20 miles - and still running strong!

Hello and Merry Christmas! It's hard to believe I've been at this running thing for six months now. Whew - how the time has flown! I have done quite a bit of running since I returned from Italy. On Thanksgiving morning I ran the "10K Turkey Chase" in Edgewater, MD. What a blast it was ... we ran on nature trails, up gravel hills (lotsmore than we have in Florida), down grassy knolls, around the water and by a small cheering section. What a way to start off the biggest eating day of the year.

We also had our big Girls on the Run 5K Jingle Jog. What an amazing time that was ... the girls did great! They all wore their personalized jingle bell bracelets (which we put together at the end of each lesson) and we laughed and ran the entire 3.1 miles. Their parents were so proud of them ... and so was I.

Then the following night my running friends and I ran the "Festival of Lights" 5K in San Marco. It was just gorgeous. There were carolers, spectators, a candle-lit course and Santa even stopped by to say hello. Despite the dogs, strollers, children and walkers we did fairly well and crossed the finish line uninjured!

And just a few days ago we had our longest run yet ... a 20 miler. Surprisingly, that run felt better and was easier than the 16 or 18 miler. We chatted the entire time, laughed a lot and ate an amazing breakfast at Metro Diner afterwards. I swear I do all this running for the breakfast. In fact, I began talking about what I was going to eat at mile seven. For the next two weekends we have shorter runs (5 and 7 miles respectively) ... then right after Christmas we run 23. Deck the halls with lots of running, fa la la la la, la lala la!

Below are some pictures from the Festival of Lights 5k ... enjoy!

From left to right: Kristie, me and Val

Kristie's family - Mike, her husband and their two twins - Connor and Hannah

Val and her husband Marc - so cute!