Dutchie: My original goal was 2:10, which is roughly a 10min pace. I still think it's doable even though I haven't trained at that speed that much but I've been running a lot of slow easy miles hoping to build a strong base. Ennay: If I ran it with my friend, it would be closer to an 11 - 11:30 pace which would be a nice easy long run pace for me. I think it would also help motivate her to finish strong. I could cheer for her when she's fading. Sorry to hear that everyone's not feeling well. There's been a ton of germs going around lately, more than half the office I'm in has been sick in the last month.

Good luck Aaron, hope you have a great race either way you choose to go. Hope everyone can get to feeling better and rest up this weekend.

Well folks, I have to say that running the Golden Gate Bridge, while a pacific storm was moving through was...well, tough. I froze my nuggets off, ran into a strong wind going down and stinging rain pelting me the whole time. The only thing keeping me going was the irish coffee awaiting me at the Buena Vista. I started at vista point because they had restrooms that I was able to change in. I also had stopped off at the Chrissy Feild Museum cafe for a cliff bar and bottled water on the way back. Still, the scenery from the pedestrian lane was spectacular. I encountered only 4 other runners and a few cyclists - they only had one pedestrian lane open this past Tuesday afternoon. We all acknoledged to each other the lunacy of running on that paticular day. I estimated about 3.5 miles for the trip - in a strong head wind, that was enough! But, I did it. CHeck that one off of the "things to do before I die." On Friday morning, I ran a section of Seal Beach down in the LA area. Big mistake - I should have stayed in Huntington Beach. The sand was so soft, I felt like I was dragging several concrete blocks behind me. Eventually I adandoned the filthy trash laden beach for the residential paved road just off the PCH. Based on time, I estimated about 4 miles, but it was probably a little more. After trodding along in the sandy muck, I also felt like that was enough. Besides, I had to catch my flight. Glad I left when I did because the 405 to the 105 was it's typical high volume congested traffic nightmare. Glad to be home near my faithful running routes.

Body back in full working order, did just over 10 mi with my friend today. We are visiting her family in a much hillier area that the city where we live, so it was a long hill workout, of sorts. I was looking at my log for the month of January, and I ran 14 times with an average run length of 5.5. I think my goal for this month is to up the number of days and if that means the average run length goes down, at least it means that I'm fitting running into my life more consistently. Does anyone else have "February Goals"? ::eagerly awaiting Aaron's race report::

Argh, so the forecast for tomorrow is rain. It's beautiful today and it should be pretty nice on Monday. But it's rain tomorrow for the HM. What luck! http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=92605&hourly=1&yday=33&weekday=Sunday I'm leaning more towards racing it now just because it would get me out of the rain faster.

Ahhh but rain is GREAT racing weather....unless it is really cold windy rain. My best half experience was definitely 50 and rainy. ...OK the wind forecast could be a problem. Good luck!

Heavy rains, but the wind has died down. Have 24K planned so not sure if I'll go outside. I'll wait till the afternoon. See if the rain stops. No dogs to run with either. I might opt for the TM and a movie...

Dutchie...25K on the dreadmill....mental doesnt seem quite strong enough of a term I had good running weather today!!!!!! The forecast was for mixed rain/snow, but it didn't precipitate, there was no wind and at one point I even saw SUNSHINE. 13.2 miles My garmin freaked out...this is the second time it has done this at about the same place. I go 2 miles and then the sucker starts TAKING MILEAGE AWAY. Bizarre. Aaron - eagerly awaiting a race report!

Aaron: if you didn't feel well, it WAS the smart thing to do. No shame in that. It doesn't make you a wimp, it makes you a smart athlete. There'll be other races you can do. We've all done it at least once. I know I have. How did your friend do? Ennay: LOL, well you think of a better word then LOL. But truly, I enjoyed myself the entire time! Music is key. And I like happy music. Music I can sing along, out loud or in my head when I'm going too fast to sing out loud. Music with the right beat: 140BPM when I'm still warming up or cooling down. 145-150BPM is perfect for me for 9-9.5K/h. I absolutely love it when my legs move in sync with the beat.