I know I said I was not going to do anymore running after the half marathon, but I’m like a junkie, I just can’t seem to quit the stuff.  I haven’t done any serious running, and I have gone to a doctor for my knees, and I have been doing the physical therapy that I was told to do.  The run today was kind of like a test to see if the physical therapy has been working and if we need to move forward with more drastic measures of fixing them.  I go back to physical therapy on Monday to assess any damage.  :)

Today, in the frigid Wichita weather, Royal and I bundled up and went and ran the Jingle Bell Run.  When we lived up in Seattle, I think we ran 3 or 4 of the Jingle Bell Runs there, and they have always been one of my favorites.  You get jingle bells along with your race number that you attach to your shoes so the mob of people running down the street sounds like mass jingling.  It’s awesome!  So very Christmasy!  However, I have never ran when it’s been so cold out.  The temp this morning was 28 degrees, but with the wind chill, it dropped it down to 12.  12 degrees!  It. was. C.O.L.D.   I wore my running tights and a pair of shorts over them because with just my tights on, my poor buns always get so cold. (tmi??? sorry, i guess i am losing sight of my boundaries for sharing)  And then I wore a tight tank top, a long sleeve moisture wicking shirt, a long sleeve fleece shirt, and then my running vest over that.  And then I wore a headband to warm up my ears and a fleece neck warmer I managed to find in my bag of ski stuff down in the basement to keep my neck and face warm.  I strapped on my race number, tied my jingle bells to my shoes, and I was ready!  It actually wasn’t as bad as I was imagining.  I woke up this morning wishing I had an excuse to not do the run because I hate being cold, but once we started and got the first 1/2 mile or so done, we flipped a 180 and had the wind at our back and the sun shining down, I actually started getting hot and thought about stripping a layer off.  But then I’d glance over at the Arkansas River that we were running next to and see that the top was completely frozen over and I decided to keep all my clothes on.  It was a good, fast run, and I only got sprayed by Royal’s spit twice.  (tmi???)

Jingle, jingle, jingle!