I'm retired from racing. Really.

PM late afternoon 4 miles. Wasn't much but I didn't feel great. I was planning on a solid week or more off after LM. Due to illness, it's ended up being 2.5 weeks with just a couple runs. Based on how I'm feeling, I need it. I put in for Massanutten lottery today, so my lottery fate will be determined by the stock market Jan 10.

belated thoughts on last year:

Highlights- set 50k PR and 5k PR in 2 weeks, very unexpected on 5k

Won 5 races, 3 ultras, plus podium at 3 more

Barkley- most awesome race ever

Good win at TNF Atlanta, plus best 100 ever at Pinhoti

425 miles racing, most ever- 14 races in 6 states

3500 miles total, lowest since 2010. 33% were trails

Lowlights-

Hmm- nothing too bad. Getting lost at LM was a bummer. Being sick before Chuckanut and having it affect me at Barkley. That's all for now.

Lunch- low 40's and rainy, let's go for a run. And, how about 2 guys in the group run with no shirts on!  Yes, we runners are bright, we are. 10 miles, rainy.

Lunch- big group for a Friday. 9 guys. 25 deg, cold. 1 hr.

AM- slept in, went for a run. It was 21 deg, so I wore my running pants, the first time I've worn them on a regular run in 3 years. 8 easy miles in an hour.

AM- 7 ez

Lunch- 10 more. Aaron won the lunch run group No-shave November contest this year, upsetting reigning champ Jason. As an award, Jason shaved his beard and gave it to Aaron in a baggie. Aaron carried the bag with us all run, spreading the beard along the route.  Yes, we are strange, but not abnormally so for a group of distance runners.

A bit chilly, but not as cold as it will be tomorrow. Coldest temps in 20 years. Not near as cold as much of the country, but cold for here. Rumor is Atlanta is colder than Anchorage.

Lunch- 9.5 on a cold day, 5 deg windchill. Aaron ran in shorts and shirt, no gloves or hat.

Kitchen water won't work, maybe frozen pipes. This isn't good. At all.

Lunch- much warmer today, 30 deg when we started. Lake, neighborhood, track, 10 miles. 

Kitchen pipes thawed out at home. Doesn't look like any pipes burst, so that's lucky. Some of our friends had some attic pipe burst and are dealing with major damages. Ouch.

Massanutten 100 lottery is on Friday. Hopefully this one is kinder than the rest- there's 364 entrants for 208 spots, so better odds than Western. Looking at the applicants, if 167 to 175 get in, that's a pretty top-heavy field right there. http://www.vhtrc.org/application/applicantsList.php?race=MMT

Lunch- 5 miles with the guys, then 5.5 more with just Todd. 40 deg, much nicer out.

AM- 10

PM- Mid-afternoon run in a drizzle with Dan. Just under an hour.

AM- Some major rain (i.e. 1+ inch per hour) and constant lightning from 5 am till 7 am. I waited till it didn't seem death was imminent, then went for my run. 10 miles around home, and didn't see another person, strangely. 45 deg and mizzle/fog felt like perfect temps for running. 

Carried my TV upstairs today. Ever since someone built a house behind ours, we lost reception for NBC and Fox, only getting CBS. Yes, only one channel. Anyways, apparently I can get more channels upstairs so now I can watch football on the TV instead of streaming on a tiny screen on my computer. Nice.

The DOW worked in my favor yesterday, so I finally got in a lottery after 2 years of no luck. Massanutten 100, here I come! It should be a very good field, too- Karl Meltzer, PI teammate Nick Pedatella, Brian Rusiecki, John Dennis, Pierre Loic Derange, Jason Lantz, David Frasier, Jeremy Waldrop, Jeremy Pade- stacked.

Finally posted my Pinhoti 100 mile race report. Working on more posts, too. 

AM- 12

Lunch- 9 more. Nice day for a run. Big group of guys- we started with 10, and still had 9 when we got back to GE after an hour. Seeing 9 guys running is an impressively big pack that you rarely see.  Kinda fun.

Lunch 9.5

Lunch- it's Todd's birthday, so we ran to his house and ate some of his chocolate birthday cake. That was a lunch run first. Plus abs class.

PM- missed the lunch run group, but finally got out at 2:30. 11 miles, most of it behind GE on the trails there. They aren't hilly, but it sure beats the road.

AM- 5 on a cold morning with Dan and Todd

Lunch- 9 more. I was offered a free entry to Run Downtown 5k tomorrow, so I took it on a whim. Hadn't planned on this. In the past 3.5 months, I've done 2 speed workouts totaling less than 10 miles combined. Last year, I completely surprised myself by setting a PR at this race and almost broke the 16 minute mark. Not expecting similar results tomorrow, but I'll give it a go.

AM- The Run Downtown 5k is the only race I've done every year in Greenville. I had no intention of running it this year until I was offered a free bib yesterday and my morning church-cleaning commitment fell through. And so, despite having only run 9 miles of speedwork since the start of October, I found myself toeing the line again. It's a fairly big (1400 runners) race with a fast field- winning time was 14:52. It's never flat, with about 200 feet climbing. Temps were cold, mid-20's and breezy. After a long warmup with Dan, we shed layers and were ready to run. I stood next to James Brooks, who was aiming for sub-16 and invited me to do the same. I assured him I would be closer to my slowest RDT than my fastest. His girlfriend, Kim Ruck, was nearby and seemed primed for a good race.

They started us and we surged down the hill, then spread out as we climbed for .8 miles. I found myself in 12th place and the 4th GE runner behind Jim, Phil, and Dan. Mile 1 felt fast yet not labored. I was hoping for a 5:20-ish but the clock read 5:30. Mile 2 is downhill and everyone in front of me pulled away while there was a pack of 4 or 5 runners just behind, pushing me to a 5:22. The pack behind me fell back except for one set of footsteps. Cheering voices told me it was Kim. With extra incentive to not get chicked, I kept pushing hard and held my breathing at appropriate level. The last 1.1 was 5:55, giving me a final time of 16:48, still in 12th place. It seems about the right time given my training. Results here.

Hour long cooldown with a group of 8 GE runners as the sun slowly warmed us. Good race, all things considered. I'm sure I could break 16 minutes if I ever trained for it, but don't think I will. Ultras are a bigger priority, and life is a tradeoff.

AM- 13 miles while watching highlights of the games yesterday. All I can say is, The Broncos are going to the Super Bowl, baby! Boo Yeah!  Awesome. First time since I was on my mission many moons ago. Run- started at 7:30 pace, finished sub 7 pace, 95 minutes.

Lunch- 10 of us again, an impressively large group. 9.5 miles. Hot Dan pushed the pace the last 2 miles to try to stay ahead of my gasseous stench.

AM 8

Lunch 8 more with the guys. I wasn't talkative, which was freaking Jim out.

Lunch- workout with some of the guys on a cold day (25 deg and breezy). Ran to the lake, then did 5x1 lap (~.86 miles each) with ~90 sec rest. I didn't want to run too hard due to fatigue, tightness in hammies, and my race coming up on Saturday. Times were 5:04, 5:08, 4:56, 5:01, 4:34 (Todd convinced me to push him to sub 4:50 on the last one and I finally started feeling good). 10 miles total.

AM- 8

Lunch- and 7 more.

Lunch 4.5 on a cold day. It will be low teens windchill tomorrow for my 15.5 mile trail race. Still might wear shorts.

AM- Another great Go Run Trails race this morning, the Expedition Paris Mtn trail race. They upped the game this year, adding a 15.5 mile option on top of the 10.5 and 5 mile races from last year. It was a very cold morning, 20 deg and windy, with windchill around 10 deg. 10 deg windchill? Let's wear shorts! Actually, between two tops with zippers, I was able to regulate my temp well enough to stay not too cold. 

Had a good crew at the race- Aaron, Lynn, and Seth in the long race, plus Barry and Aly in the 5 mile (Aly's first trail race). I saw David Workman at the start, and he's always good competition. The race ran every trail in the park except the short Firetower and Turtle trails, with three big climbs. The initial climb up Sulfer Springs welt well, with 2 guys ahead in shorter races, and David right behind. The wind was strong from the south and it was much colder whenever we were exposed to it. I stretched it out on the flat SS to the second aid station, then we hit the paved downhill portion- 1 mile with 400 ft descent flew by in about 5:15 and felt easy. Hiker only Brissy Ridge was slow, as always, but I slowly pulled away from David and gained on the one 10 miler ahead. Then it was time for a big circle of North Lake then the climb up Kanuga. Figuring it was all downhill from here (well, mostly), I started pushing it a bit as I started catching the slower 10 milers. Finished first place in 2:00:49, four min ahead of David in second. Lynn got 5th overall, edging out Aaron. I froze for a few minutes, then had to leave for a baptism at our church (I changed but didn't shower first- stinky).

This was another nice race- well marked, gummi bears at the aid station(!), and a well thought out, challengin course. My watch measured ~15 to 15.25 miles with 2200 ft climbing. Fun morning, good win. And I was glad my legs felt good despite this being my highest mileage training week since Labor Day.

Photos courtesy of GoRunTrails facebook page

AM- 10

Lunch- 9.5 with the guys. I don't remember how long the run was, but I think it was 9 or 10 miles. Split the difference. Something I ate last night had me visit the bathroom 7 times between waking up and the end of my lunch run. Marci said the kids had lots of dirty diapers, too. Just in case you wanted to know.

AM- 12 at 6 am with Hot Dan. Cold and windy. Ran all over town in the dark with no headlamp. 

Lunch- 7 more. Lunch meeting got cancelled so I ran into a subway (literally) towards the end of the run for a footlong. It snowed here today, too, which means they shut the whole town down. We'll see if I can even go to work tomorrow. Easier to work from home.

Worked from home today. Got out for an afternoon hour run. It was colder than I thought it would be. 

I put on my ski coat yesterday for the first time in years. Based on the ski passes, the last time I went skiing was February 2007. Wow, 7 years ago. I had no idea it was that long ago. Surprising. Don't tell Jake.

AM- BW, 4 mile warmup, then treadmill temp (13 deg and icy out don't make for good running). I wanted to start at 6:30 pace and increase each mile, but wasn't feeling great so had to back it down from 6:10 to 6:15 for a while before finally kicking it up the last few miles, finishing sub-6. 10 mile tempo in 63:45, then 2 cooldown. 16 total. 

Treadmill miles aren't so bad when watching Seinfeld on Mike & Mike while getting ready for the Broncos in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Feeling a little under the weather- just stuffy and sniffles. The storm on Tuesday dumped 1 inch of snow in Greenville. They cancelled school Tuesday at noon, sending the kids home early. Then cancelled Wed. And then, despite dry roads, cancelled school on Thursday, as well. If they had this mentality in Canada, the school year would be 2 weeks long.

Lunch- 7. Nice day. Sang a bunch of Weird Al songs during the run.