Both First and Last

First and last, me in a race. You might think...I ran a race by myself, thus first and last. Nope. How about, I was first in my age group, but last in the race? Nope again.

I ran my first race of 2010 on New Year's Day. And it was my last race in my 40's. I'm now the proud owner of a brand new age group, 50's and up.

I can't say I'm overly distraught with turning the big five-oh. On the other hand I'm looking forward to it. I get a few months grace of getting in some good efforts in the new a/g before all the other 40ish folks that pound out races make the grade. Some already have, like James and Rob Earl of the East Toronto striders, so they'll still be waaaaaaay ahead of me no matter what. Several others are still not quite there. I may have to do some cherry picking to take advantage of it.

Running has sucked lately. Caught a cold in November, took a week off. Thought I was over it, then it came back on me in December. Never did make it to 2 grand in miles for the year as a result. Put in a few runs over the last couple of weeks and kept from failing too badly at the Hair of the Dog 9k down at the beaches. If the link doesn't show it, the balmy beach canoe club puts in on each year on NYD. Peach Schnapps is available at the turn if you feel inclined. Course seems good, Gmaps shows it to be 8.9k, and when you thrown in all the dodging around dogs and walkers and the like...just about 9k seems right.

Did meet and someone from Running Ahead there, who was in a similar state of not having run much over December. It was the 'neither of us has trained for this' showdown. I squeeked in the victory by a few seconds.

It's nasty cold out. I don't know why it has the be so damn windy at this time of the year to go with the sub zeros already in place. Adds that extra little sumthin that makes you want to stay indoors.

Seasons greetings, all.