I'm switching sports!

I'm a gymnast now. It's official. A bad gymnast but a gymnast. After months of trying to teach myself to do a cartwheel to no avail I went to my first gymnastics class yesterday.
What happened to me? I thought I was in good shape from running I don't know, like 14 miles a day for the past year, but that was before I tried to climb a rope and leap across a room. Let's just say I am glad there is no such thing as the 24 hour jump.
I spent the rest of class practicing doing a handstand into the wall and doing baby cartwheels while everyone else from age four to thirty five did back flips over me.
After about 8 failed attempts I'm able to kick my legs up against the wall. If I have one percent fear I won't be able to do it. Not even 1%. Hard to have that when you know all the five year olds are laughing at you!
I just want to be able to do a cartwheel! I could do this when I was seven! Seven was the highlight of my life in many way but I refuse to let it be the pinnacle of my athletic career. I am still alive which means I'm young enough to learn how to do this.
It only takes four failed attempts to get my legs against the wall by the end of class. Maybe there's a little hope for me, maybe not much, but a little. That's it I'm quitting running- I'm going to be a gymnast!
Justin Beiber song comes blaring out of the radio and no one else falls out of their handstand because they are plugging their ears! Yeah, okay, maybe not.

Lake Samish Half Marathon

Today I ran the Lake Samish Half Marathon. Considering it was only six days after my 30 mile time trial my time was decent in 1:36:15. my hamstrings had been sore when I was running all week and because of this I got to have a whole easy week! Or five days anyway! Do you know the last time I got to have five, five easy days in a row? It was May when I had a stress reaction. Though my start to my 2013 mileage has some catching up to do now!
Yesterday I did something I never want to do - I took an ice bath. I watched Titanic the night before so I was imagining myself as Jack dying in the water. It's so cold...i can't feel my body... I wonder if anyone has ever died of hypothermia in their own bathtub before? Anyway the horrible stabbing pain only lasts two minutes and then your body goes numb unlike what happens in the half marathon,
In the half marathon I felt very good for the first 4 miles, my hamstrings weren't sore, I was running about 7:00 mile pace, then for some reason it got hard. Phooey.
My legs were more fatigued than normal. It is normal to think at some point in the race- I don't  know if I will make it! or I don't think I should be a runner anymore! And the like, otherwise it is not a real race but there were a couple points like even at mile 12 where I was really wondering if my legs were just going to collapse. That was scary.
Well I made it and in first for women which was exciting. Considering how sore I was the beginning of the week that could have been a lot worse.

On the last day of the year

I ran a 30 mile time trial in 3:51:54. I ran in Mt Vernon, 6 times around the 5 mile skagit ultras course. Jim came and helped me out and shouted things at me that Joel said all the way from North Carolina. Just kidding, Jim doesn't shout at me! And someone else would shout so loud that I could hear him without any help. I finished 10 miles at slightly under my PR pace in 74:xx, something something, but my hamstrings started complaining early- actually at about 8 miles and the day just wasn't getting any warmer. I managed to run the rest of the way at around 7:40-7:58 pace and finish at around what would have been a 4 hour 50k. But don't tell me that, I did not want to run another 1.07 miles! I don't know why but for some reason that sounds really far right now.
I need to do some more speed work and more leg strengthening activities. I'm usually able to touch my toes but that hasn't been the case for the last month or so.
On Christmas day I hit 5000 miles for the year! Today I hit 5100.  I basically ran 5000 miles in 11 months because of the one month I was injured and only ran 80 miles the entire month. Next year I hope to be able to run 5215 miles and beyond.

Fairhaven Frosty 10k

Aww remember when there was this widdle biddy race called the 10k? I don't!
I ran the Fairhaven Frosty 10k on Saturday and I don't remember how to run this race. It is like a sprint right? Or at least it feels like you are sprinting but you are really running 6:53 pace? Right. Maybe I do remember this.
The course was hard in that there were four pretty good sized hills- twice up Chuckanut road and twice up the Interurban switch backs. Also because it was extremely w word. ( I can't actually say the w- word because when you say the w- word it will start w-ing right in your face.) But anyway the w was so strong I could not breathe unless I turned my head sideways for some of the race, and it felt like it was pushing me backwards. We only got the negative effects of the w because it was blowing north which meant it was beating us face first up Chuckanut Drive but wasn't giving back as when we were running north because we were in the trees of the Interurban by that point.
This race is so short there were only two times I felt like crying- one when I was running up the Chuckanut Drive hill  with what felt like a hurricane beating the will to live out of me and the other time when I had rounded the final corner and could see the finish line about 200 meters away and the finish line clock rapidly approaching 43 minutes and the w picked me up and dropped me like 100 meters backwards.
With the hard course and the w I feel like my time was all right, especially since I don't do very much speed work right now.

Running with Goats

On Thanksgiving I was running like I always do, and I was on a busy road, yuck, when I ran into a goat. He was just chilling on the side of the road eating some grass. When he saw me he started to follow me. I was worried about him being on a busy road so I stopped for a second to see if I could see where he belonged but as soon as I stopped he started head butting me with his horns, not in an unfriendly way, and the only way I could get him to stop was to start running again. Hmm, Joel is behind this perhaps? The goat started following me as soon as I started running again but fortunately he was out of shape and only made it about a hundred meters.
This was not the first time I have run with goats. When I went to Evergreen in 2007 or 2008 I was running to practice when I passed a little backyard farm. All of a sudden I hear "baaahhh!" behind me. When I looked back two little goats were running after me. They followed me for about two miles! They were both panting and I was scared they would give themselves heart attacks or something but they kept following me down the Evergreen parkway, past the dazed onlookers in buses, bahhhing all the way. When I was almost to school I got worried as obviously they could not come into school with me and I was still worried they would collapse and die but luckily some guy came by in a truck and exclaimed- "those are mine!"
Whenever I get a bit lonely out running I think about my goat friends and pretend I hear a little "baaaaahhh" behind me.

First Call Veteran's Day Marathon

Saturday I ran in the First Call Veteran's Day marathon for the third year in a row. I had a good time and finished first in the field again although my time was slower than the last two years where I ran 3:15:58 in 2011 and 3:12:22 in 2010. This year I ran 3:17:45.
It was below freezing at 7:15 in the morning when I got out of the car to "warm-up." I wore three jackets and my rain coat on my mile warm-up and didn't get that warm.
My time difference comes in the first half of the race. The course consists of two out and backs along the Sammamish river trail that are 6.55 miles and 6.55 miles back. In 2010 I ran my PR for a half marathon in route to my PR for the full in 1:31:30. Last year I was 1:34 something, this year I was 1:36:40 something. I run more consistently and I have way better endurance but I'm not as speedy. In 2010 I used to do lots of speed work and 21 mile hard runs. That was before I was a 50 miler or 24 hour runner. I ran the first 18 miles of the marathon at about 6:59/ mile pace and then crashed and ran about 8:00s, or in the 30 mile time trial I did that year 9-10:00s. I do not die like that now, or get nearly as sore afterwards as I did then but I would like to have some more of that speed I had so maybe I should go back to 21 mile hard runs. Sigh. Sometimes I wish I picked an easier profession.
It was weird to think when I was running that I was running only my third actual official marathon. I have done four 50ks, also four 10ks. It goes by a lot quicker than it used to. And my quads are not even sore at all so maybe the wall sit is actually helping! 

5000 miles

Last year my goal was to run 4000 miles by the end of the year, this year it is 5000, and more. I really want to hit 5229 miles which would be an average of 100 miles/week for the whole year. I forgot about it being a leap year when I was calculating my goals and thought I would only have to hit 5214.5 miles, being at 3,869 currently with 73 days left that would be 18.4 miles a day, but then I remembered. Dangit, new calculations are 18.6 miles a day! Stupid leap year. How much did I run on Leap Day anyway? Was it worth it?
7 miles!?!? I don't remember a single day I ever got to run just 7 miles! I remember running like at least 16 miles a day, every single day, sometimes 56, or 65. What is my average through today?
13.2 miles!?!? I don't even remember a single day I ever got to run just 13.2 miles! Not even once. How did these easy days take over my year?
Stupid knee!