Good Sunday morning Everyone, I ran a 5K yesterday. It was the Knoxville Jinglebell run. It turned out to be a beautiful morning, sunny and about 30 degrees. I had set a goal to finish under 27 mins. That is the time I turned in on my last 5K (18 mos ago), with a stretch goal of 26 minutes. I started toward the back of the group. I tried to keep reminding myself to start slow. I felt pretty good as I passed a number of runners and conquered a nice hill. At the one mile mark I was running 8:40. I thought that was right about were I wanted to be. the course was an out and back. At the turn around I cought a nice look at who was behind me and felt very confident. With about a half mile to the finish, I felt I was starting to run out of gas and grew concerned that I had gone out too fast. There would be no sprint to the finish. I crossed the finish line at 26:20. I'll take that. That put me at 133 out of 391 overall and 8/20 in my age group. I'll take that too. I stayed around for the awards (and some free soup) so that I could hear what the first in my age group ran. 21: something. I've got some work if I'm ever going to do that! I was a little nervous about running this race, any race for that matter, for several reasons, but it turned out very nicely. So, I'm planning on running the New Year's day 5K in Knoxville. It looks like a bigger and faster field for that race. Cheers, Mike

Nice racing, Mike. Very nice placing in AG. You just can't beat free soup!

I was off a few days due to the ice storm and its aftermath. Today's 5.7-mile run felt wonderful, though! I agree, Mike, running is one big conundrum for me! All I DO know is that I could never have run 5.7 miles a year ago and had it feel this easy, so I guess I am improving.

Whatever a hug is in writing I will take it. The crud I have is from just overdoing life and stressing about the dang (to put it nicely) holidays. Plus I am still coaching soccer and my team is getting their butts kicked up and down the field each week. And the other coach and I are trying to recruit for next season that starts next month. Ugh. Mike, thats how running goes. Runners have good days and bad days. But an 8:40 pace is a good day any day. Lots of things can play into it like how you slept, what you ate, crowds, sideline supports, who you run with, road conditions, did you tie your shoes too tight? I ran my fastest this year just to keep up with the Manchester friends. They were my ride home. So with 12,000 runners I couldnt chance losing them. lol. Theresa, did you guys get it bad last week? We only got rain thank God. We were about 10 miles south of the ice line. I hate winter ice and winter rain. Its so pointless. I'd rather have a foot of snow than a quarter inch of ice. Where is everyone else??? Eliz are you surviving the holiday concerts? Kim has a solo this Thursday and they formed a flute choir. I cant wait to hear them. Laurie

Mike, I'm so happy for you re your 5K. (for many reasons!) I understand the nervousness. You did great!! yummy soup. After reading your second post about your faster training run, I was wondering if you'd warmed up any for the race. Up to a point... the longer my run, the faster my average pace because I really do need to start out slow, (or I run out of gas too) then need to make up for it. How fast do you usually run your first mile? How's Dave? Laurie, are you feeling better? what are your flu symptoms? I have something that's kicked my butt too, but am not sure if it's a bad cold or the flu. Tend to think it's just a bad cold, with a fever & all the trimmings. This is my second day off work. It started last week, so I hope it's over for both of us soon. at PT, did they give you a diagnosis? You've been in some serious pain. good luck to Kim! not an ice fan either. I've been wanting to add back runs in my neighborhood... (probably a second, shorter run in a day, a new plan) & make friends with hills again. We had a huge amount of rain a day or so ago; I looked out earlier & the roads & sidewalks are clear!!! Can't wait to get better so I get out there & take advantage of it. Then i just heard we're supposed to get hit again tonight. Well, maybe it will just be snow. hi evryday . Kevin, wtg on your Jingle Bell 5K. It sounds like you're ramping up your miles very nicely. You're sounding fast, too. (even running fast :roll thanks for the anti-face-freezing idea. I put some lotion on, but probably not enough or not the right type. That day was really pretty extreme, anyway.

Laurie--hope the PT gets rid of your hammies soon.

.... nice thought, maybe also a little extreme? like a frontal lobotomy? Teresa, congrats again to your DS. Glad you have power back! I hope your roads are ok. Roberta... how are you? Linda... you too. {{({{ }})}} (i'm multi-lingual) oh... a few days off running for me because of the nasty bug. last 2 (thurs, sat) were probably mistakes. but still went pretty well.

Hey, everyone - good to read your posts. Cold, icy, snowy here too, but thankfully central Indiana hasn't had power outages. Staying on the treadmill now - stayed off way too long and it's taking a while to get back in shape. I'm on pre-week 1 of the old C25K program (just power walking).

Hello Everyone, Wow, its been 4 days since anyone posted here. I'm going to bump us up and hope everyone is feeling OK. I put in 6 miles today. I felt awesome. This is the first 6 miles I've done in quite a while. I would even venture to say since last spring. I hope everyone is doing OK. And is having a happy holiday season. I decided to stay put and spend Christmas here in TN. Cheers everyone, Mike

We got LOTS of snow. It ended a little after midnight, but there was so much that school was called off today. I will have three happy kids! I'm hoping to get to the Y later, but it's iffy. Oh, well, it's supposed to warm up by Wednesday.