My 2009 Resolutions

I can not believe that a whole year has gone by and that we will be bringing in another year soon. I am lucky enough to say that I did accomplish all of my 2008 resolutions and am hoping to stick to my 2009 resolutions. My 2009 resolutions are:
* I will run another half marathon in March in Virginia Beach
* I will run a two hundred miler relay through Vermont in June
* I will run the Vermont City Relay with Ed, Mel, Laura, Dan and myself.
* I will do a triathlon this year.
* I will.......... Drum Roll Please-------------------Run a Marathon!!!! ( 26.2 miles)
* I will run 1000 miles for the year.......
I hope that next year at this time, I am lucky enough to say that I accomplished all of my 2009 goals.....Wish me luck!!!

December 20th, 2008 (ARE Banquet)

What a magical night! So much to say. First my dress. I bought a beautiful little ( Size 4) dress. I have never had a little black dress before. When you are a size 18, you don't wear little black dresses. I loved the idea of having this dress. I went and had my nails and my hair done too. I went all out for this special night and I felt so good, so beautiful! Ed booked us a room at the Best Western Hotel so we could enjoy our night with no worries since the banquet was at the hotel. We went to the banquet and met up with all of our running buds. Everyone looked so amazing. Usually they are in running gear with hair in ponytails and sweaty. Tonight was the running ball! The night began with good food and awards. Awards! I was the Grand Prix Trail Running winner for my age category. Yes, me, the person who would have never thought of running three years ago - A GRAND PRIX WINNER! What does that mean? All summer I did trail running. When you trail run through Albany Running Exchange you earn points for your finishes. I just happened to earn enough points that I took first for my age category (40-49). The winner took home a back pack with ARE Grand Prix Winner on it, a running shirt with the same logo, socks and a bottle of wine with my name and the same logo. Great prizes that I will cherish forever. After the awards, the music began. What can I say, I have the absolute best dancing partner in the world. Ed will dance every dance with me. We danced so much that our beautiful clothing started to look like our running gear with all the sweat dripping off. My beautiful curls were gone. We danced the whole night! We had so much fun. After the banquet was over we were invited back to Deb and Gary's room for an after party, party. Then off to our room we went and enjoyed one more very small party for two. What a great night!

December 20th, 2008 10 miler

A very cold Saturday morning. The morning after a snow storm that still continued to flurry. I lost my mind! Melanie and I met up at 9:15 am with a group of other people to run from Tollgate Ice cream Parlor in Delmar to Thacher State Park (10 Miles). Ed was in a support vehicle just in case we were killed by a snowplow or froze to death. He also carried water and snacks for us and another group that left SUNY to do a 15 miler. We were all to meet up at Thacher Park. The run started out slow, but once Mel and I got going we did well. We came to the LARGE hill at Thacher and then all the way to the entrance of the park. We had ice on our hair and our faces when we got to the top. Once at the top, Ed picked us up in the car and I looked in the mirror at my extremely red face and thought ... oh shit! ... tonight is the banquet. Ed and others tried to convince me that my face would stay red all night long, but it didn't. THANK GOD!

HMRRC Winter Series Race #1 of 5

Sunday Morning and I find myself getting ready for another year of Winter Series. I went over to SUNY and met up with Melanie and Dan. We decided to run the three mile loop twice instead of the 15k. The first three went very smooth. We came in and recorded our time and persuaded Dan to come with us for another three and off we went. Dan complained that he was missing the cookies and should have never came out with us a second time. (Don't worry, Dan got his cookies) It was great to see all of our running buddies again. Another good run!!

ARE Adventure Race

December 6, 2008

Albany Running Exchange hosted a race up at Dippen Kill. This is the same location that the Froogy Five was held. I thought the Froggy Five was a tough race, will.......I haven't seen nothing yet! The mileage was never told by ARE. They kept you guessing. They advertised $10.00 and you can dance with the Devil. They were not kidding. Arriving up at Dippen Kill we discovered three inches of snow. ( Remember, this is a trail run) After checking in and signing a waiver stating that we might die and nobody can sue ARE, we were off and running. I think the the first 2 in a half miles were straight up hill. We climbed boulders, we ran over frozen ponds, we had tree limbs smacking us in the face over and over again. THEN, we had to climb a cliff! Straight up with one rope to share for all...I looked up and was wondering how the heck I was ever going to get up that cliff. I did have alittle help from some of the ARE members with a good push on my butt and up I went. Oh my god, it was amazing. We ran through the most beautiful scenery, breath taking ponds and forest. The Adirondacks are just beautiful! We finally came to the finish. It was a outstanding race. I did dance with the Devil, but I won!