13.1 is the new 26.2

As this new race series contends, 13.1 isn't half of anything.  I am going to make 2009 my year to conquer this distance, which has become the latest trend in the running world.  

After taking the past few months off, more or less, I've allowed my body to finally recover from the grueling training leading up to San Francisco.  I've enjoyed long easy runs just for the sake of rediscovering the love of the sport, and I'm psyched to start seriously training again after the holidays.  

I gave huge props to my two amazing mentors for making my first season with TNT and my first marathon experience what it was, which is why I was happy to find out a few days ago that I was selected to be one of the mentors for the Summer 2009 season.  I had been debating which race to run (San Diego, Anchorage or Lake Placid), and while a big deciding factor was definitely travel costs, I also selected Lake Placid because they offered a Half in addition to the Full.  The nature of this race makes it still an incredible physical challenge, but obviously one with a much faster recovery time, meaning that you can run them much closer together without needing a substantial recovery period after (aka you can still walk after you cross the finish line).  I can also start to approach this distance with a more rigorous time goal in mind rather than just aiming to cross the finish line.

And so I'm off to the two-time Winter Olympic site this coming June.  Our training season starts January 28, but planning with the other mentors and coaches starts shortly after the holidays.  I'm excited not only to start planning fundraising and member engagement ideas, but to hopefully inspire some newbie marathoners, as my mentors did for me.

Hopefully I will be able to plan my training to include a few Halfs throughout the season so that I am fully ready to race in Lake Placid.  Toying with the idea of the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon or the Little Rock Marathon at the midway point of the season.  Memorial Day weekend just may be time for a trip back to the Midwest to chill on the Terrace, visit the Farmers Market and run the Madtown Half around that gorgeous city a few weeks before the big TNT race upstate.

There may still be an international full marathon in the works for later in the year, but there are many details to be worked out before that one is good to go...

Christmastime in the city

It's my second Christmas that I will be spending in New York, and it really does feel like I am home for the holidays. 

I still get butterflies in my stomach at the first real snowfall of the season.  The amount of snow that we get in the city is nothing compared to Wisconsin, but there's something magical about walking home through Madison Square Park, Shake Shack trimmed with lights and a layer of white covering the ground.

 

December always makes me nostalgic for the traditions of childhood, but I'm realizing the beauty in carrying on those traditions in my own fashion (I will probably always use the same Christmas cookie recipe) and finding new ones to make the season special.  Why do I love Christmas in the city so much?  It's ice skating in Bryant Park and shopping at the holiday market in Union Square.  It's the vendors selling Christmas trees on every street corner, and the most elegant tree of all displayed in Rockefeller Center.  It's the artistic department store windows, the snowflake lights on the front of Saks & Company and hearing Carol of the Bells playing from the storefront.

Even more than the beauty of the city, or hearing Christmas carols in every coffeeshop, it's the people who I have been lucky enough to spend the holidays with over the past two years that make it feel like I am home for the holidays.  It's the parties and the couch guests for weeks on end, friends who are passing through to experience the magic of the city at this time of the year or to ring in the new year.  

Wherever you are this holiday season, I hope that you are surrounded by people you love.

Let it snow...

I'm all for a white Christmas, but I don't know if running my 15k race in Central Park tomorrow will be quite so enjoyable if that winter storm really does hit tonight...

good things come to those who wait...

I was packed into a crowded subway, heading uptown at rush hour yesterday evening and read one of the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) announcements that line ceiling of the subway car.  

"Starting in 2015, the new Second Avenue subway will help relieve the overcrowding on the Lexington lines.  Overdue, but excellent news"

I laughed a little.  They were talking about this when I lived out here in the city three years ago (summer '05).  I don't think any New Yorkers are holding their breath.  And to think that we used to make fun of Barranquilla for their standstill urban transportation projects.

for shits and giggles...

...and because my roommate deemed it blog-worthy.

Is it Christmas?