Winter

Winter is here and has been here for a few weeks and is showing no signs of leaving. I try not to let the cold weather interfere with my running, but it's hard to get out there when it's windy and only 20 degrees.

I ran the annual Santa Run 5K on Sunday. There were over 700 runners. That's a lot for this area. The start of the race was chaos. Lots of people in the front who should have been in the back. I got boxed in at least five times before the crowd started to thin out. I have run this course many times and know where my slow points are. In any race I run, there are parts where I kind of doze off and just run without paying any attention to my time. Then I wake up and start racing again. When I downloaded my Garmin, I was happy to see that I ran my usual slow parts well, but unhappy to see that I dozed off in a different section. My finish time was 23:55 which is excellent despite the dozing. I placed 106 out of 760 and received a first place age group win.

I have one more race this Saturday which is also a holiday-themed race. The forecast is for snow. I have raced on snow before, but it's tricky. This will be my last race for the year. Having run in road races for two years now, I think I have 5Kd myself out. I enjoy the racing part, but I am really bored with the 5K distance. I prefer longer races - 10K, 15K, half marathons. Unfortunately, most races around here are 5Ks.

 For 2014, I am going to focus on distance running. The longest I have ever been on my feet is 2:20 and that was months ago. Sunday is long runday for most runners. When spring comes, and the danger of slipping on ice or getting hit by a snowplow are gone, I'm going to start running some serious distances.