Jason & Freddy Kruger were chasing me today!

Yesterday was a nice slight day off day.  I only planned to do my weight training program as a way to save my legs for today's 20 mile run.  I even skipped the dumbbell step ups as a way to preserve my legs alittle bit.  The rest of the day was pretty busy at work as we are slowing down some as the holidays and cold wheather approaches.  I only had 2 other staff memebers scheduled for the hole day, so I was on the floor until I had to go pick up Kristina at school to get her first pair on glasses.

Kristina picked out the frames so she was pretty excited to get them to show them off to everyone.  There is lots of training involved, as we are never sure how much Kristina understands the "rules" sometimes.  Now we are adding rules for the glasses.  So far so good.  Glad I bought the warranty.

Saturday was extremely busy.  First on the training front, I needed to fit in a 20 mile run at some point today.  The day started off with an 8AM dentist appointment for all three kids.  The appointment was great.  All three cavity free.  The dentist said whatever we are doing to keep doing it.  He did say Kristina will need braces in the next 6 months to a year.  We not sure how she will handle that.  Downs kids often get braces, so she should be OK.  After the dentist, we picked up my neice and nephew to go vistit Mommom and Pop at the beach for a Lunch with Santa event at the Greater Wildwood Elks Club in North Wildwood, NJ.

The ride to the beach with 5 kids under 13 was relatively easy.  Thank God for the DVD player in the Explorer and the Nitendo DS game system.  It was a quite ride for the 90 minutes.  Once we arrived at Mommom & Pops house we unpacked the car, made sure all the kids went to the bathroom and headed out to Lunch with Santa. 

Lunch was crazy and long, had to be 100 kids there.  My plan was to run by 2PM so I would not be out in the real dark.  That planned BOMBED.    Good news was the kids had a great time, and that is really all that matters.  Here is Mommom with Brenna (neice), Mrs Clause, Kristina (daughter 10), Santa, and Emma (daughter 7).

I didn't head out for the run until 3:30PM, which meant I would be running in darkness for at least 1.5 hours on a dark road.  Its amazing how fast I was running in the dark past the heavily wooded parts.  The first 55 minutes I had light, then it gave way to darkness.  In the dark I so aware of my surroundings, watching for cars, pot holes on the shoulder, people, dogs, wildlife, and Freddy & Jason!  There were parts that lasted .75-1 mile at a time that were completely dark, no street lights, business lights, nothing.  The only thing that could have been alittle scarier would have been if there was a cemetary. 

The run was pretty good, 20 miles in under 2:26 or a 7:17 per mile pace.  Near the end my ass and calves were starting to shut down again.  This seems to happen when I go over 18 miles all the time.  As I am writing this entry, my legs are elevated and my glutes are throbbing.  Not a good feeling.  A run in the dark when you can only see your GPS every 200-300 yards is interesting, especially in TOTAL darkness.  I was  well hydrated and had a 4 Gu's, one every 4 miles on average. 

After the run it took me at least an hours to warm up from the run.  There were times when I had the shivers even with jeans, t-shirt, and sweatshirt on.  I know I will sleep like a baby tonight with no planned workout for Sunday.