Jingle Bell Dashers

When it comes to charity, a 5k is a great excuse to get up early on a Sunday with a few close friends!  Up at 5am, we got to Dash with 12,000 Seattleites for the Jingle Bell Run  (Raising money to fight Arthritis, donations can be made Here)

Obligatory group shot

Pre 5k couple shot

If you've never done one of the bigger charity runs here in Seattle, I'd highly suggest it. Yes its crowded, and if you have to drive into Seattle, the parking may be a little tough, but man do participants go all out on the theme.  I saw at least 2 Grinches, more than a few Santas, elves, reindeer, even a Christmas Unicorn, a couple of wrapped presents, about 7 different versions of Christmas Trees and every other xmas light wrapped festive outfit you can think of. (And in case you were wondering, I was going for the Snowflake theme this year).  Just getting to the start line was a bit of a struggle, but after forming a train through the crowd with our team, we found a break in the fence and went for it!

If you are looking for a list of local 5k's you can find it here. Whether you are looking for a fun run or a race to set a PR, you'll find it there.  This was the first 5k I've done that wasn't to set a time and I had such a good time; kind of nice to just enjoy the fun.

Edit: If you bring an umbrella to a 5k in Seattle, I will call you out.  

Especially since it wasn't even raining.

Golden Feature:

Hanukkah started on Saturday and since the traditional colors are silve/white and blue it's actually been pretty hard for me to find anything gold.  (If you know where I can find a nice gold Menorah with clean modern lines that isn't post-modern, let me know) In the meantime, use this Golden Dreidel ($1.99 on Amazon.com) to win yourself some Gelt!

Golden Tidbit: "My Future starts when I wake up every morning...Every day I find something creative to do with my life" - Miles Davis

13.1

Today I got to finish something that a year ago I couldn't even fathom..... I completed my first Half Marathon (Seattle Half Marathon):

At the finish line with my Medal

Start line for the Half

In the I90 tunnel

Final time: 3:05:09 which is about 5 min over my original aim.  I used this Half training schedule from about.com, chosen after having such success using the same type of program for 10k training.

I can honestly say that I wasn't able to give the schedule the real time necessary to train properly with the long runs in the latter part; even though the step up in mileage was manageable, the 1.5-2+ hours needed for the runs after about 8 miles is a hard one to fit into a traveling schedule.  No, that's not an excuse, I made the choice of work over the run and will admit my last 3 miles suffered immensely for that.  I know know exactly what "The Wall" feels like, and it sucks.  

I was lucky enough to have the greatest support team EVER consisting of my BF and our 2 close friends; over the course I saw them 3 times, which is pretty impressive when you think that they had to battle closed roads for the course to do it.  Seeing my bf on that last mile helped me push through one of the hardest runs of my life and get it done.  Crossing the finish line and getting that medal put on me was more emotional than I thought it would be; what a great experience... but I think that I'll be sticking with 5k's & 10k's for a while.

And really, right now, running pretty much the last thing on my mind... time for a little recovery.

Golden Feature:

Since I can't seem to get my hands on Usain Bolt's Gold Olympia shoes, I'd settle for these Gold ones by Adidas (On Sale for $95.99!)  Those wings just scream Speedy!

Golden Tidbit:" The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals."  Hal Higdon