the freezing point of gatorade....

...is lower than the freezing point of water.  How do I know this?  Well, this morning I ran the Manhattan Half Marathon in Central Park.  It was a little more than two full loops of the park and according to the New York Road Runner's results page, the temperature was 14 degrees.  14 degrees!   

The NYRR races always have water stations (or "fluid stations" as they call them) spread throughout the course.  Today there were 4 stations on this course that  you hit 2 times each. Some had just water, some had Gatorade and water.  At the first water station I grabbed a cup and there was a lovely film of ice on top of the water.  I didn't see it fast enough and as I squeezed the cup to take a sip, the ice flew out and all over me.  Fun!  At the next station I just took Gatorade - no ice yet but it was mighty cold.  I was definitely running slow today so I was really far back in the pack - the leaders passed me with 2.1 miles left in their course - I was at mile 5. Yes, you read that right, they were almost done and I had 8.1 miles left to go!  By the time I hit the next station with Gatorade the contents of the cup resembled a Slurpee.  Nothing solid, just a nice, slushy freeze of yellow Gatorade.

I was so far back in the pack that the second to last table had actually run out of water by the time I got there.  And the last station?  Well, the first table had a lovely grid of cups with frozen water that were actually frozen to the table.  They wouldn't budge.  As I passed the last table, a very kind man pried up a frozen cup, violently banged it on the corner of the table to break the ice in the cup and passed it to a grateful me.  I got about two sips out of it and then chewed ice chips for the next 5 minutes.  

It definitely wasn't my fastest race, but considering I hadn't run further than 6 miles at a time since the Marine Corps Marathon in October,  I was happy to just finish.  I am, however, pretty sure it was my coldest race.  Brrr!

what an amazing day

I am spent.  Today was incredible and I end it with a new resolve.

p.s. I got a "Nice.  Really good." from Coach Scott at swim GTS tonight with regard to my freestyle.  Yippee!

and the winner is....

Maria and Carlos Martinez!  Congrats guys.  As soon as the TNT folks get the shuffle to me, I'll get it to you.  Let's hope it's a really fun color!  I was at the Apple Store last night for some computer issues and took a peek at the shuffle - it's really cute!

Again, thanks to everyone who donated.  So far I've raised 40% of the TNT goal!

P.S.  I did hit the treadmill last night for an hour.  I keep forgetting that I'm registered to run the Manhattan Half Marathon next weekend.  Yikes!

shuffle and swim

The deadline for the iPod shuffle raffle is tonight at midnight - so far the odds are pretty good. Thanks to everyone who donated in the past week!  I'll announce the winner tomorrow.

And last night was the first Manhattan swim Group Training Session (GTS) at Riverbank State Park.  It's a little bit of a hike for me to get up there but the pool was pretty great (we won't mention the locker rooms.)  Coach Scott gave us some pretty thorough instruction and I think I did pretty well.  I can't wait until it's a little bit more of a workout though - I regretted not going to the gym earlier in the day as well.

I'm skipping the outdoor run GTS tonight and hitting the treadmill instead.  I still have a bit of a lingering cough thingie and I'm going to play it safe.  I tried to run outside at Saturday's GTS and had to throw in the towel after the 20 minute warmup.  I thought I was going to hack up a lung!  Since it's about a thousand times colder today than it was Saturday, I'm not going to risk setting myself even further back.  So the gym it is.

the iPod shuffle raffle

So as an incentive to drum up some donations, I've instituted a raffle that ends on Wednesday, 1/14 at midnight.  Team in Training has generously offered an iPod shuffle as a prize to anyone who raises $1000 online between 1/7 and midnight 1/14.  As of right now, I'm only $50 away from that goal so I'm pretty certain the iPod shuffle is within reach.  Once I surpass the $1000 in a week mark, I'll put the names of everyone who has donated into a hat and pick a winner!  You could be the owner of a brand new iPod shuffle.  And for those of you who aren't able to donate before the deadline, just get someone else to donate - it doesn't matter how much - and then tell me about it.  I'll put your name in the hat as well.

I thought it might be fun to spice up the donation process just a bit.  So far it's working pretty dang well.  Now if I could just get my internet connection at home working again (thanks to Stephen for letting me pirate his connection for a bit.)

new year

It's a new year and I'm excited.  Now if I could just get this nasty bug to leave my body.  Despite feeling pretty cruddy most of the week I managed 2 spin classes, 1 swim and 2 runs.  Not as much as I had hoped for but it'll do for another holiday week.  

One of the runs was the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run in Central Park at midnight on New Year's.  

This was my second year and it's such fun!  It probably wasn't the smartest thing to run with a cold in 18 degree

weather, but I had a blast with my pals Amy and Maggie.  

Fireworks, and crazy people at midnight.  What could be better?! (And could I look more like a mummy with crazy hair?)