Time: 1:10:21

Calories: 995

Pace: 8:20/mile

First of all thank you all for your extremely kind words and encouragement! I'm very happy to have accomplished my goal of running at least 2012 miles in 2012. And yes next year I'm going to shoot for 2013 miles! Anybody want to join me? Although when I was thinking about this goal the other day I read about a woman who just ran the Philadelphia Marathon in 3:02 who ran over 4000 miles during the same time that I ran 2000 miles! I guess that's what it takes to become a better, faster runner. Although I'm not quite sure that I could run that much in a year or my body would be able to handle that kind of mileage. She's also about 15 years younger than me so I think I'll just stick with my own modest goals.

The weather here in Vancouver has been raining nonstop, but I think that it's pretty typical weather for the Pacific Northwest region. Yesterday there was even some snow coming down. The weather looked like it was going to snow and rain all day so I decided to try to get out early for a run again in Stanley Park and try to make it around the whole loop this time. Yesterday when I ran the Seawall, they had blocked off the path about halfway, under the Lionsgate Bridge because high tides were making the path extremely difficult and dangerous. 

I headed out pretty early around 6:30 a.m., even before the sun had risen because I thought that the path in Stanley Park would be lighted, like in Central Park. Well, it wasn't lighted. It was snowing and raining and it was kind of scary running next to the water on one side and towering trees and forest on the other side. I kept thinking that someone or something might might jump out of the forest and attack me and then I'd have to jump into the freezing ocean waters to escape. I think that if it wasn't raining/snowing it might have been a little bit less scary. Fortunately about one mile into my run in Stanley Park I came across a woman running the other way. I was never so happy to see somebody else that was as crazy as I was.

Another mile and I ran into another couple of runners so I started to feel like it wasn't just me that was running this early, when it was still dark in Stanley Park. As I started to approach the Lionsgate Bridge again, I had a feeling that the path would be closed again, but because of the hard snow/rain I couldn't quite see very well. It was also coming down so hard that it felt like I was being hit in the face by a million small pebbles or stones. It wasn't a good feeling. I kind of missed running on my treadmill again. But since I had to take advantage of this opportunity to run in Vancouver at Stanley Park, I had to continue on. Well the path was closed again. I hope that I'll have a chance to run the entire loop at least once before I leave. The Christmas tree at the Vancouver Convention Center looks really nice!

As I headed back the way that I came I started to run into more people running, walking, exercising along the path. It had started to get a little bit lighter so more people were out although it was still rain/snowing pretty hard. I guess that if you live in these kinds of conditions, you probably just get used to it. As for me, I really wasn't prepared to run in the rain. I brought a rain and windproof jacket so it was keeping me dry but by the time that I headed back to my hotel my pants and shoes/socks were starting to get pretty soaked and heavy. I was thankful again that I bought a treadmill this year so that when I get back home I don't have to run outside when the conditions aren't great. 

I really wan't sure about my pace, but I knew it wasn't very fast because it was hard to run in these conditions and the winds were also pretty strong. My pace ended up being around 8:20 per mile. I thought about all the times that I ran outside in similar, but not as bad, conditions along the West Side Highway and how it prepared me to run the Ocean Drive Marathon in Cape May City, NJ this year. I think that was the first time that I really started to feel that I was improving as a runner and that all of my training was starting to pay off. It gave me a lot of confidence in myself and I think as a runner if you are trying to improve you need to have milestones that you achieve in order to further develop your body and mind as an athlete. 

I'm almost halfway finished with my business trip here in Vancouver. Wednesday and Thursday will be the busy days and then Friday should start to be pretty relaxed. A lot of people have already started leaving for vacation and to be honest, I'm looking forward to taking some time off and spending the holidays with my family. This is the first year that everybody is getting together in New York so we're really excited to having everybody over at our home this year. I hope the weather back in New York is better than it is here in Vancouver! See all of you again soon.