Christmas Eve. In shorts and t-shirt

From left: Lawyer Dave, Santa Ken, Coach Pete, Neil (de la Hoya), Fast Tony (the Czar)

Normally, I don’t post group run photos that I am in. I mean, who cares about a group of middle aged men (and, in my case, painfully slow middle-aged man) who go jogging? We run several times per week, usually in the pre-dawn darkness for most of the year. Nothing noteworthy there. This photo is noteworthy because of the weather; it was taken after a 6-mile run from Starbucks in Poughkeepsie, across the Walkway and back, on Christmas Eve morning. Temperature close to 60 degrees, on Dec. 24. If you can forgive the chaotic and obnoxious mix of colors – hey, we run in the dark usually, so no one sees us – you’ll note the prevalence of shorts and t-shirts for most of us. On Christmas Eve! This is crazy! Typically, an early morning run in December finishes with temperatures 30 to 40 degrees colder than today. That’s a huge difference, and it felt GREAT. Our run start time was a relatively leisurely 7 a.m., as opposed to our usual 5:35 a.m. gun time (yeah, in my shape, those morning runs are feeling more and more like races these days; in fact, after one particularly brutal run for me, I told Ken that we needed bib numbers out there in the dark). But hey. Given the patched together nature of my body, after where I was back in March and April, getting out for 6 miles at 8-minute pace with the boys is my one true Christmas gift this year. Merry Christmas to one and all.