Faaaantastic race yesterday! Don’t feel like typing out a report, so here’s what I posted to the Dead Runners list.

so today was the second time i’ve ran the celebration in the oaks 2 mile race. last year, i astounded myself by running it in 22:55. at the time, i was running 13 minute miles (on a good day) and hadn’t yet started training for the london marathon, so 3 miles was about my longest run ever.

but today, after hardly ever running for the past six months, i did much

better.

it was a beautiful day, temps in the 50s, not a cloud in the sky. the race

started at 4. my (very much non-running) boyfriend and i got there about an hour beforehand, i registered, etc, etc.

i was wearing my long-sleeved drs t-shirt, hoping (but not very optimistically) that someone was going to ask me about it or say they were a fellow dead or something. didn’t happen.) the great thing about this race is that you run through these gorgeous avenues of oaks, lit up with christmas displays. the bad thing is, there are a lot of walkers. probably 75% are families with strollers, wagons, etc. there was one family pushing a fisher-price “car” with two kids in it, and as we were lining up, they kept going up further, in front of me. i was determined not to get behind these people.

so the race starts, and i wanted to finish the first mile in under 12 minutes, which was my time last year. i did it in 11:17. at some point, the family with the “car” pass me. i’m irritated, knowing i won’t hear the end of it from my boyfriend if they finish before me. but otherwise, so far, so good. now i had a cushion to finish the second mile, and to finish faster than last year. (i did a second mile of 10:55 last year, i didn’t think i’d ever go that fast again!) along the way, there are carolers and beautiful displays of lights. these help me go faster. or at least ignore the burning in my lungs and the weariness of my legs.

i’m looking at my watch, nearing the finish line, and i know i have it in the bag. i cross the finish line in 21:52, one minute, three seconds faster than last year. yay!

i’m very happy. i can’t believe i can run faster than i could a year ago, when i was faithfully running 4-5 times a week. on the other hand, since then i’ve been able to run 20 miles at a time, so two miles, even after six months, isn’t too bad. i’ve done it a hundred times. and i weigh at least 25 lbs less than i did a year ago. by next year, i hope i’ll have lost another 25 lbs. i want to run the richmond marathon in november. or i was considering running with TNT for the rock and roll marathon next summer. don’t know right now.

*****

of course, that was only about an hour (well, ok, half an hour) of the whole weekend. there was more fun that was had. friday night we went to the pub, i knitted (and got lots of comments) and there were carolers that came by. everyone else thought they were annoying, i liked them. they sang the cajun twelve days of christmas, which, like the carolers, i like, but everyone else hated. and then they sang rudolph. ahhh, i’m surrounded by grinches. how could you not love carolers?

so then saturday morning we drove to magazine street. went to the new whole foods. it’s gorgeous. and of course way too expensive for anything other than the occasional treat. see, it’s places like that that make me want to be rich. alas. then we bought george’s parents’ christmas presents and ate sushi for lunch.

after the race was the huge bonfire on the levee. cool! wow! i’d never seen a bonfire before. it was huuuuuuge! and hot! after it burned down some, we went to the pub and had many drinks with friends from the neighborhood. had a great time

sunday was spent recovering from saturday night. i cleaned the house, made fudge, relaxed. then george and i went to the local church (very pretty church) and listened to medieval christmas music. it was cool. and, sacreligious as this may be to say, very good for a hangover.

lovely weekend. too bad i had to go back to work on monday. but good news, sportbrain is back up! after a year and a half of being closed down, maybe i’ll finally get my $100 worth!