DECEMBER 25th

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

ONE MORE RUN

Well the weather took a turn and it went from 75 yesterday to 38 this morning with rain. Not weather I want to run in so I headed for the gym, haven't been there in sometime. I was dreading walking on the treadmill but picked one at the far end and started out. Did 3.75 miles and then went home.
It is now afternoon and the rain has turned to snow, beautiful flakes drifting down. They say we could have from a trace to 2 inches.

JINGLE BELL RUN

I have to admit I was a bit reluctant to do this race. Running at night in December, I was thinking cold, cold cold. How was I to know it would be 68 at race time.

Christy, Allie and I are ready to get this race going. Allie was doing the 1 mile fun run with grandpa and Christy and I were doing the 5K.

Before the race I had time to tell Santa that I've been good this year.

We lined up at the start. There were lots of people with kids and pets and one black lab almost tripped me before the race had even started.

Santa and friends started the race and we began running in the dark. I wasn't sure I liked this. I was trying to watch the road for any pot holes and trying not to get run over by baby strollers. Christy and I started together but soon got separated. Once some of the crowd thinned out it got better. The run seemed easy, maybe it was because it was in the dark and I couldn't see how far I had to go. I saw the three mile marker and was able to see the time on my Garmin as I passed under a street light, WOO HOO, I might make a PR ! I picked up my pace.

Whew ! I finished with a PR !!! Time was 37:31. Notice I got warm and shed the Jingle Run shirt so my husband didn't get a picture of me crossing the finish line because he was looking for a white shirt.

After the race we went to the ballroom in the Anatole hotel and enjoyed pizza and beer.

This turned out to be a great race. Thanks Christy for making me sign up.

SMELLS LIKE CHRISTMAS

We are still being blessed with this mild weather and it's hard to think about baking when it's so warm out, however I did send my husband out for more butter so I could do some more cookies. I had another great walk today getting 4.74 miles in. I'm so close to my goal of 500 miles for the year. I guess you could say I'm walking my cookies off.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT

My children are all grown and so I have no one to take to see Santa except my sweet little dogs. I don't think they enjoyed it as much as my children did.

Today was gym day with Jillian's cards. I wasn't able to do some because they required me to jump and I figured that wouldn't be such a good idea. After Christy and I finished the circuits we had cardio to do. She wanted to go up on the treadmills but it was another beautiful day and I convinced her that we should go outside. I'm glad we did, it is like Spring out. We walked 5.22 miles.

CHRISTMAS PAST

What a beautiful day we are having. Earlier we went into Dallas and signed up for the Jingle Bell Run on the evening of the 22nd. Christy and I will do the 5K and Tom and Allie will do the 1 mile fun run. By the time we got home the temperature was around 56 so it was the perfect time to go for a walk.
Christy and I did 4 miles on the trails.

Now I have cookie dough waiting in the frig to be baked.

SIMILAR

I found this picture of Jenny and it looks like she is trying to run a race or maybe just run away from her dad and great grandfather. But look at how much it looks like her last race... She was born to run !

Maybe the arms are a bit higher in the air and there are lots more runners behind her. She is such an inspiration.
I went out today and did over 5 miles.Later in the day I had an appointment with the eye doctor. I have some floaters and thought I should get them checked out. I asked if running could aggravate them and he said " You probably shouldn't' run for at least a week but you can walk. This really bums me out as I have only 37.65 miles left to reach my goal of 500 miles for the year. I guess I will just have to walk it.

WHITE ROCK MARATHON

I was not the runner today, I was here to cheer on Jenny doing her second marathon. My job was SPECTATOR. I still had to get up early and an error in setting my clock caused an even earlier wake up time. I checked the weather and it was foggy and 48. Brrr. glad I wasn't running. We had about a 45 minute wait before Jenny lined up.

Race Time. We watched her pass us at the start and then headed for the car to find our next spot.
Thanks to Mark and Tom for great directions and driving.

One job of the spectator is being out there to hold up your signs.

And to take articles of clothing when they are no longer wanted or needed. Here come the gloves!


At the finish line you are there to cheer them in. Jenny finished with a PR and a time of 3:41:57. Looks like she's on her way to Boston in 2011!


Last spectator duty was giving directions to Sprinkles Bakery so we could all pick out our very own cupcake. I chose the coconut one. YUM!

SUN TODAY !!!

After five days of gray sky's, the sun finally poked its head out of the clouds. It didn't matter that it was four in the afternoon I was just excited to get back outside and run. Being in the fresh air felt so good. I ran my trails to Kids Kastle and then did some laps around the park and the little pond. Even the ducks seemed happy to see the sun. Total miles for today 4.05

CARDIO, COOKIES AND READING

I can't let the cold weather cause me to miss workouts. Today is Sunday and that means gym day with the Jillian cards. I mixed up all the workout cards and told Christy to pick one. Workout 4. It didn't look too bad. There were 5 circuits with a lot of concentration on the back. I have trouble with the back kicks with shoulder press. You need a lot of balance to do this but some how I manage to get through it. After we finished we went upstairs to do cardio. I did 3 miles on the treadmill.

I have my first batch of Christmas cookie dough in the frig. Hoping to bake them this afternoon and have the house filled with the aroma of fresh baked ginger cookies. Maybe while the cookies are baking I can start reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, I just picked this up Friday at the library. My sister said it was a great read.

THANKS

Thanks to the cold spell we have been having I have skipped my runs and stayed inside grumbling how cold it is. BRR!
Thanks to the cold spell I have gotten my Christmas cards all ready to mail on Monday morning.
Thanks to the cold spell I have probably gained five pounds because I keep eating thinking that will make me warm.

IT HAPPENED !

Last night the weatherman was predicting rain with a chance of snow, usually when they forecast this it never happens. It happened!!! I awoke this morning to the sound of rain but as the morning got lighter the rain changed to snow and for about an hour we had the ground covered and fluffy white flakes falling from the sky.
I knew it would be too wet to run outside and also too cold plus I needed to get to the gym and do some weights. I headed up around 10, did the workout from The Abs Diet For Women by David Zinczenko book and then did 3.25 miles on the treadmill.