I've made my first race commitment of 2009.  I signed up to run the Country Music Half Marathon.  I've got a friend that recently moved to Nashville.  He and another old friend and I are all going to run together.  It feels good to have a set training goal for the new year.  I may slide a 5K or 10K in late February or early March to gage my progress.  I had considered trying to run all four races in the Southwest Ohio 50K Trail Series, but the first series race is on the same day as the half.  The half is a more reasonable return to racing given that I haven't competed in about ten years.  All four of those 50K's would probably be too big a bite for 2009.  I have to remember to view 2009 as a (re)building year.  I've accumulated just under 400 miles since late August so I have a decent base on which to begin more intensive training.