I was trying to get an idea of what the hills look like that I've ran, and compare them to what I'm expected to run for HTC.

Here are yesterday's hills:



Then for kicks and giggles, here is the Furry 5k hill from a month or so ago: (My very first hill that I ever attempted over a year ago)



And the Capital City Half:

The hill right at 9.5 miles is what killed me - I wasn't prepared for something like that, especially at that distance. I never recovered properly the rest of the race.


And the 12ks of Christmas (which I'm still VERY surprised that I maintained a 9:26 pace for this run - I can barely do that in my training runs. I need to find a way to have that race intensity when I'm training:)

Obviously these hills were the worst that I have ever run on, but I never once stopped running - ever - and I still maintained a 9:26 pace.

So by looking at these, I can tell you that Leg 27 (5.98 miles - moderate rating) shouldn't provide any problems other than exhaustion. It's a rolling course, but the gains and losses are all minimal - nothing over 25 feet either way at one time.

Leg 15 (7.25 miles - hard rating) shouldn't be too bad since, like the leg above, which technically happens after this leg . . .) it has rolling hills at times, with elevation gains no higher (or lower) than 50 feet. Plus I also have to factor in the fact that this leg will be ran right around midnight.

Now Leg 3 is a different story. Rated easy and goes for 3.93 miles - the entire leg is downhill. Over those four miles, I'm dropping about a thousand feet in elevation. A thousand feet! Advice given - go slow, and then go even slower, and to take small steps. Even though it's downhill and easy, it's too easy to want to want to catch up with the people in front of you and to wear yourself out. I also have to consider that less than 12 hours after running this leg, I have my 7 miler in the middle of the night to run.

The wife is on her way to the chiropractor and I'm still at home.

Her plan is then to meet up with Ms. Jean and either spend the day in Southcenter or depending on what the Hugheseseseseses do, they all might head up to Bellevue.

Me - my plan is do a run here in a few minutes. Thinking of heading out to North Tacoma and running the Sound to Narrows 12k route - starts at about 37th and Vassault, runs north to Point Defiance Park, through the park on the appropriately named Five Mile Drive, and then then back down Vassult to where I started. Since it's a 12k, that'll give me 7.44 miles approximately. Not sure how long it will take me, but when I ran my only 12k race, it took less than 71 minutes, but that was a racing pace. My training pace seems to be a whole slower and I still don't feel like I'm in the same running shape as I was earlier. Just have to see. Besides, I really don't care how long it takes me - I'm not racing today, I'm just running. Am contemplating if I should bring my music or not - probably not since I'll be on strange roads and I'm not too familiar with Point Defiance (running that is.)

Supposedly I'll be diving this evening too - depends on Jerome. I did get my camera back this week so if I do go diving, I'll be bringing my camera along.

Well, I did it - did my long run this morning down on Ruston Way.

Overall, I think I did better than I did two weeks ago.

Here's my route:



Looks the same as last time, but it was a few out and backs and repeats. Did discover that I can loop around under Schuster Parkway.

"Only" managed 11.01 (Garmin) miles. (The picture shows an adjusted distance of 11.10 miles - not sure why the time is off though - Garmin shows a time of 1:51:58 for today's run..

Like last time, and the week before that, today's run was my longest run ever. And boy did I ever feel it. The last mile, my quads and calves both felt super heavy and tight. Never experienced anything like that before. It wasn't too bad though, but just bad enough to make me question myself that I can run for 13 miles.

My overall pace was right at 10:00 minutes a mile. Slower than both my 10k and 12k paces but that's probably due to the increased distance. Eleven miles is quite a bit different than 6 or even 7+ miles. As long as I can maintain a 10:00 minute/mile pace for the whole run I will be a very happy camper.

I did luck out today regarding the weather - it was supposed to be overcast and rainy. The truth was practically the exact opposite. Clear blue skies and in the mid to upper 60s. Couldn't have asked for a better day. One bad part about nice days - people. Lots and lots of people. Just like when it's nice out and you're trying to go diving.

I am now the proud owner of a pair of black fwish-fwish pants (aka ski/snow pants.) Found one pair that was in my size (and it fits well.) (Lately, I've been in an inbetween size when it comes to clothes.)

Also found some polypropylene under garments that fit - couldn't find a large in the pants, so I bought an extra large. My reasoning is I have pretty big thighs (lots of muscle now though!) and the large might be too snug, plus the large top was really tight (I know that the point is to be next to skin) so I wasn't sure how tight the large bottoms would fit. Plus, they didn't have any large bottoms.

And I found some Body Glide that I bought. I mentioned receiving a free sample in my racer's pack from the 12ks of Christmas run, and I've been using it (yes, on my nipples) and it works quite well. No irritation the last times that I've ran outside. My sample is about used up, so I was in the need of some more and luckily GI Joes had some. And it has sunblock, which will come in handy for Hawaii.

12ks of Christmas Elevation Graph I'll be honest here - I'm not sure how significant some of these elevation gains are, but I can tell that I wasn't imagining those long slow climbs during this race.

Finally! The photo website from last Sunday's run has loaded their pictures. They're not as good as my 5k or 10k pictures, but at least it's a whole lot better than my 8k's picture.

The best of the two pictures that were taken. Not as nice as my other race pictures though - the wife says it doesn't look like I'm really running here. That's probably because at this point, over an hour had passed, not to mention about seven miles.	I'm either checking my watch, or switching my santa hat to my other hand. Plus I'm told that it looks like I have a lot of clothes on. Just a long sleeved shirt and pants - hey, it was a mere 33 - 35! Brr!

As most of you are well aware of (due to my constant journaling about it,) this morning was my sixth running race - and longest run yet - the 12Ks of Christmas.

I had looked at the race map on-line, but since I'm not familiar with Kirkland at all (other than knowing a handful of people who work there,) the course was a surprise to me at every corner. On the 7.44 mile course, there were quite a few long climbing hills - and while I keep telling myself that I have zero experience with hills, I surprised myself with how well I did on the hills, and how well I did for the whole race.

There were two goals in mind - one, in a perfect world I would finish in around 75 minutes (a little slower than my 10k race pace from Bank to Bay.) The second goal was to finish in less than 90 minutes - the only reason that this goal was on the table was because of the fact that I had never ran this far before.

While the official times aren't available yet - and I don't even know the unofficial times since they weren't posted when I finally left the race area, I do know how long it took me, from start to finish, according to my GPS watch . . .

70 minutes and 43 seconds!

Not only did I finish under my 75 minute goal, I finished in under 71 minutes, which is only about 2 minutes longer than what my 10k pace was.

Needless to say, I am VERY happy about this time, and it makes the bloody blister on my right big toe more than worth it.

My sixth, and so far longest race is in the books.

More later...

waiting... Really cold - about 33 still.

This getting up early on a Sunday sucks. And it's my second Sunday in a row that I'm up early. At least I'm not up as early as I was last Sunday.

According to weather.com, it's supposed to be a cool 32 degrees at race time. And if it takes me as long as I would like it to, it'll have warmed up to between 34 and 36. Uhm, yeah. So I'm trying to decide if I should run in pants or not. Been telling myself that at 50, the long sleeves come out (which is a given) and anything below 40 requires pants - but I haven't had too much colder running experience to know just how warm I'm going to get. Plus, I haven't ran that time before in pants - the longest has been about 50 minutes, so will that extra 25 to 40 make me too warm? I'm bringing them just in case.

Wish me luck.

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The wife is coming up with me, but she will be shopping in Bellevue (yes, they have power) while I'll be out running. And then I believe that the plan will be to drive up to Alderwood for lunch/dinner.

It is now official - I just registered for the 12K race this Sunday.

And while this run is a mile longer than my longest run, I feel good about it. I even have TWO time goals. Based on my 10K pace from September's Bank to Bay run, I should be able to finish in about 68 minutes, but I feel that that time is a long shot. My "dream" time will be at or under 75 minutes, but a more realistic goal will be under 90 minutes. With that time in mind, it gives me 15 minutes for "issues."

Still contemplating doing that 12k run on Sunday in Kirkland . . .

This morning was the fifth race in my running "career" - my third 5k overall, and what I hoped was to be my fastest 5k yet. (I'm still amazed that not only am I running, I'm running actual races.)

My goal was to beat my first 5k's time - which was 30:23 - not bad for my first ever race, plus that added difficulty of having to dodge multiple dogs and leashes.

Based on my 10k pace in September, I was estimated that this race should take me about 27:30, and I even had the iPod "programmed" in such a way that when a certain song came on, I knew I was close and needed to push myself towards the finish line.

What I didn't count on was the number of people. This race, by far, had the most runners. Phil told me afterwards that some people were estimating close to 10,000 racers (in three waves) were present. I don't know if there were quite that many, but there were quite a lot.

The first wave was for the faster runners (like Phil) - anyone faster than an 8 minute mile. Wave Two (my wave) was for people with a pace between 8:01 and and 9:40. The third and final wave was for everyone else (runners and walkers.)

I know the point is to have fun and to not get discouraged, but I was a little disappointed in the number of people in my wave that were walking and were in the way of those of us who wanted to run. This little 5k race took me over 32 minutes to complete, which frustrated me just a tad. When I was able to run (which wasn't nearly as often as I would have liked,) I felt good, all my back issues from earlier in the week weren't there. If you know that you're going to walk, at least have the courtesy to not walk in the middle, or walk with the walkers wave, and not be in a runners wave.

I did participate in the holiday spirit - in addition to my Santa Hat that I posted earlier, I added two bells to each of my shoes, and listened to Trans-Siberian Orchestra's versions of Christmas music. Let me say, that damn Santa hat was way to freaking hot! I'm thinking of keeping the bells on my shoes.

Speaking of heat - the weather cooperated perfectly! Yesterday when I was diving, it was pouring down rain, and today's forecast was identical to Saturday's, so I was a bit worried. But it was clear and it was actually a little warm this morning (and by warm I mean 45 at the most.)

The course started in front of Westlake Center, and ran down sixth, to the express lanes tunnel (HOT) and down the express lanes heading north, before turning around and come back in front of Pacific Place and Nordstroms (Pike or is it Pine? I can never remember.) The parts on the freeway were very warm, and the exit ramp from the express lanes had quite a good sized hill, and me not being used to running on hills really felt some straining heading up that ramp. But I never stopped and maintained my pace. Man it felt so good dropping back into town.

After the race, I met up with Phil (we actually ran into each other in Westlake before the race) (Phil works for the same credit union I do, and was my running partner for the Pineapple race a few weeks ago.) We walked down to Bamboo Garden for lunch. I was amazed that Phil was willing try something new - and vegan - but that's probably because I surround myself with people who have no interest in trying new foods. Bamboo definitely hit the spot.

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A little while ago I was thinking that there was no way I could do the 12k next Sunday. But now I'm thinking that I really want to do it. It's only a mile further than my longest run, and I know that there will be less people at this one, so I would be able to get a good personal time this time around. Hmmm . . . wonder if I can convince the wife I need to do this . . .

So I won't lose this information:

Jingle Bell Run - December 10th, 2006

12Ks of Christmas - December 17th, 2006

I think I found my next race:

12Ks of Christmas in Kirkland.

7.44 miles.

Good warm-up for what I'm giving some serious thought to doing in March - ready for this - a half-marathon. Yes, I'm actually considering a half-marathon - 13.1 miles for those that are math challenged.