Jinglebell Run!

So I know you all are wondering, Mark, how did the Jingle Bell Run go? Well I’ve been illing for about 2 days now so I haven’t gotten to update it yet.

Saturday was supposed to have a high temperature of 24 degrees, not bad. Only problem was that at 11am, the temp was about 15 and we had a cold 15 mph wind right at the start. I decided that I needed to do better than the Berbee Derby but to my surprise much (most) of the course had slick snow on it. Anyways, I huddled with Jordan before the race and told him that I was going to try and lead because about a tenth of a mile in there were a bunch of photographers. So I got a place right in front and waited for the gun! At 11am, bang, the gun went off. I went at an almost full sprint and was amazed to find myself out front with a decent lead. Around the 1/10 of a mile mark I got passed, but that guy clearly only wanted to lead for a close moment and I passed him back. I kept the lead until about a 100 yards from the bridge near Vilas zoo and then it was all backwards from there. I settled into a nice pace and hit the one mile mark at 8:30, which is a good time because there was some snowy roads and it was mostly uphill. I didn’t get another time reading until we entered the arb, at 3 miles I was at 27 minutes which was good for me because that was the uphill part. The arb was very slick though as minimal traffic and a poorly scraped road left a slick 1” hard pack with a bunch of wet slushy prints. But at least it was mostly downhill. I reached the 5 mile mark at 45 minutes and was hoping I could kick some butt and get the 10k in under 55 minutes. I picked up the pace and I think I hit mile 5.5 on pace for that goal. Then we turned left towards the home-stretch. By this point I was so warm and stripped off my gloves and headband. Well I hit that same headwind that we had at the start and on top of that the 5k fun-run/walk was taking up almost the whole road. At least the road non taken up by the people who are fast at the 10k and were trying to drive out. So I was trying to pass walkers, people in my race and eluding oncoming traffic all while facing a brutal headwind. Needless to say, 55 even wasn’t going to happen so I sprinted in just to beat 56 minutes which is 9 minute miles. So if I can do that for 26.2 miles I can break 4 hours. Guh! I just got to keep training! I wonder what it is like to run in nice weather! Anyways, afterwards I met with some co-workers for some lunch at the Laurel Tavern and watched the Badgers crush Marquette.

Shortly after that I got sick and got progressively sicker. I think it is food poisoning and I have hardly ate anything in the past two days. No idea where I got it but it really sucks! Sunday I logged 16 hours of ill couch time trying to stay awake enough to follow the football games. I kicked the Beav’s butt in the first round of Fantasy Football playoffs (recording the highest score of any team this season) so that was nice! Today I am dragging at work but it is better than taking a sick day. Might as well be borderline miserable at work then stuck at home watching daytime TV. That way I can use my sick days when I am healthy! Our company works that way, all days off are the same so you can use them for anything you want! That way if I stay reasonably healthy I can get an extra week of vacation!

Anyways, I hope all is well with everyone! I wonder what Barry is doing right now?