than I have before any race for awhile and I'm not sure why. XC race, swim meet, big day I guess. I just want to get it started. I've worked on writing and my thesis, caught up on emails, finished watching Speak - I'm ready to go burn up some nervous energy!

Think of it as an adventure and how much fun you're going to have and all those pre-race nerves will go away. You've trained and are ready to go, so enjoy yourself and KICK BUTT:)

With Some with Brian, Peter Logue, and Matt F.

Hands got a little cold going into the wind, but it was nice running weather if you didn't mind being wet.

At the end of my run, my foot (its not really my ankle, kind of top/side of outer left foot) felt a little irritated and sore. Nothing like the pain of the other day, but defintely not 100% yet either.

Since I will have DeLaney with me at the Turkey Trot, and I'm not really racing it because of that, should I just use that for my next test and give it a solid week off? I'm just afraid testing it too often will not give it the proper chance to heal. Advice?

I did dance the night away last night to County Line, and it felt fine during that! :)

Loco Moose - 2nd place female. 5k "urban cross country" race - 23:11.

[Don't you dare look at that time and tell me I ran slowly, because you should've seen the MUD. It was hard to get footing!]

I stepped out of the car, was greeted by cgat, wind, and two seconds later - rain. Well I guess you're getting a true XC race, mud and rain and wind. Be Hurricane Alyie. I went back to the car and pulled on pants and a sweatshirt, and started to walk the course for warmup. I was freezing. Three words: Suck. It. Up.

I got boxed in at the start - narrow little bath, and the first corner was so sharp that with the pack of us, I wound up walking it. As we evened out, running over "grass" (mud with a bit of green on top of it), I got into pace, my hips rocking unevenly over the soft ground. I am not used to such a forgiving surface. It truly was hard to run on.

Up a little hill and down a sharp one: I must have been the most graceless runner down that hill, trying not to slip on the leaves and fall. We wound out around the park, back through a curvy paved path, and under a bridge, out, back under it again. The course was way cool, and we got to do two loops of it! Start catching people, be a good little buffalo I caught the second place girl on the second lap, moving me into second, and could see the first place girl finish - close but not close enough to catch. I ran a very fast last quarter mile or so.

And at the awards: yup, a beer mug. Or, for runners under 21, a soda mug. Since I don't drink either: a milk mug.

Swim meet: got in and swam a 1600 warmup, felt too tired to race. So I showered and left. I am as proud of this as I am the XC race.

I can handle a little wet and some wind, but sideways rain isn't my cup of tea, so I contentedly drank the same while the rain pounded on the windows this morning. I ran at 12:30, just after the last band of hard rain went through, and toured WHP then Aunt Betty in warm, breezy but not rainy conditions. I had some things on my mind to ponder, so I enjoyed the solitude, and while I left Garmin and watch behind, I think I ran a pretty decent pace.

here too, although admittedly it takes less wind to make snow go sideways. Yes, snow, after 65 degrees and sunshine three days ago. Keeps things interesting, I guess.

Just about 14 miles for me today, which roughly equaled the number of wild turkeys in the flock that scurried across the path. Unlike lots of birds who fluff and puff themselves up to impress, these seemed to be trying to make themselves look as skinny and unsavory as possible.

on the track with Amy. I was supposed to run 12 today, Amy and I will do it tomorrow instead. We had a hard time running any faster than 10:30's on the track, it was wierd. We had to really concentrate to move any faster.

I was envious of Sara who battled out 12 in the rain this morning. She's tough.

Great job Alyie! I realize that cross-country terrain isn't as easy as pavement. Good thinking, regarding the swim meet.

Just towards dark. After the rain in the roaring wind. The temp dropped almost 10 degrees in the time I was out! I'm glad I thought to bring my gloves.

.. in a steady rain this morning. Got to see Judson, Matt F, Peter, & Brian out there. Loved all the white water and gurgling brooks due to the rain. Hope to have a healed hamstring and running again shortly. Life is good in the woods.

I opted for an indoors workout.Getting into weird Maine weather times.A fine line between hardcore running and stupid,at least from my experience running outdoors year round.Running in 30mph winds off the ocean at 35 degrees would fall into the stupid range.So dusted off the bike.Enjoyable to cross-train once in a while and beneficial as well.Stats for the ride:
23.8005 mph
38.3032 kmh
10.6397 meters/sec
2094.4465 feet/minute.