Race Results.

I ran what will be my last race of 2007 this morning. It was pretty nasty out. About 40F, foggy, misty and drizzling on and off. Really great conditions.

Now I recognize those conditions are not arctic by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not exactly tropical either. I ended up in layered shirts with a jacket, long pants and hat and gloves and was pretty comfortable. However, as you may expect there were numerous people out in t-shirts and shorts and even two women out in jog-bras. Is this supposed to be a sign of toughness? I think it may be a sign of something else.

I've still yet to be as impressed with race organization as I was in London (If you ever find yourself in the UK, the "Great Run" series is just that. They have one in most major cities and the organization is superb. Although the Great North Run has an unfortunate reputation as a killer. Literally.) It seemed to me about half the mile markers missing, and there were definitely not enough pre-race porta-johns. At least this time I was ready for the mile (instead of kilometer) markers, although it still bothers me.

It was a fun race, lots of Santas, reindeer, a snowman and evidently the mayor of Washington, DC. At packet pickup they handed out bells to tie to your shoes so there was a nice jingly sound throughout most of the race. My parents came down to watch which always makes it more fun, especially since I'm leaving the country this week.

I was also very happy with my time. I hit the first mile marker at 8:30 (by my watch). There was a lot of traffic at the start and while the course wasn't excessively narrow, there were 2900 people trying to run down Ohio Ave so there was congestion. (The race organizers also didn't have signs to help runners get to the starting line in roughly the order they thought they'd finish.) I kept trying to keep pushing the pace (as some may remember, I did some extra 'tempo' work this week, but kept the miles down overall). At the 5k point (which was marked, but the 4 mile point wasn't....) my watch showed about 24:30. I had some trouble on the second half. The course was out and back, with the start and finish co-located. And I swear they moved the finish back after the start. I kept thinking it was "just around the corner" and it wasn't. My legs were burning pretty bad, but I crossed the line beating my previous personal best by over 2 minutes! Then we walked back in the rain to the car, so I'm sure I'll be nice and sick for my trip this week.

Treadmills

So the weather today was just like yesterday, only snowing and colder. So I elected to run on a nearby treadmill. It ended up being a good idea as the snow just kept getting stronger.

I don't particularly care for treadmills too much. I just think it's kind of boring. I also have a problem with them. And not just because the one I was on seemed to half-stall every 5 minutes or so, kind of a stutter-step, nothing too terribly serious. My real problem with them is psychological. I always end up running too hard and too long. I went out to do about 30 minutes and just get a little exercise. I ended up with a 45 minute run, doing pyramids at up to a 6 minute mile pace for a couple of minutes here and there.

I think I fall prey to the fact that you can very exactly control your pace, and I just feel I have to. So tomorrow, I'm going to run outside, or I will very seriously, honestly NOT push my self on the treadmill.

Oh. Do you?

This is a response to my favorite blogger (besides Culinary Cowgirl) in the whole wide world. Blunoz recently related how much he loves and misses winter. Having just finished a nice tempo run here in Washington, DC I wanted to make sure Blunoz realized what 'winter' really is. Please note the following facts. The current weather at Blunoz' house is as follows: Mostly Cloudy, 73F (feels like 83F). This is the weather here: Mostly cloudy, 37F (feels like 26F).

So, while Blunoz was probably out today in shorts and a t-shirt, I ran in the following:

• tights
• nylon trousers to block the wind
• a long sleeved shirt
• a second long sleeved shirt
• a warm jacket
• a wind-breaking vest
• a watch cap
• gloves

and it was still a bit chilly. The wind was coming off the starboard quarter on the way back in and it was a bit brisk. But still, it was a nice run and I'm glad I did it.

TAKE THAT BLUNOZ!

WARNING: HIGLY ADDICTING GAME!

This post is in response to Blunoz's. It might be considered off topic, but it's my blog, and it says "whatever's on my mind" so therefore it's on topic.

After much trial and error (mostly error) I finally beat the 'normal' difficulty of the game. (For reference, here's a link to the game. But it is addictive. You've been fairly warned.)

To Update his strategy, I was using the pellet towers and swarm towers exclusively and was able to get to the 50th wave but not through it. So I changed tactics slightly and added some squirt towers. The real trick is realizing a few highly upgraded towers are far superior to many weakly upgraded towers. (Of course, there is a minimum number of weakly upgraded towers you need to control the flow of creeps.) Oh, and if you don't have good air defense, you will quickly die.

Here's a screen shot of my victorious game, in the waning moments of the last creeps lives...

Revenge!

Well, I finally showed them. I managed to out smart them. It's a great victory today for all mankind. We will no longer have to live in fear of small winged insects. I did the same run as that ill fated night. But I really showed them. I waited till way after dark (well after the twilight feeding frenzy), and did the whole run with nary a problem.


The fact that it was on 40 degrees out and the end of November had nothing to do with it.