I decided to do a "12 Days of Christmas" for my secret pal at school. I found some of these poems online, and made up some others. I then found a clipart picture to go with the poem, and attached everything to the present each day. I hope she likes everything!
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Monday night Madre and I went out for a short run. We saw 4 deer. And my hair is getting long.
That is all! Yesterday was my day for a long run. I was up at 5:15 (well, 5:30), and out the door at 6am. I had only slept for 5 hours. My plan was to run from my house to the school where I usually start running, and to get at least 15 miles. As my longest run as of yet was 13.1, I had my work set out for me. I was also wearing my brand new shoes to see how they would work.
It was cold and icy, but I was dressed warm and was comfortable. The first hour went by really fast, probably because it was still dark and quiet, and a lot of people still had their Christmas lights turned on. I got to the bike path and it was super icy. I had to spend my time weaving around between dry pavement and the white snow. A lot of time I was running on uneven surfaces, and this, coupled with my lack of sleep and unbroken in shoes, my IT band started to act up and I had some knee pain. But I kept going.... I briefly saw some ladies from my running club, Moms Run This Town, but they were going much faster than me, so I didn't keep up. After two hours, Madre came to join me for my last leg. She brought me some Body Glide for my toe that was rubbing, and we continued running. We did a lot of small loops near the school and a church as to stay off of the ice at this time. By the end of my run, I completed 15.5 miles in 3:29:44. I kept up my running intervals of 3:1 the entire time, and had a steady pace, averaging 13:32 per mile. I was not tired cardiovascular-ly (is that a word?) but my knee was hurting and my legs were tired. BUT I finished!!! I used this long run to complete a virtual race. I did Station 5 - Pearl - 23k for the We Get Lost in Running! series. My legs were sore for the rest of the day, but once I stretched a lot and iced them down, they feel mostly better, with just a little soreness left. In 2 weeks, when Heidi is up to Virginia for Christmas, we have an even longer race planned. At least 18 miles! This past week we had 2 snow days! It started Sunday afternoon with some snow, and then turned into sleet. We had Tuesday off from school as well because it was super icy, and more snow was coming. We were supposed to get up to 5 inches, but we barely got two. Most of the snow just froze and then iced over.
Wednesday we had a delayed opening, but were then back at work. This snow was definitely not the fluffy stuff that you want to build snowmen with :( But Maestro certainly enjoyed running around and eating it! Well, then.
I was supposed to run this race this past Sunday. On Saturday night I took a trip to Target and got some cold weather running gear: tights, pullover, gloves, hat, etc. I was ready to go even though the weather was not going to be good, and it might get cancelled. My alarm goes off at 5am, and the race is still on. Unfortunately, the two people I was supposed to car pool with decided not to go or to drive with someone else. So, I decided to drive myself. I got out to my car and turned it on. I tried to back it out of my driveway, and it died. I tried again. It died. A sign? Possibly. Nathan offered his car, but I declined. I was very sad and in tears. I decided not to go. My first race no-show. Dislike. I reserved my hotel for Dumbo Double Dare in August 2014!!!!
Nathan and I will be staying at Paradise Pier for four nights: 2 nights in a standard view room and 2 nights in a room with a view of California Adventure! This will be our first trip to Disney Land, and are super excited to go! Well, at least I am...I am just making him tag along! Heidi, Marty, and I will be running the Double Dare, and Madre will be running the 10k. I will also be able to earn a Coast-to-Coast medal, since I am running the Dopey Challenge next month! My friend's High School Orchestra sponsored this race. It took place at Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton, VA, right by the river. It was a very pretty and scenic area. Unfortunately, the course left much to be desired.
It had rained the night before, so all of the grass was saturated. Most of the course took place on grass, so it was lots of running through puddles. Wet, cold feet do not make for a pleasant run. There are some trails at the park, but they were only utilized for a short distance, when I would have preferred them, as they were not as wet!! This run was a bit short of a 5k, with my runkeeper only reaching 2.75 miles. Other people had about the same distance on their GPS. Regardless, this was not my best running. It was cold and windy, wet on my feet, and lots of running on grass. Oh well! This 8k race was held at the lovely Burke Lake Park. Mostly a trail run, the course winds all the way around the lake. It was freezing this morning! When I got in the car, the temperature was in the 20s. So cold!
I had been sick all week, so I went into this race knowing that I would be taking it easy. I actually was going pretty well, with a pace in the 10s, until I had to stop and take a coughing break. That was not pleasant. But I finished in under an hour. Looking at the results, if the age categories were in 5-year age groups, I would have placed first! But since this was a smaller race, I was beat by a bunch of 20-23-year-olds. Bummer. This race was on Thanksgiving morning. Since I don't have to deal with cooking a turkey, I was able to leave and not worry about dinner not being ready in time.
This race was about 45 minutes away in Ashburn, VA. Because of the name "Ashburn Farm", I assumed that this race would be around a farm of some sort, but in reality, that is just the name of the neighborhood that it was a part of. Ha! It was very cold this morning. There were patches of ice on the ground and the water cups even had ice forming in them. I did warm up once I started to run, but the beginning is always so tough. This race was all on roads, through the neighborhood and then up a main street. I ran it pretty easily, but around mile three the back of my shoulder started to hurt. It is really interesting how an unseemingly unimportant part of the body (to running at least) can cause slow you down. I had to take a few more walk breaks before it stopped hurting and I could continue running. This was a large race, considering it was a local neighborhood one, but it was a lot of fun. It was very well organized and very well marked. |