Nice to meet you, 2009

This is the blog entry that is all about reflecting on the past year and looking toward the year ahead and blah, blah, blah.

What can I say about 2008? It was pretty good. I did a 1/2 ironman, swam alcatraz, and got a mild concussion and awesome crazy road rash after crashing my bike. And now it is the beginning of 2009 and guess what? I am back to the not-very-much-in-shape shape I was in this time last year.

So, what does a Jill do to get back on that proverbial horse? She signs up for races.

I have decided that the motivating factor for me to train, is to have a race to train for. I am going to sign up for the Kaiser 1/2 marathon on Superbowl Sunday in SF. It is a month away and a race I have never done before. Plus, Super Bowl treats will taste yummy after 13.1 miles.

Yesterday I decided to google a "train in a month 1/2 marathon plan" and guess what? The internet is not as useful as it once was. I basically got every web page that had the word "1/2 marathon" and "month" in it. One guy posted something about not being a runner and wanting to train for a full marathon in a month and asked in a forum how he should train. He pretty much got a lot of "Don't do it dude" posts.

So I found a 9 week training plan and will be starting it at week 5. I enterred all my future runs in my outlook calendar at work and now it feels like I have something to work towards.

I went on my first run of 2009 yesterday. I hit up my usual trail in Campbell and decided to multitask and get a pound of coffee after my run. So, I zipped up my running jacket and put my atm card and key in one of the pockets and my mp3 in the other and zipped up the.pockets
Or so I thought
After my 3 mile run I headed back towards my car which was parked near downtown and got a weird panicky feeling. I shoved my hands in my pockets and my panic was confirmed---my ATM card and car key were gone!

I headed back to the trail to retrace my steps and looked all over for the key and card. No luck. I used the phone at a bookstore and called Dennis to let him know about my situation. He said he would leave work immediately and go home to find a spare key. He asked me where the spare key was.

"Um," I said, "I don't know if I have one."

I then walked to the bank to cancel my card and had time to spare before Dennis met me. I went back to the trail to look again. No luck. My first 3 mile training run turned into a 3 mile run, 4 mile walk.

Fortunately Dennis found a spare key and I was able to get into my car and drive home. So far, I am not too impressed with 2009.

In addition to the Kaiser 1/2 marathon, here are the other events I plan on doing in 2009:

Mermaid 1/2 Marathon
Tierra Bella bike ride (either metric or full century)
San Jose Olympic triathlon
Big Kahuna


It is a tough decision, but I don't think I should be as race crazy as I was before. I would like to do one "destination" race this year, but that depends on our travel plans.

So, tomorrow I am going to attempt 8 miles. I think I need some better tune-age in my Mp3. Any music suggestions?