GAR 2013

It's that time of the year: the annual Great Aloha Run (GAR) vs. the size of my ass (SOMA) graph. I should probably be driving to the start already. But it's cold and gusting up to 30 mph outside. My pole house is rocking. 

I started charting in 2009. Here's that graph, if you don't want to click around:

A tradition was born. Is something still considered a tradition if it's stupid?

I'm not sure if I skipped the race in 2010 or if I just skipped blogging. I'm too lazy to search results.

Here's the post from 2011. I remember being really happy about my 52:50, because coming in at just a hair under 6:30/mile with all those hills at the end seemed like all I could really ask for, given that I wasn't very fit. Then one day, in early 2012, I realized what had happened in 2011. It was race-day magic. I wasn't very fit, I just got lucky. Here's the mathematical proof of race-day magic:

And the hollow blue dot was my predicted 2012 finish time, based on the SOMA. The theory was spot-on:

(no race-day magic in 2012, unfortunately).

The point of all this non-math and non-science, is that the SOMA is definitely in the 52-53 minute range. However, the fitness does not seem to be correlating. At all. I can't even blame the SOMA. I'm not going to draw a graph. Well, maybe I'll just draw a graph of something else. Like the correlation between the number of reece's cups I ingest in the course of a workday vs. the boringness of what ever project I'm working on. But that's too obvious.

I'm full of dread/excitement about the first race of the year. Just call me dreaxcited. It's going to be fun to see everyone and race and push hard, until it's not fun, somewhere under the Nimitz overpass, as we start climbing into Aiea, and then it's going to suck.

I signed up for the Women's 10k March 3, because I haven't run a 10k in a couple of years, I think. I haven't run a 5k since 2009 (except off the bike), so I think I'm going to try to find one for March as well, to really cover all the distances. Four weeks until the Hapalua Half Marathon! The mileage is climbing, and I don't feel great yet, but there are slow improvements. I snuck in a mid-week 10-miler, and a Friday morning 15-miler this week, which makes me feel a little like the old, runner version of myself.