Christmas Lights Night Runs and the TOUGHEST run I have ever done...yet.

RUNS: Wow it has been a busy running week! After the debacle with Rachel breaking her foot, I ran the next night with the local road running club for their Christmas Lights Night run. I cant remember if I ran 5 or 6 miles that night but either way, it was a bunch of fun!

Then Friday night we had our other Christmas Lights Night run which had some of the same people but was more of a friends of friends type of get together. The idea is to run 12 miles for the twelve days of xmas but I only ran half because my legs are still quite heavy from the 50k last week and I needed to save them for the weekend too.

Here is a before run picture of us all...

Good looking group...huh?!

Saturday morning we got up semi-early to head to some new-to-us trails! We were going to run a course that I have been wanting to run for some time but havent had the chance. They run a FatAss Marathon on these trails in the spring and everyone raves about it. But I havent been to one yet. Our running guide, Brian, runs the trails often because he lives nearby. The good thing about Brian being lead is that in the marathon there is a sometimes very deep water crossing (depending on the water levels) but he knows the way around it!

Thank you Brian because if you run a measly one mile further on the trail you can cross a bridge and avoid getting wet altogether. Extra great because it was barely over 32degrees that morning AND we stopped by where the water crossing was and it was atleast waist deep and flowing VERY fast. I would have never crossed it with my fear of water. No way.

The first miles were going good. My legs felt still heavy but good. I was only going to run 16 miles so no problem, I could handle this! The first 500ft climb was tough but I made it up and was rewarded with a nice downhill quad crusher. Mental note that I would indeed have to go back up that on the return.

I did well up until we got to the climb you can see below at about the 7 mile mark. It was 1000ft up in 1 mile.

The 1000ft climb sure does make the two 500ft climbs look small, lol!!

Ouch is about all I can say. It took me about 36 minutes from the time we stood there and talked about whether we wanted to do it or not until I got to the top. This also included me stopping to take several pictures and stopping TWICE to whine that I was turning around because I didnt think I could make it. Twice the boys talked me into continuing. And I just couldnt help to want to see what was at the top of the mountain.

Here are some of the pictures on the climb...

See the top of the mtn in the background? That is where we are headed.

Rik stopping to "refill" his bottle from a waterfall.

Rocky trails.

So once we finally got to the top we were rewarded with some of the most wicked 30-40mph winds of the day, lol. But we also then coasted back down another trail for about 4.5 miles to the bottom. That part was pretty sweet!

Of course that also meant that since we didnt just go back down the mountain we tacked on about 5 miles to our route. And after we climbed that hill my legs were toast. That meant I had miles to return with spent legs. I think I whined more then I ever had before. It was truly one of the toughest runs I have ever done. Just about everything in my body hurt. Everything.

In one breath I was saying that I would never run these trails again. And then in the next breath I was wondering how well I could do on fresh legs. Maybe someday I will find out but it will not be anytime soon!!!

EATS: In honor of the holidays I bring to you a picture of the cookies Rik & Dakota made! Who doesnt love some peanut butter cookies dipped in chocolate?!

Reindeer cookies!

TOTALLY NOT RUNNING OR EATING RELATED: I just wanted to mention how proud I am of my son for becoming a PA certified EMT while carrying a full time college course load. So proud!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!!

May peace be with you.