Happy Belated B'day, Kat.

Sorry about your foot, Crankin. Hope it heals quickly and doesn't impact your winter sports.

ChiRunning workshop was yesterday---it was great. I got to meet 7, which was a treat (I'm would love to have her swimmer's feet!!!). By the way, she's got great running form and was moving pretty swiftly when we were outside.

Today was our Jingle All The Way 8k race in DC. Unfortunately, my cold pretty much has me operating on 75% of my "jets," so I didn't feel that great. It was the first morning of the season that went below freezing at Reagan Nat'l, so it was cold. Insult to injury, the race started 20+ minutes late---everyone was freezing. Once we got moving, it was fine. I had five jingle bells on, several pinned to my fleece and one on my shoe. Lots of folks in the spirit, wearing reindeer headgear, santa hats, green sequin skirts, striped socks, etc. As usual, I overdressed and once we got in the sun, I was too warm.

Luckily, things opened up a little after the first mile in terms of being crowded, so I had room to work on the chirunning techniques I learned yesterday. Was in the groove of it for a bit, but my cold symptoms definitely impacted how I felt overall. I wrapped a buff around my forearm to help clean up my nose drainage, which was good planning. The last quarter mile or so, the accumulated junk in my throat/bronchial tubes made me gasping for a breath and sounding like as asthmatic. I was relieved to cross that finish line (they called out everyone's name over the loudspeaker as you finished).

My husband was about 3 or 4 minutes behind me, so I had time to stretch my calves and get cold before we schlepped it off to the car. Got to see the Nat'l Christmas tree on the way, plus the White House all decked out.

I'll check my time/finish results later. This is my longest run to date and because of my cold, I was just happy to run the entire thing and cross the finish line.