Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Happy New Year! Yes, I am still here!

Greetings fellow bloggers! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. My Christmas holiday was fantastic! As much as I enjoyed Christmas, I am honestly looking forward to my life getting back to normal. The last few weeks have been nuts! I have been a huge slacker and a very bad blogger. Both running and blogging have been put on the back burner due to the busy holiday season. The good news is that is going to change starting January 1st:)
I did receive my secret Santa gift in the mail a few weeks ago! Thank you Adam!! Adam sent me the movie, Spirit Of The Marathon. I love my gift and have watched it twice! Thank you to Jill for setting up the blogger gift exchange....it was an awesome idea and a wonderful way to share some blogger love:)
Good news! I have a race on January 1st called the Polar Dash. It is in the Team Ortho series of races and I ran this one last year. It was cold but fun:) Beth, I hope to see you there! Hopefully we will not get another snow storm like they are predicting...like we need more snow:)
I have one more bit of news to share! I am pretty excited....I have decided to run a spring marathon! I am going to do the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon in May! One thing that I should mention is that Wobegon is not a true trail race. It is a ten foot wide asphalt bike trail. The course is flat and fast. Last year I was a volunteer for this marathon and know that several of the runners came from out of state hoping to BQ. Training will start in January. I have taken almost a month off from running and know that I have lost fitness. I am so not looking forward to those first few weeks of training! Can we say sore muscles and massive sucking air attacks!?! God, I can't wait:) I would really love to run this next marathon in four hours or less. I need to shave nine minutes off of my Twin Cities marathon time. Hopefully with proper training and a few more longer runs I will be able to pull it off. Wobegon is a smaller marathon and there will not be pacers. I am so fortunate to have found a personal pacer:) Thank you Mark! Mark is a St. Cloud River runner who has qualified for Boston and is using Wobegon as a longer training run for another marathon. My four hour goal will seem like a walk in the park for him:)
My next post will be the Polar Dash race report! Yay! It has been so long since I have posted a race report. I promise to take tons of pictures....keep your fingers crossed that Minnesota will not be blasted with another winter snow storm! I want to run:)
Happy running, biking, swimming, lifting and surfing! Cheers to you all! May you all have a fantastic New Year!

66 comments:

  1. Hi Julie! I am also running the Polar Dash. I of course use the word running loosely. ha! Maybe I will see you there!

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  2. Welcome back. Glad you had a good holiday. I, too, am excited for things to go back on track.

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  3. I'm looking forward to following your training!

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  4. Woohoo for signing up for the marathon! You will totally be able to make your 4 hr. goal!!

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  5. Great news on singing up for your 2nd marathon! Good luck with your training! :)

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  6. Looking forward to reading your race report (and following your marathon training). Welcome back!

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  7. Oh, Julie, I've been a total slacker too. Except in sweet-eating...I've definitely had a food marathon. I'm glad you had a good Christmas! Exciting news about your marathon...we'll be training at the same time!

    Happy new year, and good luck in your new years day race!

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  8. Good luck on your New Year's Day 10k! Hope it's not too cold. I'm glad my Jan. 1st race is only a 5k.

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  9. I got Spirit of the Marathon too! I've been wanting it so bad since I keep borrowing it from my coach, and my boyfriend got it for me! =)

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  10. I will be volunteering at the Polar Dash tomorrow at packet pickup and on race day. I'll be at the info tent. Stop by and say hi! :)

    I'll have to rent Spirit of the Marathon someday.

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  11. Happy New Year :) I wish you the very best!
    I love that movie. Its so inspiring :)

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  12. What a great film that is Spirit of the Marathon!

    hahaha "massive sucking air" totally know what you mean

    proper training longer runs you will for sure Hit That Goal!!

    Derek

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  13. I was thinking about doing the Polar Dash, but it's not hard core enough for me, so I think I'll look for a race in Canada or maybe north of that.

    Julie..."trail" marathon?! Trails tend to be way slower than "road" races Girl. Just sayin.

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  14. Good luck with your training Julie! Happy New Year.

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  15. Missed ya, Julie! I'm happy you had a wonderful holiday with your family and college boy included! Have fun at the Polar Dash. Chris K's comment just cracked me up, YOU ARE the hard core runner!
    Happy New Year!

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  16. Ya Us - a post from ya! thanks for the update! :)

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  17. What a fun way to start the new year, have a great dash! And ya know, snap a pic or 2 ;-)

    Julie, you've totally got the sub-4 in you.
    And just think of all the support and advice you'll get since you're not being so damn secretive!
    Enjoy the rest of 2010!

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  18. Hi Julie,

    Have fun with your 1/1/11 race. My town has a local fun run that I might run unless I decide to go out for a longer run. Good luck with your training. Around here (Nor Cal) trail marathons tend to have significant elevations so it is difficult to get your best time.

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  19. I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!! I've also seen it a number of times and I get chills every time it starts. :)

    Congrats on picking out your 2011 marathon! A TRAIL marathon!?!? Girl, you are going to be in awesome shape from all that if you can do it under 4 hours, and then you can come out here and pace me!!!! I guess I'm with Tim on this one though -- here, trail races have a lot of elevation and so they are slow. I met in MN you'll be golden. Can't wait to hear how your training goes!

    Welcome back to bloggy world (we missed you!) and have a safe & happy New Year's! :)

    xoxo,
    A

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  20. That's so exciting. Good luk with the training. Your fitness will come back quickly I'm sure. And good luck for your race this weekend. I have one too, but am not sure if I'll be allowed to "race" it as I'm having some leg problems. Might have to walk some.

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  21. Hi Julie! It's good to have you back! We will be training for marathons at the same time again - my second one is on May 1st and I also want to take about 10 minutes off of my time.

    Good luck at the race and Happy New Year!

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  22. I'm so glad that you enjoyed your Christmas holiday :) You are running the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon in May, that's great! I'm sure that you'll reach your goal: you can really run this next marathon in four hours. Have a good training during next weeks!

    I look forward to reading your Polar Dash race report ... without another winter snow storm :)

    Happy New Year to you and your beautiful family!

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  23. Glad you're back, missed you! You will love that movie. It's quite motivating! I am so excited for you and your plans for the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon. You'll rock it! Have fun at the Polar Dash (sounds cold!). Happy New Year to you and your family!!

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  24. I think the slacker disease has spread thru the blogging community lately b/c i am also guilty of being a bad blogger. Glad to see you back. Missed you! That marathon sounds awesome even if it isn't a true trail race. Happy new year to you Julie!

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  25. Happy New Year Julie!
    Very exciting news! When you get a chance let me know what you thought of Twin Cities as I'm considering it for next year.
    I love SOTM! Maybe I'll bring it out for New Year's Eve!
    Best of luck with your races and training!

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  26. Glad to see you on here! I love that movie! Good for you for being signed up for a marathon! I am looking for a half for myself in the spring. I had one in mind but realize it won't work so I'll keep looking! It's great you have a pacer.

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  27. That trail marathon sounds great! Can't wait to hear bout your training for it :-)

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  28. happy new year julie!
    looking forward to janury 1st and to have u back! :)

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  29. Yay! You're back! I'm glad you had a good Christmas and am excited to follow your training for your spring marathon! I thought about doing the Polar Dash, but I have a ton of work to do and a sick hubs on my hands so I'm going to have to give this one a miss. :(

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  30. JULIE!!!! Sounds like you are still your normal wonderful self! Welcome back to the Blogosphere!

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  31. Have fun with Polar Dash, hopefully it won't be quite as cold as last year! Happy New Year. :)

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  32. that marathon sounds like a great time!! Good luck in the polar dash! So happy to have met you this year, Happy New Year Julie!!!!

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  33. That's a great dvd, I watch it all the time!

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  34. Good luck on your race Julie! I am so excited you are doing the Lake Wobegon Marathon, what an awesome race, you are going to do great! Happy New Year!

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  35. Glad you had a good Christmas! Yay for the marathon! It sounds like a great race. Good luck with the training.

    Have a wonderful 2011!

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  36. Yeah for deciding on a Spring Marathon! I looked at that one too and was seriously considering it, but their website made it look like they don't have a porta-potty after like mile 18 or 19?? And in 4 of my 5 marathons, I have had GI issues and NEEDED a potty! Since you volunteered there, maybe you know whether that is true or not?

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  37. Yay, glad you showed the DVD - you follow directions so well :). I watch that movie a lot, especially before a race!!

    I was going to email you (but I know you are nutsy busy right now) and ask what marathon you were going to do this spring....on the fence about Grandmas (ya know, that heel thing and all) and was going to see if you wanted to do it together. Am curious about the other though...hum. Email me when you get a chance, ok???

    Happy New Year!! Love ya tons!
    xo

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  38. Hope you and your family had a great Christmas and are having a Happy New Year! Be careful out these this weekend. I hear it supposed to get pretty cold!

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  39. You're tempting me with the polar dash. I have to be in the Twin Cities that day anyways cuz I'm flying back to IL. I could MAYBE make it work, but it would be difficult and its supposed to be SOO cold! Good luck! Happy New Year!

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  40. I was thinking about you yesterday and was going to leave a message here when I saw you posted. I'm glad you did and glad you are okay.
    I have run only once the past 2 weeks but I'm okay with it. I'll pick it up next week.

    Have fun at the Polar dash run and a happy new year to you too.

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  41. Good to see you back to blogging! :-) What an awesome gift, I love that movie! Congrats on signing up for the marathon...isn't it funny how we runners look forward to the sore muscles and sucking air attacks! Love it!

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  42. I see you getting that 4hr goal!

    Happy New Year!!

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  43. Happy New Year! I'm totally against running on a race on New Year's Day. My head hurts!! :-)

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  44. First of all, you look beautiful, as always!
    Secondly, yay for signing up for your marathon!
    Thirdly, I hope you get to do your Polar Dash! I am hoping to do our Rescue Run on Jan 1 but am not sure whether I will wimp out as we are getting a fair amount of snow today/tonight and the low Fri night is supposed to be -10!!! Yes, a minus. Nothing for YOU but Yikes for me! I am not sure I will want to get out of my warm bed Sat morning for that!!! What do you think???!!! :-)

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  45. Hey, you were missed! I am glad you had some quality time off and are eager to start up again. I loved the Jill gift exchange. I just got my gift today and will blog about it soon. It was so neat to get a gift in the mail, great idea.

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  46. Welcome back - yea for a spring marathon!

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  47. i'm glad you have overcome this "shouldn't run marathons" business ;) i know you will do great! that must be a good movie if you have watched it twice. i don't think i've seen that one yet. glad you had a good christmas and happy new year!

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  48. Welcome back to Blogland. Good luck on the tomorrow race. I am sure you will reach the 4 hours goal. Happy New Year!!!!!!!

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  49. I am going to have to check out that DVd. yay for signing up for marathons...I hope to do that real soon here. Glad to read your blog today Julie! Happy New Year!!

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  50. Good lUck tomorrow! I know you pain of taking time off and then beginning a training program..I am right there with you..running is back starting Jan. 1st! :) Happy New Year!

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  51. Julie, I've MISSED you! Can't wait to read about the Polar Dash! So freakin' cold up here-hope the weather is a little better there! I'm excited to follow your training again! Congrats on the Marathon sign up! Glad you had a great Christmas with your family and hope your New Year is awesome as welL!!!!

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  52. Hi Julie! Happy Holidays and New Year to you and yours. I've been a bad blogger too as you can probably tell.

    The Spirit of the Marathon is such an awesome movie. I've watched it five times in preparation for the Chicago marathon this year. LOL!

    Happy New Year! I hope your spring marathon goes well :)

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  53. Happy New Year! Loved the movie Spirit of the Marathon - very motivating! Good luck tomorrow.

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  54. I'll be looking for you tomorrow, Julie! I have a friend that's getting ready to start a blog and I would love to introduce you. Congrats on deciding to run a spring marathon. That is a great one, too! Bundle up tomorrow and run fast!!

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  55. Happy New Year!

    I am glad Adam didn't send you the VHS version of the movie!

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  56. How fun to have a 10k for the New Year!!!1

    HAPPY NEW YEAR, JULIE!!!

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  57. I'm SUPER behind myself so I am just now getting caught up after the holidays. Glad you enjoyed it!!! For some reason that movie really gets to me. :)

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  58. Spirit of the Marathon is amazing. Hope you are starting out great with 2011!

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  59. Congrats on receiving "Spirit of the Marathon". What a great film. I had it On Demand (until it expired) and probably watched it 10 times. I was happy as hell on Christmas when I received it from my wife...along with 4 running books.

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  60. You're going to be a busy lady! I will have to check out that movie now, too!

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  61. Julie, I am following Tall Mom's orders and encouraging you to do well on her Tall Mom 1000 +++ challenge this year again! Go log your mies and good luck :)

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  62. Hi there!
    I'm just now getting around to saying hi and Happy New YEAR!

    HUGS!
    AM

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