Last day of January

Twas a perfect morning for a run on Saturday. Oh it was a little chilly at the start, but once the piggies started hitting the pavement, all was well.The paparazzi was out in full force this morning.In the spotlight: they're both good friends, both awesome ultra-runners, both handsome, and they're both named Ken!


And speaking of handsome, Michael was spotted wearing his handsome Firepants.

Jim looks over the directions for the running route.

Roman is caught on film just a split second before leaping into photo-bombing mode.

Battle of the obnoxious camera guys.

Simone, representing the more advance species of half marathoners. Love the glasses Simone!

This is a picture with several captions. In the pink hoodie, Joye says, "Can we go now?" The guy in the black vest scratches his hiney with his heel. Kathy scratches her hiney on the back of Lisa's head. Lisa is about to hurl. The dude with the yardstick is prepared to smack down any projectiles. And on the left, Tom takes great pains to get his mustache in the picture.

Enough sillines....it's time to get running.Heading across the river....up the nice long hill. There were a few icy patches to dodge, but nothing major until later in the run.

Bobby chugs along, pulling a train of chilly runners. BTW, be sure to check out the $6.99 deal at Mazzio's for Sunday night. Go Cardinals.

Time to hydrate. Throw a water bucket out in the middle of nowhere, and it turns into a huge social event for sweaty runners.

Heading south on Elwood. The road was narrow, but the cars were courteous. And, going south from this point was better than going north from this point. Count for this stretch: road bikers....36. Dump trucks....15. Dump trucks that I got to honk.....9.

Cruising the outskirts of Jenks.

To make the 12 miles that the marathoners needed to run, we had to head up the Creek Turnpike Trail for about 1.5-2 miles. This involved a nice climb up to Harvard. But beyond Harvard, the snow and ice had not melted much.So we turned around and headed back. Can always tack an extra mile on later.

Eventually, we made it back to Helmerick Park, and ate a few snacks, shot the breeze, and fed the squirrels.

Rumor has it that someone is engaged!It's none other than Super Runner Girl Rachel!!