Christmas Buzz.......

I was tagged by Claire http://chocolatey-clairebear.blogspot.com/ for this Christmas craziness.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? I always like the gift bag because you don’t have to tear it and you can reuse it next year.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial is way easier. It requires no watering, our cat doesn’t eat it, and you can put it up anytime you want. Plus, you don’t have to go out and purchase it every year.

3. When do you put up your tree? If you are in my mom’s house, then you start right after Thanksgiving and finish the day before Christmas. At our house Claire normally busts it out near Thanksgiving. She is on top of the seasonal décor.

4. When do you take down your tree? Once again if you are at my mom’s house, then you leave everything up for as long as you can because it takes so long to put up. We generally used to have everything up by Easter. At our house Claire gets it down with the quickness.

5. Do you like eggnog? I like the bourbon portion of eggnog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I don’t have one that jumps out at me. I did love my huffy, rollerblades were cool, and one time I got a box set of baseball cards.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yup, my mom got it for us.

8. Hardest person to buy for? I don’t really buy presents for people. Claire normally takes care of everything.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Claire, she always lets me know what she wants and loves everything chocolate

10. Worst Christmas gift you’ve ever received? I got a lot of crazy clothes.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Once again, Claire normally takes care of this area. Last year we made our own. They turned out pretty good but took a long time to craft.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? Christmas Vacation!!! Holy S@#%!!! Where’s the Tylenol?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Claire starts after Christmas is over and goes throughout the whole year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not to my recollection.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I like Chex Mix, Puppy Chow, Pies and I just love the ability to be able to pick from all the different dishes.

16. White or colored lights? I like small white lights and big colored lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. The choral arrangement is the best. All Christmas songs sound the best with mass choirs.

18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home? This year we are staying home because we are waiting on the babies arrival.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer's? Most of the time, but sometimes Donner escapes me.
20. Angel or Star on top of tree? Big shiny Christmas Star

21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? We used to open up one present Christmas Eve which was always new PJ’s. Now we just open everything up on Christmas Day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I don’t like the crazy, hardcore shoppers or the crowded parking lots. I especially don’t like the parking lot Nazi’s who stalk you while you’re walking to your car.

23. What I love most about Christmas? I like all the food and the time off work.

Marathon Debut!!!

Well, I have finally completed my first road marathon (St. Jude). Going into the race, I knew that I had not prepared enough. My running has been suffering from lack of attention. As talked about in my previous posts, I have a lot going on outside the running section of my life. For instance, there are only 17 days until the due date for the birth of me and Claire's first child Ella Kate. That's a whole different blog, back to the marathon. As I said, I was stringing together runs here and there on the weekends and barely training during the week. I was not sure how I was going to do in the marathon. My plan was to go slow and avoid injury. I started out running with John, Patrick and Vinnie. After about 2, 9:00 minute miles Vinnie and I turned around, and Patrick and John were lost in the crowd. I was a little hesitant running with Vinnie for three reasons. One, he was running the half marathon and I was doing the full. Two, we were running within sight of the 3:30 pacer. That seemed really fast. Three, I did not want to BONK! One thing that kept my thoughts positive was that Vinnie and I were talking the whole time. Neither of us were breathing heavy and everyone around us was sounding like they were breathing with one lung. We continued to run a pace of around 8:10 until Vinnie left me at mile 10 or so to finish up his race with authority. At this point I was alone for the rest of the race. I did see Holly at mile 12ish. Who by the way had a completely surprised look on her face. She almost missed getting my picture because I snuck up on her. As you can see below.

I also saw John Dodd at several aid stations along the way. Other than those two, Vinnie was my last contact with anyone until I made it to the finish line. My brain began to rationalize the miles left in front of me. I would think, "Okay half way finished", "Only ten miles to go". For the first part of the race we had stayed close to the 3:30 pacer and now some other pace groups were beginning to catch and pass me. I ended up following the 3:40 pace group for several miles until they started their push to the finish. The voice in my head kept telling me to walk and the other voice in my head would say, "You only have 6 miles left, just keep running". I was able to keep a decent speed until around mile 22, when I had to walk several hills. I did get passed by several people on these hills but I eventually passed them back before the end of the race. So I think this might have saved me a little. I had been eyeballing my watch for the second half of the race and was anticipating coming in at about 3:55ish. When I came down to the last 1.2 I looked at my watch and saw that I could come in under 3:50. I tried to make my legs turn over faster but they just kept the same beat they had been drumming for the past couple of miles. When I rounded the corner into the stadium, I was so excited to see the finish line because I was ready to stop. I ended up coming in at 3:47:42. That is 485th out of right under 2,000 runners. I am pretty pleased with my first marathon time. It makes me wonder how long it would have taken if I actually was able to devote a decent amount of time to training for the race. Hmmmm.......

Either way, I am excited for my time as well as the rest of the Memphis Ultra Running Group times. Holly ran in the 5K that morning and snagged 3rd Place in her age group with a 25:29. Vinnie busted out a Half Marathon Personal Best at 1:48:12. John and Patrick came running in at 4:08:ish to set the Personal Best for Patrick. Overall, it was a great experience.

On another note, soon I will be posting my race schedule for the up coming year. I think that I will be concentrating on more trail running and longer distances in year two of my running experience.

Anyway, yall have fun this weekend, maybe I will see some of you on the trails.