Happy December everyone! I'll kick things off with a non-race report report of the Dallas White Rock Marathon last Sunday, Dec. 4! My training had been a struggle with record cold in November to coincide with my long runs (see picture near the end of last month's thread), and being extremely busy at work... made it hard to get the mileage up where I like it to be, and limited quality, too. So.... I went into it with a "soft" target of 3:45 and hoped for the best. Then the weather took a total turn to crap, and we ended up running in cold rain the whole time. Lost feeling in my hands just after the half point, and afterward it took forever to warm up. Still, I got it done and nailed my target with a 3:45:13, and 5th in age group. Good enuf for marathon #7 this year. Time for a bit of a recovery time for December before gearing up for Boston in April.

What are you doing this month?

Thanks, Murphy! I blame Facebook, too. But I'm not giving in.   That's great about the NorthCoast 24 hour race. It would be cool to run something like that where the goal is to see how far you can get in a given time, vs how long it takes you to finish a given distance. Have fun with that!

No running for me this week so far, although it's just Wednesday. I just don't see any need to rush into it and have been working out at the gym every day so it's all good. I'll still probably get enough miles this month to hit 2,400 for the year, which will be by far the most miles in a year ever for me.

Nice race, P2R! Was that one of those prediction runs? That's a really strong PR for you. Wow...

No running at all this week. Well, I guess there's still tomorrow, and maybe I'll have time then. Just haven't had the time for is this week, so it's a good thing I wasn't planning on running much anyway. I have been going to the gym though, and did today before losing 2 hours of my life to shopping. 3.7 miles elliptical, 20 minutes of weights this afternoon with DH.

That's a great way to fail badly on your prediction -- by running much faster - congratulations!

Now there was some nice stupidity by myself at this morning's race. I forgot to reset my watch before the race. I was hitting mile markers about a mile off--I'd see mile marker 3 at about mile 4 or 4.2 or something. It is a two loop course and I just assumed they'd gotten the mile markers wrong.

I knew 9 would be right, because I'd jogged back to it from the finish. So after my watch hit 9, I expected to finally see a correct mile marker. Lo and behold, we hit mile marker 8. Hmm. My brain finally starts to work, and I wonder if the mile markers are right, and my watch is wrong.

Here is the funniest/stupidest part: at this point, and for many miles prior, I'm drafting the guy who has run every race in this series, every year, without missing any, for over 25 years. So it's not as though I have to ask someone who might be new to the course, or from out of town.

So after I see the 8, I ask him, do we really have another mile and a half!? He nods his head yes.

Wow. Discouragement courses through me; I'd been counting down the miles to keep myself going, but always a mile ahead of where I should be. I drop off a ways. In the last half mile or so, I start to catch back up to him -- why? - because I hear the guy behind me closing on me, and competitiveness overcomes discouragement and fatigue.

Hopefully I learned some kind of lesson, besides just that my mind doesn't function too well when I'm racing and tired.

Just checking in to say hi.

This will be a lower mileage year for me, just over 1000, so far... I wish I could get the motivation back to run more or be OK with running less.  

Once again, Erika, super impressive marathon report.    Bummer that the weather was cold rain.  I've not run in those conditions before... and you still ran a 3:45?  That's amazing.

Hi Murphy!   You ALMOST make me want to do a 24 hour race.    Glad you're enjoying your kiddos.   Such a fun time.  Everyone tells you this, but they grow up so fast.   Mine are almost 11 and 8 years old.  

Excellent race, Bryan!   Not sure if I posted it or not, but I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K on 12/3 in 1:18.   If you want to read some irate reviews, see if you can google this race- Washington D.C.   It was crazy crowded... took forever to get to the start with standstill traffic, the course was right by traffic, etc....   I didn't really care, as I was with friends and we were running it for fun.    I'm actually surprised at how mad people were at the logistics side of it all.  What did they expect?    I read the reviews and all I could think was "I thought runners were supposed to be happy people"  I agree that the race was a mess in many ways, but I thought that might be the case.  I live here and have run a bunch of races in DC.  It's never easy to get anywhere... and they crammed 25,000 runners into an area called National Harbor.  I knew that it would be crazy.

Perry-  I loved your report.   Your competitiveness won out over your discouragement... that's pretty cool.  I know that had to be hard when you thought you were ahead.

I've been running with friends and really enjoying the socializing.  Last week,  I ran with my running group on a Christmas lights run, which was a blast.   Almost 3 miles straight uphill and then turn around and come back down.  It's a run I don't normally make it to, partially because it's at night, and also because it's about 5 or 6 miles from my house.

A friend gave us a nice treadmill.... I like to run outside, but it's nice to have the option, especially with kids.

Have a good one all!

Merry Christmas, all!