Thin - I do love Ellie Krieger. It is funny - before I started WW, I wouldn't even watch her show. Now I don't watch much of Paula Deen or The Barefoot Contessa because I swear you can gain weight just by seeing what they make.

Sharon - Are you doing the Boardwalk Run? Are you nearby? I went and looked at the web page. I am interested. I wonder if I could start out doing the 5K with the thought that I would do the 10 miler if I was able. I haven't even done a 5 mile race, yet. Someone once told me that if you can run 75% of the distance before the race, you can complete the whole race. I haven't ever run 7.5 miles. I have a cousin and a high school friend that work in Atlantic City. The only drawback is that we have another Philadelphia Orchestra Concert that night. There is more than enough time between the two events but it would take a little coordination.

Got up at 8am. Rained all night and appeared to have stopped, which was definately a good thing, since the morning forcast had been for showers/sleet. Temperature was 35. Had a banana and found an old Siena Shirt and Sweatshirt that were fittingly green to put on. Although I did decide that I was going to bring a jacket in case it started raining. As I was leaving the house, noticed that it was now POURING! The race is only about 10-15 minutes from my house, so I went and miraculously as I pulled up to park, it was not raining in Green Island. All the race stuff was set up. Got my bib and T-shirt (a crazy neon yellow color!) and went back to the car to drop stuff off. Ran a bit and stretched and then sat in the car for a bit to warm up. Decided on wearing the jacket even though it wasn't raining yet. There were about 450 people in the race from what I could tell numberwise. Went to the start and they started promptly at 10am.

With the help of my garmin, I managed to keep a good pace just around 10 minutes for the first mile. I was pleasantly surprised that the course was basically flat with a couple of nice downhill spots. They had clocks at each mile marker, and there were lots of people in the streets cheering us on. Just after the two mile marker was the water station, and I hit the two mile mark just under 20 minutes, so that mile was a bit faster. I was still feeling good, although I did feel like I had a lot of layers on. I decided to walk through the water station so I could actually drink. 3rd mile was also pretty good, which I ran just over 10 minutes, so I definately can say I was pretty consistant. At the 3rd mile marker, there was a guy with a violin and his truck open. HE was standing on the sidewalk playing, with irish music blasting from his speakers. It was Hair of the Dog and the song was Mary Mac, which I love! That gave me a bit of motivation. The last mile was hard, as my legs were getting tired and I really felt like I had too many layers on. They were feeling very heavy. I've been running 4-5 miles pretty consistantly, but it's been on the treadmill and I think that's where I got into the problem with the last mile. Anyway, ended up finishing strong with a total time of 40:49 (officially). My watch had me at 40:30. So that was about 4 minutes faster than my Disney 4 mile race from October, which I can definately say was because I was more consistant and didn't go out to fast. Lots of bananas and oranges afterward (they even had cookies!),but unfortunately they ran out of plain water bottles and the only drink left was some kind of version of vitamin water, which had too many calories, so I waited until I got to the car for my propel that I had brought just in case.

All and all a good race to run. Oh, and did I mention that just as I was finishing it started to rain! Could have done without the jacket after all!

Today is a lazy day, although I might try to motivate to go to the gym. Tonight I'm meeting friends from college for the big Siena game in Albany. So needless to say, I had to do laundry last night so I can wear the stuff again today! Catch up on personals later tonight so as not to make this any longer!