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.

Nothing too special though. I will write more about this morning's 5k race later.

In addition to my Santa Hat and my race-issued jingle bells, the trusty Shuffle ver. 2.0 is loaded with Christmas music. And since I run to rock music, the Christmas music of choice is Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Personal mantra for tomorrow - when Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) comes on during the race, it's time to haul ass. I've timed it so that when this song finishes, I will be at my time goal (all depending exactly on when I start.)

While the wife is gone to Hawaii enjoying the sun and sand and beaches, I'm still here at home.

Thursday night I came home and pretty much hung around the house - watched some tv, played on the computer, fooled around with some of the extra features on the Superman DVD box set.

Yesterday I did about the same.

Today and tomorrow was and will be a little more exciting. I finally got back into the water this morning. Met Jerome down at Les Davis - and this time I had a fully functioning dive computer (except I forgot to change the date information after replacing the battery. Whoops.) The dive wasn't too bad - visibility, while not great, was a huge improvement over the last two times I went diving. Didn't see too much, and I didn't bring my camera with me, so no pictures.

Now I'm back home - been loading the car up with stuff to go to Goodwill. Jeanette is going to take all the clothes to a clothing bank she uses quite a bit. I rather donate clothing that is given away to people in need, than take it to Goodwill where they sell it. Just makes me feel better about it.

Tomorrow I'm going to run the Jingle Bell Run 5k. I almost wasn't able to do this race.

Since my back was feeling funky on Monday, I haven't been running, and I didn't want to register for a race that there was a chance I wasn't going to actually be able to run. Ran for the first time on Friday and everything felt good, so I went to register on-line. It seems that on-line registration was closed, but I could still register in a running store. Of course, there are no stores close to where I work, but there is one on the way home, but the site said you had to register by 5, which was impossible to do. I called the Tacoma store to find out if I could register over the phone before 5 and then pay when I got down there after six. Nope - the website was wrong - in fact, in-store registration CLOSED the day before, so my only shot was to register in a store in Seattle, which was impossible.

I talked to Phil to find out where he was working, hoping that he was working in the Madison area since there was a store less than two miles form him. While he was working in Madison, his center was short staffed and there was no way he could escape. Damn.

But luckily Kristy came through - she was leaving work early anyway and was more than happy to register me for tomorrow's race. I totally owe her BIG TIME for saving my butt on this.

Hopefully it won't be raining tomorrow morning.

After the race, I'm going to meet up with Phil for whatever. Maybe he'll want to do lunch at Bamboo Garden (where I was going to go after the race anyway.) Who knows, we'll just have to play it by ear.

Off to shower . . . I know I stink.

The wife is supposedly getting ready for Hawaii - her and chimein are heading off to Hawaii tomorrow morning for the big Pearl Jam and U2 show (or is it the big U2 and Pearl Jam show?) I am being left at home and have to entertain myself. So far I had planned on going diving tomorrow after work, but that is shot since Jerome is back to working swing shift the rest of the week. I am still planning on running the 5k on Sunday.

Short break about running - I haven't ran for real since Friday. Monday I attempted to go out and a minute or so into my run (0.17 miles according to my GPS) I had this nasty pain on the right hand side of my back - not my side, but my back. I've had aches and pains before, but this time it came from no where - no warning, no build up - just wham! Pain. I stopped (because I couldn't run anymore) and walked back to work. Every time that my right leg was behind and I lifted it to move forward, the pain would return. I have no idea what it is, so I've been doing nothing but resting the last couple of days and I'm still toying with the idea of running on Friday. This who injury disappoints me to no end - I was really looking forward to this race on Sunday. Damn.

Back to regular stuff . . .

Uhm . . .

So yeah, the wife and Ms. Jean are heading to Hawaii and I don't really know what I'll be doing. As much as I hate the idea of sitting at home the whole weekend, the idea of doing stuff also doesn't sound to appealing. I do have a giant Superman DVD boxset to watch and all the video diaries from the last two sets of King Kongs. Who knows. I may not do anything and just be a drunken bachelor all weekend too.

So I won't lose this information:

Jingle Bell Run - December 10th, 2006

12Ks of Christmas - December 17th, 2006