Going Native{American}*

*No Turkeys were harmed or killed in the creation of today's blog entry!!!

While the masses celebrated the holiday today, I the poster child for all things non holiday treated today like a day off and took advantage of the opportunity to get my long run in today rather Sunday.

On the road by 10.20am I was greeted by grey skies and snowflakes....YES snowflakes which then turned into sleet.....so much for these conditions being restricted to the Poconos eh John Bolaris Fox 29 Weather man!!!
If today was about giving thanks then I was thankful for my baseball cap and gloves and now that my issue w/ the bank has been resolved I think the thermal running gloves and thermal skull cap I want are being ordered tomorrow,looks like last Sunday's 16 miler was my last run in shorts until the indoor track season kicks off in January.

There were several fellow hardy souls out along the Schuylkill Banks and Art Museum Loop when I got there,somewhat reassuring that I wasn't alone in my desire to log a training run today.
As the sleet continued to fall I began to question the idea of making this my 16 miler,I had chances to turn around and make this either 10 miles,12 miles or 13 miles but kept going,the thing about getting wet while running is much like standing under a shower,you reach saturation point where you can't get any wetter and besides getting the 16 miler taken care of today meant tomorrow,Saturday and Sunday would be 12,13 and 10 milers,the Sunday 16 miler when I have food shopping and laundry to take care of tends to be all day time consuming so w/ this rare chance to get a weekday 16 miler under my belt served as driving force to keep going.

Crossing Falls Bridge at 8 miles meant I was half way there and even though my hands were a little numb and visibility through my glasses was almost impossible I kept plugging away,as each mile along Kelly Drive went by I kept telling myself that a hot shower and an even hotter mug of hot Cider were waiting for me when I got home and exiting Schuylkill Banks w/ roughly 3 miles to go the sleet and the rain stopped and in spite of tired limbs and hands that felt like mini ice blocks{I think I must have the worst circulation in medical history!}I saw my mission through to the end.

W/ hot shower and mug of hot Cider taken care of I settled in for the afternoon and caught up w/ some of my backlog of dvr'd tv shows b4 a large helping of Vegetable Lasagna w/ Cesar Salad and Texas Toast for dinner and now b4 I call it a nite and face the prospect of work tomorrow I guess I'm thankful for having taken care of business today.