Baby, its cold outside!

Baby, it's cold outside!  Or it's 70 degrees, or 30 degrees, or 50 degrees...seems like Mother Nature is going through her own 'personal summers' if you catch my drift.  Regardless of the indecision of weather, it is most definitely dark outside!  And the fact that the sun sets at 5pm really starts to wear on me.  The temptation of hibernation runs deep inside me.  All I want to do during this time of year is sleep!  It is a challenge to get outside in the cold/darkness to run a few miles when the couch looks so comfortable! 

I would love to say that I've figured out the recipe to combating my overwhelming need to hibernate, but I'm still working on it.  My initial solution is two fold 1)Vitamins/Supplements 2) A good kick in the head.  So, in reference to Vitamins and Supplements, I realized this morning that I really need to be vigilant on these.  I have a wonderful co-worker who charmingly nags me to take my vitamins and I should really take advantage that she loves me enough to nag me (Thanks Candice!).  I'm always a tad anemic, so I've had to implement iron pills into my routine.  It is probably time to add in some Vitamin C as well.  Regardless, time to chemically enhance my mood a little!

In reference to the kick in the head, I just need to suck it up and get over it.  Yes, its dark outside, yes I feel lazy.  Too bad.  One of the many good things about doing Team in Training is the accountability that comes along with it.  I have committed to this and many of you have monetarily invested in my ability to succeed.  Rain, Cold and Darkness....Time to suck it up and make you all proud!

Surf N Santa 10 miler!

Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing!!  Thankfully, I had pressured my friend Nicole to run this past weekend's Surf N Santa 10 miler with me!  We were decked out in our red and white outfits, complete with candy cane headbands and a garland necklace!  I ran this race last year and have found it to be one of my favorites.  It isn't crowded and the atmosphere is a lot of Christmas fun.  Everyone has on jingle bells!  It was a beautiful brisk day and overall I enjoyed the heck out of this race!

I'm a big fan of the saying 'You have to run your own race'  but I've found over the years that sometimes you have to run someone else's race.   And this race was one of those times!  The most important thing to me was that Nicole enjoyed it.  She had run a half marathon within the past month that didn't go perfectly and she had admitted that she needed a good race.   So, we literally took everything in stride and tried to make the stars align in order to have that good race.  

I'm going to take a moment to expand on the star that is 'The fun race outfit' and talk about how it can and can't align.  The pros and cons of wearing a fun outfit for a race can literally be weighed throughout the duration of your race.  The pros are always high in the beginning while you are standing in your coral (look how cute we are! oh how fun! we are so creative!) and then the cons seem to get pretty high around mile 3 (sooo uncomfortable, how annoying, why does this thing keep falling off).  I was pretty close to losing it around mile 2 as the wind blew off my headband and the garland scratched my neck.  Thankfully, we found some extremely cute little girls at a water station who were more than happy to take our accoutrements off our hands! 

My only hope is that when the pictures come out, there is least one picture where we are running like gazelles in our garland getup with an effortless smile, hair blowing in a light breeze and looking beautiful while doing it! This is normally an area where the stars NEVER align for me.  So please, don't expect me to be looking my best in any of the pictures that get posted on this blog!!  Lets face it, you are all going to see a lot of clenched Megan smiles throughout 12in12in2012!!

Regardless of our costumes, the race was wonderful and it was probably the most fun 10 miles I've done in a while!   And as it turns out, some of my favorite races are the ones where I run someone else's race.  A big thanks goes to Nicole for bending to peer pressure and allowing me to run with her!