Runner's Anonymous Christmas Run

The idea for this Christmas run starting formulating in my brain shortly after a fun Thanksgiving run that I participated in with some of these friends. I belong to a Facebook group called Runner's Anonymous and I started advertising to them to come join in at the local Jr. high track for as little or as long as you wanted to run. You could walk, run, stroll, or just whatever your heart desired.
Cindy Hills in the yellow/green jacket was so helpful in keeping people informed and reminding them of this planned get-together. We set up at 7:00 am just slightly before it started getting light.  Me and Cindy arrived first and put up card tables with a cute Christmas table cloth.  I loved how we were both thinking alike.  Shortly after we got set up, Shannon from Hurricane arrived and her friend Melanie, all the way from Layton came down.  I love how running just brings people out from both far and near. 

Us four ladies started our run in the dark and got a couple laps in and then pretty soon others started showing up.  Mike Talbot and his dog Rocky were next.  Then Monnica Skinner and Gay Tregaskis.  As each new person would drive up and park we would stop and visit and then continue running.  I just absolutely loved that it didn't matter how fast or slow each person was, we could run and visit regardless.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

We continued running round and round that track and then along came Kevin and Elise Kunz, our trusty founders of the RA Group.  We all wanted pictures with them because they are just so fun to hang out with.

I put a challenge out there to the group that whomever runs the furthest would get a prize.  My goal for the day was a half marathon and I was sure wishing others would be hanging with me that long.  I wasn't sure though what everyone else had planned, but in the end it was me all by myself to complete my goal of 13.1 miles.

We had one determined girl decide she was going to get this gift and so she kept track of laps on her arm with a pen.  I think she needs to ask Santa for a Garmin.  Soooo much easier.  She was so dedicated in marking those dots and continuing to run, run, run.  Plus, she made all the muffins and the awesome paper/medals for everyone.  She definitely deserved the prize.

She also had encouraged everyone to wear their ugliest sweater and she was the only one to show up in something semi-ugly.  It was an ornament vest that she seemed to run in with no problem. That alone deserved the prize.

Shannon was just proving that we were sweating and working hard out there in the frigid cold.  Look at the cute icicles that formed on her hair.

Gay was so kind to bring her stove and set it up to make hot chocolate.  She also brought those cute little goodie bags with 2 power bars and an orange inside for each one of us.  Whenever we stopped to chat we would get cold, so it was either drink hot chocolate or run.

We would run awhile and then stop and visit and take pictures, then run some more, then drink hot chocolate, then run some more and stop and visit.  I'm not sure if we were running more or playing more.  As each new set of people would come we just had to stop and make introductions and chit chat some more.  Then as people would go home we needed to stop and give hugs and visit some more and say good-bye.  We probably chatted more than we ran.

These friends of mine right here are so awesome.  Annaleesa hangs out with me, travels with me, plays racquetball with me and would run with me if her knees would behave better. She makes me laugh anytime I'm with her.  Kirsten is the daughter of Laurie and is one of my cute piano students, Erica is also the daughter of Laurie and is heading off to South America to go on a mission in a little over two months.  Laurie on the right is my good friend who I have talked about many times on the blog.  She is my stalwart walking buddy and is there through so much with me.  She is not a runner but she came today to hang out and visit and do a few laps because she is just so supportive in all I do.  I was so happy to see these 4 cute faces this morning and hang out with them for a few laps.

 Cindy made these paper awards for us that everyone proudly wore!

This was by far my slowest half marathon of the year (about 3 1/2 hours) but I was having too much fun to care about that.  Having the opportunity to interact with other runners and meet new friends and visit and eat snacks just felt more like a big party.  In the end I accomplished my goal. It just took longer than usual to do it today.  But I definitely had a good time doing it and hope to have more opportunities to do this again.