Still reporting from Washington. The cold weather broke and temps are getting into the 40's melting snow and even giving us some peeks at the sun on occasion. Here's how things went down:


Saturday 3.5 miles in 31 minutes. A poorly planned coffee just before the run forced me to cut this one short


Sunday 5 miles in 40 minutes just before sunset.


Monday I had big block of time and was finally able to get my long run in. Monday is not a normal long run day but on vacation it works just fine. Heather helped me map out a route in the area and I was set with a rolling 20 miles. Maybe a tad ambitious for the mileage I have been running lately but I thought if I took it slow it would be fine.

So that is just what I did, took it slow and kept my eyes open for oncoming cars and the landscape. With all of the cloud cover there are no glorious views to report but it was a relaxing run, if that makes any sense. Around mile 15 I was starting to hurt and the lack of water wasn't helping any. It never got horrible but I was glad to wrap things up. 20.8 miles in 2:44

Tuesday - DNR. I chide myself for not getting up early and running therefore missing my only chance to run before dark and breaking a little streak I had going. Oh well.

Wednesday. Heather and I drove to Banbridge island about 20 minutes from her parents house and directly across the Puget Sound from Seattle. We were doing a little house hunting and found a few prospect houses and open lots where we could build our own house. Afterwards Heather went for a swim at the local high school/swim club and I laced them up for 8 rolling miles out and back across the width of the island. My legs had a lot of pep in them but I held back. 8 miles in 64 minutes.

And that wraps up the year. I went from training hard in the winter for a half marathon that never materialized to marathon training in the summer that was cut short when I decided to opt out. The end of July, August and beginning of September were lost miles. I have a huge blank right in the middle of my running log. In the fall I started logging 30-45 mile weeks again and my running really took focus in Mid-November with a late winter 2009 marathon on the calendar.

The races that standout for me are the NERRC 10K in the spring where I PR'd going under 37 minutes for the first time. I feel that is right up there in the top 3 performances for me. Another highlight was PDR. I didn't kill the race but I loved running it none the less. I think it got me back in touch with why I get out there to run nearly every day.

Happy New Year!