Winter Classic recap and end of the year summary

I worked on my costume for about a month. I constructed a curved body and bottle top hat out of cardboard and styrofoam and even some metal frame work for the body. I covered it in shiny metalic green paper to look like glass and then designed and sketched a label for the front of the "HOLIDAY CHEER" bottle.On one of my long runs I came up with a witty warning for the back of the bottle. I even drew a barcode and Santa in his sleigh. I was pretty proud of my costume creation.
Race day finally arrived. I drove into Cambridge ready to spread holiday cheer. I got to the race a little early, walked around to scope out the competition. There were a lot of santa hats and elf costumes and some fun socks and tights. A guy in a speedo and one guy dressed as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, but no one had a costume as creative as mine. The volunteers loved it, the race officials loved it, the race photographer loved it, and the other runners loved it. Even the cops directing traffic chuckled when I walked by.

I lined up with the other runners and the race began. It was pretty tricky to run in the costume and the wind made keeping the hat on really tough. At the first mile marker I looked at my watch and I had managed to run it in about 9 minutes. Not bad for a bottle of booze. I kept on running and smiled as I passed runners and could hear them reading my label and laughing. I figured no one could beat me in the costume contest - my costume was homemade, original, witty, and holiday themed.


I crossed the finish line in just under 30 minutes, a little slow for me, but wicked fast for running in costume AND the course was long - 3.4 miles not a 5K. People were pissed because it was a fast course and some of them might have PR'd if it was measured correctly, but all I wanted to know was when were they deciding the costume prize. I asked around and found out the awards would be done at around noon. The race was at 10:00am and I was done by 10:30. What the heck was I suppose to do for an hour and a half.

I walked around, got some water and a frozen bagel. Then I went to the bar that was hosting the awards ceremony. Let me tell you, if you were there with friends having breakfast and beers it was a hopping place to be, but if you were there sweaty and cold and dressed as a bottle of "holiday cheer" it lost it's spirit pretty quickly. I was bored, irritated, uncomfortable, and I just wanted to know if I won the costume contest and I wanted to go home. After waiting for two hours because they did the age group prizes and then took a break before announcing the costume prize, the time had come to find out if I won $250. The race director began by saying he didn't pick the winner and it might have had a different result if he did, and my hopes and dreams of a little extra holiday cash were shattered. I was beat by a friggin girl dressed as...............a LOBSTER!


Needless to say I was devastated and all my "holiday cheer" evaporated instantly with the announcement of the Lobster winning the $250.

Anyway, that race sucked and ruined what little holiday spirit I had just a week before Christmas, not my favorite time of year to begin with. I'm sort of a grinch when it comes to the holidays. I hate holiday music, I hate all the TV ads, I hate all the decorations that seem to go up in stores earlier and earlier each year. But, I'm on vacation so at least I don't have to listen to every one at work talking about last minute shopping and family feuds and I don't have to participate in a lame holiday gift swap of stuff no one wants given to people no one really likes. Instead I spend the last 3 weeks of the year doing what I love to do - RUNNING.

Almost everyday, I get up whenever I want and eat a good breakfast and then go for a run and occasionally in the evening when friends get out of work I go for another run with them. I've been racking up miles as if I'm only a few weeks out from a marathon, except this year I'm not running Disney in January. I'm not training for anything in January. Just have Boston in my sights and it's in April. So, for now I can just relax and enjoy running and slowly ramp up my mileage after the new year.

2010 has been a pretty epic year, Goofy challenge, Boston marathon, Maine marathon, a bunch of triathlons, and I even had a near death experience with a garbage truck somewhere in the middle. I will finish out the year with just shy of 1500 miles logged. I could get 1500, but I'd have to run 42 miles in the next 5 days and we just got hammered with a bunch of snow so it'll be near immpossible to do that. I'm just amazed that I logged over 1000 miles in a year. Can't wait to see what I can accomplish in 2011.