I still haven’t gotten used to writing 2008.  I keep writing 2007 when I am dating documents or writing checks, but the first race of the year has served as a wake-up call that we are definitely no longer in 2007.  The Olympic year is here and for everyone training for the Beijing Olympics, we can sense a clock ticking.  

2008 has gotten off to a strong start.  For the first two months after the Chicago Marathon, I was feeling a little sluggish.  I had built my mileage back up and started doing workouts, but I still didn’t feel any “pop” in my legs when I tried to do shorter intervals and all uphill running felt much harder than usual.  Seasoned marathoners had warned me that this might happen, but I had hoped that I could avoid it.

I had planned to start the year off with the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on January 13th, but at the beginning of December, I started to worry that I would not be ready in time to race.  Last year’s race had been a fun way to start off 2007.  My teammate Ryan Hall had set an American record and I had run a PR at the distance.  I had hoped to start 2008 off in the same way so I kept plugging away at the training.  Luckily, things started to take a turn for the better a week before Christmas.  Maybe the holiday atmosphere, Christmas decorations, family parties, holiday baking, and gift giving were the cure that I needed to re-energize my running.  Or maybe my legs were just needed those two and half months to fully recover from the Chicago Marathon.  Or maybe I got an extra dose of inspiration when I ran on the Marathon Trials course while I was in Massachusetts visiting my parents for the holidays.  Whatever the stimulus for that turnaround, I’m glad that it happened when it did.

As I write this, I am on a plane returning from that trip and feeling tired, but excited.  I won my first national championship.  Breaking the finish line tape was a feeling I have not experienced in a long time.  Above my seat, my new cowboy hat and silver belt buckle are carefully protected in my suitcase in the luggage rack.  These were part of the first place prize.  Neither has ever part of my wardrobe before, but I am very excited to show them off.  I think it was immediately clear to everyone at the post-race press conference that I was a rookie at wearing cowboy hats because I put it on backwards when it was presented.  I remember thinking that the hat didn’t feel quite right on my head, but didn’t realize my error until Victah Sailer of photorun.net pointed it out to me.  I wore it around for most of the afternoon and now I can see why people like wearing them so much.  It gave great shade from the Texas sunshine and my ponytail fit nicely under the top.

I am heading back to Mammoth Lakes this week to continue to training for the Olympic Marathon Trials.  Hopefully the first two weeks of 2008 have set a good trend for the rest of the year!