Perry just emailed the director of the Annapolis Striders Valentine Day 5K asking their policy on late registration and late starts. If everything goes perfectly, we could barely make it to run By George 5K at 0830 at Hains Pt and then drive to Severna Pk to run Annapolis Striders Valentines Day 5K at 1000 -- but it would be great if they let us start late (whenever we get there) - just for the entertainment value of doing both.

Perry just emailed the director of the Annapolis Striders Valentine Day 5K asking their policy on late registration and late starts. If everything goes perfectly, we could barely make it to run By George 5K at 0830 at Hains Pt and then drive to Severna Pk to run Annapolis Striders Valentines Day 5K at 1000 -- but it would be great if they let us start late (whenever we get there) - just for the entertainment value of doing both.

It sounds like the real race will be the drive between the events!

Phil and I may run the CBRC trail run this weekend, which I believe is a 6k. I like that they are varying the distances, but it kind of stinks that I've never run a 6k before and will not soon run another 6k, so my time won't be very useful. I will probably treat it like a training run more than anything else. Any chance of seeing you there, Perry?

Well, I finally did it. I joined the CBRC! So is there anything specific I have to do to make the marathon count for the Grand Prix? And when registering for future races, how do I make sure I get the membership discount?

Yeah, just check the grand prix standings and email the grand prix scorer if yours don't show up -- that is, you don't have to do anything to be counted. They've actually not posted any grand prix standings yet this year. Actually I'll just email Scott Payne (the grand prix scorer) and give him a heads-up that you're to be counted. There is a trail run at Myrtle Point the day before the marathon -- that is the real ankle-twister of the series. Good timing huh? The trail run distances are bizarre because we wanted to make them all different -- so you get nutty distances. Annoying huh? Well, you guys are in the club, you can come out next year and lobby to change them or help design them

I just got the first glimpse of the extended weather forecast for 3/8/09. They're calling for a low of 36 and a high of 52, which indicates that the race temperature will probably range from the low 40s to possibly the low 50s. That sounds fairly ideal --- except there's also a 30% percent chance of rain showers (hopefully not until the afternoon). But who knows how much that will all change between now and then.

I'm now seeing some drastically varying weather reports for Sunday. The Yahoo weather link calls for a low of 44 and a high of 59, whereas my Mac desktop weather widget calls for a high of 70! Both reports contend that it should be a dry day, though. I've missed four consecutive days of running due to illness (although I did 20 minutes on the elliptical last night), which begs this pressing question: how much tapering is too much tapering?

I guess my worry is that, prior to this four-day sabbatical, I'd run a total of five days over the previous two weeks. It's undeniably ideal for legs to be well-rested before a marathon, but I still want them to remain well-accustomed to the movement of running.