2023 Reads

What I read in 2023:

                                           

The books I gave 5 stars are bolded.

1. The Cloisters by Katy Hays
2. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepets
3. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
4. Foster by Claire Keegan
5. Little Nothings by Julie Mayhew
6. The Sentence by Louis Erdrich
7. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennett McCurdy
8. Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
9. Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane C. Ortlund
10. Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu
11. Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu
12. Rebel (Legend #4) by Marie Lu
13. A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans
14. Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
15. Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life by Joe Friel
16. Cilka's Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2) by Heather Morris
17. The Huntress by Kate Quinn
18. Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco
19. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
20. Wish You Were Gone by Kieran Scott
21. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
22. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
23. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman
24. Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
25. All the Dangerous Things but Stacy Willingham
26. Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
27. Verity by Colleen Hoover
28. Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
29. The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica
30. Rivals Unto Death: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Rick Beyer
31. The Quantity Theory of Insanity by Will Self
32. Never Never: The Complete Series by Colleen Hoover
33. Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World by Lauren Fleshman
34. We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
35. My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni
36. The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher and Mary Pilon
37. The Longest Race: A Lifelong Runner, An Iconic Ultramarathon, and the Case for Human Endurance by Ed Ayers
38. Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
39. Meaty by Samantha Irby
40. Cackle by Rachel Harrison
41. Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline
42. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
43. Spare by Prince Harry
44. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton 
45. Circe by Madeline Miller
46. The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer
47. Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls
48. Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Koller Croft
49. Choosing to Run: A Memoir by Des Linden
50. We Share the Sun: The Incredible Journey of Kenya's Legendary Running Coach Patrick Sang and the Fastest Runners on Earth by Sarah Gearhart
51. Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
52. Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe
53. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
54. Ricochet by Sandra Brown
55. Maybe Now by Colleen Hoover
56. Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
57. Happy Place by Emily Henry
58. Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries by Carrie Jackson Cheadle & Cindy Kuzma
59. Marmee by Sarah Miller
60. Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu
61. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
62. Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter
63. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
64. Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur
65. The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
66. With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson
67. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
68. The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
69. Finding Me by Viola Davis
70. Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
71. Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris
72. The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni
73. The Newcomer: A Novel by Mary Kay Andrews
74. Three Sisters (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #3) by Heather Morris
75. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
76. None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
77. Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
78. Everything All at Once by Stephanie Catudal
79. The Sober Diaries: How One Woman Stopped Drinking and Started Living by Clare Pooley
80. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
81. Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
82. Go as a River by Shelley Read
83. The Pact by Jodi Picoult
84. Jane and Edward: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Eyre by Melodie Edwards
85. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
86. Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes by Christine Yu
87. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
88. Let Him In by William Friend
89. Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian
90. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
91. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
92. The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
93. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
94. The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
95. Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell
96. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
97. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
98. Lone Wolf by Jodi Piccoult
99. Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas
100. The Girl from Guernica by Karen Robards
101. Long Run to Glory: The Story of the Greatest Marathon in Olympic History and the Women Who Made It Happen by Stephen Lane
102. The Chicken Sisters by K.J. Dell'Antonia
103. The Girl With Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyoneseo Lee
104. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
105. Eternal by Lisa Scottoline
106. The Search for Anna Fisher by Florence Fisher
107. The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
108. The New International Version Bible (I did the 2-year chronological reading plan)

I think 100 is a good yearly goal for me!

Delightful December

December 2023 in review!

Total mileage for December: 289.1

Total mileage for 2023: 3619.7

• Nov. 27-Dec. 3: 69.0
• Dec. 4-10: 71.2
• Dec. 11-17: 66.3
• Dec. 18-24: 70.3
• Dec. 25-31: 58.1

#delightfuldecember at Sally's
birthday run

Last day of #delightfuldecember
but #davidisnotdelightful

Races:

• Dec. 16: Jack is Back 30k in 2:16:36 for 1st overall female, because I got a free entry. This was a state record for age 43 because the 30k is a rarely run distance. The race was on a gravel trail that ended up being more difficult than I expected due to lots of rain, and it was also not at all competitive, but it's always fun to win a race!

#delightfuldecember

More #delightfuldecember

And more #delightfuldecember

Workouts:

• Dec. 5: 8 x 0:45 hills to start a 6 week block of working on my biggest weakness, power. Pace is kind of meaningless on hills unless someone with premium Strava is running the workout with you, but I was pretty even across reps at 5:55-6:09 pace. Six minutes of hard running with breaks never felt so hard, at least since the last time I ran hill reps!
• Dec. 8: 3 mile net uphill effort in 7:37, 6:59, 7:01 / grade-adjusted pace of 6:48, 7:04, 6:39 (3 miles warm up, 3 miles cool down). I was pleasantly surprised with how good and strong this felt! I ran with Sally for most of it. The route climbed 337 ft in 3 miles. We ran it in the opposite direction to warm up, meaning it dropped 337 ft in those 3 miles and sometime I should run it that way for a confidence-boost, hah!
• Dec. 12: 8 x 1:00 hills, and I was again pretty even across reps at 6:17-6:29 actual pace. Strava GAP said to subtract 1:00-1:10 for grade-adjusted pace, which seems a bit generous, but reps were only 1:00 so maybe.
• Dec. 20: 3 mile net uphill effort (9 miles total) - I did my splits oddly so I could use the GAP from the Dec. 8 workout. We couldn't run the exact same course as Dec. 8 as planned, due to multiple emergency responders being on the road by our starting spot (a stolen truck being pulled from Springfield Lake was why, news story here). So, we started 0.25 up the road and went 0.25 farther at the end. The elevation total was probably almost exactly the same, but since no one who was on this run had premium Strava I split at 0.75, 1, 1, 0.25 to use the GAPs from Dec. 8. Hopefully that makes sense! Anyway, the paces (GAP) were 7:35 (6:46), 6:51 (6:56), 7:01 (6:39), 6:34 (?), making it a few seconds faster than Dec. 8. I ran this one solo, which I thought really made it a success since it's always easier for me to push when I'm with someone else.
• Dec. 26: 8 x 1:30 hills solo, so I have no GAPs but my actual paces were pretty even though "slow", which climbing about 80 feet in 90 seconds tends to do to you.
• Dec. 29: 3 mile net uphill effort (same course as Dec. 8) in 7:29, 6:53, 7:09 / grade-adjusted paces of 6:40, 6:58, 6:48 (11.2 miles total). I don't buy that mile 2 on this route is aided by 5 seconds, because though it has one steep decently long downhill, you can't use it for all it's worth without falling on your face. But I like the grade-adjustments for the first and third mile on this route so I suppose I am taking them all. This was about 3 seconds slower than Dec. 20 and 6 seconds faster than Dec. 8, so it seems I am pretty consistent with these efforts. I was solo on this one but will have company on this workout again in January!
• Favorite workout: I enjoyed the 3 mile net uphill effort enough to do it 3 times! ;-)

#delightfuldecember

    

Hills for breakfast

More hills for breakfast

Hills for breakfast again

This was another hills for breakfast
morning, but we were only delightful

Long Runs:

• Dec. 2: 16 miles (7:49) that felt pretty great!
• Dec. 9: 13 miles (8:17), which was part of two running buddies' wedding reception.
• Dec. 16: 19.9 miles, including the Jack is Back 30k (7:18).
• Dec. 22: 15.3 miles (8:23) in light rain.
• Dec. 30: 12.2 miles (8:15) before spectating Run for the Ranch.
• Favorite long run: Dec. 2 definitely felt the best!

Hearts for Jeff & Crystal's Running Reception

Running Highlights:

• Running group's annual Christmas lights run + soup supper was a huge success.

Christmas lights run

Life Highlights:

• It was a busy month, including a day trip to Baxter Springs, Sarah's PA school graduation party, work Christmas parties, Christmas as my parents' house, and Christmas at Jon's parents' house.

Route 66 in Baxter Springs

Part of my department of 18!

Major Christmas

Ibbetson Christmas

Books:

• Lone Wolf by Jodi Piccoult
• Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas
• The Girl from Guernica by Karen Robards
• Long Run to Glory: The Story of the Greatest Marathon in Olympic History and the Women Who Made It Happen by Stephen Lane
• The Chicken Sisters by K.J. Dell'Antonia
• The Girl With Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyoneseo Lee
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
• Eternal by Lisa Scottoline
• The Search for Anna Fisher by Florence Fisher
• The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
• The New International Version Bible (I did the 2-year chronological reading plan)

Theme for the month:

• I think Delightful December, running group's photo theme, fits. I love our hills for breakfast photos though!

Jack is Back 30k

One of my friends won a free entry for the Jack is Back 15k/30k race but wasn't able to run it. I didn't think I really had the itch to race again in 2023, but a free entry to a low-key event sounded perfect, so she gave me her free entry to register for the 30k. I've never raced a 30k, so knew finishing would yield an automatic PR - and a state record for age 43, since the state records for the 30k are weak because it's a rarely run distance. I've been keeping my long runs relatively short since Bass Pro, so running 18.6 miles was a bit of a stretch, but Bass Pro was just 6 weeks before this race so I figured my legs hadn't completely forgotten how to run for over 2 hours.

The race was on a rails-to-trails trail, and I have learned these type of trails can be anywhere from immaculately maintained like Tobacco Road to rough single track like the northern part of Frisco. This one was somewhere in between, but we'd gotten a lot of rain leading up to the race so it was muddy! I didn't realize this would be a factor until I was at the race, when it was too late to turn back or wear my trail shoes that I'd left at home.

The race was a pretty small event, and my goal was to win overall female without running too hard. I eased into it for the first 3 miles, then got into a groove and ran really even. I never looked at my watch during the race, and afterward before I looked at my Garmin I told Jon I thought I averaged around 7:15 pace; my watch then confirmed 7:18, so I have a good gauge on my effort! My splits are here.

I was with a few men for the first couple of miles, then pulled ahead of them. I was in first female and there were 5 men ahead of me, but I didn't know who was in which race distance. The 15k ran out and back once, and the 30k ran out and back twice. The first 4.65 miles out were pretty uneventful, then once we turned back I enjoyed the race more because I got to see everyone else. I was also gaining on the man ahead of me, so that gave me something to focus on for the first back. I passed him around mile 8.

I started the race in arm warmers and gloves, because the wind chill was 37* and since I didn't plan to run all-out I thought I'd be chilly. The first out was into the wind and I was comfortable, but when we turned around I got hot and took my arm warmers off. They got annoying flapping around while tucked under a sports bra strap, but it gave me a reason to look forward to the turn around where I planned to drop them. I tucked my first gel wrapper inside of them so I could get rid of it along with the arm warmers. As I neared the turn around I decided I'd toss my gloves off as well.

As I neared the halfway point, the men who had been in 3rd and 4th when both races were together came back starting their second out, so I learned that the two fastest men had been in the 15k and I was 3rd overall in the 30k. I also saw the large lead I had on the next woman, who turned out to be in the 15k anyway. The race had an option to compete in both the 15k and 30k distances, with your halfway split being your 15k race time, and so at that point I wished I'd have signed up for that with my free entry - my rationale for not doing that was because I didn't want to race a 15k and then death march another 15k if there was someone faster in the 15k. After the race I saw that the girl who won the 15k was 14 years old, so I am sure the win meant more to her than it would have to me, so in the end I was glad I just did the 30k!

I dropped my arm sleeves and gloves at halfway, then turned back out for my second tour of the course. The spectators around the finish line cheered and someone joked, "Show off" when I turned around instead of finishing. Heading back out on the course I got to see everyone coming back in. I was also able to see that I was gaining on the man in second, so I decided I'd try to slowly reel him in. We were going back into the wind and I wished I'd have kept my gloves on.

When I was about a mile into my second out, a teenage boy who was running in the opposite way desperately asked, "Am I almost there??" I told him he was close, "about a mile left", then realized that probably didn't feel too close to him. 9.3 miles is a long way when you're 14! 

All of the course marshals told me I was first female each time I passed, which was fun. Many of the runners going the opposite direction did too! It was fun seeing the enthusiastic aid station volunteers multiple times, and that helped break up the distance.

I ended up catching the second place man just before the final hair-pin turn, which was about 14 miles in. After passing him I was just ready to be done. I have only been running 12-14 mile long runs since Bass Pro, so 18.6 miles felt a little farther than it usually does - plus I can't even tell you the last time I ran that far alone. I had a great runners high going, but it was pretty lonely out there! Like Frisco, the trail also felt uphill (incline) both ways, and the wet ground wasn't doing me any favors.

When I finished, many people told me how impressed they were with my huge lead and how fast I ran for 18.6 miles. I have decided I really like low-key races that I can win without going all-out! Although I didn't race race, 18.6 miles moderate is still a hard day, and I do 100% of my training on roads, so I ended up feeling quite beat up from this race! Running on gravel and through mud uses some different muscles.

Before the race they'd announced that the overall awards hadn't come in and would be shipped when they did. They said it's a personalized brick so I am interested to see what it looks like! I didn't stay for the awards ceremony because it was outside after all 30k finishers were in and I was freezing standing around, but I believe I will also get awards for setting a new state record for age 43 and for being the top age-graded female time in the 30k. I told the race director I'd get my awards from him the next time I saw him so he didn't have to mail them - a brick cannot be cheap to mail, lol.

My state record is here.

Race results are here.

This picture is from Bass Pro last month, but I
found it on Jon's phone on the drive home from
Jack is Back & love it