Virtual Turkey Trottin'!!

Today’s Numbers: Nancy's Days Run: 188 Nancy's 2014 Mileage: 939.5 Elly's 2014 Mileage: 358.8 Money Found For Food Bank: $0.31

What a day! What a day!! And, the great part of it actually started yesterday when my Virtual Running Partner Extraordinaire, Mary Kate, was here!! YAHOO!!

Her travels with her family for Thanksgiving paid off big-time for me because I was along the route!! Our visit was twice as sweet as it was long, and I loved every minute of it!! And, what a great pre-kick off to our virtual run this morning!! Yes, she was here, but she also hit the road, so even though we were together, there was no running together. Besides, doesn't that just cut into talk time? It's so much higher quality of conversation when having it in a chair as opposed to while running. Just sayin'.

This morning, we were together in spirit ... and, on the phone!

The starting phone call is a must.
We're about ready to hit it!!

I was very excited to tell her about the snow we were getting
because it wasn't happening where she was.

Oh, and that turkey on a stick? I made those for us. It seemed absolutely necessary to carry one while running. Because it was. I gave Mary Kate hers yesterday, and she seemed genuinely enthused about it. She's used to me, so it came as no real surprise to receive something like that, too.

Thanks to Google images, I found a turkey running. You have
to have a turkey running when doing these things. (Oh, and
that isn't Elly's bandana; it's my pillow case. I had to find a
reason to use more of that fabric because it's awesome.)

Okay, anyway, we said our hellos and our good lucks and our call-you-when-I-finish jabber, took a quick selfie with my Pit Crew Chief and biggest fan ...

... and, off we went! The snow was really starting to come down as soon as I started. It was awesome ... so pretty!!!

It was also really quite wet, so I figured the camera should stay safe in its plastic bag in my pocket until the snow let up. I'd already gotten it kind of wet because the combination of carrying the stick and wearing a hat deluded me into thinking I was actually under an umbrella. For real. The next thing I knew, I was all, "Oh, crap, wet camera," and I reached into my pocket to get the plastic bag ... that was no longer there. DRAT! Fortunately, I found it upon a quick U-turn:

Finding it saved Aaron a frantic phone call to come bring me
another one ...

Except for the fact that one of my shoes finally gave in to the moisture by Mile 2 (and was totally saturated ... and, cold ... by the end), I was really quite warm and dry the entire way. It was fortunate that I was running on fresh snow because it allowed for a bit of grip. Any area where the snow had already been touched was slick. Yay for being up and out early in the game! That way, I could enjoy a lot of the scenery ...

Indeed, that is my turkey on a stick on the left. I used it to wave
at a handful of people in their cars. They did not wave back.

Along the way, I thought about Mary Kate and her husband who were out running 'with' me and hoping they were enjoying themselves. By the picture, I'd say, apparently, they were!

He totally cracks me up!!

Mary Kate sent me a great picture of her running showing a really cool scene, but Picasa is having a really big attitude about uploading it. Her coolness clearly broke it. I'll share it later if we can figure it out because I really like it, and she's awesome.

I enjoyed my outing, too, being out in the snow (often with my mouth open and tongue out just enough to catch hundreds of snowflakes -- perhaps why people wouldn't wave at me ...), being more entertained than annoyed by my foot getting wetter and wetter, finding 31 total cents to restart the Food Bank fund (yahoo!!) and giggling to myself that if it weren't for the fabulous turkey medal, I likely would not have gone 6 miles again until after the New Year. Sometimes, I need the bling to push me farther. It's a guilty running pleasure; I make no apologies.

Before I knew it, this run was a wrap!

Indeed, the medal is different from the one
eating the pie. It's a long story, but I knew
it before I entered. So, no harm, no ...
wait for it ... foul.

Aaron met me to present the medal and to get us bagels (sweeeeeet ...)

An everythingy-everything bagel, please. And, yes, that is
exactly how we order it because, sometimes, the everything
falls off and it's more of a little-bit-of-stuff bagel. And,
that's no good. They're used to us, too. Except when we get a
new person which is when we get the look ... They learn.

While we were waiting, Aaron noted the snow on my hat:

I would periodically hit my hat with my turkey stick, and snow
would slide off in front of my face like it does in front of a
window on your house.

With bagels from here and fruit-n-yogurt parfaits from McDonald's in hand, I got the call from Mary Kate!! This is probably my all-time favorite running call from her, too, as she explained with no apology the following: They did not go the full 10K distance and either weren't sure exactly how far they did go, or they really didn't care. They had to stop and look up directions as to where they were to go at one point, and the elevation of some of the hills they unexpectedly encountered was not what they were especially used to. Put all of that together, and this couple ran the run they decided would work for them, and that was that. She sounded happy, I got a huge kick out of it, and we both (all three!) had a great morning!

As. It. Should. Be.

Whatever the distance was, we all finished!

This lady rocks!!

I got off the phone from laughing with her to being greeted by my young Crewers and, of course, my retired-of-training-duties trainer:


Not much went as would have been expected for any of us this morning, but I think it turned about better than we could have planned as it seemed to work for all of us, too!! Thank you again, Mary Kate and Chad, for a great run and for inspiring me to keep going, and, to my Crew who all play their own parts in making me better!

And, tomorrow? The whole family is in it together!! We will all check in after the morning run!