merry and bright

Wishing you ridiculous amounts of holiday cheer

and a mediocre new year. Don't get too carried away, keep your excitement to a Truman and Pippa approved level.

end of the (13.1 miles long) road

It's December which can only mean one thing! It's Christmas time! New Year's Eve is approaching! My birthday is almost here! Time to illegally acquire fireworks!  Egg nog lattes with every meal! Time to stress about gift shopping!  Oh shit, is the cat eating the tree lights? Shitter was full!

It's time to run my last half marathon of the year!

Before we get into the boring parts of this let me warn you that apparently 12 half marathons in so many months is what it takes to break my brain. After leaving the race I stopped at a 7-11 for a bathroom break/coffee stop. I walked into the bathroom, saw urinals and thought "weird that those are in the women's room." I proceeded to go into the only stall ("Why is there only one stall?") and noticed on the back of the door graffiti advertising a phone number to call for cheap bjs. ("ha, someone wrote that in the wrong bathroom!" Y'all, I really thought that.) I then left the bathroom, walked over to the coffee area where a giant lightbulb finally went off and I realized I had just used the mens' room. 

There were some changes to my race calendar for multiple reasons and I ended up staying in town for my last half, the Hits Endurance Festival on Dec 14th. This was my first time running this particular race and perhaps the first time this race was held in Austin. The race was at the Circuit of the Americas, which is a Formula 1 track and that provided for an interesting race setting. 

Empty seats as far as the eye could see! Concrete! Lots of turns! Hills! WTF, HILLS?!? But there was plenty of good too. Since it is a track they were able to pipe in music for us over the P.A. system. There were not many people running the half and full distance so no dodging people slower than me. (If we're being honest, this was mostly because there is no one who runs slower than me.) The weather was great. Strong head wind in some inconvenient places but otherwise cool and delightful. 

I think I could have PRed this race but thanks to lots of sharp turns I wasn't able to run the tangents and I over ran the distance quite a bit. I realized I was going over for time and distance when I was at the foot of a pretty beastly hill, thought "aww screw it," and walked up to the top. Could I have run that hill? Maybe. Do I regret taking my time? No. Dude, I had already run up lots of hills that day, skipping one wasn't going to kill me. What I really needed out of this race, more than a PR, was to have fun. My last few months have been tiring and I've been dreading running lately. I really needed to get back to loving it and this race really did that for me. I felt strong the whole time. I felt fast (even though I wasn't). I crossed the finish line and actually thought "yeah, I could keep going."

So 12 in 12! Hell yeah!

But, um, now what? I'm feeling a little lost without some stupid challenge on my horizon. Could we all tell jparks I'm doing another challenge and I'll just go on vacation every month. You'll let me sleep at your house, right? We can marathon drink and eat. You better start training now because I'm already a pro. 

November comes and November goes

"Okay, November half marathon done! Time to get to the important busy of blogging it!"

"Maybe I'll wait until I run the Turkey Trot so I can blog that too. Plus the kids are running the Kids K with me so I can tell a cute story of crossing the finish line with them!"

"Kids K was a disaster. Can't deal with talking about it yet."

"Oh look, it's no longer November. Shit."

Timeliness! Not my strong suit. Forgive me? (like you have a choice)

So my November half marathon! Wouldn't you think a November race would be cold? Or at the very least cool? Yeah me too. And despite every person telling me that it is always ridiculously hot for Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio, I didn't expect it to be hot. I am so smart. Hell, the week prior to the race Texas was seeing temperatures in the 30s! But guess what? Everyone was right! It was 80 degrees which isn't the hottest temperature I've ever run in, but the 90% humidity really made everything totally fucking miserable. My elbows were sweating. Did you know elbows can sweat? I didn't! 

I saw two people getting IV fluids on the side of the road and the medics at the finish line were totally out of bags of fluids so I think it's safe to say that not many folks PRed at this race. I totally understand why others in the Austin running community warned me not to run RNR San Antonio. But! 11 half marathons done!

No finisher picture because I literally had to run back to my hotel room so I didn't miss check out and because I don't have eleven fingers. But I did take a picture of the two desserts I ordered at dinner the night before the race. The people next to me at the bar laughed and the bartender told me he was proud of my ordering skills. 

Ugliest finisher medal ever, right?

Besides the RNRSA half I also ran the Turkey Trot this month where the weather was the exact opposite of the half. The kids were registered for the Kids K before the big race and the night before both were super excited. Then the morning of the race Truman decided he didn't want to run and since we couldn't leave him home alone, we dragged him down to the race to stand around in the cold. He was not a happy camper.

Pippa, however, was stoked for the Kids K. She kept pushing through the crowds and was jumping with excitement. And then the race started, she took three steps, and threw herself down in front of a jogging stroller. Awesome. Note for next Thanksgiving: skip the Kids K. 

Whatever, at least her track suit was adorable. 

So here we are, one more half marathon! Possibly two if I decide that I really won't be able to sleep unless my year of half marathons becomes 13 13.1 in 2013. So close to the end! When I get there can we celebrate with drinks?