27 Days and Counting – Sunday, December 11th

I got up at 5 am to get dressed for the “Jingle All the Way 10K”. The race gets it's name because it is a seasonal themed race and they give you these jingle bells to wear on your shoes while you're running. As a result, I woke up my mom while I was jingling around the house before dawn. She also noticed my red and white Santa hat that I got at the dollar store to wear for the race. I got one for Al too, but he already had a red hat. I picked him up at the Metro and we made it to the race in time to line up at the starting line. We may have got there 4 minutes before the starting gun. According to the race report, it was 28 degrees and the starting line. I was cold, but I wore my Under Armor so I was able to bare it. Once we started running I barely noticed the temperature.

I ran pretty well. I ditched my intervals to see how long and how far I could run without stopping. I think I made it about 2.5 miles before I stopped to take a short walk, a quick drink and wipe my runny nose. Then I ran probably ran another 1.5 miles to the water station before I took another walk. It's hard to drink and run at the same time. Then I took a really short walk after mile 5 before I ran to the finish line. Overall, it was my best 10K time. I finished in 71:41. That's an 11 minute 32 second mile. Al finished in 73:03, just a minute and 22 seconds behind me. If he had more time to warm up and stretch I would have definitely been chasing him.

After the race we hung around to enjoy some post race refreshments. Then we toured some of the monuments in the area. During this time I slowly went into hypothermic distress. I could not warm up. I think it was because of the cool yet dry sweat, my poor post race recovery blood circulation and the fact I didn't have a coat, that made it impossible for me to warm up. I was almost shivering by the time we got back to my car. I drove immediately to a Starbucks. After a tall Toffee Nut latte, I started to feel normal again.

Nothing else to report for Day 27.

Until Tomorrow