So, with the National Half Marathon less than 5 days away … I am enjoying the 2nd week of tapering.  My body is going to kill me on Saturday afternoon after a big 13 miles, but I’m keeping my chin up, hydrating and thinking positive thoughts.  Hum, and revisit Sara’s advice on anyone attempting 1,000 miles.  I need to look at #1 (which may have passed) & #3.  I’m all over #5.

I braved a thunderstorm this morning to lead the kick-off run for DC Fit Week with Corrie Sue.  We had a small, yet extremely energetic group leave from YolaDC.  Laura, owner of YolaDC, is business partners with her dad so we’re even thinking of starting a family business group that would meet quarterly.  Meeting new people reminded me of my goal to make an effort to meet new people along the way, and I’ve been reenergized on that goal.  I’m headed to New Zealand next week, so will look for chances to log a few miles with some Kiwis.  Before my first trip to the southern hemisphere, I’ll get to run with Bridget in the half next weekend.  And, Dana, another 1,000 miler, is even making the trip to DC for the race.

Amy’s run Tuesday: 3.5 miles around the U-Street Corridor (alone); Wednesday, first day of not running, but did 20 minutes of card and 20 minutes of weights; Thursday, rest

At various points during my run I missed having Bridget’s company, but was thankful to be outside on a beautiful midmorning run.  I like trails, mountains, blue skies, and hearing birds chirp.  But there is also a part of me that likes uneven cobblestone sidewalks, busteling sidewalks, traffic lights, bus exhaust (weird, I know), boarded up buildings and the smells of a different ethnic food on every corner.

I am not ready to declare it yet, but I may be an urban runner.  My sister and her boyfriend may disown me (they are die hard Colorado trail runners), but I can’t help it.  I love the city and I love DC.

I also love the weather.  Don’t get me wrong.  I would prefer it if it was partly sunny with a slight breeze, but I love knowing that it’s cold outside.  I love the sting on my face and that my legs burn from the cold.  I have not been exposed to the elements since …. Well, since I lived in China (that story is for another day), but it’s been awhile and it’s always by my choice.  With each passing mile I thought of the warm shower that would be my reward, and since then I’ve been thinking about those that don’t have the option of a home and hot shower.  For whatever reasons — they are varied and many — the urban streets I love to run on are home to many.

No cause, no action … Just thoughts for now and a reminder to me to be thankful.

Today’s run: 2.30 miles, 30:31 minutes. YT: 854.02. Intervals again. Warm enough to wear my 3/4 length tights, hurrah! Slush everywhere. I guess people are defrosting too: I’ve never had so many homeless men tell me I’m gorgeous.

Today was my favorite kind of run: Exploring the hood and the park, pausing here and there to investigate, smiling a lot and enjoying the sun. I took a few pics, it being the last day of the year and all.

I met Amy because she wrote a letter to my boss after reading his book, Never Eat Alone. It crossed my desk, and was so thoughtful – both kind and critical – that instead of just passing it on, I decided to write her myself. I had the feeling that she might be a new friend and fellow traveler. That feeling was cemented when I learned that she, like me, chose to have a dining room instead of a living room, because one thing we can’t live without is hosting dinner parties! Amy lives in DC, and Christmas was about to take me home, so we made plans for a coffee.

In the meantime, Amy tweeted that she had read my blog and was inspired to do her own 1000 mile year. Eureka! HERE was the answer to what to do with this blog in 2011! Time to pass the 1000 Mile torch.

Our plannd 45 min coffee turned into an hour and a half of scheming about the blog. And the rest shall be history.

My advice to Amy, and anyone else starting their 1000-mile year:

1. Bank extra mileage during the first three months, the “honeymoon period.”
2. Sign up at Daily Mile for support and community.
3. Don’t drink as much wine as I did.
4. Get involved in hashing!
5. Visit this blog and comment often!
6. Have fun with it – focus on the adventure and exploration, not the numbers.

And now for the big However: One of the goals of this project was to finish things I start, so I’m going to be doing that in two very big ways.

First, I’ll finish the 1000 miles. I’m not going to put constraints on how long it’ll take me, but I will keep logging miles here (interspersed with yoga) until they’re done.

But second – and what I’m really excited about – is that I’m passing the Thousand Mile Year torch on. Tomorrow I will introduce the amazing Amy Throndsen, who will be blogging her 1000MY with a focus on running as a source of connection and community. I’d like to keep this blog going, year after year, with new runners and shifted focus.

But before we make that shift …. drumroll…. a quick year in review:

I moved to NY and got over a breakup, said  a painful goodbye to one of my best friends, took a principle role in launching a new company, dealt with the discombobulation and wonder of a new city, felt inspired to write about some of my experiences (my elderly neighbor’s emergency, getting flashed, the LES’ biggest rat), delved into some urban photography, chronicled the lives of two pigeons, ran my first race in ages (which was terrible), missed my sub-60 10K goal by a few seconds, spent 4^th of July in Bethany beach, dealt with my first parental health crisis, drank a TON of wine, hosted fun dinners, got Lasik, saw an amazing dance performance with the best of friends, gave personal training a try (not for me, really), got into hashing, saw an amazing, historic lunar eclipse, and then eased back into my old love, yoga.

In short: This has been one hell of a year. Thanks to this project, I ran consistently through a move that spanned two coasts and had me living in 4 different apartments; through rain, snow, and hangovers, and through seriously stressful weeks at work. This year my professional efforts exceeded those of any year in my past, in terms of the level of my work and the fruits that it bore, and I don’t think I could have done it without near-daily fitness as a constant. Despite not finishing on time, I consider the 1000 Mile Year project a great success – especially since I inspired a second runner to follow in my footsteps!

Tomorrow, meet Amy.

The fact that I’m agnostic, borderline atheist, didn’t stop me from being moved and impressed with the sermon my parents’ Episcopal priest offered up at Christmas eve services. She lead with a story about a Florida newspaper creating two front pages on Christmas day: one that was entirely heartwarming personal interest stories, and one that had all the bad news – a stabbing in Chicago, rebel violence in the Congo.

She appreciated that cultural impulse of the holidays – to push aside anything negative and pretend the world is only love, peace, and familial cheer. But, she said, the Christian in her was offended.

She walked us through Luke’s description of Jesus’ birth, with some comic annotation: “’Mary pondered,’ Luke tells us. My thoughts would be similarly inappropriate for print if I was sitting in a pile of hay with my new son and a bunch of weird shepherds.”

The point, however, was that there was nothing magical, warm or fuzzy about the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. Mary and Joseph were trekking to Bethlehem not to visit with family or eat marshmallow-topped yams – they were going by decree to have their heads counted in the Roman census. There was nowhere to stay, they were hot and miserable and shacked up with sheep and strangers to birth a baby that may not have seemed like a happy surprise.

And yet, in all this, was the awareness of a sacred moment.  The shepherds wouldn’t shut up about the angels, and on some level, Mary was aware that this baby was more than merely her firstborn. This was something more.

The sermon was a gentle suggestion that we shouldn’t neglect our spirit the rest of the year, amid bills and responsibilities and calamities. (The priest spoke of God’s light, but let that stand for beauty, nature, humanity, as you please.) Celebrate the divine – or at least hold a space for it – even on days that are dark or dim. Life’s gifts always come squeezed in between life’s sorrows.

A good thought as we head into the New Year, no?

Today was two weeks to the day since my calf decided to mutiny, and I really thought I was ready. No swelling this a.m., and no pain for days, other than the very occasional twinge and some tightness.

So I squeezed into my Underarmor compression top and tights, threw on a hoodie and a hat, and started down the steps, feeling exactly like an encased sausage (sausages have feelings too!)  but also kind of safe. Sudden flashback to my ex-boyfriend’s friend’s girlfriend, a professional dominatrix, explaining to me that the turn-on of “full rubber” is a feeling of all-emcompassing safety. NOW I think I get it!

Or maybe not, because sex was the last thing on my mind as I trudged down the steps, and, by the third floor, was feeling a familiar pain in my upper Achilles tendon. (Ultimately I think it was the tendon, not the Gastronemius.) I ran a block. Every footstep hurt, say a 4 out of 10. I walked the final three blocks, feeling defeated but also impressed that many tortured hours in online shopping had yielded an outfit that was keeping me warm in 30 degree weather with wind.

So, looks like I’m playing the waiting game some more. I think I better start going to yoga, because otherwise I’m in danger of slipping into total inactivity. I stopped eating bread, so I’m not gaining weight, but I don’t want to lose all my powers.

Illustration Courtesy of RachellAnnMiller.com

”…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”