Now I can get outside to put up the Christmas decorations, hopefully before the temperatures drop much more and everything ices over here in Somerville. Otherwise the 12-days of Christmas might start out with one Josh in a cast; and that isn't going to help me get back into marathon shape for Miami in 6 weeks.

But before I get into all of that, I want to take this opportunity to thank DAV Chapter #27 in Somerville, MA for their support of RunningBull's Run to Honor America's Veterans and the New England Center (formerly Shelter) for Homeless Veterans. Their timely contribution will help keep the spirit of the holidays alive and well in this time of thankfulness, of family, and of rememberance. Receiving the email message of their intended contribution of support for my cause to honor our fallen soldiers by assisting their comrades in need on the homefront confirmed that my decision to continue with this mission (even after completing the self-appointed 350 miles of races this past year) was the right one. But I will not be repeating the same concept as last year. I will be refining the schedule of events to minimize travel and maximize the potency of my efforts. I will continue to help lead others to achieve success in their individual missions at a few select marathons in the coming year because I truly enjoy watching them become heroes to their families, their friends, and to themselves over the course of these few hours we spend together. The spirit of volunteerism and helpfulness is rejuvinated by these efforts and the message that I am spreading of support, of hope, of honor to commitment shines through more brightly to those other active participants as well as to the spectators standing on the sidelines, watching at home, or reading about it in the paper or online. But first I need to get back into race condition.

Granted my schedule has been completely turned this way and that since my first 50-miler 3 weeks ago, which has reduced my ability to get out and run as often (or as far/long) as I had been prior to Thanksgiving, but I didn't expect to be experiencing knee / IT Band "pain" on runs lasting longer than an hour. Sure, common wisdom probably says that I should still be recovering from my last race, from donating blood, and from the 6 car rides I spent crammed into a compact car (usually as the driver of our 2004 Honda Civic) that each exceeded 4 hours within the past 3 weeks. But then common knowledge would point out that I don't always listen to common wisdom, or common sense for that matter. I don't beleive that I am being reckless or misguided in trying to get out and run for an hour or so 2-3 times per week, especially not after having taken it very easy for the 10 days before my first run. However, I will still take it slow and not enter any races over the next couple of weeks (be they 50k or only 5k) while I gradually bring my long run back up to 3 hours. Hopefully tomorrow will let me enjoy a relatively easy 2 hour run before my brother-in-law and his darling daughters arrive for their winter weekend adventure visit.

Which of course means that I have to finish cleaning so that I can then start...er...um...finish decorating the apartment, forget all of that email, regular mail, sorting, filing, Christmas card writing, shopping, cooking, photo editing, application submitting, and aarrrrggghhh. Man, I really do love the holidays, don't you?

I did at least get my haircut today.