Since it’s New Year’s Eve, I figured I’d reflect on what I accomplished for 2008 and what I expect out of 2009. If you’re not into these “year-end wrapup” type of posts, just scroll over to Slashdot now.

In 2008, my main goals were to re-evaluate my graduate school plans, finish a half-marathon in 2 hours, run a 5K in 25 minutes, and buy a house. I am pleased to report that I succeeded in most of my goals.

I took the Database Systems qualification exam in the Spring and passed. That was a major hurdle in my willingness to continue taking them and pursuing something beyond a Masters. I also took the Data/Text Mining for Computational Biology this Fall and await the grade (on pins and needles). If I pass that exam, I am 2/3rds of the way to completing that requirement.

I have not run a half-marathon this year. I wanted to do the DRC Half again, but decided against it due to my educational requirements. I have a half marathon on January 25 that I’ve always wanted to do, the 3M Half Marathon. Let’s hope for the best (likely target is 2:05).

During the RunOn! McKinney holiday social run, I finished the 5K course in 25:22. There were about 40 people, nearly twice as many, and I came in with the lead pack. In fact, I was the fourth one to finish. That’s a rather impressive time for me considering I struggled to maintain a 9:00 pace last year. It’s not an official time, but I’m still going to count it until I do another 5K and can beat that time.

In October, we bought a house; well, technically it was in September. We had been wanting to buy a house for nearly 3 years. We aggressively saved, struggled through having to buy a car, unemployement, paying for graduate school, and huge tax payments. We are now the proud owners of a nice home (3/2/1, 2000 square feet). It requires more work and more money, but it beats living in an apartment any day of the week. I will eventually get some pictures up (one thing at a time).

So what do I expect out of 2009? Well, I hope to accomplish just as much. My better half will should be a CPA this time next year and I will be nearly complete of the Masters program. I also hope to be moving towards the PhD program, possibly look into other universities.

I think next year we will get a dog for the empty dog house out back. We might also consider having rugrats of our own, but we don’t want to be neglegent parents (with school’s demand). We’ll have to see how that pans out, her biological clock is ticking loudly.

I want to do a half matarthon in 2:00 and finish a 5K in 23 minutes. I would like to travel to do a race as to keep things fresh. There are still no marathon plans yet because I haven’t grown bored of the half; plus the training for the half allows me ample time for my many pursuits.

Lastly, I intend on committing more effort to my faith. Since I have no problem waking up at 6am to run, I have no excuse to not make early service on Sunday. I won’t make a lofty goal like I did with the Daily Bible. Keep it simple and you’ll surely succeed.

Anyways, I have to finish celebrating the New Year and so should you. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

It’s been two weeks since I wrote anything and three weeks since I posted my pace charts. I’m getting lazier by the week when it comes to writing a training log entry. I’m working on something to simplify my workload, but it’s rather foreign to me, so there’s a steep learning curve.

Anyways, the weeks have been getting hotter by the day. I’ve been comparing the tempuratures registered by my car’s thermometer when I get in after riding in the vanpool and it went from the low 90’s to the upper 90’s, and now it’s been breaking over 100oF everyday. The heat is getting oppressive. After about a mile, every step is sweat dripping agony. I worked hard to maintain my pace under ever increasing distances but it’s growing harder and harder to even move.

I read and interesting article on NY Times about how people in the north have been dealing with the heat and it’s rather comical. Of particular note is the following quote:

On June 7, over 4,000 women ran the New York Mini 10-K race in Central Park. When the race began at 9 a.m., it was 71 degrees and the humidity was 78 percent. The winning time, 32 minutes 43 seconds, by Hilda Kibet, was the slowest in a decade.

“From the beginning, my legs were not really moving,” Ms. Kibet told The New York Times.

That same day in similar weather and humidity, in Cambridge, Md., nearly 1,400 athletes raced in the Eagle Man Half Ironman — a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run. Among them was Amy Roth, 32, the director of corporate partnerships at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. She had trained hard, but the run, in particular, was difficult in the intense heat.

“I felt like I was dragging along but I couldn’t move any faster,” Ms. Roth said.

Still, she ran at a mile pace of 8:07.

“There were very fast people, very good athletes, who were walking, who just couldn’t do it,” she said.

Afterward, some posted comments, agonizing over their sluggish times, on Slowtwitch.com. “You could see the neuroses: ‘Oh, my God, am I getting slower? What does this mean?’ ” Ms. Roth said.

The next day, 190 professional cyclists started the Philadelphia International Championship, a 156-mile race. It was 79 degrees at 9 a.m. start, and 94 degrees when the last cyclist finished in mid-afternoon. About half of the competitors dropped out. The winning time, 6:14:47, by Matti Breschel of Team CSC, based in the Netherlands, was nearly a half hour slower than last year’s time, when it was cooler and drier.

I can’t help but say these people are a) ill-prepared for a possible weather scenario, in the summer, and b) are just whining and looking for an excuse. Don’t get me wrong, when your body runs hotter than you’re used to, it can be grueling to do much of anything, much less run a race. This seems to be an egregious case, especially the 10K-ers, of pinning the blame on heat and not poor training.

I also fiddled with the Garmin on 30 June 2008 by accidentally deleting a lap while a workout was in progress. This results in the workout being stopped. Doing this twice means I ended up with three GPX files that needed merging. GPSBabel and was more than happy to solve this problem for me (still had to remove the track divisions so they were all part of one track point collection).

Anyways, I ran the annual Too Hot Too Handle 5K again this year. It’s the third time so far with my previous times being 31:06 and 27:51. This year I obviously had a late start in preparation, what with the qualification exam and all. I have been working real hard to not run and hide from the heat and learn to thrive in it; I was sure I’d be ready this year.

Sunshine and I headed out a little early so she could get some coffee while I picked up some batteries for the camera. About half-way to the venue, I realized I had left my bib on the dining table and we didn’t have enough time to turn around and pick it up. I figured I couldn’t possibly be the first person to forget a bib, so we forged ahead. I was right; they had a form to fill out. It actually worked out for the best because I was able to go to the end of the chip table, where there was no one trying to get the chip of such a high bib number, and snag my chip replacement in a hurry.

They decided to line up the 15K crowd with the rest of us 5K-ers, which meant there was surely going to be a strange split at about 1.5 miles. I wanted to try and push myself the best I could to beat last year’s time but I realized that might not happen with the mere 2 months of training. I was right again; about a mile into an 8:30 pace, I was huffing and puffing. My legs were stiff and my chest was already tired.

Not to disappoint, there was a redirection for the 5K route to go up a hill into the neighborhoods. Great, this was all I needed. My legs weren’t going to be able to handle a ton of hills and the first hill was brutal (as you can tell from the elevation chart). I walked it with great pride and a lack of knowledge as to whether this would be the last hill. It was and I was able to coast down for a while. I was really tired near the end of 2 miles. I had stopped to walk briefly too many times but I knew I had to just suck it up and finish strong. I finished with an official time of 28:31, just 40 seconds off last year (or about 13 seconds per mile). Not the greatest, but good considering. At least it was better than Keep Austin Weird and now I know I am catching back up to last year’s performance.

Sunshine and I enjoyed some freebees. I picked up another free Brooks shirt for being decked out in Brooks gear. I also enjoyed another beer; Stampede beer has now offered up free beer at 2 events I’ve attended and I always love to partake in free booze. We took some great pictures and I hope to get the photo publishing aspect to my site working soon.

I just wish I could mentally push through pain like this man.

I didn’t get to posting the previous pace chart logs, so I’m lumping the last 2 weeks into a single post here. Yes, I know it’s already Wednesday. Yes, I know I’m getting lazier and lazier. In all fairness, Sunshine had 2 exams last weekend, so I picked up the slack around the house so she wouldn’t have to do any of the chores.

I blatently ignored the PA’s recommendation to not run with the fresh stitch. I did take off the following day and skipped the interval run, but I figured I’d give the extended interval a try and see if I would pop the stitch. Everything was fine, so I continued throughout the week at a slightly slower pace than usual.

That weekend I went to meet a new potential running partner but he had to bail on me. I ran a really good 7 miles at a decent clip (compared to recent performance). I usually don’t have trouble with irritable bowels or weak bladders. In fact, I rarely ever suffer while I run other than being constantly out of breath. Well, that weekend, I suffered a miserable 7 miles. I woke up with an upset stomach (maybe Mexican food wasn’t a good idea), downed some Pepto and hoped for the best. The best never happened. I wanted to vomit every step of the way, but I couldn’t. That must be what hell is like, perpetually on the verge of relief. I sucked it up around 3 miles when a woman passed me. I told myself I just wanted the agony to end but I suspect my ego had something to do with it.

Last week’s runs were tough. The heat is starting to pick up just as my distance is starting to amount to something substantial. I’m starting to suffer from cotton mouth and my sweat is evaporating before I finish. The temperature is near the low 90’s when I usually head out and I think it’s starting to climb upwards.

Speaking of temperature, I ran the Keep Austin Weird 5K last weekend. I mentioned the idea to my brother and he leaped at the idea. When I tried to bail out, my Mom dropped a guilt bomb on me. I signed up and decided to drive down by myself (Sunshine had exams). By time I got down there, he had picked up the packet and went out to buy some running clothes. Apparently, he had been getting very excited at the idea of running the event with me, which was ironic because we fought like cats and dogs as kids.

Needless to say, the event lives up to its name. All of the oddballs come out of the woodwork. The costume contest is usually a big draw and the live music afterwards is usually a pleasure. Unfortunately for me, this was the first 5K I’ve done all year, especially after the hiatus, and it was not a good confidence building race. I should’ve known better when the event started at 6 PM.

According to weather.com, the event took place in about 100^o F heat. That made things very difficult. Around 1.1 miles, I started suffering. The first water stop wasn’t until 1.6 miles, if you discount the icecream at 0.8 miles, and there was no shade. It was excrutiating and I didn’t appear to be the only person suffering. Everyone who wasn’t in a costume looked like Death Warmed Over. I think I was starting to overheat near the end because I stopped sweating and started getting cold chills. I wasn’t alone; I passed at least one person that needed EMS attention. The heat was too intense; I will probably costume it next year.

The uptick is my brother was boasting that he’d be doing 6:30 miles. Turns out he finished in about 28 minutes, a mere 1.5 minutes before me. If I had been having a good day, I could’ve beat him. This is significant to me because he’s always been the athletic one of the family and I’ve always been the family brain (shut-up, no comments). As much as he had always ragged on me for being bad at sports and overweight, it sure felt good to know that I was within reach of being better at a physical activity than my 1% body fat brother. Hopefully he’ll want to do more events in the future because I did have fun lining up with him.

Well, without further ado, here’s the bigger than usual list. Note that the 20080628 event is the race.