Probably the most fun I had racing all year was in the Bellingham Thanksgiving World Championship. This is a loosely organized "race" put on by local runner/rider Jake Hartsoch. This year was the third year of the event and the biggest by far. Over 50 runners headed to Cornwall Park on Thanksgiving morning to run 3 loops of the loop of just over a mile. Costumes and crazy clothes were encouraged, or no clothes. Only this race was probably one of the best fields assembled in Bellingham. Racers included 5k pr's of ~13:30, 14:10, 14:24, 14:57 and a whole slew of 15 minute guys. I won this race in the inaugural year, 2009 and owned the course record although I'm not sure what it was. Last year the course was covered in 4-6 inches of snow, which made for a lot of fun, but slow times. Fun being the most important aspect, it was an overwhelming success. This year, we decided to do something different. Since the race is secondary to the celebration of running, the fast guys, or the "Thirsty Turkey Division" decided to add some adult beverages to the race. Seven brave souls would be drinking a 16 ounce cheap beer, Ranier, High Life, or PBR inbetween the laps. I may have gotten a little too excited for this and opted for the magnums instead of the 12 ouncers. Either way, it was a ton of fun. RB Wick, would win the championships, while my coach and local legend Sam Alexander narrowly edged me out for the Thirsty Turkey win. Check out Joel Gillman's blog report here for some more details: http://jdawgsrunningblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/thanksgiving-cross-country-world-championship/I returned to the Seattle Marathon this year, except this time I wouldn't be running. I was there to watch my girlfriend run the 5k and then to help out at the Saucony booth for the marathon Expo. It was disappointing to not be running, or be able to run really. Especially since it was a Saucony sponsored race. It would have been great to go out there and compete for the win with my Hurricane gear on. But it wasn't meant to be. I struggled with little issues since the 50k. Instead, I had a great time hanging out with Peter Heenan, the local Saucony tech rep, along with the guys and girls from Super Jock'N'Jill answering people's questions about Saucony footwear and helping with try ons. The new 8mm drop Triumph 9 was pretty popular as well as the Cortana. There was also a lot of interest in the Hattori even if not a lot of people were running in them. But it was a pretty good turnout and a fun time.
In December I made my first ever trip to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. It was a ton of walking around, but 75 and sunny in December was a new experience for me. I didn't take of advantage of it for running because I must have walked a million miles that weekend, and the whole damn place is concrete, but it was still a nice trip. My personal favorite was Space Mountain. Pretty cool stuff. I rode it 8 times that weekend. It was fun thinking of creative faces to make as you passed by the camera. Sleeping faces was probably my favorite. 
The following weekend, I went back to the second happiest place on earth, Las Vegas. This time we went with back up. We stayed in the Flamingo and it was me and my girlfriend and two of our runner friends, Jordan Welling and Jason Gulley. What a great trip. Jordan found out about the $5 deal. A Four Loko and a bag of chips was just under $5. Jason had his first Four Loko ever. The Dealertainers at the Imperial Palace were awesome. We also saw Absinthe, which is an amazing show. So funny and well worth the cost of admission. A trip to the Hoffbrau is also a must, so you can get a shot and a spanking, but we were disappointed with Das Boot. The plastic one was really lame and the glass one was too damn expensive. We also failed to do our Vegas Strip Beer Mile. Maybe next time. And you should have seen all the attention Jordan got from wearing his grandpa's Budweiser Sport Coat. So amazing. The only down side to the trip was staying just one day too long. Three days is definitely enough.
After Las Vegas, I had Saucony Hurricane event at Klicks. We did a Solstice Run, which may or may not have been on the actual solstice. I never really went through the trouble of finding out whether it was on Wednesday or Thrusday. Anyway, our event was on Thursday and it was a great success. Peter Heenan came up from Seattle with size runs of 4 different models of shoes for people to try on and do extended runs in. He also had all kinds of freebies to give away. Great Harvest Bread and Chuckanut Brewery helped out with some deals on beer and bread. I made a totally yummy vegetable soup. And 30+ great people showed up to tour some Bellingham Christmas lights, celebrate the end of the shortening days, enjoy the company of other runners, and have a good time. We had a lot of people try some of the Saucony shoes. We had the Cortana, Triumph, Kinvara, and the not even released Peregrine 2's. I could have planned the route just a little better but I think everybody had a pretty good time. 
All in all, 2012 was pretty good. After missing a full year of running, I was able to come back. It was a slow return to form, and not without setbacks, a lot of frustration, and some hard times, but I had great help. Carolyn Watson at Core Kinetics Pilates was great. Steve Noble and Noble Chiropractic was also instrumental in helping me regain my health. And I had some good success despite limited racing, and somewhat limited training. I ran a pretty fast 5k on the track. I had a great time running the Lake Padden Relay and winning with a last minute team and crushing my Padden Loop personal record. Winning the Baker Lake 50k was great and such a new and different experience for me. I would have like to race a few more times, but I think 2012 should be great.
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