Right: People lining up to register for the Turkey Trot 10K Prediction Run that the Howard County Striders put on in Columbia, MD on Thursday morning, November 27, 2008 (this past Thanksgiving). I'm the guy whose turned around wearing the white shirt with a turkey on it, glasses, and a Baltimore Ravens snow cap, and talking to people. I have done this event for eleven years in-a-row now!
Left: I'm finishing the 15-kilometer race Howard County Striders' "Legends of the Fall" Weekly Series Race #10 at Longfellow Elementary School (and thank you Karsten Brown for the photo), on Sunday afternoon, November 30, 2008. Aside from this being the first time I have run that particular 15K race, it was a pretty significant race for me for other reasons you will read about below.
Well I definitely got in those Turkey Trots (or sometimes it felt like those Turkeys trotted all over me, but it could have been worse). It was a pretty busy weekend (I consider this "weekend" from Wednesday, November 26 -to - Sunday, November 30, 2008 because I was off from work on those days mainly because of Thanksgiving). Thanksgiving was excellent and I certainly do have much to be thankful for, and one of which was being able to go to my parents' house with my brother and a friend of the family, and eat some nice meals and play Boggle (one of my favorite word games). What a great time and I'm glad I could spend some time with my family!
I ran a lot of races over those five days (about half of which were 5K races). I really wanted to at least get close to a hundred races this year by November, so I wouldn't have to do many in December to reach a hundred races in a year, 'cause around the holiday time it would get busy and no doubt snowy (which could throw off my racing schedule). I was surprised I held up as well as I did throughout all of these races that I ran in such a relatively short time period. In fact, I'll venture to say that the quality of my performance in each race improved throughout this long weekend. God really helped strengthen me to do this and at the same time, protect me from injury and illness (all though I think I almost twisted/rolled my ankle at this cross-country race I ran on Saturday morning). So here are the details on the races I ran, and I'll keep it brief since they are quite a few:
- Wednesday, January 26, 2008 - 12 P.M. - Anne Arundel Community College 20th Annual 5K Turkey Trot - Arnold (Anne Arundel County), MD - 5th overall - 19:17 - Pretty cool and windy. The course through the Anne Arundel Community College's campus and surrounding parking lots was pretty. There were a few noticeable steady uphills as well as a short-but-steep uphill near the first mile or so of the race in the parking lot. I thought I went out too fast and I did not feel as strongly throughout most of this race. I think the wind resistance and my right foot hurting slowed me up a bit, but it could have been worse. I liked the downhill before the flat finish on a straight-away on the campus' track. I could quite possibly see myself wanting to do this race again in the future.
- Thursday, November 27, 2008 - 8 A.M. 4th Annual Casey's Crab Co. Laurel 5K Turkey Trot - Laurel (Prince George's County), MD - 9th overall - 19:19 - I liked this course through the downtown Laurel area, starting and ending at this church. The course goes one way one year and then another way another year. This was my first year doing this race and apparently we were going a "harder way" this year, but I still liked it. Towards the beginning we run along this river along a flat bike path. I ran through the first mile in 6:21, which is exactly what I wanted because after the previous day's tiring 5K race at Anne Arundel Community College, I wanted to try and go out fairly conservatively and build into a stronger pace throughout the race. However, there were a few uphills throughout the second mile that really seemed to ware me out and I went through the second mile in about 13:05. So much for building up my pace and running under 20 minutes (if I was fortunate enough to maintain the 6:32-pace-per-mile I had going there for the rest of the race, I might just be able to get under 20:20) Around this point, I was fortunately able to catch up to a couple of gentleman as we ran through the streets and many turns on the course. However, we missed a turn shortly after the second-mile mark, and I think we ended up running just a bit longer. I was kinda disappointed in my two-mile split to really think that I was on my way to running a good time for myself. Before I knew it, we made a left turn onto this street and we ran straight by this elementary school (a landmark that let me know we were nearing the finish line). Then, this gentleman I was running with pulled ahead of me and then I saw the finish line up ahead (much sooner than I expected), and I really picked up the pace to dash in, and finished probably about a second or two behind the gentleman who pulled ahead of me towards the end. I crossed the finish line in about 19:19, running much faster than the 6:21 mile I had run out at which was how I wanted to run this race. I also knew that I had run a little bit faster than the previous day's 19:17, because I had gone the wrong way and did a little extra. It was probably closer to 19:10 for my actual 5K time without the extra distance. Ah well, I don't think it really affected how the two other gentlemen and I placed overall. Plus, I heard that other people had gone the wrong way and some other runners and I concluded that the two-mile mark was a bit further out than actual two miles into the race, which explained our slower two-mile splits. All that aside, I really liked this race and the course and I would be happy to run this race again. I certainly felt better than I did the previous day at the Turkey Trot in Anne Arundel County and I thought maybe this course in Laurel was a little bit easier than that one (and it was a little less windy I thought). I'm glad I finally made it out because it was not too far from where I lived and so long as it starts at 8 A.M., it would give me time to go to the Howard County Striders' Turkey Trot 10K Prediction Run in Columbia, MD for a cool down afterwards. And that's what I did...
- Thursday, November 27, 2008 - Turkey Trot 10K (approximately 6.2 miles) Prediction Run - Columbia (Howard County), MD - 128th finisher overall - The goal was to finish as close to 11 A.M. as possible without any watches, coaches, or timing assistance -
Predicted Time: 47 minutes,
Actual Time: 46:09.49,
Departure Time: 10:13 A.M.,
Arrival Time: 10:59:10.51
This was a fun run I used as more of a cool down. Lot of downhill and flat areas at the start. Much of it is on bike paths if not sidewalks and suburban residential roads. I went out around the same time as this gentleman named Mike from the Howard County Striders. I had not really known him before but we got to know each other a bit through the 6+ miles of this event. I felt like I was kind of pushing the pace at some points of it and going faster than I needed too to get the run done in exactly 47 minutes. Plus, I knew I should go easy on myself because I had just worked hard in a 5K and if plans worked out, I would have quite a few more races to do before the end of the week. I let Mike get ahead of me, and then I caught back up to him, and then he got ahead of me, and then I caught back up. We had some interesting conversations, mainly about the triathlons he has done and I told him about my first sprint triathlon I did back in late June in Charles County, MD (the General Smallwood Sprint Triathlon). I told him about how I was trying to get in a 100 races/running events this year because I was (and still am) hoping to cut back on the amount of races I do next year). He seemed to think it was a bit "crazy" to say the least, which was probably one of the reasons I held back on telling him about my recently successful endeavors of running in running events in all of Maryland's and Delaware's counties within given time periods. Needless to say, we talked through the remainder of the run. It felt good, considering I had run hard for a couple of races in the last 24 hours, and I think having someone to run and talk with helped. The end of the course involves at least a couple of steady uphills up to the finish area. We both sort of felt like we had been going a bit faster than expected, so we had no troubles letting ourselves slow down on the uphill and having many runners pass us towards the end. Mike and I finished within about a second of each other, still talking through the finish line area. As much as we slowed down (or at least I felt like I slowed down) we still ran about fifty seconds or so faster than we predicted. Hey, if I'm going to be off on my predictions, at least it was because we were going a bit faster than expected. And at least we were within a minute of our predicted times, and I've done this kind of thing in the past and I've been off my much more than that! Keeping up with Mike I think helped me not go too slow or speed up, 'cause I knew he was going for getting this run done in 47 minutes as well, so I figured it might behoove me to try and stick with him. It was great to meet Mike and talk-to/catch-up with some people I hadn't seen in a while. This was my 11th year-in-a-row of running in this event and it still hasn't gotten old. The first time I ran this, I did it somewhere between 48 and 49 minutes on Thanksgiving morning in 1998. I certainly thought it was a fun way to transition into Thanksgiving meal with my family and friend-of-the-family later that day :)
- Friday, November 28, 2008 - 10 A.M. - Festival of Trees 7th Annual Run for Hospice 10K - Easton (Talbot County), MD - 3rd overall - 40:10ish - This is an event that I have been hearing about the last couple of years through some of my buddies on the Maryland Eastern Shore and it is put on by the YMCA of Talbot County (where it starts and ends) as part of the local Festival of Trees. It was not too windy (if at all) and it was chilly, but not as cold as it was on Wednesday and Thursday. I saw quite a few people I knew there, and some I met at the Fall into St. Michaels 5K Run in St. Michaels, MD where I was recently successful in completing my goal of running a race in every Maryland county within a half-a-year (St. Michaels is in Talbot County, the last county I had left in that endeavor). The course was pretty flat, going out on the rural Oxford Road and through this shaded housing development (which I really enjoyed running through and it had a beautiful pond right by the three-mile mark). I was glad they had this neighborhood, because I think if it just continued to go straight on Oxford Road, it might have gotten a bit monotonous (which was what I was worried about). I started out pretty conservatively (or so I thought). I met this younger gentleman named Josh who went out around the same pace as I did and we were actually holding a bit of a conversation throughout the first mile or so before we sorta did our own thing. I felt like from that point I picked up the pace just a bit more and went through two-miles in about 12:29, which I thought was a lot faster than I wanted to go (I would have been happy with low 41's for a finishing time after all of these races I had run recently, and this 6:14-per-mile pace I was running at would put me at a finishing time in the lower 38:40's, which would definitely be great for me in the shape that I was in). I tried to keep up the pace and went through three-miles in about 18:57 and I still felt all right with just a little over a half-way to go. This helped boost my confidence, even though I slowed a bit throughout the race. I went through four miles in about 25:30ish and I started to cramp up a bit, but nothing too bad. I went through five miles in about 32:15 (which I was pleased with) and I figured if I kept up that pace, I would probably hit really low 40's, and that's exactly what I did went I crossed the finish line in about 40:10 with a 6-mile split on the approximately 6.2-mile race of about 38:54. I was certainly happy with it, since I managed to run one of my faster 10K times in over a year after doing three races in the past couple of days. Josh, whom I met earlier in the race and who finished just a little bit ahead of me, I think came really close to breaking forty minutes and he was coming back from an injury. I do believe he said that was his first 10K and I was happy for him. This helped me have confidence for any upcoming longer runs in the future as well as the upcoming races I had planned in the next couple of days.
- Saturday, November 29, 2008 - 9:15ish A.M. - Tom's 7th Annual 5K Reindeer Run - Laurel (Prince George's County), MD - 3rd overall - 18:39 - This was my third year-in-a-row doing this course full of rolling hills, but I still liked it for the most part. It was cold but not too windy (if at all) as I recall. I knew later that morning I was going to try and go to the Baltimore City area and try and do a race on this challenging three-mile cross country course I had run in my earlier high school years, so I had to pace myself well on this course, especially in light of the four running events I had done in the past three days. I would have been happy to have broken 20 minutes. Well fortunately for me, there were some great runners that provided solid competition in this race. I went through the first mile (which included the most downhill on this course) in about 5:58. I caught up to my buddy, Matt (who I've met at this race in previous years) around the middle of the race by Bond Mill Elementary School and we kept up with each other pretty well throughout the rest of the race. I'm glad he was there to pull me along through the rolling hills and especially the larger and steep hill towards the end of the course, and as a result of working hard to keep up with him, I finished in 18:39, much, much faster than I expected and my fastest 5K since I ran the Fall into St. Michaels 5K on Saturday October 25 (I had run 18:54 having gone probably about 20 seconds extra going the wrong way). I was thrilled about this and the pacing. 18:39 is pretty much averaging a six-minute-per-mile pace, and I had gone through the first mile in about 5:58, so that means I hardly slowed down at all the rest of the race when there were more uphills. This course was quite a bit more hilly than the other 5K I had run in Laurel on Thanksgiving morning (Thursday, November 27, 2008), and yet I was blessed with a better time than what I had run on the course that I found easier than this. Yes, my legs felt fatigued, but I felt mentally inspired that God was keeping me going after all of those recent races. That gave me a lot more mental confidence for the next race I ran later that morning.
- Saturday, November 29, 2008 - 10:30 A.M. - Inaugural Battle for Baybrook Park 3-Mile - Baybrook Park - Baybrook Park cross country course (high school meets use this one frequently), Brooklyn (Anne Arundel/Baltimore County/Baltimore City - It's kinda hard to tell), MD - 5th overall - 19:02 (my best time on the course to-date :)
So within about an hour after running my fastest 5K time in over a month, I come over to the hilly venue where I ran my first high school cross-country race in the late August of 1998. When I ran it my first time, I really felt like I struggled to cover the three-mile course in 20:32 (which was a personal best time for me at that distance by over twenty seconds from the 20:57 personal best time I had on running on the track). Then, during my sophomore year of high school in the early October of 1999, I ran 19:42 on the course and that had been my best time on the course since then. I sort of had faint hopes of running that, but I knew it may not be likely because I had run a lot harder than expected earlier that morning at Tom's 5K Reindeer Run, and I figured I would be mighty fortunate to crack 20 minutes on this course. I saw quite a few people I ran with on Salisbury University's cross country and track and field teams (they live around that area now) and they actually got me on the Salisbury Alumni Team with them, which I thought was terrific. Though, at first, in the back of my mind I was like "oh wow, if I had known I was going to be running as part of a team effort then maybe it wasn't such a good idea to do all of those races beforehand".
Needless to say I went out pretty conservatively over the rolling hills of the fields. By the time we went down into the woods for a brief wooded trail, I was beginning to huff-and-puff and I knew I would either adapt to the pace and be able to hold on, or slow-up from it. There were two people I was keeping up with at the beginning and they were getting ahead of me on the trails (terrain that I typically don't run that strongly on). I was already starting to feel tired, and I wasn't even four-and-a-half minutes into a race that I would be fortunate enough to be done with in twenty.
After the trail, I ran up this hill and tried to stay focused even though my legs were feeling leaden. The five runners ahead of me seemed to be ahead by quite a bit when I went through the first mile by the observatory in about 6:18. I thought that if I kept up this pace I would be able to get this 3-mile race done in under 19 minutes which would definitely beat my personal best time on the course of 19:42. That, and the inspiring thoughts of how well I had been doing previously with the past five events I've done over the past four days, helped keep me strong. As I went around the observatory tower I was greeted with a beautiful view of the rolling fields and the water of around Baltimore City (and the city itself) before me. I ran down a steady downhill part and then I was in the sports field area behind a school. This part of the course stuck out to me in my mind as being the hilliest part, maybe because it actually was or maybe because it was just around the middle of the course away from many of the spectators. There were definitely a few steeper hills here that really made it tired. Yet, I felt God give me the strength and mental fortitude to press on with the thought of breaking 19:42 in my mind. I ran through two-miles in about 12:14 and that really motivated me because that meant I had really picked up the pace the second mile from the 6:18 my first mile (and therefore my second mile was about 5:56).
I was still breathing heavy, but I was motivated to hang on as best I could. There were a couple of points where I slowed up towards the end because I couldn't properly see the where the course arrows were (and I'm certainly glad I wore my glasses on this run). One of these instances occurred when I ran back down this hill and through brief trail section in the woods, and came back out. I was not quite sure where to turn, and I pretty much jogged around in a circle before seeing the arrow pointing to the left. From then on, it was pretty flat and then a steady uphill to the finish, which I crossed in 19:02, beating my previous best time on this course from high school by about 40 seconds and running yet my second very-well paced race of the morning. 19:02 for three-miles is about a 6:20-per-mile pace and I had gone out in about 6:18, so that means that I hardly slowed at all! Two races in a row where I ran pretty evenly and that I was satisfied with. After talking to some of the other runners, we agreed that the two-mile mark was shorter in than actually two miles into the race, but overall my pace had hardly slowed at all.
No wonder why I felt so sleepy and pretty hungry later that evening when I went to hang out with some of my friends that night.
Sunday, November 30, 2008 - Sea Colony Turkey Trot - Sea Colony area of Ocean View/Bethany Beach (Sussex County), DE - Winner - 18:37 (my 100th race of the year :) - I was kind of on-and-off about whether or not I wanted to do this race to get my numbers up of how many races I had done this year, but I'm glad I decided to do it since I was feeling all right after the now six running events I had done in the past four days. I was feeling hungry and sleepy (but probably more sleepy from getting less than six hours of sleep the night before to make the three-plus-hour trip from where I live in Baltimore County, MD to the Bethany Beach area of Delaware's Eastern Shore). I almost missed the race because I had trouble finding where exactly the race was occurring (apparently it was in this shaded community called Sea Colony, which was pretty despite the cold, drizzly, and wet conditions. I like the narrow streets and avenues that wound by the small houses with small little rivers and creeks going under them). I would say I got there about ten minutes before the start, maybe a little less. This was put on by the Sea Shore Striders (pretty much based out of Delaware), and I've done some of their events over the past few years in Delaware's and Maryland's Eastern Shore regions. I think almost missing the race (and my frustration at not being able to find the race location sooner) got my adrenaline going.
I didn't really care much about how I would do with this one. I was tired and I had run pretty well in all the races I had done recently, so I was probably thinking that I would be really glad to see a sub-20-minute finish time for me on this approximately 3.1-mile 5-kilometer course. So that's probably why I was pleasantly surprised to have gone through the first mile in about 5:57, a second faster than the previous morning's first mile split at the hilly Tom's Reindeer Run in Laurel, MD. More importantly, I was feeling pretty strong and in fact I felt like I picked up the pace as I ran out of the shaded Sea Colony area and made a left onto what I think was Pennsylvania Avenue that runs through a good portion of the coastal area of Bethany Beach. I ran on this road for a few minutes before making a left back into the Sea Colony neighborhood. Now, there were quite a few puddles on this course from the recent rains, and I was worried that the dampness may cause my shoes to come untied, but fortunately that did not happen and God helped me stay strong despite the puddles and how tired I was from the previous races and not as much sleep as I would have liked the night before. As I wound through the streets of the Sea Colony area, going by hotels, houses, lakes, and over bridges, I ran through 2 miles in about 11:59, and was becoming confident that I would break 19 minutes. I was certainly happy about my pacing, having hardly slowed from a 5:57 first mile to an 11:59 two-mile split (meaning that that my second mile was about 6:02. I prayed that God would help me break 19 minutes (or something like that) and I went through three miles in 18:01, and I knew the finish line was less than an eighth-of-a-mile away if the course was measured right, but I didn't see it in sight. Yet, I picked up the pace, having faith that it was still coming up very soon. I ran through a puddle or two, feeling a bit annoyed by it because I felt like it was slowing me up, but it was certainly nothing to complain about. I bore to the right sharply and then saw the finish line up ahead, which I dashed through in 18:37, beating my time from yesterday morning at Toms' Reindeer Run by about two seconds and running at a pace that was probably just under six-minutes-per-mile, keeping it very even with my 11:59 two-mile split I had run earlier this race. Yes this course was really flat and a lot easier than Tom's Reindeer Run, but I still think it was great to run a couple seconds better on this course since this was now my seventh race on the fifth day of all this "racing mayhem". It was great to hang out for a bit afterwards with my friend, Robert, who is also a member of the Fifty-Plus Races-Per-Year Club and who does many Maryland and Delaware Eastern Shore races, as well as with other runners. Of course, the free food was nice and very welcome into my stomach after running all of those races. I cut out a bit before the awards ceremony to drive a few hours back over to Columbia, MD for the Sunday afternoon Howard County Striders weekly series race at Longfellow Elementary School, where I hope to do an easier-paced race on the hilly 15K course there (which I had never run before). I thought at first that that would be my 100th race of the year, but I later remembered that I did not take into account this 800-meter relay race I ran in Frederick County, MD back in June at this track event, and with that race added in, this Sea Colony Turkey Trot 5K was actually my 100th event. I'm glad I can say that because this has been my fastest 5K in over a month and it was very well-paced and I really enjoyed the course despite the overcast skies and damp running conditions. I may quite possibly make it out to this one again sometime in the future!
- Sunday, November 30, 2008 - Howard County Striders "Legends of the Fall" Weekly Series Race#10: Longfellow Elementary School 15-Kilometer (approximately 9.3 miles) race - Columbia (Howard County), MD - 5th overall - 1:07:25 - I got to this race with enough time to spare for stretching and a bit of a warm-up. I had made a few stops between the Delaware Eastern Shore and this more central part of Maryland (which resulted in a three-hour-plus drive) and traffic was a bit dense in one or two parts of it, and God was faithful in answering my prayers to get me to this race on time. I was now feeling a bit hungry and certainly tired from all of the recent running, but I was confident would get me through this race (which at the time I thought would be my one-hundredth race-of-the-year), no matter how slowly I was going. I called my family up to invite them out to watch this race, since I thought it was going to be my one-hundredth one of the year and I was hoping they could at least see me finish strong (granted I finished).
Since it was cold, a bit rainy, and damp at this point, the race director pretty much said that if we did not think we could cover this 9.3-mile course in an hour-and-twenty-minutes (which is pretty much a nine-minute mile), than we should opt for the two-mile or 10-kilometer race options, so as not to keep the race staff out in the cold weather for too long. That put a bit of pressure on me, because I wasn't sure how this race was going to go over. Yet, I still wanted to try this course and try to up the "challenge" or distance factor a bit with my one-hundredth race of the year. Plus, this race venue is special because it was where I ran my first road race with the two-mile at this venue in the February of 1998 (and I think I ran it in about 14:35, which was awesome for me :) I typically don't run quite as strongly in the longer races and this being my longest race in a while, there was plenty of room for a lot to happen. My best time for this distance is I think just above sixty minutes, and I was pretty sure I was not going to be going that fast for myself at this race.
The race course had a lot of downhill at the beginning and I was feeling pretty comfortable, surprisingly more so than I would have expected given the circumstances of recent races (or perhaps it was those successes that got me excited to go out a bit faster than I expected). I went through 5 kilometers in about 20:46 and still felt pretty strong. This course covered a majority of the 10K course, which I have run before and over eight years ago I ran 41:55 on it as my best time to-date on it and I may have run my 10K split a little quicker than that, and if not probably not much slower than 41:55 (and I think the latter of those two possibilities was more likely the case). I began to grow quite fatigued and I felt hungry the last three or for miles when the course went through this neighborhood with a lot of hills. At this point, I was running on a part of the course I had not run on before, because it was separate from the two-mile and 10K courses that I had run on before. I felt myself slowing down and praying quite a bit the last couple of miles, and God was certainly faithful in blessing me with the strength and endurance to make it up and over those hills. There were a couple of points in the latter portion of the race where I couldn't quite see the course markings and I almost went the wrong way, but I don't think that slowed up my finish time all that much (if at all).
Once I made a left turn out of this hilly neighborhood I was back in the familiar neighborhood where I have run the two-miler and 10K races many times before over the years. I ran up a couple of steady uphills and I knew I was almost to Longfellow Elementary School; the parking lot of which had the start and finish areas. Coming up the long and steep uphill at the end felt quite exhausting, and God helped me stay focused on strongly finishing what I thought at the time was my one-hundredth race of the year. Once I topped the hill, I knew I had less than a quarter-mile to go, and I picked up the pace. As I made a left into the parking lot, I saw my mom's blue van and I thought, "yes, at least some of my family came to see this!"
After making this right turn, the course went down hill slightly to the end of the parking lot where the finish line was and I yelled out something about this being my one-hundredth race. I saw my mom standing near the finish line cheering me on as I rounded this bend in the parking lot, and my heart was lifted that my mom was there to see me finish this race. I think she took a photo of me as I bolted through the finish line in a time of 1:07:25. YAY!!!!
Eight running events in five days, and each one pretty much seeing a better quality of performance from me than the one before; what a blessing! God is so amazing in giving me the grace to get through this. I thought once I started out on this five-day thing with struggling through the 20th Annual 5K Turkey Trot at Anne Arundel Community College, that I was already off to a bad start with all of these races I wanted to do around Thanksgiving. Fortunately God had other plans for me, which included the four 5K's I ran being faster in their finishing times than the one before (19:17, 19:19 having accidentally gone a little longer than 5K, 18:39, and 18:37), plus I won the last of those four 5K's at the Sea Colony Turkey Trot 5K with a very well and evenly-paced race, I ran some of my faster 5K races since October, I ran one of my fastest 10K times in a while, i was within a minute of my prediction in a prediction run taht I have done eleven years in-a-row, and I ran my best time to-date by about forty seconds on a challenging cross-country course that I hadn't run on since high school (which I think was one my favorite accomplishments in this "push" to one-hundred races this year :). I was really happy that at Tom's 5K Reindeer Run, the Battle for Baybrook Park 3-Mile, and the Sea Colony Turkey Trot, my finish time was pretty much at an average pace-per-mile that was only about two seconds slower than what I went out at for the first mile at these races. For an example, I ran a 6:18 first mile at the Battle for Baybrook Park 3-Mile, and I finished it in 19:02 (plus having slowed up a bit to check the course markings a time or two), and 19:02 is pretty much a 6:20-per-mile pace for three miles, which is only two seconds slower than the 6:18 I went through on the first mile. I'm just really happy about these times!!!!
Perhaps this may serve me well this Saturday (December 6, 2008) when I plan to do the Seaside Half-Marathon in Wachapreague (Accomac County), VA. Some of my buddies on the Maryland Eastern Shore recommend that I do this, especially since I've heard it may not be happening that much longer in the future, so I might as well try and do it now while I don't have plans. Right now I'm feeling all right (it's now Wednesday evening, December 3, 2008) and I have riled up an appetite. It think at one point this weekend I was under 140 pounds (and I think I'm typically around the upper 140's/lower 150's). I'd say I've definitely burned off those Thanksgiving pounds, hahaha! Anyway, this will be my first race on Virginia's eastern shore and hopefully my friend Phil, who I met at the 1st Annual Grantsville Days 5K last year (Saturday, June 21, 2007) out in Grantsville (Garrett County), MD (which is in western Maryland) will make it as well. He has done it before in the past and has been one of the people who has recommended it to me. I'm not really planning on being too aggressive with it, 'cause I've usually been known to hurt myself in these longer races and it probably wouldn't help me recover much from all of these recent races. Though, it's one of those events I'd like to do at least once. At least I hear it's flat and I hope to see Phil as well as some of my other buddies at this venue. Plus, I'm typically up for running and racing in places I haven't done so before.
All right, thank you all very much for reading my lengthy updates (and praying for me as well :) I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I look forward to hearing from you/seeing you again! Take it easy :)
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