Do you carry star anise?

Has it really been this long since I've blogged? I wish I could say that with the season at a close, I took up and traveled somewhere exotic for the past few months. In reality, I think the most exotic place I've been since September is the ethnic spices isle of Whole Foods. Yeah, that pretty much sums up the past few months. Lots of cooking, eating, drinking, spending time with family. All the things I really don't get to do in the summer. But, before I settled into the easy life, I had two more big races after Toughman. A quick rundown:

October: MightyMan Montauk 1/2 IM. I went into this race thinking I could go sub-5:00 for the first time, since Toughman was pretty close and I had all those silly issues (even more than I felt comfortable blogging about at the time but let's just say not only did I forget and then lose 3/4 of my nutrition, but I also was dealing with "female" issues that by the run had become apparent to pretty much every other athlete and spectator. Use your imagination). Anyway, back to Montauk. By early morning, I saw how windy and cold it was. Even the lake seemed to have whitecaps! I knew sub-5:00 probably wouldn't happen and it didn't. I finished in 5:10, but good enough to be third female overall. I fought hard for the podium and can't thank my friends from Terrier Tri enough for helping me through the run. You guys are a class act.

November: NYC Marathon! This was my second marathon ever, 2009 being my first (also NYC). I can't believe the difference a year can make, both mentally and physically. On race morning, I felt so good. Not at all nervous like I was the previous year. It occurred to me as I began running over the Verrazano that in 2009, I was so petrified I didn't enjoy much of anything. This time it was different. I felt great, had confidence in myself, never hit a wall and actually pushed through the last 10k feeling like I could go even harder. I took 9 min. off my time, finishing in 3:14. I was 35th in my age group and 190th female overall, including pros! Even better, recovery was faster and easier than I remembered it being the previous year. I'm already registered to do it again this year.

After taking a bit of a Christmas holiday watching the snow fall and the firewood burn, I'm now three weeks into training mode, though not quite as much as I will be another month from now. I'm also dealing with some tightness in my lower left leg that's causing my achilles tendon to scream whenever I run. So, I'm back to my ART doc again to work that stuff out. Could be worse, could be July!