Bret

AM - just under 6.5 miles with Dan and the dogs from his place on the horese farm trail roads - much cooler today in the upper 30's than the last few days.  Go run and conversation to begin the new year. 

AM - 4.25 miles on the Milton Trail with Dan and Finn. Even colder today in the upper 20's 

AM - 3.25 miles on the trail with Dan and the dogs.   Got a slightly later start than normal and so decided to go shorter at Dan's request.   The trail surface was mostly frozen - which made for easier running where warmer temps would have resulted in some muddy sections being a bit more treacherous.    Dog clean up was easier too - less mud.  

AM - 7 miles with the guys and a new joiner Ryan so we had a total of 5 of us plus Finn from downtown on a cold morning.  Good relaxed effort and great conversation.  

AM - 4.5 miles with Dan and the dogs on the golf course before church. 

AM - 5k on the treadmill - heavy rains and colder temperatures kept me from considering an outdoor run today - much to my dog's frustration. 

AM - 4 miles on the trail with Dan and the dogs - quite cold in the 20's and the ground is frozen so no issues with the mud from the rains yesterday.  A little twinge in the left hamstring perhaps from running on the treadmill yesterday?   Heading down to Disney on Thursday with the kids and grandkids - Bradlea and Marcus are doing the half marathon on Saturday and I am doing the full on Sunday.  

AM - 3.75 miles with Dan and Finn on the Milton Trail - very cold and windy this morning - in the low 20's with the feels-like temp at 14.  The windy was painfully cold on my face going out on the trail, but then as we warmed up and headed back, it was good to have the wind at our backs.   Heading down tomorrow to Disney.  

AM - 3.25 miles with Dan and Finn 

AM - 2.5 miles with Delaney around the Disney area resorts 

AM - 2 miles running around the Disney hotel trying to time it right to see Bradlea and Marcus in the half marathon.   Got a good video of them and they looked great going very easy.  This was Bradlea's longest run and first half marathon.  Marcus ran together with her and they were dressed in red and black with mouse ears.   It was a bit rainy and humid but they had a good experience.  

Disney Marathon 2025 - This was scheduled nearly a year ago when Bradlea and Marcus had the idea of doing the half and having me do the full marathon with a long family weekend with the grandchildren with visits to the parks to bookend the vacation.   Richie signed up as well but as late as Friday had told me he was nursing a slight calf injury and was not going to run. Then Saturday morning he called and had just finished a 12 mile training run and perhaps FOMO decided he was going to make the drive over from his home in St. Pete.  I was excited to having the chance to run with someone instead of solo.  Funny story - he recently bought a Sprinter van and decided to drive over late Saturday evening declined to sleep in our hotel room and instead slept in the camper van in the parking lot.   
 

The race start is 4:30 am so we were heading to the Epcot parking lot by 2:45 am.  Richie had to get special treatment to get his bib number on the morning of the race and the security layout kept us from the comfort of his vehicle in the relatively cold conditions for Florida of the low 40's.   Side note - with the race starting so early - many of us had to use the restrooms along the course a time or two - since it was a bit off of our "regular" schedules.  :) 

Due to his lack of training and lack of mental preparation this ended up being a buddy run with him - which was really great.  We went out easy and ran together from start to finish and got a negative split.   The course is actually quite uninspiring - mostly of it taking place on service roads and parking lots between the various Disney parks.  Richie was really having a hard time with the lack of spectators and scenery - but perked up when we were in the parks and when we encountered character photos areas.  Oddly, they have Disney characters placed along the course where runners will stop and get a photo with say, Donald Duck or Darth Vader - also oddly, people were lining up for these photos.  

Anyway, this was very much a training run effort heartrate-wise until the last few miles where I was fatigued and started to lose form and we were going a bit faster toward the end.   

Marathon #48 is now in the books.   Good to run a race with Richie from start to finish for the first time ever too.

AM - 1.5 mile shakeout / systems check run around the hotel in Disney.  No real issues, just a little soreness. 

Day off - as I had to be at the airport early for a 6 am flight to NYC for work.

AM - a little over 5k in NYC up the Hudson river trail - and back to my hotel - Quite windy and cold in the lower 20's.   Either catching a cold or struggling with some inflammation in my lungs?  Felt terrible.

Sick

Still sick with a fever

Zero - very sick with the flu and with a fever. 

AM - 3.25 miles on the trail with Dan and the dogs.  Slow going - still recovering from the flu - very muddy trail.

AM - 3.75 miles from Dan's house up to the horse trail roads.  Very cold at 16 degrees and a "feels-like" temp of 5.   Hands/fingers were painfully cold despite gloves and mittens.  Ran shorter due to that.  

AM - 4.25 miles on the Milton Trail with Dan and Finn - not quite as cold but I had some rechargable handwarmer pods as a Christmas present  - that I used for the first time today.   A little awkward, but they were effective.  Put them inside my mittens and rolled them around - they are like a large key fob.   Hands were warm and that was the key.  

AM - 4.5 miles from my house with Dan and the dogs over to the WC Golf Course - colder again today with a temperature of 14 degree with feels-like temps in the single digits.  Some snow hit the area just south of us - but we were spared.   Handwarmers were effective.   

AM - 4.25 miles on the trail with Dan and the dogs.  Under 20 degrees again this morning - and the trail was completely frozen - so the muddy track from the construction equipment was not sloppy, it was challenging because it was not smooth - and tough on the ankles.  

AM - 4.25 miles with Dan and Finn from Milton HS through Crabapple.  Temps still below 20 degrees this morning - pace was quicker today with mostly flat roads.  

AM - 8 miles with a considerable group.   Dan, Greg, Ryan and Darryl with Finn to start - and then we ran into two random guys doing a long run on the horse trail roads - and asked them to join us - Allen and Ben - two pretty accomplished runners of similar age.  Shared about 3-4 miles with them before they headed further out and we turned back.  Still quite cold, but a good pace and good conversation made it an enjoyable morning.  

AM - 3.25 miles easy with Finn before church. 

AM - 5 miles on the treadmill as it was raining this morning.  Just did not feel like running in the 40's with rain.  

AM - 3.5 miles with Dan and the dogs on the trail.   Rain from yesterday, even though it was at or below freezing temps this morning left some areas still quite muddy and others frozen and slippery.   Had a stop a number of times to locate Rosie who was exploring - at one point she had a massive frozen dead fish in her mouth - which was really disgusting.  So lots of stops and starts - and not much distance - but good conversation.   May try to get a couple more miles in later today on the treadmill if I have time. 

AM - 5.25 miles with Dan and Finn from Dan's house out to the horse farm trail roads.   Decent pace - though my Apple Watch was buggy this morning at the start of the run - when I tried to start it with Siri (to avoid removing my gloves to start it) - which normally works fine - but today it did not appear to start a run workout, but something else - and when I attempted to correct it, Dan repeatedly gave Siri other crazy instructions as a joke - "like record the audio from this run" - and in the end it failed to record the first 4-5 mins of the workout.  

AM - 5 miles on the golf course with Dan and the dogs. 

AM - just under 5 this morning from the high school through Crabapple with Dan and Finn.  Wore the Kinvara's for the first time in a while, which felt weird.  The NB Supercomps I got are a half size too small and the left big toe is getting an ingrown nail because of it - so I gave it a break today - and bought a larger size.