No training today; spent today occupied with Christmas, and a good long nap after Christmas dinner that was much needed, then driving two hours home from the in-laws. As is typical with our long drives, my wife and son both dozed off and I had a lot of time to think. One of the things I thought about is that run in Memphis, and its timing. If I were seven months older, it would have been a BQ run -- I would be 50 before the 2010 Boston Marathon, and my time was a BQ time for the 50-54 bracket. But because I was born in October and not in March, I'm not yet BQd. Some people would probably send in their app for 2010, fudge the birth date by seven months, and get in. The BAA doesn't know. And I still would have been 48 at the time I ran in Memphis. It's tempting, I have to admit. But I'm not gonna do it. I'll do my spring attempt, probably at Newport, and if that doesn't do it, I'll do a fall race, maybe Chicago or Memphis again or Mid-South. A 3:30 in either one gets me in for 2010. A 3:35 in the fall gets me in for 2011, when I will be 50. I can get those 163 seconds for Newport, or I can run another 3:33 in the fall, and get in the right way. And if I can't get in the right way, it's my own darn fault. So now, having taken today off and with no work tomorrow, I can do a morning workout tomorrow, then take my son shopping for his college computer purchase, then go buy my wife's last Christmas present, then go open presents tomorrow night at my parents'. Then hit the road with the Crackheads on Saturday at Oucho's, in the West Little Rock Himalayas, and do a Friday-Saturday combo for the first time in a long time. When (not if) I am finally training for Boston, Oucho's will have a prominent role, because it's got killer uphills and killer downhills. | 