Feel Free to Get Offended...

You have my permission to get offended or take this post personally. I rarely get on my soapbox, but this had to happen. Daniel (my husband) recently told me what his co-worker named her new born baby boy...Vaden. This is one of the many times I have heard of someone taking a name I really like, Aiden, adding a letter to the front and pretending the result is a human name. Name your dogs what you want, but these are people, people! Tonight, I saw a story about the top baby names of the decade. Normally, my husband's name is a winner. Reliably top 25. This year, he dropped to 28. Aiden is #1. I then saw #11, Caden. I said to my husband, "Let's play a game and see how many fake-Aidens beat you." The result, three. In addition to Caden, we have Jaden (#14) and Brayden (#22). On the positive side, only one name in the girl's top fifty had gratuitous use of the letter "e" in the name.

Another PR

Tonight we ran the Albuquerque Farolito 5k. For those of you not versed in your hispanic holiday traditions (or terms), a Farolito is a luminary or more simply, a sack of sand with a candle in it. It was actually pretty neat as I don't ever intend to run after dark, but I will make exceptions when the course is candle-lit. The thing about a 5k versus the longer distances we have run lately are the appearance of gangs of children. Since 3.1 miles is totally doable for kids, you constantly here the thundering of feet approaching to overtake you and possibly trip you, if you're super lucky. Despite the packs of stray dogs (sorry, I meant kids)and a pitch black section over uneven terrain, I finished in 33:25, beating my previous record by over two minutes. I felt pretty strong through the whole run and enjoyed the holiday theme. ************************************************************************************* Honestly, the encouragement was much needed. I didn't run in DC last weekend or at all this week. I was in DC for a conference and have been working on my grad school applications with each waking, non-working, moment. At this point, I am seriously considering running the half-marathon in January since it seems completely unlikely that I will be ready for the marathon. I hate to think about dropping down, but don't quite see the point in running horribly in an event I am not ready for. We are five weeks away and I don't think I can get to where I'd need to be to run 26.2 miles in one go. Time will tell, although time is running short...

Not a Good Idea

Maybe it's just a phase, but if you asked me today, I would tell you I will never consider running a marathon in January again. It requires a certain toughness to run on a normal day. Today, the high was 30 degrees. It was dark by 5pm. With the wind chill, it was 10 degrees at 6pm. Needless to say, I crapped out on my run. Does it count that I drove my route in search of LED Christmas Lights? The rest of December looks about the same. I peak on my mileage during Christmas week. We'll be in Colorado, surrounded by snow, trying to run a 20-miler. Good luck with that. My parents have a treadmill, I guess I could try 20 miles on that. (Kill me now.) ************************************************************************************* This weekend, we head to DC. I need to run 12 miles this weekend to feel even remotely on track for January's Rock & Roll Marathon. I am hoping the interesting sights of the nation's capital will keep me distracted. Hell, it's 50 degrees there right now, that should help. ************************************************************************************* Last week, I ran a 10K in Mesa, AZ for Thanksgiving. I really wanted to finish in 68:30. If you are trying to set a PR, I don't recommend drinking a bottle of wine and getting five hours sleep the night before. Through mile 4, I was on track with my pace. During mile 5, the heat started to kick my ass, as did the dehydration. (Clearly I am difficult to please since I complain about it being too cold above and now too hot.) I ultimately finished in 70:09. I was frustrated with my time until I realized I beat my previous PR by over 3 minutes. While I am still slower than I would like, I feel myself getting stronger and I don't quit as easily as I did when I started running in January. I guess I will take those improvements and work for 68:30 next time!