Today was our annual Christmas run from Jenny's house. Had a good size group - that's all of us in the picture on the right before the run. It was about 15 degrees but the wind was much colder than that!

It was a good run. I ran slow with Lynne for the first 3 miles or so. She's recovering from knee surgery (4 days after finishing the Florida Ironman!) but she decided to try a short distance today.

Some of the group turned back at the turn-around point and the rest of us went on for a longer run. We turned north and the wind was blowin' hard right into our faces. I was feeling really good, though, and wanted to catch Jim and Todd, who were up ahead so I picked up the pace. Felt really good - running much faster than usual. Then came the hill...and well, lets just say that I need to do some hill training. Pretty much everyone passed me at that point.

But I plugged along in the howling wind. My Santa hat was starting to blow off so I took it off: brrrrrr!!!! It was cold but yet I didn't mind. I kept pushing and started to close the gap.

Then, when we turned east onto the dirt road, it was downhill and I felt like I was flying. I literally couldn't stop or slow down. I passed some of the other runners, still trying to catch Jim and Todd but then a bunch of dogs came out and bothered Jenny and Zoey (her dog), so I slowed down a bit. I was kinda ticked that I couldn't reach Jim and Todd and that they wouldn't wait for the rest of us but decided it wasn't worth it and waited for Jenny (ffor once I was actually running faster than her!).

We had a nice run together, reminiscing about some sad things that have happened to both of us....we were laughing and crying....talking about how special our friendship is with our small group - Lynne, Marshall, Jenny, Kurt, and I - and our "extended family" of running friends. They're like family to me and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So, here I sit on my comfy couch, Christmas music on, kids away with hubby for the weekend....blogging away. Not a bad life!