Christmas Camp is a wrap!

31.5 miles in 5:11 for me on the 31st. Not as fast as I wanted but it was the best I could do with the legs I had under me. Though I was slower than I thought I should be I was surprised at how steady I was running. The CC group split into 2 camps for the final run. We had the loopy's which was Darin, Trisha, Beast, Susan and Lisa. The rest of campers went hardcore and braved the snow, slush and mud on the trails. As I said in a previous post I was pretty excited about the 2 mile loop course complete with mile markers and a wonderful surface. Of course it was flat but I still managed to get over 1300 feet of climbing, ha, ha, ha....not much but I am counting it! We all got lucky with a lovely cold but dry day. The weather man were preparing us all for record rains and possible floods in areas around Portland but they were off by one day, whew! I brought my entire running closet with me completely expecting to get soaked. Instead I wore shorts, gloves, a long sleeve shirt and was completely comfortable the entire time. Friends came out to keep us company for a few loops. Darin and Trisha had a couple of people come out for a few laps and Sarah braved the weather and joined me for 6 miles. It sure helped the time go by fast.

I sort of had a plan to get a bit faster with each 1o mile segment and I did but only by approximately 1 minute for each 10 miles. Hardly worth mentioning. The time flew. I switched directions at the 20 mile mark so I could see everyone more. Even though we covered the same 2 mile loop 15+ times it wasn't boring. There were all sorts of folks out enjoying the day but mainly the killer squirrels. These squirrels are HUGE, FAT and right down BOSSY! I am a rodent wimp so I got super creeped out when I opened the back of my car for aid and three huge monsters came over and stole my empty gel packets. They threatened to carry off my banana so I ate it. Darin thought one was about to jump inside his car at one point. These squirrels are yucky and most definitely NOT cute.

As CC came to an end we all shared our stories via email and it was super fun to have such a big crowd with such enthusiasm and creativity given our weather hurdles. Nothing seems to slow this group down. Sean pulled out more than 100M in 4-5 days pulling some doubles and maybe even a triple. A couple of folks ran their first 100M week and the rest of us who have done one got to revisit the pain. :) All in all I think we were all happy to have withstood the test and are pumped for 2009 training and racing. It was fun to push the limits of mileage for CC. Now for a nice recovery week but first a race tomorrow. Hopefully I can break my time from last year of 7:25 pace but after today's sluggish 8 mile run I am not so sure.....hmmmm. Next week is the beginning of a new training cycle with some harder workouts which will challenge me.

After camp I rushed home and shoved my fat swollen calf's into boots with compression socks. Bill and I were excited to ring in to the new year with friends so a couple of double espresso's later I was recharged, dressed up and ready to party! We met a the Ward's and began our evening celebration. The laughs were going to be big. I could tell this group was ready to let their hair down and say goodbye to 2008 with a bang. It was either the coffee, the excitement or simply hanging around fun people but I was un-phased by the run and was able to stay up past midnight. At times I was laughing so hard I had to brace my belly. We were having a good time and thought we were very very funny...I think we made have had 1 to many glasses of champagne? The champagne was the only way we were going to e dancing and dancing we did. The funny part is none of us can REALLY dance but we sure thought we were Fred and Ginger at times. I love how Bill, who is 6'2" tries to dance with me at my level...it's so cute. Me with my wild arms can really clear out a space. I think Leta was the best dancer but her high heel balloon popping was very choreographed. Taking pictures, acting tough, telling stories and making fun of ourselves was quite entertaining. Somehow during the evening we decided were the gansta sistas...Thanks Sarah and Leta!

On to 2009 and planning races. I sent in my application for Hardrock again. With 4 of us trying to get spot one of us is bound to hit the lottery. I am guessing Micheal will be the lucky one because he really wants to do Wasatch this year instead. So it will be just his luck to get into HR100. Once the HR100M lottery is determined that will drive all my further race plans. I have a list of about 10 races I want to do so I will need to weed out the list. Either way I see a good year of joyous running ahead.