Christmas Gift to Self

My Christmas gift to self today was a 5K run this morning. The sidewalks were dry (had to becareful with a bit of ice in some parts) but the weather was great -- about 0C so not too cold. After recharging my Garmin after my last run (need to check to make sure the batteries aren't low in the future), I set the interval training for 5:1 (x6). I completed my run of 4.92K in 36 minutes. I'm going to continue building up the mileage slowly to 21.1K for my half marathon debut as a runner in Mississauga. Seems so daunting and a long ways away but the May date will slowly creep up before I know.

Looking forward to the Resolution Race on Sunday, December 30th. It'll be a great way to bring in the New Year. I hope to have 1 more run this Thursday or Friday before the Resolution 5K run.

I'm thinking of what races to compete in 2008. I have not registered for any races yet. My "A" race in the spring is the Mississauga half marathon (Sunday, May 11th) and my "A" race in the fall is the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront half marathon (Sunday, September 28th). In between, I hope to include some shorter distances from the following list (won't do them all as I'll be selective this year):

• Archilles St. Patrick's Day 5K Sunday, March 16th [didn't do this last year]
• Harry's Spring-Off 8K Saturday, April 5th [but don't like the hills]
• Sporting Life 10K Sunday, May 4th [but a week away from my "A" race]
• Alfie Schrubb 8K Sunday, June 1st
• Toronto Challenge 5K Sunday, June 8th [Doug Gilmour was here last year!]
• Bread and Honey 15K Sunday, June 8th [never done this one]
• HBC 10K, Canada Day [one of my favourite races!]
• Nissan 10 Miler Sunday, July 13th [gotta do this one this year!]
• Toronto Island 10K, Saturday, August 16th [nice flat course going through Hanlan's, Centre, and Wards islands]

If all goes well, I might add on the Angus Glen half marathon in early November. Again, I'm going to be selective in which races to compete in (but again, we'll see if that is implemented or if I go about signing up for everything!). I'm also eyeing the Canada Running Series discount if you sign up for 2-4 races before January 29th. www.canadarunningseries.com