to him after I finished. He pointed her out to me later and I told him she was either right in front of me or right behind me so I should be in the picture too - and I was! I did pass her in the end, and beat her by 11 seconds. That gives me great satisfaction, because she walk/ran the whole way. There are always people in a race that I am in that will run fast, then walk . . . then just as I catch up to them, run again . . . then walk. It is as if they hear me coming and think "OH NO, we can't let HER beat, me!"

Sorry the pictures are so dark, it was very sunny that day.

So now you ask what's next? What's next is the Flushing Tax Trot, which was the first 5K I ran (last year). It is a nice residential run that is pretty flat, and I'm pretty confidant that I'll beat last years time of 35:22. :-) At least I had better!

Besides the Tax Trot, my treadmill training from here on out will not only be rolling hills, but also inclines - since the Mackinaw Bridge Memorial Day Run is about 68 days away, and I need to start working on my 5% incline! You might think a 5% incline is not that much and you are right, but a 5% incline for around 2.5 miles which is also the Entire Beginning of the Race - then it turns into something!

Another thing I seriously want to start working on is my EATING! Yes, I know how to eat . . . too well actually! I need to forget how to eat a few hundred calories per day. So even though you've read it here before, I'm going back on the food journal. Wish me luck!

70 degrees!

I took the opportunity yesterday to run 5K outside, in the 70 degree weather. I did that yesterday because by the end of the day today we are suppose to have freezing rain. Welcome to Michigan. :-( It was great running outside again even if the wind was at least 15 to 20 mph in my face most of the way home. I still managed a decent time - 35:45.

I am definitely looking forward to the St. Pat's race on Sunday.

03.10.07

Nothing new going on, I've just been quietly updating my mileage - and not updating my weight. Next Sunday is the Bay City St. Pat's 5K, so right now that is what we are looking forward to. I've got one week to work on my "rolling hills" and see if I can beat the pants off my time from last weeks race. :-) Keep your fingers crossed.

We might also have the weather in our favor for once, it might be in the 40's next Sunday. Of course that might put a monkey wrench into my running, because it seems I do better in colder weather. We shall see, we shall see.

I definitely plan to have pictures for the St. Pat's race - so stay tuned.

03.03.07 - Reese Winter Road Race Series

Yesterday was the last race in the series for the Reese Winter Road Races. Although I didn't get a trophy (I only competed in 3 of the 4 races) I did set a Personal Record! I had my best time for a 5K, finishing in 32:38.22, which is a 10:30 minute mile. Maybe rolling hills ARE working! Whether rolling hills are working or not, I'm going to continue to do them.

On the other hand, J did run in all 4 races and he received a trophy for 1st in his age group! Pretty impressive, since our age groups were split up by decades.

The race was pretty hard though. I was certainly glad to have my MP3 player with me to distract me from the 25 mph wind gusts. At least the temps were in the mid-20's for this one. Last race it was 6 degrees. I got a really nice side cramp around the half way point, but with the wind out of my face I got it to go away finally. Also, I pasted a gal at the end so I didn't come in last in my age group. (Insert evil grin!)

Tonight we register online for the St. Pat's race - and use our new Champion Chip numbers! Too cool! Hopefully I'll have a new PR to report after that race. It's definitely a possibility, since I know the course.

Tracking the Bunny - "It's About Time"

J & I got our custom Champion Chips in the mail Friday. Now when we register for a chip-timed race we can use our own chips. They have Mickey Mouse on them for the 15th annual marathon & 1/2 marathon and the date - pretty cool. We just have to keep the two straight of which number belongs to me and which one is his.

Now when we do big events, (like the Disney 1/2 marathon) if someone knows our chip numbers they can sign up for email or text message (on your cellphone) updates of our splits. I'm not sure if the Crim has this service or not, but it's a neat feature.

I'll have to post a picture of what it looks like - coming soon!

Rolling Hills

I've been on the treadmill the past TWO days in a row! If you realize that I haven't ran for 18 days before that, I deserve a (small) standing ovation - or a kick in the pants. Plus, yesterday I also did about 15-20 mins of weights & abs. While my arms aren't to sore, I can feel my abs! Yeah, I still have abs - the fat hasn't swallowed them up! I decided to actually do weights after seeing my upper arms (the fat bulges above my elbows that are hiding my triceps) in the mirror after using the treadmill. I thought it was a vast improvment over thinking about doing weights.

I've decided to break away from what is "safe" and try out a new program on the treadmill called rolling hills. Despite it's name there is no change in incline, just speed. I heard a rumor that if you want to improve your pace you need to mix it up. So I'm mixing it up.

Rolling hills starts off at a painfully slow walk for two minutes and then a little bit faster for another two minutes. Then the fun begins. Every thirty seconds the miles per hour increase by .5 until you reach your peak, and then it goes back down in thirty second increments. For me, that's starting at 4.0 miles per hour (15 minute mile) - up to 6.0 miles per hour (10 minute mile) and back down to 4.0 miles per hour until you run out of time, which is whatever you've set it to be. Then with 4 minutes to go, it automatically does a cool down.

Since I'm only on Day Two, I have no opinion on how it's working to improve my pace, but the "change of scenery" is nice.

We have the last Reese race next weekend, so I'm going to try to rollling hill it as much as I can between now and then and maybe see a slight difference with my race results.

Stay tuned.

Just checking in . . .

Nothing new here, but thought I'd write a post so no one thought I was dead. I'm still here!

Committed

The title of this post can mean different things to different people, so I'll let you decide. :-)

For at least 6 months now, J & I have been dreaming of our first half marathon. Sounds pretty easy - distance wise. Just run the Crim (10 miles) and then a 5K on top of that. Bang - half marathon. We even have one picked out, the Walt Disney World Half Marathon at the beginning of 2008.

We have been checking the web site, and last year it said the marathon & half-marathon fill up around July since they only let a certain number of people register. Well, I went to the web site yesterday and it said that registration was already at 85% capacity. So, we went ahead and registered last night!

No one expects to visit the Mouse and get away cheap, and this is no exception. $95.00 to register for the race, $8.95 for a commemorative pin, and $38.00 for a commemorative ChampionChip - all to celebrate this is the 15th year of these races. Entrance into the park for race start and awards ceremony, Fitness Expo and t-shirt are all things included in the $95.00 fee.

Okay, now the web site says they are at 95% capacity! Looks like we snuck in just in time. You can check out the action here: Disney Marathon Weekend. So now in a week or so I can start scoping out airfare and hotel prices. We already know we are going to stay on campus, at one of the Value Resorts they have. To say we are excited is an understatement. We are committed!

Reese Winter Road Race

Well, we survive that one. The weather predictions for yesterday were right on the money. It was cold, and it was windy. It was also snowing - or maybe just loose snow was blowing around?

I was also well insulated. Too much so. Within the first 5 minutes, I was sweating. But I stayed bundled up to prevent freezing. I also remembered to bring a scarf to breathe through, so I'm not wheezing today like I could be.

Almost 75 runners and 5 walkers showed up yesterday. We are either the dedicated or the crazies.

The thing I forgot to bring was the camera, so no shots of me or J crossing the finish line. Even though it was bitter cold, I was happy to see J and our running friend B waiting for me at the finish to cheer me on. I sped up at the finish and gave it my all (as usual) and finished with a nasty side stitch and my glasses so fogged up from the scarf-breathing that I was in a stupor trying to walk off my side stitch. Plus at that point I needed my sunglasses from the glare of all that white.

The YakTrax were a blessing. The start and the finish were all ice and snow. The roads of Reese were surprisingly clear of snow, unlike the side streets of Bay City which are crap to drive on. Since you are not suppose to use them on dry pavement, I stayed off to the side as much as possible and ran on snow whenever I saw it available. I bought the glow-in-the-dark ones, just in case I feel it necessary to go for a late night jaunt during the winter. (Which is pretty much anytime after work here in Michigan!)

Today there will be no treadmilling. Today is recovery day from our evening with S & A. Red Lobster, drinking, and the three of them playing "Guitar Hero" on PS2. It's a miracle we are up at 10:30am, since we only got home around 3. :-) You have to have a little fun every once in a while! I'm surprised my legs are super sore, but I'm in pretty good shape.

02.02.07

Happy Groundhog's Day. Whatever that means.

Tomorrow is our 5K in Reese, and according to weather dot com, we are in for a doozy. The race starts at 10am, and they are predicting temperatures to be about 10 degrees F, but with the wind chill it should feel like -4 degrees F! Plus, it should also be snowing.

Tonight after work I think I'm heading to Runners to pick up some YakTrax so I don't slip and fall on my tookis. My tailbone is fragile enough, I don't need to kill it for good.

On the up-side, tonight is pizza night!

Will post results and hopefully photos tomorrow or Sunday. Wish us luck (from remaining frost-bite free!)

All hope is not lost, or is it?

Hello - it's me again.

As I was running on the treadmill tonight (horray, ME!), I was thinking about an article I read about diet and exercise, which says that you can diet, or you can exercise and it has the same effect on the body as doing both together. But doing both only works if your exercise (calories burned) cancel out your diet (calories consumed).

In terms I can understand, that means it doesn't matter how much I run if I still cheat on my diet. In other words, my body is smart enough to know it's not going to let go of any more fat until I start eating right. Crap! Foiled again by my own body! What a traitor!

Getting on the treadmill, or going outside for a run if it's decent outside (read: really and truely spring, summer or fall) just takes a little ambition. Sticking to the diet takes willpower. Willpower is alot harder to come by than ambition.

Although I am not obese (anymore), my BMI (Body Mass Index) still is in the overweight catagory of approx. 27.5 (normal weight would be a BMI of 24.9 or lower, I'm going to have to loose 13 more pounds to get to "normal". On the flip side of that, I'm also 12 pounds away from once again being obese. Okay, so I'm "middle of the road" overweight.

People must forget how short I am when I tell them how many more pounds I'd like to loose, because I hear how that is just too much weight for me to try to loose. (Thinking of a certain relative who recently admitted that the nurse is not allowed to say their weight out loud during physicals and the eyes are closed during the event.) Maybe they want to feel better about their own fat, who knows. Given my height, 4' 11" - my ideal-in-my-mind weight would be 105 to 110. So I have about 25 to 30 pounds to go. According to the BMI calculator I found on the internet (and there are lots of them out there!), I'd have to weigh 91 pounds to be underweight, and honey 105 is a long way from 91! I just don't see how I could starve myself that much, especially with running. I haven't seen 91 pounds on the scales in close to 25 years (think jr. high). If you want to throw out the scales completely, I can also say I'd be happy if I was wearing a size 4 in women's clothes. I certainly couldn't see myself in a size 2 because although by then I'd be almost completely flat-chested, I still have hips!

So I guess I've ranted enough on my body being sneaky and sticking to it's guns about cheating on The Diet, so I'll update my miles for the week and get off the computer and plan my meals for tomorrow.

The Death of January

Last night has we were lying on the couch, J says "So, are we done running now?" He was referring to the fact that if we do not run by tomorrow, we will have not run in a whole week. So much for spending $_____.00 on a treadmill. I explained to him our busy work week (and school work for him also) and how all of the motivation I've had this week is to plant my butt on the couch after work and then go to bed. So with less than one week left in January, we are pretty much calling it a wash and starting fresh in February.

This weekend we will be cleaning the carpet upstairs and then moving our bedroom up there, so we will officially have a spare bedroom and a workout/office room. We can unpack the weight bench we bought, and J is getting me a Pilates ball w/DVD (he won a contest at work and got to pick a prize from a booklet full of "stuff").

So with an actual room to work out in, instead of the spare bedroom with the mattress up against the wall and the weight bench still in the box we feel we will be adequately motivated.

Next we need to work on the food issue. Sure we need items like sugar-free fudge sickles (35 calories!) to keep us going, and sometimes a handful of pretzels satisfies that need for a food that's crunchy, but we should not have succumbed to buy-one-get-one-free Doritos! BAD T & J, BAD!

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to keep a food journal. I meant EVERY DAY, but I hate keeping a food journal, so I think I have maybe one or two days written in there. I'm going to make an effort to start on Monday and keep it rolling. I'm also going to make some foods this weekend that I can use for lunches instead of buying frozen dinners that I get sick of anyway. So "starvation", welcome back! I'm sure my body has never known starvation, but when you reduce the amount of calories you eat in a day - your body sure acts like it's starving.

I could even even be lazy about it and look through last years food journal and copy days that match the calories I want to be at, and I still haven't been doing it! Somethings gotta change. If I want to meet some of my other goals, like improving my 5K times, loosing weight will help me with that I'm sure. So far, I think every resolution I've made is in the toilet. Someone slap me, quick!

P.S. I hate winter!

OT - Why do you blog?

I ran across this Survey on one of the blogs that I read, I took the survey and thought it was interesting even though I've only been doing this for a few weeks and couldn't really completely answer all of the questions. So if anyone out there reading this has their own blog, take 5 or 10 mins and take the survey.

Krispy Kreme Challenge

Came back home tonight from spending the weekend with my cousin (JC) and her SO. J & I had lots of fun - good things to eat and drink, neat places to see. Ann Arbor is a nice town. Fun place.

JC and her SO are getting ready to fly to NC next weekend to run 4 miles in the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Run 2 miles downhill, eat ONE DOZEN Krispy Kreme donuts, and run back 2 miles to where you started. Which means you would be running uphill on the way back. Oh yeah, did I mention you are to do this in ONE HOUR?

There is a video on the web site, and there is a person getting sick on the video. How could he not get sick?

Instead of figuring out how to get to NC next weekend to do this crazy event (although it would be fun to do, you can register to run the race sans donuts but still get the t-shirt), I registered us for the Mackinaw Bridge Memorial Day run and booked our hotel. Unlike the KKChallenge, the Bridge run is uphill the 1st half of the race (5% incline) and downhill the rest of the way. Then you get breakfast at the end of the race before the awards start - but probably no donuts.

Life After Calibration

By looking right at my weight loss ytd being a positive number, instead of a negative number - it appears that Red Lobster last night for dinner and then the rest of it again right before bed was a poor choice. Oops!

Earlier in the week running on the new treadmill was fast and fun. I was running for about an hour at a time, and doing about 5 miles. Then J decided maybe we should have calibrated the machine before we started using it. Life after calibration is slow. Now my pace is back down where it should be, and I'm huffing and puffing after 1 mile. Which is why I ran 1/2 of a 5K this morning. That, and we are getting ready to visit my cousin in Ann Arbor (shout out to JC) and we need to get to the bank and make tracks.

I think I liked life before calibration better. Reality sucks.

"Health" Food Conspiracy

I say "health" because the foods in question may or may not be truely healthy. But they sure tasted good. But my grocery store doesn't want me buying (or is that eating?) them anymore.

Over the past few months foods J & I like to buy have started disappearing from the shelves. First it was Slim Fast Low Carb 4 packs, then it was Ocean Spray Diet Cranberry Juice (but that re-appeared). Now it's the Ragu (low carb) alfredo and cheese sauces.

I checked Ragu's web site, and I don't see them listed. Guess no one liked the sauces except us. They were really good.

What's next? Dare I mention my current top four favorites for fear they too will disappear?

1) Thomas' Light English muffins. Favorite why? One muffin has 100 calories, 1.5g fat, 6g of protein and a whopping 8g of fiber which brings the carbs down to 16g, which isn't bad. Also, super-yummy toasted with a tablespoon of reduced-fat Crunchy Jif.

2) Mission Carb Balance Soft Taco size Tortillas. One tortilla has these stats: 110 calories, 2.5g fat, 5g of protein and it's 11GRAMS of fiber knocks the carbs down to SEVEN, and they make really tasty soft tacos, chicken or beef. Sometimes just for fun we eat two at a time! That's a lot of fiber!

3) General Mills Fiber One Oats & Peanut Butter Chewy Bars. This one had me in heaven when I discovered they taste like peanut butter rice krispy treats. Hell ya! A little high at 150 calories with 4.5g of fat and a little low with 3g of protein, these babies knock your socks off with 9GRAMS of fiber, which brings the carb count to 19grams.

4) Quaker Instant Weight Control Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal. One packet has 160 calories, 3g of fat, 7g of protein, 6g of fiber and 23g of carbs. Just not a good stand-alone breakfast, as 160 calories only fills me up for about 1.5 hours.

Can you tell I like my fiber? But it has to taste good too. I'm not gonna eat tree bark just to get fiber.

No Excuses

We bought a Treadmill and a weight bench yesterday. We used some of our Christmas money and the rest will come from our tax return. Of course it's not as heavy-duty and posh as the Precors we run on at Delta College, but it should be a good start.

The weight bench is just a very simple one with an incline, nothing fancy.

Now we have NO EXCUSES to work out! We even set it up last night in the spare bedroom (front) and J is working on getting heat upstairs right now so we can move our bedroom upstairs and turn the back bedroom into the "workout room" and the front bedroom back into the spare.

I should be able to update my Mileage YTD later today! I am 97% well again. Just a runny nose and a little rasp in the throat.

Top Ten

How pathetic am I? It's Day Two of the diet (and only 1/2 way into it) and I'm already making a list of things in my head that I hate about dieting. So I thought I would counter-balance it with an equal number of things I love about dieting. :-) Here they are, in no particular order.

Hate:

1) Planning my meals in my food journal. Figuring out what I can and can't eat for a certain day. (Nope, can't have ____ today, too much fat/carbs/protein, etc.)

2) Being hungry "all the time" until my stomach figures out what I'm trying to do. It obviously didn't get the memo the rest of my body did.

3) Wanting to cheat here and there - which just leads to chucking the whole thing out the window.

4) Not being motivated to excercise like I should and coming up with excuses. (Too cold/dark outside to run, I'm sick, don't feel like going to Delta, wish we had a treadmill, etc.)

5) Going grocery shopping and seeing all of the food I am trying to avoid. Thank goodness that most of the "junk" food is clumped together and I can just avoid those isles all together!

Love:

1) Having the support of my husband on my weight loss adventure!

2) My clothes getting baggy and being able to go to the store and buy the next size (or two) smaller!

3) My skin getting soft and squishy (around my middle) but more toned (around my arms and neck).

4) The sparkle in J's eyes when he puts his hands around my waist and feels my ribs.

5) Being healthy/less likely to get sick and also my skin is clearer. Also not being tired all of the time, just having more general energy/ambition.

01.08.07

The first picture is obviously from the start of the race. J is the one in red with the big grin (#84). The 2nd picture is J's finish, it was a tough one - he was pushing it!

He wanted to finish with a time of 26.00 and he finished with a 26.15 - not too shabby! I'm very proud of him. It was a drizzly day and quite windy, I'm so glad I didn't try to run.

Today is Day One of "the diet". But I've almost completely lost my voice to laryngitis, so I'm holding off on working out until I feel better.

01/05/07

Tomorrow is the next Reese Winter Road Race in the series. Since I'm now starting to loose my voice, I'll have to sit this one out. Time to wait by the finish line with the camera and cheer J on, he is trying for a PR of 26.00. I'll post photos soon.

Time for bed - 'nite!

My New Years Resolutions

Maybe if I post my 2007 New Years Resolutions on my *shiny new blog* and not just have them taped to the wall next to my bed, I will have to pay even more attention to them. We can only hope. Here ya go:

T's 2007 New Year's Resolutions / Fitness Goals

1) Start and maintain a blog to:

a) Keep track of my miles

b) Inspire me!

2) Supplements:

a) Drive 2 liters of water per day - minimum

b) Take my vitamins every day - not just during the week

c) Cut down/cut out caffeine

3) Loose 15 to 25 more pounds while toning my body.

4) A resolution I'm not sharing with the General Public.

5) Reward myself for each 5 pound loss.

6) Run at least (1) road race per month. Do the old favorites, and try some new ones too.

7) Stick with my diet, one week at a time by keeping a journal.

8) Decrease my average pace at least (1) minute per mile by the end of the year.

9) Run 4 times per week, with an average of 20 miles per week.

10) Besides running, work out 3 times per week.

Here's the run-down so far, 4 days into the new year:

1) check!

2) forget it - I've been sleeping the past 72 hours! I have had only (1) cup of regular coffee in the past 72 hours though, I think my caffeine headache may be gone.

3) only sleeping since Monday has caused me to be down about 1.5 pounds - but that's not what I had in mind!

4) none of your bees-wax!

5) nothing yet

6) January is done - check!

7) not this week, baby.

8) nothing yet

9) nothing yet

10) nothing yet

Okay, so I have a way to go. But I also have 361 days left to do it in.

Happy New Year!

So here it is. I said I would do it; start a blog to track my running. Suddenly I realize it's Day 4, and I have no blog . . . and I've already ran a race this year! (See above)

J and I found a 5K race to run on 12/31/06, starting at 11:45pm. We were going to run into the new year. Only problem was that it was 3 hours away in Ohio. That was easily solved by J, he sent the check to register us for the race, printed some maps and booked us a room.

We start out running together, and since it was thru residential streets and a "Rail Trail" similar to ours at home, it was easy to know when midnight struck. Lots of people honking horns and shooting - whatever it was they were shooting. So we yelled "Happy New Year!" to each other and those around us and got off the trail for a moment to celebrate with a new years kiss. Then it was time for J to take off and go his own pace. Have I mentioned it was at least 45 degrees, raining and gusting 15 to 20 mile per hour winds?

Two guesses who got sick and the first one doesn't count. Yep, ME! I had a sore throat by the time the race was over. I was hot from my winter running clothes and soaking wet. Wonderful. The race sponsors gave prizes 7 deep, but I finished 14th in my age group and J finished 10th in his. We did finish in the top 300, so we each received a blinky necklace with the Midnight Train logo on it. I certainly didn't "pull out all the stops" like I had hoped and set the world on fire with a new PR (personal record), but I did finish with a time of 33:58 which is a 10.49 minute mile. (About my average.)

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent alternating between the couch and bed, with lots of sleeping and DayQuil. Today was my first day at work in the new year and I'm not 100% yet. Which makes me wonder, will I be ready for my next 5K race on Saturday? Only time will tell.