The Best Christmas Gift(s) ever

Today I got the best Christmas gifts ever. Both were from my husband who I have been dropping hints for a long time. The first gift was the video "The Distance of Truth", a movie about the Badwater Race in 2005. It is an inspiring movie that provides more insight into the race which someday I hope to run. My second gift may enable this dream to become a reality...Southwest plane fares! This means I will be able to fly to many races that were on my radar but I might not otherwise have entered.

Already I have added Rocky Raccoon to my spring calendar to prepare for my 3rd Umstead 100 miler. And in the summer I will do Vermont 100. Finally I am going to do either an ironman or a 100 miler in the fall. This should strengthen my "running resume".

In addition to these awesome gifts, Tristan and I had a nice day. Although our day started out quite early with Billy waking up around 5 a.m. (which is fine on a workday but on a holiday he should appreciate sleeping in!!) We started out the day by having breakfast with my sister, dad and sisters friend Imelda at Cindy's condo in Reston. In the afternoon we returned home in hopes of tiring out Billy. We went for a ~5 mile run (with Tristan, Billy and I), 2 mile walk at a local park (Tristan, Billy, Gilligan and I) and an hour and a half at the dog park (Gilligan, Billy and I). By the end of all this activity Billy seemed to be slowing down. I base this on the observation that initially at the dog park Billy would run after dogs chasing things and run past them and circle around. At the end Billy would run after the dog but at about 70% of the way, he would start turning back...it was obvious he was just "phoning it in"!

Tommorrow we will go on a long hike because a tired dog is a good dog. I think Gilligan likes hikes but even if he doesn't I think Gilligan does like Billy tired because Billy has alot of pent up energy he uses on everyone in the household. I can run 100 milers and I am exhausted by our houseguest. I guess it's good to be a puppy.