Sweet Victory

When last we left this blog, I was desperately trying to get my act together for a long holiday break. And now, here I am, on the 7th day of my 12 day winterfest. So where are we? In no particular order... * This holiday break was supposed to be a little hectic, with upstairs bedroom and bathroom floors getting re-done. Alas, we lost the "little" when - one hour before we were supposed to go to Christmas Eve service - our gas alarm went off again. The results? a. a later church service. b. a condemned gas furnace c. double the contractors I expected to have trouncing through my house d. more than double the money I expected to spend this holiday season. As I write this, the last contractor has just left (finally). * The day before Christmas, one of my personal e-mail accounts got hacked. That was a joy, both for me and the 3,000 people who think I've lost the ability to spell and like to visit websites selling Chinese merchandise. If you got the e-mail - my apologies. * O

For the past three years, my final race of the season has been the Jingle Bell Run, one of the bigger 5k's in the area. Last year, I came in 26th place w/ a 19:47. This year, I came in 26th place w/ a 19:53 . Last year, though, I missed an AG award by a minute. This year, I missed it by three seconds. Ouch. Without a doubt, it was an interesting year of running, and mainly a good year. My early spring races were all PR's and gave way to a good summer of training for a fall marathon. There were definitely points in the late summer, early fall when I think I was ready for some fast races. However, I didn't deviate from my plan and ended up with a lackluster marathon and without a final 5k PR. About that, I'm not pleased. More than anything, I'm confused going into '09. While I don't think it's weird that 07 and 08 were so similar, given how differently I trained this year, I guess I do... my low-mileage high speed plan yielded very similar results to my hi

I got into Detroit last night at midnight. Now, it's six pm, and I'm back in the Detroit airport, ready to fly home. That's how I roll -- well, except for the two hour delay part. That's how US-friggin'-Air rolls. Even though I got to sleep around one, the alarm went off at 7:30 because - well, I have no good reason, other than that runners run. And also, one of the things I do love about being a runner and being a sometime business traveler is that it's a great way to see the city, assuming the city is worth seeing. Where I was staying was actually in a suburb of Detroit. I was there for a longish meeting, but knew if I dragged my butt out of bed I could see some Detroitish roads before the meeting. Looking out the hotel window, I realized it was cold and wet and miserable. Colder, wetter and more miserable than I'm used to on Dec. 1. I briefly considered going back to bed. Also briefly, I thought about running on the treadmill in the sterile hotel workout