This morning, Jas egged me on to sign up for my first 50k, the Orcas Island race on February 1, 2014. I plunked down the money to register and forgot about it somewhat until it dawned on me that I should check out the actual course description and terrain for this race. So I did.

A friend and teammate of mine just posted on Facebook that she signed up for her first Ironman-distance triathlon. She warned another teammate of ours that she better not let her down because our teammate was planning to sign up for Coeur d’Alene, too. This, my friends, is the classic Ironman Suicide Pact.

5ks suck for one reason: they hurt. If you’re intent on doing a 5k as a fun run, that’s fine, 3.1 miles is a fine distance for a walk or a jog or a combination of the two. But if your coach wants you to “race” the 5k, you’re essentially tasked with sprinting the entire distance and are a half-burp away from horking up one or both lungs at any given moment.

So in my last post I talked about how I was going to do the Snohomish River Run 10k to get back into the “hey, I should probably do some regular workouts” swing of things. Well, the race was October 27th and I missed it because I wasn’t feeling well. I’ve had a stint of “not feeling well, feeling a little better, not feeling well again” yo-yo-ing for the past couple weeks. It’s been pretty suckalicious and has dragged me further down into the post-Ironman depression dugout. But since I feel bad about not running the 10k after saying I would, I’m going to highlight why the race was probably pretty awesome. 1. The finishers were all bad-ass. I saw how pooptastic the weather was that morning (pouring rain, which is different than the standard “weak sneeze of a Seattle misting” we usually get) and think it’s pretty impressive that people still got out there to run despite the chilly temps and soaking wet conditions. 2. The awards were pretty cool. I’m a fan of races that give out unique prizes instead of the token “yaay, you did pretty well” medal. The Snohomish River Run hooked the race winners up with some nice-looking mugs: Pretty neat–I love it when smaller races go the extra mile (no pun intended) to provide a unique experience for the athletes. 3. Everyone PR’d and got free cupcakes that tasted awesome but had zero calories. I’m 90% sure that happened, I just wasn’t there to experience it firsthand. If you did the race, let me know how it went. I’m sorry I missed out and am trying to get out of this post-Ironman trip to Funkytown, so any kicks in the butt would be greatly...

I’ve been trying to get back into training after Ironman Canada, but it’s been slow and infrequent. First I had to heal up from my Ironman Canada crash, and after that I’ve struggled with juggling my workouts with a demanding work schedule and the fact that Borderlands 2 came out, turning me into a gaming couch potato whenever I have a free moment. But now that I’m bigger, slower, and more lethargic, I figured it’s time to get off my ass and commit to training once again. The first thing on my schedule: the Snohomish River Run. The race is this Saturday, October 27th, at Rotary Park in Everett. There’s a 10k and a half marathon option available, but since I haven’t been running a whole lot lately, I’m just doing the 10k. I haven’t run an official 10k before but I imagine that it’s a pretty crappy distance–if the amount of misery I feel when running a 5k is any indication, the 10k should feel not-quite-as-shitty but over a longer distance. My stumpy legs and I are no good at these short-to-mid distance races. I’m all about duration: the longer you stretch out a race, the less mediocre I am thanks to sheer stubbornness. So yeah, I’m running the 10k on Saturday. I’m not going into the event with an “OMG gotta race this” mentality; I’ll likely just treat it as a training run since I’m planning to do either the Phoenix Rock ‘n Roll Marathon or the Arizona IMS Marathon this January or February. My goal at that point is to try and qualify for Boston since Jason qualified at the Portland Marathon a couple weeks ago (that way, when we travel to the race in 2014, I’ll be able to run it too instead of standing on the sidelines inhaling donuts like I did in Portland…which, admittedly, wasn’t a bad way to spend my morning, but it did make me feel like a guilty fat-ass). The Snohomish River Run is sold out, unfortunately, but if you’ve already registered and plan on running this weekend, hopefully I’ll see you there and will avoid collapsing before the race is over, gasping and asking for someone to bring me an almond croissant. (It’s pretty sad how quickly out of shape I’ve gotten in less than two months.) As always, I’ll follow up the race with a little recap, so stay tuned for...