I love to run.

My husband thinks I'm crazy, but thankfully he supports me. In fact, he recently made my dreams come true by purchasing me a pair of these:
I am a solitary runner. My schedule has never allowed me to run in any neighborhood groups (There was one in particular back in Tucson that ran at five in the morning-crazy women.) but I know that I would prefer to run alone anyway. I love the peace I find running outside and letting my mind wander.

As a solitary runner I find it interesting that I receive a euphoric joy in running in huge groups of strangers. I love to run in races. From the moment I sign up for a race I am excited. The day of the race I am giddy.

Here in Southern Texas I have run in two events. The first was on Thanksgiving in the Turkey Chase. It was four miles of heaven.

Last Friday I ran in what was probably the funnest "fun run" ever. It was: The Lizard Who Stole Christmas fun run (Hosted by Lizardo's pub and sub). This run was at night and I talked Chris into bringing our children down town to see me run. What I didn't know was that there was no set course so they never found me. I did get my picture taken though:




You may have noticed my bright red legs. Those are my long johns-it is winter you know. I was happy to wear red on my legs and green on my arms but I found I was still underdressed for the festive run; people wore Santa hats, bells and Christmas lights. The leader of the group was in Santa shorts.

This run consisted of us following the man in Santa shorts as he meandered his way around downtown Corpus Christi. He led us in and out of bars, restaurants and even a hotel lobby. I was right next to this leader the whole run and I'm sure he made up the rout as he went, picking the bars that had the most patrons inside.

Did I mention we ran next to the ocean? So cool.