XC Championships this weekend!

Magda, Bobby Mack, Galen Rupp, Ritz, 3:50 indoor mile!, Deena comes home, Mary Cain sets new high school girls mile record (4:32!), and Runners of the Year for 2012.

Galen Rupp ran 3:50 indoors last week for the mile.  Phenomenal.  Word on the street was he had a couple week buildup, and did a 3x1 mile workout with splits of 4:02, 4:01, 3:57.  Ridiculous.  His range is absolutely astounding, and I think he could win in almost any distance if he specialized.  I can't wait for him to migrate to the longer stuff - I remember Rupp running the NYC half while falling down, and still ran 60 minutes and some change.  He is going to shatter Hall's American record, and do some damage to the marathon as well.  Can't wait!

Thursday, January 24th - 9 miles.  Met up with Gabe in Forest Park for an impromptu run.  Pretty tired legs + windy, cold day = not the best run.  Ran a couple easy, then we did the reverse FP loop.  First few miles were into a brutal head wind, so did our best through that.  By the time we ran down Dinosaur Hill by the Science Center, we started going downwind which made the last few miles much easier.  Tacked on an extra mile at the end for a nice workout.  ~7:50 pace overall.

Friday, January 25th - 0!  Sick.  Slept most of the day away.

Saturday, January 26th - 6 miles.  I ran either Friday or Saturday and not the other, but can't remember.  Recovering from a bit of a cold, so slept a lot that day.  Pretty cold and windy, but did out and back on the trail towards Troy.  Tired and sluggish.  No watch, so no idea of pace.  At night, we did trivia for the Mid County Jaycees with Pat, Crystal, Clint, Brooke, Tim, Beth, Megan, and I.  Great times with some great friends!

Sunday, January 26th - 6 miles.  Attempted 4 mile tempo (~6:20 pace goal), but ended up a mess.  After a long nap (stupid cold), eventually made it outside before it got dark.  Was raining lightly, cold and windy, and had planned on Village Circle loops to hit this 4 mile tempo.  Well, ran directly into a headwind, so switched paths and got on the trail for a little more protection.  Was dying after one mile, and had to take a walk break at the turnaround for a minute.  It was brutal.  Really pushed the rest of the way back, and just struggled the entire way.  Not very happy with this one, especially with the walk break.  Slow cooldown, then stretching.  Splits were: 6:23, 6:38 (jesus), 6:38 (not including walk break), 6:26.  34 miles this week, 139.5 miles in January, 139.5 miles for 2013.  Ugh.

Monday, January 27th - 8 miles.  Big River Group run.  Ran 2 miles solo, then ran the 6 mile loop with Craig, Tim, Gabe, and Bill (new guy, not sure if this is his name).  Weather changed to 70's today, as Mother Nature continues to show her inability to make up her mind in what she wants for our weather.  Nice, easy pace, which was nice because I was hurting from the tempo attempt.  Solo 2 mile in 16-17 minutes, 6 miler in 54:30.

Tuesday, January 28th - 1.5 miles.  Pouring rain in the p.m.  Got dressed up and out the door to try to beat the ominous clouds, but got dumped on and had to turn back about 0.5 miles into it.  Tried again a couple hours later, and same thing - turned around a quarter mile into it.  Watched outside like a hawk while watching Good Will Hunting, and actually laced up the shoes on last time around 10 p.m. since it wasn't raining nearly as hard, but Mother Nature turned on the faucets as soon as I took 10 steps out the door.  What a hooker.  No pace recorded, but I was hightailing it home both times when it started pouring.

Signed up for the XC Championships on a whim last night.  Was supposed to do mile repeats last night, but weather killed it so doing repeats in Forest Park tonight.  My boy Schlegel is in town this weekend, so looking forward to a fun time!

Denver Recap

3 months salary for an elite runner (with a regular job) to travel, Lance, more Lance, Brooks renews commitment to Hanson's group, Mo Farah playing catchup, Lel to run Dubai, fast field in Dubai, Mary Cain running for history, Deena Kastor to run LA Marathon, and Lukas Verzbicas's comeback!

Monday, January 14th - 6 miles.  Ran with Tim, Craig, Justin, and Amy on a modified loop for group run.  Chilly night, but got warmed up fast and had some good company while keeping an honest pace.  Ben was back in town, so awesome to see him and grab dinner with the group afterwards.  Not sure of pace, but was easy effort.

Tuesday, January 15th - 7 miles (1 up, 8 x 600, 1 down).  Procrastination is evil, and I didn't get started with this workout until almost 10 p.m.  Was moping around and watching tv on the couch, and watched the rest of the season of The Amazing Race when my competitive juices got flowing with the exciting climax of the season finale.  Told Megan I just HAD to do this workout, shot a late text out to Harry (who actually met me up for the workout), changed and left without giving myself any time to change my mind.  Quick warmup, then off we went!  Hit the repeats with a 400 meter jog in between, while trying to maintain right around 6:00 min/mile pace for the repeats.  Well, a big success as out repeats ranged from 2:12-2:16.  Happy to get this in, albeit finishing close to midnight after cooldown, but I'll take it as it didn't seem too difficult and felt very controlled.

Wednesday, January 16th - 6 miles.  I don't remember this.  I ran 6 miles, but no recollection of this run whatsoever.  

Thursday, January 17th - 6 miles (1 up, 2 x 2 mile tempo, 1 down).  Ok, big workout for me.  Crashed out hardcore last week on my tempo attempt, but got myself into the mindset to attack this workout and be strong both mentally and physically.  Goal was to hit my splits around 6:20/mile, and hopefully feel ok in the process.  Warmed up on my run to Village Circle, and nailed the workout.  Felt in great control, and worked but wasn't killing myself to hit the splits.  Had a little difficulty pacing through the second half of both reps, so something to work on there since the mile times were a bit off.  But I feel confident that I could have evened it out if I had paid attention to my watch a little more.  Splits were: 12:16 (6:05, 6:11), 12:10 (5:57 (oops), 6:13).  

Friday, January 18th - 5 miles.  Had work in Washington, MO, and got to my meeting pretty early so messaged Crystal (she grew up in this area) to direct me to a decent place to knock out a run.  Well, she told me to find Lions Lake Park, so punched in on my Google Maps app on my Iphone and found it pretty quickly.  Gorgeous but windy day to run, and the park was in a pretty hilly area.  A little lake was in the middle of a circular path, so did a couple loops to get a lay of the land - one loop was roughly 0.8 miles.  Anyways, didn't want to run circles repeatedly, so ran around the area.  Found the Washington Fairgrounds, home of the infamous Washington Town and Country Fair, and marveled at the sheer size of the fairgrounds as there were at least 5-6 separate entrances I could think of offhand.  Anyways, ran for 5 miles at an easy effort, but was murdered by some of the hills which weren't too easy on my tired legs from the workout the day before.  Love running in different areas, and this was definitely a good change of scenary for me.  ~8:35 average pace.  Off to Denver after work to visit Marc and Trisha!

Lions Lake Park

Wash Mo!

Various loops around the lake

My view while stretching out

Saturday, January 19th - 10 miles.  After getting to Denver the night before, got out for a nice trail run in the area.  Marc and Trisha formerly lived downtown, but last April moved to the Highlands Ranch area which is a beautiful suburb located roughly 20 miles south of downtown.  Very saturated in terms of population density (houses stacked right next to each other, and roughly 90,000 live here), but some beautiful neighborhoods and very clean.  And did I mention the scenary?  Anyways, took off from his neighborhood, and got onto some soft trails which looped around the city.  Altitude was already affecting us (we were about 6000 ft. above sea level, which translates to 80-82% of normal oxygen level), so kept it nice and slow while battling the very uneven terrains.  We climbed up a huge hill, and was treated to an amazing panoramic view of downtown on one side, then mountains on the other.  Continued on some hellacious climbs/descends/switchbacks, but loved every second of it because of the absolutely perfect weather (50's and sunny), great company, and ridiculous views.  Legs were pretty shredded from the hills, but got in our 10 miles.  Pace was all over the place with random walk breaks/picture taking,but were were out there for a good 2 hours or so.  Post run, drove around the area, and went to Red Rocks to see the amphitheater!  Stunning views, and Trisha and I did a quick stairs workout.  Amazed with the amount of people out and about, but I guess that's Colorado!

Starting on the trail - we climbed up that huge hill in the background which is roughly 1-2 miles away

Made it to the top of the hill - wonderful viewpoint of the city

Trail system in Highlands Ranch

Descending

Red Rocks!

Red Rocks Amphitheater! - did a quick stair workout with Trisha

At Wyncoop

Sunday, January 20th - 0!  Well, technically a 2 mile walk (if that counts), but crapped out.  Slept in, ended up running around town, then Megan and I got in a small walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed the wonderful views of the mountains.  40 miles this week, 105.5 miles in January, 105.5 miles in 2013.  Two solid workouts, so I'll take it.  Starting to definitely feel more confident/fit even though it's early in the block.

Monday, January 21st - 0!  Flew back from Denver in the morning :( , then literally headed into work for the rest of the day.  Just exhausted when I got home and attempted to get some company to help push me out the door, but inevitably went to bed pretty early instead.  I think I needed the rest after a long travel day.

Tuesday, January 22nd - 7 miles (1 up, 4 x (2 x 200, 1 x 800), 1 down.  Watched in horror as snow started dumping in the area over the afternoon, but let up substantially later in the day.  Had scheduled track work, and convinced Joe to join me for at least the warmup/cooldown portion of it, but he was a great sport and did the entire workout with me.  Met at his house in Rock Hill, then headed over to Brentwood HS track which was less than a mile away.  Warmed up around the neighboring roads, then started the workout.  Snow lightly covered the track, and had some concerns over traction but it was perfectly fine.  The track was only a few lanes wide and fairly narrow.  Was aiming for low 40's on the 200's, and 2:55-3:00 for the 800's.  Anyways, the workout went very well, and felt completely in control.  Never felt like I was pushing much, but was pretty chilly out there.  Splits were: (39, 37, 2:39), (36, 36, 2:36), (36, 35, 2:34), (35, 35, 2:27).  Now you're reading this and probably saying "holy sh*t!" and rightfully so.  The track was definitely short and based on our efforts and previous workouts from Joe on this track, we estimated that the track was 8 seconds long, so my 800's were in the 2:45-2:55 range which is right where I wanted it.  Very pleased overall.

Wednesday, January 23rd - 6 miles.  Ran with Megan after work, and did her tempo workout.  1 up, 2 x 2 miles at tempo, 1 down.  Ran over to Village Circle on a cool night, then hit the workout with some good splits.  We aimed for around 9:30 miles, but far surpassed those efforts and was very pleased with her efforts.  Slow cooldown home, then some stretching.  Splits were: 9:07, 8:44, 8:49, 8:32.

Easy running tonight, then tempo later this week for my last workout.  On pace for another solid week!

                                                  

Week 1 of Training Complete

10 American Runners to watch for 2013, Felix Limo retires.

Wednesday, January 9th - ~6.5 miles.  Ran with Justin in Forest Park after work.  Legs were garbage, and felt pretty awful so we kept the pace pretty slow.  Pretty cool that the daylight lasts longer, and we got the majority of this run in with some daylight.  Great night to run with it being relatively cool, and lots of people out in Forest Park this evening.  8:37/mile average pace.  Felt a lot faster, sadly.

Thursday, January 10th - 6 miles.  Spraying misty rain all evening, and Mike literally dragged my sorry butt outside.  Trail run out and back towards Home Depot.  The mist made it tough to see, so ran sans glasses which was a little frustrating.  Had a long talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame, and how no one got voted in this year due to all the controversial candidates (i.e. Bonds, Clemens).  The steroid era will make the next 5 years or so of voting very tricky, and I am curious to see how the voters react to this and if any of the suspected/convicted steroid users make it in.  Anyways, I digress - run was overall ok, and felt tiring - legs aren't back yet and still feeling the Tuesday workout.  No watch, but pace felt pretty fast at the end (well at least the effort).  Guessing we started at high 8 minute/mile pace, and ended high 7 minute/mile pace.  The conversation made the run feel like a 15 minute run - went by wicked fast!  49-50 minutes total

Friday, January 11th - 7 miles (2 up, 3 mile tempo, 2 down).  Spent all day travelling for work, so was already tired from being crammed into a vehicle for almost 6 hours of my day.  Almost decided against running, but guilted myself into giving it a good attempt as my legs didn't feel too bad.  Nice and actually a bit warm (shorts weather), but pretty windy outside.  Warmed up on my way to Village Circle, then did a little extra on the trail.  The plan was to hit 6:15-6:20/mile pace, which shouldn't have been too hard given I hit a sub 19 minute 5K without too many problems a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately, the tempo was a bust - never felt comfortable, and my splits were pretty much crap.  Felt like I was pushing on the first mile (dead on pace), then my splits from there were way off.  Had to kick to break 6:30 on the last mile, and it was definitely some work to do so.  I was really disappointed, but Crystal made me feel better in citing the travel factors, so my first tempo goes down as a big thumbs down.  Slow cooldown, then drowned my sorrows about how crappy of a runner I am at Cleveland Heath/Erato later that night.  Yes, this is being very overdramatic on my part.  But I am in better mind now, since everyone has bad workouts here and there.  Splits were: 6:18, 6:33 (jesus), 6:28.

Got some bad news during the day - Crystal's nagging shin injury over the last month or so turned out to be a stress fracture, according to her latest bone scan.  So her running has been reduced substantially during this healing period, which means my main training partner is out :(  But she will be dragged out for corework and other non-running activities, so not all is lost.

Saturday, January 12th - ~6.5 miles.  Ran Mud Mountain course at SIUE with Colby in the morning.  Crazy temps, as it was sunny and around 60 degrees.  Warm enough where I took my shirt off on the second loop!  Mud Mountain was a bit sloppy in parts as it had rained a bit on Friday, but very manageable.  Saw the guys/girls XC teams out there running, so nice to have company.  The hills were as unpleasant as usual, but nice to breeze through a run with some different scenary.  Long stretching afterwards, and some intense corework at night.  No watch, but kept pace easy (didn't feel easy) - thinking it was low 8's pace.

Sunday, January 13th - 12 miles.  Cold, cold, and more cold.  Sleeted on and off throughout the morning/afternoon, so eventually made it outside for an out and back on the trail towards Troy.  Legs were pretty tired, so kept pace pretty easy.  No watch again, but somewhere between 8-9 minute pace.  Most of the time, I was concentrating on staying warm and not getting blown away!  NFL Playoff games all day - watched 2 of the more ridiculous games I have ever seen (Denver-Baltimore, Atlanta-Seattle) and reminded myself how much I love football!  On a cool note, warmed up my cooking hands and made my first ever soup from scratch!  Came out pretty good, despite my failures on how to use a food processor.  This is my second recipe I have cooked using this website, and pretty pleased with the results so far.  Simple to make, and not too much time spent prepping/cooking, and very tasty - all winners in my book!  54 miles this week, 65.5 miles in January, 65.5 miles in 2013.  Poor workouts, but a solid mileage week.

Group run tonight, then back to the track tomorrow.  Headed to Denver later this week - can't wait to run in the mountains this weekend!

Training begins...

PREVAIL - PORTRAIT OF A PROFESSIONAL RUNNER from Bryan Tosh on Vimeo.

Meb, more Meb, Bolt's motivation, Hoyt statue in Boston, Amy Hastings staying in Providence, new indoor marathon record, and the U.S. elites running Boston!

New Boston Marathon jacket for 2013.  Looks like they're recycling colors from 08/09.  I still like mine better :)

Thursday, January 3rd - 0!  Legs were destroyed, cold/flu/something is destroying my system so took a much deserved day off.

Friday, January 4th - 0!  Left work early and ended up in an urgent care clinic since I had been pretty sick all week.  The main thing was to check up on strep throat, since a buddy of mine had just gotten diagnosed with it.  Cleared of all that, thank goodness.

Saturday, January 5th - 0!  In Champaign for the day for the Illini/OSU basketball game.  Big win against #8, and a great time back in my old stomping grounds!  Still feeling like crap, the small vacation continues...

Sunday, January 6th - 0!  Considered running at night, but it was pretty icy outside.  So continued on my sabbatical of sorts.  21.5 miles this week, 11.5 miles in January, 11.5 miles in 2013.  Not off to a great start, but need to get my legs back.

Monday, January 7th - 9 miles (6 miles + drills a.m., 3 miles p.m.)  Up and at 'em bright and early with Crystal.  Well, actually it wasn't bright, since it was still pitch black.  I have definitely not adjusted to the time change yet!  We ran our new town loop to the track, did drills, then headed back.  ~7:57 pace in the a.m., and legs were a little tired but not too bad.  More lethargic from waking up uber early, and my cold.  Hit my 270 loop when I got home late at night - nice and easy.  No watch, but the effort was very easy.  Afterwards, watched the atrocity of a national championship game.  Pretty much a waste of my time, but congrats to Nick Saban and his team.  I can't even hate him anymore, he's so good.  Just ridiculous how great that program is.

Tuesday, January 8th - 7 miles (2 up, 3 x (2 x 200, 1 x 400), 2 down).  SLU track workout after work.  Weather is starting to warm up, so did my first run in awhile sans jacket.  Caught Crystal at the end of her workout, so did a warmup (her cooldown) and discussed time goals for this workout.  Since I hadn't done much speedwork in awhile, this was designated as a rust buster/turnover workout and didn't want to press too hard.  So the goals were 38-39 on the 200's, and 1:18-1:20 on the 400's.  My hip flexors felt locked in, and my range of motion was limited so I had the shuffle going.  Forgot my watch, but I was using my phone (except for 400 #2 where Crystal timed me impromptu which let me run more freely).  Workout was nailed, but was pretty tired at the end.  I killed the last 2-400's, which wasn't the plan and definitely will be feeling those.  I really need to work on my pacing.  Splits were: (36, 36, 1:16), (37, 36, 1:12 (oops)), (37, 36, 1:12).  Very pleased.

Easy mileage for the next couple days, then tempo Friday at Forest Park!

2012 in Review

Desi out of Boston, Makau targets London, a heavy 10k!, 153 marathons in a year!, Delilah continues to roll on the roads,

Thursday, December 27th - 10 miles.  I don't remember this run very well, but I did 10 miles.

Friday, December 28th - 8 miles.  I don't remember this run, but I did 8 miles.  Actually upon further thought, I did at lunch at Creve Couer park, and it was freezing!  I think all the food/beer over the last couple weeks has eaten away at all my short term memory brain cells.  Seriously.  I do remember going to Global Brew to hang out with friends afterwards, and have a somewhat impromptu 15th year high school reunion!

Saturday, December 29th - 10 miles.  Crapped out on a run with Crystal with Marc and Trish coming in the morning, and ended up with a pretty late afternoon start.  Exhausted and the run didn't go too well but it got done.  Went out and back towards Troy, then 270 loop.  I think it was around 8:30 average pace, but not completely certain.  Definitely running on empty right now.

Sunday, December 30th - 2 miles.  Pretty much a wasted day with the Symphony and an impromptu Sunday Funday with Kyle on Wash Ave (downtown STL).  Took a long nap after a heavy brunch, then got outside for 18 glorious minutes of running on just beat down legs.  With all the heavy work I did at the beginning of the week, it's all caught up but I have a little bit of room to work with.  Afterwards, had a ton of fun with Megan to watch the St. Louis Symphony perform Pirates of the Caribbean on the big screen!   65.5 miles this week, 249.5 miles in December, 1991 miles in 2012.  Almost there...

Monday, December 31st - 9 miles.  Trail run with Colby on Old Faithful.  Crystal texted me in the morning to advise me to run Old Faithful since the snow was a nuisance and it was best to get out of the open area.  Colby came over at about 11:30 a.m., and we got started.  Ran to the trail on some lightly packed snow/slush conditions.  I intentionally wore a hat, but it didn't help - the wind was pelting my face with snow. Made our way to Old Faithful, then got settled into pace and hammered it out.  Snow wasn't too bothersome, but got tricky on the bridges where there was some accumulation.  Last mile and a half, we decided to tack on one more mile (previous plan was to break it up into 2 runs, but the snow/slush was starting to suck), so did a Village Circle mile and looped around the neighborhood.  Picked it up the last 2 miles, and worked hard for my 2000th mile!  Total time - 1:09:35 so 7:28/mile average pace.  Ran with Megan's new pink watch, which clashed significantly with my lime green attire, but the watch was effective and I definitely miss my Garmin - time to make a phone call and get this fixed.  258.5 miles in December (jesus, all time record BY FAR), 2000 miles in 2012!

Tuesday, January 1st - ~6 miles (44:32).  Happy New Year!  Forest Park New Year's Day run with the Wolfpack.  Ran with Crystal and Colby before they took off (punk skateboarders who were goading them), then ran with Fenley and Julie for a mile or so before we caught up with a few others who had taken the shortcut and had gotten ahead of us.  Legs were feeling really heavy, so slowed down and ran it in with Orrico the rest of the way.  Fun times and a good run with some good friends.  Post race champagne and Panera bagels at Sean's place - kudos to him for hosting!

Wolfpack New Year's Day

Wednesday, January 2nd - 5.5 miles.  Went to SLU track to try to catch Crystal for a cooldown since she was doing her track work with Coach Tim.  Was originally just going to go home and not run, but guilted myself into an easy run since my legs were just destroyed and thought a few easy recovery miles couldn't hurt.  Well, got up to the track, and snow had completely blanketed the track so Crystal was doing hill repeats on the road.  So I ran 3.75 miles on the track, then another 1.75 with her to cooldown.  Pretty chilly outside, but fine once I got warmed up.  We probably went faster than I wanted to, but felt fine.

So while I'm playing catch up on my blog, here we go with 2012 in review.  There were some positives and negatives, and I think I need to be overall happy since I accomplished most of what I set out to do, despite being well over race weight and not working as hard as I should have.  I started out with a good spring, but could never maintain where I wanted to.  There were a lot of disappointing races, but a few good ones that I'm very proud of.  So what I am getting out of 2012 is I proved to myself that if I can work hard and stay disciplined, I can do some good things.

Favorite Workout:

Always a toughy, and there were a lot of workouts to look back at.  Sadly, most of the work I did was before March which is why I don't remember as much.  This 4 mile tempo run was a good one early in the year that gave me a lot of confidence.  This workout was pretty recent, and gave me hope that I wasn't completely out of shape this fall/winter. Also enjoyed doing short track work with Crystal on this improvised workout - hitting 71-72 on quarters is pretty good for me.  But I think I'll go with the 4 mile tempo - when I hit a good tempo, I feel like it's the most rewarding workout of them all.

Favorite Race:

Man, another toughy.  I almost need to break this into 2 parts, because I ran a few team races that were memorable.  For team purposes, I was leaning towards the Shamrock Shuffle Open Coed Winner since it is such a big race and we rolled out, but the GO! STL Relay tops the cake.  We finished 2nd overall and won the co-ed division.  Also involved the most entertaining prerace of all with Crystal (most responsible, punctual person I know) oversleeping, then making it downtown in about 10 minutes (25 minute trip typically) to get us our bibs/timing chip and Gabe to the starting line on time.  Then blazing through our leg to set Mike up for a top finish.  Just an awesome story, and one I'll always remember with great friends.

For individual purposes, I was leaning towards the Top of the Morning 5K, which was my first 5K (and sadly fastest) of the year.  Nice to come back here and redeem myself after my awful 2011 race, and outkick Harry too since he had gotten me good in the last few races we had done.  But I am going with Cherry Blossum - a list on my bucket list, and I had gotten an entry through the lottery.  Nice overcast, cooler day in D.C., and because I had run virtually sans watch (didn't start Garmin on time), pretty much ran the entire race by feel and got in a great rhythm.  Awesome scenary as we ran past many of the monuments, and got to see a few cherry blossums as well.  But a good PR in one of my favorite cities, and a race I'm pretty proud of.

Favorite Long Run:

Wow, had to literally sift through all my runs this year and take a look because I don't remember much!  2012 was the first year sans marathon since 2007, so there wasn't much to write about (not to mention I crapped out all summer, the perfect time for long runs).  It's hard for me to designate a "favorite" since there were so many types of long runs - easy runs, workouts, pacing, etc., and I almost have to break it down into separate areas.  So a few highlights - Lakeshore long run with Megan during my sister's wedding weekend.  Gorgeous day, and got in some great distance.  The Rock n Roll Chicago Half Marathon plus a few extra on Lakeshore.  Ended up being a leisurely pace through the city, and enjoy the sights and sounds without having to race.  And I can't forget the Forest Park workout/long run with Crystal this summer.  The one hour tempo on the 2 mile hell loop - beastly, but I'm proud of the splits on a hot day.  The Fast Eddie's run was a blast, and definitely felt the easiest of any run that I had not to mention all the good company and post race food/brews at Fast Eddie's.  But my favorite long run would have to go to my 13 mile cooldown in Champaign while running Megan in for her first marathon.  A great workout/race in the morning with the 10K, then jumped in to run Megan in.  Very cool to run around my old stomping grounds, and keep Megan company as well.  Awesome to watch her cross the 50 yard line/finish and trust her fists in the air.  Everyone always remembers their first...marathon.  Get your mind out of the gutter!


2012 PR's:

4K: 15:49 (USA XC Championships)
8K: 31:27 (Shamrock Shuffle 8K)
10K: 39:35 (Illinois Marathon 10K)
10 Mile: 1:05:54 (Cherry Blossum 10 Miler)

Goals in 2013: PR in the half marathon, 8K, sub 18 5K again, return to the marathon???, 2000 miles in 2013.  Actually try to work hard as well, the last 2 years have been mediocre/disappointing, and I can't seem to put a few good months together.