And how might Xmas dinner affect race performance?

Annette Herold has bravely been finding out, and lets us know the results:

I took part in a 10K race in Germany, together with my two brothers:
 10K Spiridon Silvesterlauf (in Frankfurt, Germany) on 27th December 2009. 

My time was 59 mins exactly, my worst time ever. [so that would not be a recommendation for PB attempts during the 12 days of Xmas then – Ed]

This made me 39th in my age group (W35), and 249th out of 506 women; 1707 took part altogether.

It was very cold and the course was very icy in parts.
[Nice to hear you finished in one piece at least!]