Christmas Weekend Wrap-up

Hallelujah the Christmas season is officially over!!!

Let us all take a moment to congratulate ourselves on making it through! Seriously, I'm convinced; Christmas = Crazy. People are crazy, traffic is crazy, work is crazy, etc... I for one am glad it's over and anxiously await New Years and all the wonderful things 2010 will bring! *Steps down from her soap box*

That being said let's do a little Redhead Christmas Recap shall we?

Christmas Eve

Thursday I had to work a half day at the big girl job and then a shift at the night gig... with a break in between I decided to sleep in that morning and do my pace work out in the afternoon. Attempting to get into the Christmas spirit, I decided to hold my very own Christmas themed pace race of sorts over at the Cady Way. I guess I should also mention that it was about 80 degrees out (not exactly Christmas weather)... which resulted in this outfit;

I call this The Awkward Self-Timer, Show off Ridiculous Outfit, I Promise I'm going Running Pose.

See the reindeer bell? (Hint on the left)

That get up lasted all of about a mile before I took off the socks (WAY too HOT!!!) and hid them in a bush and put my hair in a pony tail because the braids were slapping me in the face. Oh and did I mention how absolutely annoying a reindeer bell can be when you are all by yourself... not to mention all the dogs in the immediate area I p*ssed off. Basically it was a big FAIL but the few people who saw me running sure got a kick out of it... or maybe they thought I was a freak. Either way, I crack myself up and that's all that really matters. Christmas spirit... CHECK!

After the night gig I headed over to Beaker Luv's house to check on her obnoxious cats as she was taking RJ on his first visit up North to see her family and snow. (Pictures to follow... right Beaker Luv???) She had mentioned that "Santa" had left me something under the tree so after I checked up on the cats and made sure they were set I look towards the tree to find this; OMG!!!

That my friends is my new, powder blue bike!!! I am so stoked!!!

(A little back story is required here; see back in our college days, our friend Rolly used to live with the Beaker Luv & hubs, and when he moved back to mountain country he left his bike behind. He is 6'3". Last year I decided to commandeer said bike even though I am a midget. Just imagine me having to climb atop the bike each time I wanted to ride it, never being able to touch the ground and having to jump off of it as a result... it was a rather comical sight to see but hey, it was free and beggars can't be choosers. So for over a year now I've been riding around on this giant bike much to the entertainment of others.... until now!)

Thank you so much Beaker Luv!!! I can't wait to ride around on my new bike!!! You are the best!!! (I have since passed over the giant bike to The Brunette because it's actually her size. LOL!)

After I left Beaker Luv's, I headed over to Lake County to spend the evening with my Jamily and her family over at Granny's. We sat around until almost midnight catching up, eating cookies and enjoying each other's company. It was a perfect end to a great day.

Christmas

I woke up bright an early to... rain. Boo!!! So I rolled over and nodded off until I woke up again to find... no rain. Score! Out the door I go for a quick 4 miler. Yup, I totally ran Christmas morning much to the amazement of the entire Jamily Fam. Once I got back and cleaned up we exchanged gifts and then had a super yummy breakfast... MMM!!! Gotta love home cooking!

After breakfast I was off to my beloved Rixy's house over in Bradenton (another Redhead tour of the state... what's new) where we spent the entire day AND night in our PJ's, exhanged silly presents, played with "The Pirate's" toys, played drunken Wii, made Christmas dinner and held an impromptu sprint race where Rixy's boyfriend totally smoked me. (For the record I blame the the brewskies I had consumed and having already run that day for the FAIL that was.) Because I am a light weight and the amazing turkey dinner put me in a food coma I was crashed out cold by 11pm-ish. I'm such an exciting house guest huh?

The following morning Rixy and I decided to snuggle up in bed and proceed to watch movie's the rest of the day. Gotta love a good PJ and movie day! All too soon though I needed to head home and just like that, our day was over and it was back to O-town I go. :( I love you Rixy! Thank you for such a great Christmas!!!

Fa-la-la-la-Fourteen Miler

Sunday morning after a few FAIL'd attempts at it, I finally got out the door for my 14 Miler that I had on deck. (Normally I run on Saturdays but I had switched my run around so I could make the most of my time with Rixy Saturday) Just like last weekend, I decided to just wing it. (I had originally meant to do it over at Cady Way but upon arriving I realized I left my Spibelt at home that had my Gu and there was no way I was running 14 miles without any Gu, so I had to head home) I took off from my house and decided to head over to a new pedestrian bridge I had noticed that went around a lake by my old neighborhood. 5 miles later I get there only to find a big chain link fence blocking the entrance and a sign that says "BRIDGE CLOSED." D@mn it.

So there I am, 5 miles from home with 9 miles left to trek. What to do!? What to do!? Seeing as how I was close to my old neighborhood I decided to run my old stomping grounds and rack up 4 more miles. After that I headed back and got caught up in a little bit of rain towards the end but none the worse for the wear. I gotta be honest though, the entire run was tough for some reason. My legs were tight and I think I was kinda bored all by myself again. Needless to say I am even more excited to run my long run this weekend with Spike; if only to have someone to talk to and help me push through the rough miles! Despite everything I still managed a great pace the entire run so I guess it wasn't all bad, but I'm def ready to be done with this solo running. B.o.B and I actually had a conversation this weekend about switching off weekends from here on out until Gasparilla so neither of us were stuck running alone. Ahhh the joys of Marathon training eh?

Well that's it for me kiddies, it was a fab Christmas thanks to my wonderful friends who filled the void of my not being with my Family. I love them all so much and so thankful to have them in my life! I have been attempting to catch up on my blog reading to see what ya'll had going on this weekend so bare with me as I am STILL down a computer at home. (There's only so much blog reading I can effectively get away with here at work! LOL!) I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend as well!!!

9 more weeks til Gasparilla!!!