Pudgy, lazy, out-of-shape racer

I haven't worked out since October. I haven't been running since our horrible showing in the Great Urban Race Nationals at the beginning of November. I can't remember the last time I went hiking. I've barely played any soccer for the past few months either because of the holidays and weeks off in between seasons and games I've missed for work travel. I have truly let myself go.

I'm up 5% of my weight. I'm out of shape. I tried to run last week and couldn't even make it a mile. Yikes. This nonsense has to stop! And it has to stop right now!

Why? Because race season starts on January 29th!

This is my spring schedule:

January 29 - Scavenger Dash. Last year we placed second which leads to some pretty high expectations for this year. Last year I was in shape and the race was in downtown Phoenix where I'd worked for 5 years. This year, I'm not in shape at all and the race is in Tempe, a city in which I've spent almost no time in the past 5 years. Not a good combination for a repeat performance.

February 12 - Challenge Nation. I know almost nothing about this race. This will be their first year in Phoenix. So far I'm not that impressed...their race is less than 4 weeks away and they haven't even opened up registration yet. Hurry up, Challenge Nation! Google tells me that they've offered Groupons for the race in other cities in the past. I am assuming they'll do the same here in an effort to get a big enough showing. I hope so!

March 5 - CitySolve. Talk about high expectations! Last year we won this race. We went to Nationals and made it into the finals. They are expecting us to do well. PRESSURE!

March 12 - Great Urban Race. This is the big-daddy of the races. They get hundreds of teams. Two years ago (in our first ever urban adventure race) we finished third. Last year, to our dismay, we finished fourth. Two years ago we finished 14th at Nationals. This past year we finished something like 65th! Definitely a trend going in the wrong direction here!

March 19 - CityScape Adventure. We won this race this fall, primarily because we were the only team there who had ever done a race like this before. This year the race is in Tempe. Why is everyone going to Tempe? I don't know Tempe!! However, the pressure isn't too high for this race because it's more of a fun race than a competitive one. Whew.

March 26 - Urban Dare. No pressure for this one either as I'll be racing with Pat again this year. When I signed up with Pat last year, I thought that he might help answer my question about how a race like this can possibly take 4 hours? What it is that the slow teams are doing out there for 4 hours?!? Our race included walking most of the way (at Pat speed, NOT Jill speed), going to 5th Avenue instead of 5th Street on one of the clues and thus having to backtrack for a mile and a half, and stopping at Circle K for lottery tickets and Big-Ass Cokes. I thought we would be bottom-half for sure. Yet, we still finished 14th out of 71!! My question was not answered.

April 9 - Oyster Urban Adventure. We did this race in Denver two years ago for my birthday. I think we even placed in the bottom half so there is nowhere to go but up! Yay! I'm pretty sure just being in my hometown will be enough of a factor to put us in the top half. This race is different than the others: it is an out-and-back race, it requires teams of three, it includes biking and it takes a half day instead of two hours. I'm really looking forward to it!

April 30 - Warrior Dash. This is more of a mud-run than an Urban Adventure Race but it includes running through fire, so that's fun.

I'm afraid we had a case of the beginners luck in urban adventure races. Our first year, we were unstoppable. Our second year was okay, but we're definitely on a downward trend. I'm nervous that this third year will not be good. Part of the reason that we did so well in the Phoenix races is that I was armed with stellar city knowledge. Since I worked downtown, I used to spend my lunch hours in the weeks before races walking all the streets so I'd know where everything is. Since I no longer work downtown, I can't do that anymore. It's been a long time since I've been down there and lots of new stuff has opened. I'm pretty sure I've lost my edge. Also, as I mentioned, many of the races are in Tempe this year. I have NO advantage there. I didn't even go to ASU! And, of course, at this point I can't even run a mile. Things are looking bleak for my competitive self.

At least there will be some costume contests. I like costumes.

I'm Famous in the Midwest

Check this out!
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2011/01/citysolve_urban_race_st_louis.php

I think this article counts for at least 20 seconds of fame for me! It's been so long since I've been famous that I had to search through my old blog posts to see where I was in my 15 Minutes of Fame Countdown. I was at 14 minutes 50 seconds. With the addition of this blog post from the Riverfront times, I've got 14 minutes and 30 seconds left. Better get busy...

Galapogos

Do you remember those picture books we used to play with as kids where you could turn the pages to put a different head on a different body on a different set of feet? You could put a dragon head on a ballerina body on zebra legs. I always wished those creatures were real, cuz how cool would it be to have a dragon/ballerina/zebra for a pet? Or a Border Terrier/Mexican Hairless/Flash Dancer - that one would be cool!

But wait! The Border Terrier/Mexican Hairless/Flash Dance pet is for real!! See for yourself!The head of a border terrier, the body of a Mexican Hairless and legwarmers! Ok, maybe the border terrier is a stretch, but I don't know what else it could be.

His name is Galapogos (intentionally misspelled) and he is the new dog in my life. He belongs to a friend of mine and I get the honor of taking care of him sometimes.

Galapogos is about the ugliest dog you've ever seen. Ugly in a cute way, of course! His body is all warts and scabs and random lone hairs popping out.
There is a random patch of black fur on his neck.

This mish-mash of a mutt is pretty cute though (for being so ridiculously ugly)!
He is quiet and reserved, but once he gets to know you he is the sweetest little snuggler who loves to have his hairless back scratched. He is my buddy.

New Years

I started off the year as the Winner of World Domination again. At our annual game day, while we waited for all our people to arrive, we started off with Blockus. I won. We played Quirkle. I won. When we finally had our whole crowd, we chose Risk with the Mission card variation as our long game. You guessed it...I won! I dominate the world for yet another year. Don't mess with me, people - I am a FORCE!But it's Pat who always brings the PARTY!Later that night was Joe's annual Tweener Party which is supposed to be in be"tween" Christmas and New Years, though this year it was held on New Years Day which confuses the name. He sets up a mini game Olympics. This year there was trivia, poker, guitar hero and Minute to Win It games. Not surprisingly, my team won! Woot! Woot! for us. We each got hot sauces to take home and show off.
There was also an ugly Christmas sweater competition, but it appears that I was the only person who fully read the invitation, so there was no actual competition against my overly embroidered and beaded and padded-shouldered Christmas Tree. I won a whole box of hot sauces. It's gonna be a saucy 2011, folks!

And just for fun, some pictures to show how wild and crazy things get at our New Years' Eve party. That's right...we are puzzling party animals. Watch out!And the obligatory "I stayed up til midnight and I'm pretending to be happy about it" picture:

Christmas with the Diamonds

I'm not feeling very loquacious today and definitely not very entertaining...so this post is mostly just pictures. You probably prefer that anyway.

Here it is - the annual Diamond family Christmas photo:

Micaela, Cerys, Sydney
Me, Lane, Amy, Mom, Matt, Aden Kyle
Brett, Chris, Dad, Pat, Anne, Kevin, Rachel

We went back to Illinois two days before Christmas. The night we got there we were treated to snow! Yippee for a white Christmas!

It snowed all night and all day. On Christmas Eve, Anne and I made this adorably lopsided fella:

Amy got her Christmas wish - to be done with cancer treatments. Yay! She's starting to grow some gray/blonde/orange hair. She's looking really good!

The Christmas Eve tradition of my high school girls meeting for breakfast was supposed to be just me and Maysoun this year, but Elizabeth surprised us by coming back to Springfield early enough to join us. Laura stood us up and went to Colorado with her husband. Boo.