Dec20-26

R: 21,800 yds

B: 5h 6min

R: 6h 21min

Total: 17h 11min

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I spent mine dodging snow on the way to, on the way from, and in Birmingham and Atlanta, while also trying to maintain some fitness. Admittedly though this wasnt exactly easy as the bad weather and time in the car were conspiring against me. However, I did manage to complete some decent workouts.

Christmas morning I awoke to overcast skies and snow on the ground in Birmingham, not exactly the type of weather that invites you out. After the second cup of coffee from Philip's french press, I was finally ready to get the work done. By this time it was sleeting but the precipitation wasnt supposed to abate anytime soon, and I needed to get going.

Starting out, I immediately found some red arrows painted on the ground and started following. They were accompanied by "RNR 10" and before I knew it, I saw a '1' painted on the ground with the same red paint. Naturally, I assumed this was some type of measured course, and I was hoping it was a 10 mile loop. I was pretty excited because I didnt really have a route planned ahead of time and for some reason it just makes the time go by faster when all you have to do is follow some arrows.

When I saw the '2' on the ground, I was pretty positive I was on some type of measured course. At this point I was 20min into my run and, well, it was still really cold, so I figured getting the tempo out of the way would be a great way to increase my body temperature. Plus, I didnt know how many miles I'd have marked, and I certainly wanted to do the tempo on the marked portion. I clicked off the next 6 in right around 6min pace, from 6:10 down to 5:50, which brought me to mile '8'. I had finally warmed up and was feeling great. The sleet had turned to snow, but there wasnt much wind, so it was actually quite comfortable.

After finishing up the 10mile loop, I ran through the start again but this time followed the 5k loop. Conveniently, it passed right by Philip's house (where I was staying) a bit after 2 miles, bringing me to 1h25, or right around 13 for the day. When I finished, Philip had some pancakes waiting for me, so it was a pretty nice little Christmas morning!

As it turns out, the 10 mile course was for the Red Nose Run in Birmingham:

And 5k: