Jingle Bell Run 5K - December 6

The Jingle Bell Run was scheduled to begin at 9am, or 8:45am, depending on which side of the race form you were looking at.

We hadn't agreed on a time to leave for the race prior to Saturday morning. Knowing that the race is about 30 minutes or so from my house, I got ready around 7-7:30am. Barbie called when she left her house. She said the roads were pretty bad, but she was on her way. Our first snow of the year came on Friday night.

We made it to the race at 8:30 ish and found that the race was going to have an even later start than planned. The race director was unable to be there, and the people who were taking over for her were out digging the mile markers out of the snow. It was only a couple of inches, it wasn't like it was a blizzard or something! Ah, well, that gave us more time to dread the race and try to talk each other out of running it.

Not wanting to stand around and wait, we went back to the car and started getting ready. You know, second-guessing what to wear for the weather, making sure Garmin has acquired the satellites, getting the ipod headphones untangled and ready to go. We figured we would see everybody come out of the building where the packet pick-up was taking place and meet up with them at the starting line.

BAD PLAN! The starting line was actually BEHIND the building, and everybody went out the back door when the race was getting ready to begin. All of a sudden, we looked up and saw a bunch of walkers moseying past the front of the car. What?? That CAN'T be the walkers for the RACE, can it?

Ummmm, yes, yes it can. We bolted out of the car and over to the race start. Luckily, this is a small town race, and we know the people taking care of timing. OK, so they will be taking 2:29 off our finish time. Off we go!

Let me just say, it's kind of fun to start a race late and chase everybody down. I was passing EVERYBODY! OK, so maybe most of them were walkers, but I'll take it! The course wasn't quite the same as last year. I thought there must be some shortcut at the end. Nope.
There was apparently some confusion over where the last turn should be.

Actual distance: 3.85 miles
My time (Garmin): 37:09 (9:39 pace)

We left before the race results, as we were not going to make a big deal about asking them to update our times. It was our own stupid fault that we missed the start! Barbie would have won the overall race if the times were adjusted. There was only one girl ahead of her, and not by 2 minutes. When the results are published, I'll know if the times were adjusted, but I'm happy to have gotten out there anyhow.

I didn't run all last week, as I was attempting to keep from getting a full-blown cold... my first in 3 YEARS!! UGH!!
I was out of commission for the most part on Sunday with the cold, but I'm feeling great today.

After the race, we went out for Mexican and wine (of course) and then headed home.

Later, I took the kids shopping again, and I've ALMOST finished my Christmas shopping. Of course, when the kids each want $500-$1,000 gifts, it doesn't take long to finish. One item for each kid and I'm DONE! Christmas morning isn't gonna be much of a surprise, but at least they'll have surprise gifts at my parents'.

Great River Road Race Report - or Happy Birthday to ME!!

Holy long title, Batman!

After totally blowing it on Thanksgiving, even though I had a plan to keep my eating in check... I proceeded to shop away the day AFTER Thanksgiving, getting a late start (thus avoiding the worst of the crowds) and getting a big chunk of my Christmas shopping done.

Saturday, 11/29 was my 35th birthday and the day of the Great River Road 10 mile race. The race was an out-and-back, right along the Mississippi River. I had signed up on Wednesday, along with a couple of friends. They tried (a little) to talk me out of it, but I figured I could at least have a healthy START to my day.

When Saturday arrived, I did NOT want to run 10 miles. Ugh! What was I thinking?? I tried to talk THEM out of it after we had already arrived at the race. But, alas, it was too late. We were doomed to run it.

I am SO glad that we did! At the start, it was about 40 degrees. This would normally be shorts weather for me. But, the race was right along the RIVER for crying out loud. And, I was COLD! So, I wore pants and a lightweight long sleeve shirt.

On the way out, it was SO HOT! I thought I had overdressed. I enjoyed the out-and-back, because we could see the frontrunners on their way back. Angie and I ran together, with Barbie taking off and beating us by almost 30 minutes. Gah!

At the turnaround, I was glad to be "overdressed". We ran the last 5 miles into a headwind. I wasn't there to "race". I hadn't ran since 11/16 (are you surprised?). Before that, I ran on 11/8 and 11/1. I was just there to run 10 miles. Or walk. Angie drug me through the last couple of miles, and we wound up running it in an 'official' time of 1:47:15. Not great, but I was fine with it.

Here are a couple of shots of Angie and I at the finish:

Afterward, we went out for Mexican (of course) and a couple of glasses of wine (of course).

4th Folder Tag

Since it seems that I have nothing to talk about lately, I'm copying some others and tagging myself...
Here's how it works:

1. Pick the 4th folder on your computer
2. Pick the 4th Picture
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 more peeps. -- I'm not tagging anybody. Do it if you want!

I didn't pick the 4th of the 4th... I'm at work, you people do not want to stare at pictures of conveyor or rack! I picked the 4th folder of personal pics, 4th picture in that folder...




This is Barbie and I at a winery, after the Band on the Run race. Typical. I have no idea why I am sitting ramrod straight. I think I was trying to make my gut look flatter.

I do know that I got completely wasted that day. Angie accidentally deleted ALL of the pictures off Barbie's camera and was about to cry. I then took it upon myself to try and cheer her up by doing some sort of crazy, wacked-out dancing.

I then started drunk-dialing random friends and inviting them to drive Angie and I around to wineries later after Barbie went home. We had one friend take us up on the offer. She quickly realized how drunk we were and took us out to eat to try and sober us up.

We're all entitled to act crazy once in a while, right?


This weekend, I will have to skip the Turkey Trot on Saturday. My son's basketball team is playing in a tournament. They won on Tuesday, which puts their next game on Saturday morning instead of Friday night like I had thought. Ah well, there's always another race right around the corner.

Diet, Check!

Well, the good news is, I have my diet under control.

I've been eating very healthy this past two weeks. Lots of whole foods, very little junk food. I gave in to my candy corn craving the other day, but I was able to limit it and get the rest of the candy corn out of the house.

Great, right?

Well, almost.

Why is it that I can have one, or the other? I am not doing much running or anything else really. It's like I can eat right OR exercise. I can't seem to do both at the same time. Once I get that figured out, LOOK OUT! There will be no stopping me!

I went to bed last night early with the best intentions of getting up early this morning for a run. But then, the dog kept tossing and turning. Yes, I'm blaming my oversleeping this morning on the dog.
(But, he knows I can't stay mad at him).

I'm right on the cusp here. I swear, one of these days, you will come over to my blog expecting to read more excuses of why I didn't run today... and you will see me all fit and in the midst of my comeback.

Update...

I had a very good week last week. It all started with the return of my best friend.

Then, I went out for beer and burgers on Thursday night with a girlfriend. It was a date set-up gone awry. Why is it that people think when you are single that you should be set up with anybody else who happens to be single?

I have standards!

Saturday morning, I got up and ran 9 miles. It was a very exhilarating day for a run. It was cool, but not cold (40 degrees). The trees are beautiful with the changing leaves, and there was a slight breeze.

I got back from my run and went later to my company's Christmas party for the managers. Yes, we already had our Christmas party. The party was a lot of fun. Dinner, karaoke, and then 2 comedians had been hired as our entertainment. I hadn't laughed so hard in so long! They were fantastic. Even the people who weren't drinking thought so!

After that we dispersed and started the gambling. The party took place at the Casino Aztar hotel, adjacent to the casino boat. Not being much of a gambler (ever since my ex gambled away so many thousands), I gave away the $5 that we were given for gambling and went home.

Sunday, I took my daughter to get the other side of her lip pierced. I can't believe my daughter is one of *those* freaks who has 2 lip piercings. It really doesn't look so bad. I'll have to post a picture later. I figure, she gets good grades, she doesn't get in any trouble, she is very well behaved and always has been... if she wants to have a couple of piercings, I'm not going to make a big deal of it. She knows that when she gets older and wants to get a "real" job, she will want to let them grow back.

So, I'm back at it now. Of the 30 lbs that I had gained, I've now lost 6 of them. I may have dropped out of Viv's challenge, but I'm back stronger than ever now...

Tito is here!!

I managed to drag out of bed this morning at 5am and get in a quick 4.5 mile run.
Even more exciting than that... Tito is back!

One of my very good friends has had this dog for several years. Somewhere between 2001-2003, she lived in an apartment for a year that did not allow dogs. During that year, Tito lived with me. He is the absolute best dog ever, and I hated giving him back. But, I knew from the beginning that he was her dog, and I was also happy for him to see him go back home.

This year, my friend got married to a guy who has 2 large dogs and 2 cats. Tito and the other animals were not getting along, so she decided to do what was best for the dog, even though I'm sure it must be killing her.

I can barely contain myself, I'm so thrilled to have him back!

Tunnel Hill Run - My latest PW (personal worst)

On Saturday, I ran the Tunnel Hill 10 Mile Trail Run. The Tunnel Hill trail is located in Southern IL and is part of the federal Rails-to-Trails development program. The trail was created when an old railroad was removed from the area, thus the Tunnel and the various trestles that are a part of the trail. The entire trail is 43.1 miles long and is beautiful this time of the year with the changing leaves. This picture of the tunnel is from the Spring.

The race starts at Tunnel Hill and runs on the trail all the way to Vienna. Due to the logistics of running on the trail, the field is limited to 200 runners. I have run this race 7 times, every year except for one since I started running. It's one of my favorites; I look forward to it every year.

My best time on this run was 1:21. Not too shabby, but I probably could have run it better that year. I was young and just enjoying the day.

My worst time up until now, was last year at 1:34.
This year, I did enjoy the run in many ways - the weather was beautiful, the fall colors were beautiful. I hadn't run since Columbus, so it felt great to just get out there and run. About 1/4 mile into the race, we run through the tunnel. The tunnel is pretty long, and it gets DARK in there. All you can see is the shoes of the person in front of you. It's always neat to get in the tunnel with people who have never been there before. There were a lot of first timers around me this year.

As the race went on, my body started to say, HEY! You needed to train! Miles 5-8 were especially tough for me. At about the 8 mile mark, the song 'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance came on my ipod and gave me the boost I needed to kick it back in gear. By that time, I had let too much time slip past me, so I was happy to just run out the last two miles and finish strong.

That is what I did. My official time was 1:44:15.
I was the only one in our group that rode down together to not get at least an age group award. I've only won one age group award there in all the years I've run it. And, that was not the year I PR'ed. I got lucky one year when nobody else my age ran.

Shanna won first place overall for Women in 1:09.
Garrett won third place for his age in 1:12
Barbie won 2nd place for her age in 1:20
Tim won third place for his age in 1:13.

Here are some after pictures. The first is me, Shanna and Barbie:

And, another one of me, Shanna and Garrett.

I will say that I enjoyed the day very much. It was great to get to a race and back in the groove of things. My least favorite part of the day was the Chub Rub. Ye-OUCH! I have never had this so bad before. It must be time to start working my thighs.