Jingle Bell Run 2013

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Today, a group of fitness buddies completed a Christmas eve tradition by running and walking the Valley Forge Loop. As I drove to the loop for our 8 am meet-up I tried to remember when I ran the loop last. I'm pretty sure it was Christmas Eve 2012.

What a perfect day. On the way there I heard Snoopy's Christmas. A must hear for the season to be complete for me. I was getting worried as I hadn't heard it yet. So when it came on I fist pumped, turned the volume up high and sang along. I can't carry a tune to save my life, btw, but I don't care. I bee bopped along happy as a clam and, as happens every time, I got choked up when the Red Barron says "Merry Christmas, my friend!" Every single time. If it were only that easy to make peace.

So on to the run. The sun was shining brightly and the skies were clear. It was cold. A welcome relief after Sunday and Monday's warm rainy dark weather. And good thing too because if it had been warmer I would have been uncomfortable.

The puzzle was a thoughtful gift from a friend.

As we waited for all of our group to gather another group was also coming together. One of them arrived , windows down blasting the radio and singing "All I want for Christmas is you!". It was awesome. One of their group took our photo before we started.

I was not looking forward to the loop. I haven't run much pavement lately and their is always the mental challenge of this loop's hill after hill after hill. But I was looking forward to spending time with friends and that always makes a difference. We started - as we often do - walking the first hill. At the top we kept walking which was fine with me because if we got to a mile I could add Roy and Brian to my list and I knew they were not planning to run today. Roy has an aggravated achilles and Brian planned to keep him company. I'm not sure we made it a full mile before someone suggested we start running but it was close enough. I'm now at 44 people. I need 6 more in a the next 8 days. It's going to be close.

We finished the run with a shadow picture. After some Merry Christmas high fives we were on our way. I love this tradition and hope we can keep it up in years to come.

Note the santa hat pom in the photo! :) 

Nutrition, training, fitness PS -
We ran 3 and 1 intervals. I did ok until the last mile and a half or so. My tank emptied again. This is the second time in a row this happened. I had peanut butter on a piece of toast and a banana which normally would be fine for 4-5 miles. I wasn't that surprised when I crashed on Saturday. I chalked it up to the extra work of the snow and the terrain. I was surprised today. I'm so out of practice with these things. I'm not sure if it's calories or electrolytes I need.