Ann Ringlein dialed up some A+ December weather this morning for her annual Holiday Run.  30s, sunny, and calm.  A rare treat for the Pioneers Park veterans of the area.  With record turnout, Ann was able to donate a large sum of money to the Capital Humane Society.  100% of entry fees went to this organization.  But your $12 entry got you an ornament and a present put out by Ann’s elves if you wanted to pick one up (I ended up carrying a plastic New Balance pint glass for the better part of 2k, it could have at least been Brooks to make it worth it).  What is becoming a nice little tradition to end the Lincoln racing calendar is held at one of my favorite running venues anywhere.  With runners looking to finish out their 2013 racing with a final hard 5k or people dressing up their dogs and themselves in matching outfits, this race is a simple way to bring your year to a close.

With a 10am start, race volunteers, lrc employees, and holiday music greet you at packet pick-up after you were able to sleep in a bit and enjoy a cup of coffee.  Kids 1 mile and then all comers 5k, with dogs invited and encouraged to run (all four legged participants earned a nice little treat at the end as well) the Holiday Run is the perfect opportunity to see what high school and college athletes run on during the fall XC season. For some, it is a chance to race past times and test themselves on one of the more challenging courses in the state.

For me personally, it was a very solid day.  It is a seldom day of the year where I can get out to Pioneers and just race without having high school kids to worry about.  I was able to get in some decent workouts between the end of the season and today, but at Pioneers you just never know.  Fortunately for me, I had two badass runners in Andrew Jacob and Ivan Ivanov to chase, and had badass runners in Logan Watley and Ryan Salem and Dustin Llewellyn chasing me.  Combine that with a nice, firm surface to run on and a beautiful day, and voíla!  Fast time of 16:53.  Many people would read that time and possibly scoff at it a bit.  But in my little world, that is moving.  That is close to, if not faster than, what I ran in high school back at Southeast.  Just the kind of effort I was hoping for considering 5k training is not my thing, and the fact that high school was 15 years ago for me.

As has been tradition this ends my racing year.  I now take 6-7 days off, with no active work.  No core, no swimming, no weights, no yoga, no plyos.  Just let the body, mind, and soul heal and get ready for 2014.  Many people like to look back and see what they got done in the past year.  Take stock of where they went, look at their checklists or resolutions and see how they stack up against the big agenda.  That is a good thing.  Examining your history can place you on a path in your future where you can continue to be happy or seek self-improvement. For me, it was an up and down year.  Decent 50k at the start, closed out by a mediocre marathon in Chicago, but some fun off road running with friends at the end and some random races mixed in.  Not bad.

But I like to look forward.  I like to see the work spread out in front of me.  The anticipation of chasing a new goal or challenge.  A date circled on the calendar 5 months from now.  Not knowing what the miles and experiences and life will bring me between typing this and the gun going off.  Getting myself fully healthy and see what I have learned in recent history, then applying that and seeing what more I am capable of on this planet.  Go. get. it.

I have had some ideas bouncing around in my head that I really want to write about, and  I will.  But rather than doing some daily verbal vomit I want to do some research and more thinking about this content before I send it out there for my kids and athletes and friends and strangers to have access to the remainder of digital history.  Until then. . .