What a way to ring in the new year!

New Year's is our  holiday.  That is, my immediate family does whatever is easy, no pressure.  We usually run around here and there from mid-November until Christmas.  So, it's our time.

This year my youngest daughter spent the night at her friend's house.  My oldest daughter stayed home and played cards with my wife and I, and my wife's parents came over until about 10 pm.  We had ham, smoked salmon, some amazing pickled radishes and pickled papaya (Filipino dishes), some fancy cheese and crackers, homemade apple pie and of course guacamole!  Our plan was to play cards, snack from about 4 pm until whenever and burn stuff we've been collecting for the past three weeks in the fire pit.  It's how we roll!

My daughter is the "guac" expert. I bugged and bothered and pestered her all day until she made the guacamole.

Eventually my daughter brings me the bowl of guacamole and some chips for me to do a taste-test.  I was outside getting the fire ready. 

All was wonderful, it needed nothing but my attention, so I took the guacamole and stepped backwards, tripped and fell all the way to the ground, the arm holding the guacamole shooting up, sending the guacamole sky-ward. 

I landed, terrified!  I stretched out and got my hand under the guacamole bowl, but not with any dexterity, more like playing hot potato with a five year old.  The bowl flew back up, seemingly in slow motion.  But this time I caught it, open end facing down. Only about two tablespoons were lost!  I am so happy I had a witness! 

The New Year came as it normally does.  We were all tired.  My wife and I were watching stuff on Netflix, well actually I was watching, she'd fallen asleep, and my daughter was upstairs reading. 

This morning I got up and prepared for a 10 or 12 mile run.  What a way to ring in the new year, right?  I had eaten a lot of salty, rich, and fatty foods last night, not to mention consumed a fair amount of alcohol.  I didn't get drunk, but considering I was going to run for an hour and half minimum, any is probably too much.

Twelve miles would be cool, being 2012, I thought, but also, I've been sick and my knee hurts.  One of my resolutions is to be safe and while 12 miles would send the message that I'm serious, 10 is what was planned. 

I decided to run 10 and be smart.  The twelve would've been for show anyway. 

Also, I'd only run 10 or more miles twice, one time being the half marathon.  I ran slow and easy, trying to make the first mile slower than 9 minutes (it's down hill ad I'd have 9 more to go), and the rest around 9:30 or so.  But really, I was just going by feel. 

Check the link  here for some cool graphics Garmin puts together.  I made my last mile my fastest, 8:34.  The overall average pace was 9:47.  Not fast, but that's okay.  I was happy with the run, it felt good, especially since I really didn't want to run this morning.

On a side note, I ran with compression socks for the first time.  I run in toe-shoes most of the time, but also have a pair of racing flats I run in.  Today was the shoes and the compression socks.  I just bought the knee-high dress versions from Wal-Greens at $20 (can find them about half as much on Amazon I learned later).  They worked great, my legs feel good.  I'd recommend them without hesitation!

To all I wish a happy, healthy, and productive 2012!