Happy Golden Birthday to ME and 1,000 mile milestone.

Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday dearest Jerbear, Happy birthday to me!  

You will probably never meet another adult that loves birthdays as much as I do.  And I'm proud of that fact.  I countdown from my birthday starting on December 27th each year.  I also make a big deal out of all my close friends' birthdays as well, so I'm not completely selfish when it comes to birthday cheer.  I could literally tell you all of my high school classmates birthdays, as well as 90% of my college friends'.  At one point, roughly around age 20-21, my brain must've filled up, because I have a couple of close friends that I cannot remember for the life of me!  Sigh.  ANYWHO.....

This year marks the birthday I've been looking most forward to, the big 2-6, aka my golden birthday!  I always thought I'd do something big and extravagent for my golden birthday, but then again, back in the day 26 seemed sooooo oooooooold, and for some reason when I was soooo ooooold I thought I would have bookoo bucks to go on a sweet trip.  HA! Jokes on me.  26 is NOT old, and I do not have $$$$.

My birthday gift to myself:  Cellcomm Green Bay Marathon REGISTRATION!  That's it.  I'm really doing it.  Marathon #1. :D  If any of you are still struggling with birthday gift ideas, you can revert back to my Christmas list post, as they can lend themselves quite nicely to birthday gifts as well.

On my last run as a 25 year old, I set out to do something I have never done before.  I had originally planned to do my last 4.5 miles to 1,000 on my birthday, but because of the snow storm, I was left bored and by myself for Christmas Eve, and decided to head to the gym to make my day better.  I decided to do a tempo run, with a 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at 8:19 pace, and a half mile cool down.

My legs were stinkin' SORE for the warm up mile, and most of the first tempo mile.  I need to be more diligent about using my rolling pin on my IT Band, especially after speed workouts.  After that my legs loosened up, and I had fun.  I swear I had an ear to ear grin going the entire run.

I did the 4.5 miles in 39:18 for a pace of 8:44.
1. 9:39 warm up
2. 8:14
3. 8:19
4. 8:14
.5 4:49 (9:38 pace cool down) 

During the last mile, I started reflecting back on all the miles and races that my legs had gotten me through during 2009.

• My first 5k race WIN! 
• My first relay where I met and made some great new friends. 
• The half marathon where I finally broke 2 hours. 
• And my favorite race to date (and current HM PR). 

We've come a long way this year.  One of my primary goals for 2009 was to fall back in love with running, and I think it's safe to say that has happened.  Not only is running a huge part of my life again, but I was lucky enough to PR in every race I ran this year, except for one 5k in the freezing cold. :p  That is a huge accomplishment and one that I have to thank my legs for immensely.

Here's to an even better running year as a 26 year old.  I have a feeling it'll be golden.  ;)