Just saw this: The FAW 5K will begin at the north end of Ryken Highschool on the girls soccer field. Runners will run south on OLD LINE BANK RD (down campus), cirlce around the boys soccer field and the baseball field, come back up the hill and go around the buildings. From here they will travel North on OLD LINE BANK RD and leave campus (Aboout 1.1 miles). Runners will make a right onto Camp Calvert Road than a quick left onto FENWICK STREET. As they begin up the hill on Fenwick a LEFT will be made onto COURTHOUSE RD. From here runnners will make a Right onto WASHINGTON ST. After passing the post office, runners will make a u-turn on Washington str run one block and make a LEFT back onto FENWICK STREET. From here, runners will make a RIGHT onto CAMP CALVERT RD, an immediate LEFT onto OLD LINE BANK RD and finish wher they began. About .75 of a mile will be on grass, the remainder of the run will be on roads.

I'm tentatively planning to run three 5ks in the next four weeks --- the FAW 5k this Saturday, the St. Mary's City Thanksgiving Prediction Run/5k Race the following Saturday, and of course the Jingle Bell 5k on 12/6. It remains to be seen, however, whether I'll be joined by any of you during the first two races. I'm trying to get Joe and Phil interested in the event this weekend --- the one that begins and ends on the RYKEN campus --- but I've gotten no response back from them. Perry?

I've officially signed up for the LPR Marathon 2009 --- and I promptly received this e-mail: Thanks for signing up, David. If you've kept up your training, I predict you'll do better than 3:30. Maybe you can push Perry to a BQ. See you at the races! Liza BQ = Boston Qualifier?

Vic told me the other metric marathon (not Annapolis -- some mid-MD county -- Howard or Montgomery or something) is the day after Jingle Bell. That isn't optimal, but as it is the only other metric marathon, I'm tempted by it.

Hello, This email is to confirm your registration in the Solomons Jingle Bell 5k Run/Walk being held on Saturday, December 6, 2008 at the Calvert Marine Museum. We are offering pre-packet pickup on Friday afternoon at the museum from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm under the pavilion. Registration and packet pick up will begin again on Saturday morning at 6:30 am. The Rudolph Romp will begin around 8:10 am and the race start is at 8:30 am. We have special guests for the children…Santa is scheduled to make an appearance and so is the museum mascot (an otter). Please remember to bring your race number back on Saturday, should you pick your packet up early. You will need to arrive in time to pick up your shoe tag on Saturday morning (we will NOT be handing these out on Friday night). We currently have 320 pre-registered individuals and at least 100 t-shirts left if you know of someone that hasn’t signed up yet…encourage them to sign up on active.com tonight or tomorrow. There is a prize for most spirited costume…so come decked out in your best holiday gear. We are looking forward to another great race. It is nice to have so many returners!! Respectfully, Kelly Imhof JBR Race Director

I personally know that the 2007 and 2008 LPR marathons were both on Daylight Savings Day, just as 2009 will be. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that all those extreme early birds who run (as in manage and physically run) the event actually want it to be on that day. But perhaps the seamanship school always has other events going on during the Sundays preceding and following the second weekend in March. Anyways, getting up at what felt like 4 a.m. and starting a race at what felt like 6:45 a.m. (or was it it 6:15/7:15 a.m.?) really wasn't as tortuous as I imagined it would be.

A PR at the 5 mile race this Saturday is about as likely as the Redskins chances of making the play-offs (i.e., mathematically eliminated). Nine days ago, I completed my first twelve mile run since early October at Lake Montebello with Alden and Val. That capped off my first 30 mile week since before the half marathon. Since then, I have run only ten miles... all ten of which came this past Saturday. Val and I ran around the neighboring areas, so we mixed in a bunch of hills. Even still, I won't be able to run until Thursday evening this week due to final exams (the reason my training slacked last week). I figure I may run 12-14 miles this week, including anything I do on Saturday. I'm fully aware that, as of yesterday, only 12 full weeks for training remain prior to the marathon. Being that this week won't really be "training," I'm down the 11 weeks. Considering at least two of those weeks should be tapering, I'd say I have about nine weeks to train for this race. Hopefully that'll be enough to at least get my long run as high as it needs to be.