Happy New Year

I ran today for the second day in a row. I'm still feeling fairly well, although still not 100%. So today's run was, once again, slow and not too far: about 5 miles at 9 minute pace. Some of it was on the trails through Heritage park to Laurel. I have decided that I ought to run those trails more often, even though the footing isn't always the greatest. Today with the cold and a couple inches of snow, it was soft and slow, but generally not bad. Yes, I should definately do this more often.

As usual, except for last year, we rang in the new year at Kathy and Mike's place with the rest of the gang. I was surprised that Mom had no trouble making it till midnight - I sure did. Dave and Carol stayed over and went home a while ago.

Now Kathy and Mike are having us over again for the traditional pork, sourkraut and dumplings dinner. I decided that the reason our retirement accounts lost so much money this year is that we didn't have the roast pork last year. Since we were in Florida, the closest we could get was pork spare ribs, and they obviously didn't bring us the needed good luck. Of course the problem this year is my vegetarianism quest. It's tough living amongst so many carnivores, including Debbie. Don't know what I'll do about eating today, but I'll figure something out. Our luck can't be this bad two years in a row... Can it?

Back to running. Here's a very brief recap of 2008:

-3200 miles (about what I've been doing in recent years) at 8:20 pace (about the same as last year). This brings my lifetime mileage up to 70, 891.5.
-4 marathons in approximately (3:28, 3:28, 3:21, 3:17) those last two were disappointing because I thought 3:15 or even 3:10 was possible.
-3 10k's (41 flat, 41:04, 41:30 or so) once again, slightly disappointing because I thought sub-40 was possible.
-4 1/2 marathons (about 1:31, 1:30, 1:29, 1:32) at least one was sub-90.
-3rd in age group for the Subway Challenge Series - not so great. Thought I'd do better.
-Last but certainly not least, 1 ultra: the Green Jewel 100k, which I *won*! This was certainly the highlight of the year, and also, I'd say, the highlight for my entire running career.

The intangibles for the year are at least as important as the accomplishments mentioned above. I joined the Medina County Road Runners and in the process made several new friends. I also started working at Second Sole, and this has enriched my running in many ways as well.

My goals for 2009? Same as always: to be the best runner who has ever lived. Short of that, to be the best runner I can be.