Gutentag!

What in the world is going on around here??? Last weekend it was 92 degrees and now it's a wonderful, wonderful range of 40s overnight to 70s in the daytime! Insanity! It's like it's.....fall all of a sudden! Who knew!! Yesterday when I stepped out of my office building to head to the Y next door I had chill bumps! Granted, it was like 65 or 70 degrees but I guess the shock of the 20 degree drop in temps just got me!! The parking lot attendant thought it was hilarious and I was nuts. After work I had to walk several blocks down to the library to return some books and pick up some more and it felt wonderful. I think a church's electronic board said it was 66 at around 5 pm. Perfect.

Speaking of, I have become a total library addict. The library has become my crack. I mean, you can get EVERYTHING there, and EVERYTHING is what I get. Cookbooks, swimming dvds and books, books to read, and on and on and on. It's awesome! And everything is so high tech now. I can renew online, request online, see how close I am to my limit online and then when I'm there I just check myself out. It's like Kroger, only less ghetto and much better smelling.

But anyway, my excitement today comes not only from the awesome weather but because tomorrow is Oktoberfest, one of my fave races of the year! This will be the 3rd consecutive year I've run it, and there's really only a few races I've repeated like that. (Two in fact - 5k for Fatherhood - 4 times and Country Music Half - 3 times). In most cases I feel like once I've run it, I've run it. Unless it's really fun - which Oktoberfest is. We actually get to run through a building. THROUGH the Farmer's Market building. Most of the time when you tell people that they think we run around it, or next to it, but no - we run smack through the building while all the people shopping for produce and flowers are shoved to the side wondering what the @#$#@ just happened. It's also in conjunction with the entire awesome Oktoberfest being held in Germantown, so once you're done running you get to enjoy the great festival and all the wonderful smelling food being cooked up. All in all it's a great race and the Tshirt is usually really nice, too!

Last year I had an especially awesome experience - placing 2nd in my division out of 87 was absolutely surreal. I had coveted one of those glass steins since the previous year and getting one last year was absolutely one of the best moments of my running "career". Seriously, I almost cried. In looking over the times of my new crew, the F30-34s, it doesn't look like it's going to happen this year. I guess these women have all had babies and now they're angry and just need to run. Fast. Whatever the deal is, it just doesn't look like it's going to happen unless all the stars align and a wicked 24 hour flu gets passed around the kiddy playground today. Regardless, my goal for tomorrow, and the only goal I have set for myself all year is to set a new PR. My current one, set at this race last year, is 24:06. I really, really want to break 24, and this is the race all year that I have been wanting to do it at. I'm not sure if it's going to happen, but I am going to give it my all and suffer the whole time (I really hate 5ks) and try to make it happen. Goal #2 is to not puke while pushing and suffering on the big uphill finish.

Anyway, cross your fingers and hope for the best! Have a great weekend everyone and good luck to anyone racing and marathoning! I guess it can't be as bad as last week's Chicago M and Army 10M, eh? I heard that Denver is giving free entry and guaranteeing water to anyone who was signed up for Chicago, how cool is that??? Some marketing people are geniuses!

Rae

WIDTW:
Mon: 4.2 miles run, swim class (total prob around 650m)
Tues: 4.2 run, 20 mins tone
Wed: 450 m @ lunch swim, 750 m swim in evening (that's a total of .75 mile, yeah!!)
Thurs: 4.2 run