One friend who I thought would commit was out of town. Forgiven.  Another signed up and then ended up out of town. Forgiven.  The others?  Who knows.  So that meant it was just me.

Really, it was a well-timed race.  I ran a 10 miler last weekend and am running another one next weekend, so I wasn’t really sure what sort of workout to do this weekend.  A 5K race seemed as good an idea as any.  And hey, a girl can always use another t-shirt.  Especially an organic cotton one.

This course was surprisingly hilly, but also nice.  It ran partway along a trail that I didn’t realize existed.  Terrible of me, given just how close it is to my apartment.  I may have to check it out again sometime.  I knew during the first mile that this was going to be a tough race.  It was an out and back and the first mile was very much downhill.  Which meant that the last mile was very much uphill.

Great race support.  Tons of volunteers dancing and cheering people on.  They seemed to be enjoying themselves much more than the runners.  Or maybe they were just trying to keep moving because of how cold it was.  When I left my apartment, it was 39 degrees out!  Not bad running weather, but I was definitely cold afterwards.

I really didn’t worry too much about time on this one.  Someday, I want to do a 5K in under 30 minutes, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon and I’m okay with that.  I finished in 32:34, only 30 seconds off my PR from a few years back.  And much better than the 5K I ran last summer with my old roommate where we ran slow and I felt gross afterwards.

I have to admit, when I saw that one of the race sponsors was Whole Foods, I was excited.  That had to mean tasty post-race food, right?  I mean, let’s be honest.  We run to eat.  And I was right.  Post race, we had water and  bananas and Clif Bars and HonestTea and VitaCoco (their van is adorable!).  Run to eat, baby, run to eat.

And then I went to Whole Foods and got breakfast, loitered in Borders for an hour or so reading triathlon books, then went and picked up my race packet for next week’s race.  April is a crazy month for me.

Somehow, I managed to convince some friends from college to run the race as well.  It’s amazing how so many of us have become runners.  The joke is that we were so lazy in college that we would order pizza rather than walk to the dining hall (which couldn’t have been a full block walk).  Now we voluntarily go out and run ten miles.

I was really hoping to finally make this the race where I finally break 1:50 for a ten mile race.  Yes.  I’m slow.  At the beginning of the year, this was a feasible goal, but after getting sick in March and getting thrown off my training schedule, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.  A PR was definitely a possibility though.

The course itself is gorgeous.  It starts and finishes near the Washington Monument and, of course, passes tons of cherry trees.  It’s a relatively flat course, and it’s always a fun race.  It’s not a huge race, but it’s a good group of people.  The course is well-staffed, and there’s always someone offering beer somewhere along the course.  This year it was beer and Oreos.  Deeeelicious. Not that I ate any.

I knew that I was the slowest of my group of friends and fully intended to finish last, which was okay by me.  I even figured I would be in the last corral.  But I was wrong!  My time from last year bumped me into the second to last corral.  A green bib at last!  I was so excited.  So we got to start together, and then promptly lost each other.  As I ran, I was checking my watch.  For the first few miles, I thought that maybe my 1:50 goal was in reach.  But as I settled into my pace, I realized it just wasn’t going to happen.  I was going to be close, but it wasn’t really doable.  That was solidified when I got stopped up at a water stop around mile 6.  I wasn’t even getting water, there was just an unusual collision of people and some girl slipped in front of me.  She was okay, but it was all a time delay.

By the last mile, I just kept chanting in my head “One more mile, less than 12 minutes to go” (knowing that my pace was closer to an 11 minute mile at that point).  And I kept counting down.  Six minutes.  Five minutes.  Three minutes.  I can do anything for three minutes.  And then it was done.

Final time?  1:51:32.  Only 92 seconds over my goal.  And a new PR!  Averaged an 11:10 pace.  Last year it was an 11:17 pace, so I’m improving.  I’ve got two more ten milers this year (one in a week!) but I think the Cherry Blossom course is going to be where I finally hit that goal, thanks to the lack of hills.  Maybe next year!

And now for the details that those of you thinking of running this race want to know.  Transportation to the race?  Easy.  Metro opens early.  Course amenities?  Water and Gatorade, pretty standard fare.  Post-race amenities?  Water, bananas, and muffins.  Again, pretty standard fare.  This year, they also offered the option to purchase a finisher’s medal (purchased when you register).  I didn’t purchase one, but I saw people wearing them and they were pretty.  The expo is small, but nice.  Good number of vendors and they do what they can to keep the lines moving.  It does get crowded picking up your number.  Not much swag involved in this race packet.  A t-shirt (that’s always horribly brightly colored) with the option of upgrading to a technical t-shirt.  Info about other races.  Nothing exciting.

All in all, I’m happy with how this race turned out.  I was nervous, knowing how slow I am and how fast my friends are, but it seemed like everyone was happy to wait for the slow runners to finish.  And that’s always nice.

I did notice that all my treadmill training has really helped me pick up my speed, but I’m no longer as comfortable on my normal hilly running route. I was getting good at modifying my pace to account for the hills, but now I find myself in or near HR Zone 5 and having to walk a bit (under a minute each time though).

I’m also trying to swim more as part of my crosstraining. I don’t use the gym as much during the summer months, so using the pool helps make me feel like I’m using my membership a little bit.

This week’s goal is to get back to regular strength training and start the hundred pushup and two hundred situp challenges.

As I have been discussing for months (and months and months), this month, I was planning to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon, my very first half marathon. Yes, that’s right. Was planning. My well laid plans were thwarted by a stomach virus.

Looking back, even though I missed my race, the illness was perfectly timed. I wasn’t sick for either flight, and I still did enjoy the trip, though I was pretty fatigued during the latter part. More importantly, no one I traveled with got sick. Plus, as I put it to a friend, it was the first time in probably over ten years that I got sick and had my mom there to take care of me.

But even with all those good things, this was a huge bummer. I could hear the fireworks signaling the start of the race and it was so hard to not be there. Unpacking all my race gear when I got home was also rough.

I’m still running though. I signed up for a half marathon in June in Annapolis. It’s another women’s race, and even though I’m not running with anyone, I think it will be a great first half. Still running Disneyland in September, and I might go back to WDW in October to run the Inaugural Wine and Dine Half. Can’t give up now. I’m sad I will no longer qualify for Disney’s Coast to Coast Medal (apparently, W&D doesn’t count) but it will still be fun, plus it’s the 5th anniversary of that race.

Next up? Cherry Blossom 10 Miler with friends from college. We were so lazy back then. I can’t believe we’re racing together.

Not too long until my half marathon.  Less than 50 days.  Unfortunately, as of Tuesday, my knee’s been a bit twingy, so I’m going to have to step back the mileage.  Down from 9 this weekend to 6.  It’s my own fault – I haven’t been doing enough strength exercise, due to the above mentioned busy.  Clearly, I should be doing more balanced workouts.  I’m hoping the relative rest, ice, anti-inflammatories, and strength work will do it.  I took a bit too much time off from running and stepped up my mileage too quickly.  I may just drop back to the Hal Higdon novice plan, which would mean not completing more than 10 or 11 miles before the race, but I’d rather be able to finish the race in no pain than be in pain just to get a good finishing time or worse, not being able to finish at all.

I’m planning to sign up for the Disneyland half marathon this fall.  It seems strange to sign up for a second race at that distance before I’ve even run one, but it would mean a third medal (for running a half marathon at both U.S. Disney parks), plus it’s the 5th anniversary of the Disneyland half, so it’s kind of a big deal.   Plus, committing to a race will keep me running through the summer heat.

But overall, the trip has been a lot of fun.  I’m pretty sure I’ve gained five pounds, and I barely got any running in at all.  I’m hoping that doesn’t hurt my half marathon training.  I’ve still got about 10 weeks though, so as long as I stick to it, I should be fine.  And hopefully the running helps me take off those five pounds (or more – I’m choosing to not look).

Presents I gave were a success, I think, and I got some pretty fun gifts as well – including a Notre Dame Snuggie.  My mom knows what I like.  I will have to find some time to use it.  I wonder what my coworkers would think if I brought it into the office.  It is pretty cold in there after all.

I am a sucker for a holiday movie. It can be a Santa movie or a holiday romance, and I will watch. I don’t know if there are Christmas slasher movies, but I probably wouldn’t watch those. Any other holiday movie though, and I’m in.  My favorites are the old movies – Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life.

But I have to admit – I really don’t like A Christmas Story.  Oh sure, it’s got great moments.  But I just feel SO bad for Ralphie the whole time.  I guess I’m not a fan of pain and embarrassment as humor.  I’m not sure which moment is the worst to me.  Possibly the whole decoder pin thing – only because I can only imagine how awful that would be to a kid.  Waiting and waiting and waiting and then realizing that you’ve been completely ripped off.

I do like the leg lamp though.

Christmas, 2004. Right around this time five years ago, I was just finishing up my first semester of law school. I don’t have any wild recollections about this time, probably because my brain was so numbed by things like Criminal Law and Contracts that I wasn’t able to focus on anything else. I do shudder when I think of Civil Procedure though, so we’ll blame that course for most of the pain.

2004 was my first grown-up Christmas. It was the first year that I was living in my own place with my own Christmas tree. Every year previous, I was either living at home, or at least home from college for the holidays. It was the first time I really got to decorate, though if I’m remembering correctly, my mom did most of the tree decorating herself. She’s pretty much a pro at it, seeing as I believe she has nine trees in her house this year. What’s one more tree to decorate?

I think 2004 was also the first time that Christmas really snuck up on me. In grade school and high school, everyone spent time working on holiday concert music and planning gifts and parties. In college, the dorms had informal decorating competitions and everyone counted down the days until they could go home for winter break. But in law school, while we still had winter break, we all dreaded it, because to get to winter break, we had to get through finals. Sure, we had finals in college (and high school), but this was the first time that our final grade was our entire grade for the semester. Plus it was just scary. The saying about law school is that the first year, they scare you to death, the second year, they work you to death, and the third year, they bore you to death. I think we were all sufficiently scared in December of 2004.

The other big difference, I think, was that winter break didn’t have the meaning that it used to. I was living 45 minutes from my parents. I saw my family all the time. I wasn’t going anywhere for winter break. I was staying in my apartment and just spending a few days at my parents’ house for Christmas. Sure, the previous year I had lived at home, but that in itself was a bit of a novelty. It was going to be nice to have a few weeks off, but at the same time, I had work that I needed to be doing over that break, so it wasn’t quite the same. In college, there was never a project that needed to be worked on over the semester break since all classes changed.

2004 was the year that Cadu discovered just how much he loves the Christmas tree. He still sleeps under it every year and as soon as I begin putting it up, he crawls underneath. He climbs it once a year as well. I figure that’s just part of his holiday traditions. Thankfully, the tree is now on a carpeted surface, so if any ornaments fall, they are much less likely to break.

I think that in 2004, if you had asked me where I would be in five years, living in the Washington, D.C. area and working for the Federal Government wouldn’t have been on my list of answers. I wonder where I’ll be in another five years.

Yesterday’s prompt was: Tired of Santa? Create your own iconic magical figure for the holidays.

Tired of Santa?!  That’s unpossible! 

Okay, I guess I can see how it could be possible.  Plus, I’ve seen some pretty creepy pictures of kids with scary mall Santas.  No wonder those kids were crying. 

I think I really like the image of Santa though, the jolly man with the rosy cheeks who brings surprises to kids.  I’m trying to remember an old commercial where a kid (or kids) wakes up to find Santa standing by the fireplace and he winks and places a finger to his lips as he disappears. 

I think it’s the magical aspect of Santa that I love the most, and the idea that he brings joy, not so much that he brings piles and piles of presents.  (Though I do enjoy those piles of Santa presents, don’t get me wrong.)  I also love that Santa is such a mystery to children.  I miss the days of putting out carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer.  I wonder how my parents kept the dogs from eating Santa’s cookies.  Maybe they did eat them.  Who knows.  I still like following Santa on Norad’s Santa Tracker, and love that I can do it from my phone this year.  Santa is advanced.

So no.  I’m almost 29, but I’m not tired of Santa.  Not yet anyway.

It’s also fun to see all the families all dressed up for the holiday concerts.  This concert is a tradition of sorts for a lot of families and I’m surprised that so many kids manage to sit through the entire thing.  I guess there is a lot to look at around the Cathedral. And of course, being DC, we get a lot of big names at our concerts as well.  Janet Napolitano was there yesterday.  I hope she enjoyed it!  It’s funny to see the Secret Service standing around at our concerts.

(Already falling behind in Holidailies.  Whoops!)