Thursday, 12/24

Apparently the Whitewater Center decided to tease me by finally opening on Wednesday, when I was scheduled to spend the next few days with Stephanie's family, doing Christmas/birthday things. Luckily, I managed to snag a few hours on Thursday, and got out to the USNWC for possibly the last run of the year there, with the bad weather scheduled for that night. As much as I wanted to put in a full 2 hours on the trails, I needed to get home to shower and dress for dinner at her Nana's, so I did 81 minutes and 7.4 miles. Felt pretty good throughout, packed extra layers to practice strapping them on my hydration pack and carrying extra weight. Apparently I should start wearing a bell when I'm running, as I once again scared someone on trail, simply by saying "on your left" as I was approaching. 10:57 pace was intentional, wanted to take it easy, walked one hill just to get a feel for that part of the course, planning on doing the 13 miler here in a few weeks. Also, burning a thousand calories is a good way to get ready for Christmas feasting.