I was runnnnning in the rain.....just runnnning in the rain!

Ok, so I have both of my holiday runs under my belt now.  I did the 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.  First time I ever ran that far in my VFF's.  It was an awesome run.  Over 20,000 people attended.  The amount of people made it hard for me to get my pace where I wanted it to be, but I still ran the whole thing and was very happy that I burned all those calories before I sat down to eat like there was no tomorrow that afternoon!  Finished in 1 hour, 5.2 miles, at a 11:40 overall pace.

(Thunder Cloud Subs T-Shirt Logo for 2011 Turkey Trot)

Now this morning I ran a 5k called the Jingle Bell 5k for MADD.  It was at The Domain, which is like a higher end, outdoor, shopping center.  I had done this race before, back in 2008 and really liked the course, so that's why I decided to make it my Christmas run again this year.  Unlike in 2008, I ran this year's run in my VFF's with jingle bells included!

This was a rain or shine race and boy oh boy did it rain!!  It has been raining here in Austin, TX for 2 days now and today the temps had dropped into the 40's with a breeze coming in from the north as well!  So it was an interesting race for me because I had never run in the rain before.  Let me say that I felt like running in the rain somehow brought me closer to a "Zen-like" feeling.  It felt great to have the rain on my face and even though my VFF's were totally soaked, they actually kept my feet warm, almost like wearing a wetsuit for my toes!  I absolutely loved this race.  There were maybe 500 people (I haven't checked the website yet for the actual sats, but that was a good guess), which made getting to my pace very easy.  Once over the starting line, it was easy to get out of the crowd and find an open space to run.  I only saw maybe 3 other people in VFF's and a handful in other minimalist shoes.  I was thankful that I didn't have to take every step in a soggy, squishy, "normal" running shoe.  Even though I could feel every puddle, I had great traction and I wasn't "retaining" any water.  My ending time was 34mins, for 3.2miles, at a 10:45 overall pace, and I jingled all the way!