Over The River And Through The Woods, Cheryl Runs The Santa Shuffle Half-Marathon.

Santa Shuffle Half 
Marathon! 

 As with all things 2020, this one was Virtual as well.   However, we managed to pull it off in Muscatine on a pleasant day!  The next few days are supposed to be terrible here in Iowa.   Rain, Snow, Wind, Blisteringly cold!  All add up to us running a half marathon a day early so we can avoid such misery.  

Cheryl "Bearding Up" 
for Safety...

Not that the running part alone is not miserable enough.  13.1 miles!   Untrained!  ( Mostly)   Cheryl was rather surprised that she was able to finish it in under 2 hours without stopping at all.   That is also including no hot cocoa, no water, no candy canes,   no bathroom breaks.   Overall,   a rather poorly run Half-Marathon, if you ask me.   Who runs a half marathon without any water breaks on the course?   It's Crazy!

No water on the Course?

I guess there are always going to be negatives with running a virtual race.  One being that you have to provide all that stuff on your own.  We had no hot cocoa or water to speak of.  I doubt Cheryl would have accepted it even if I had lugged it along for security.   She often feels that drinking water in any race under 14 miles long is for "wimps!"   And I hate having to drag along unneeded supplies unnecessarily, 

I dislike Extra baggage, And
Race Officials....

But one of the perks of Virtual racing is that I get to tag along beside her and no Race Official is yelling at me to get off the course.   (I dislike Race Officials.   They always only seem to be yelling at me for some reason....)   So I was able to ride my bike on the course, and snap a bunch of pictures all along the way. 

Cheryl at every mile!  ( Mostly) 

This means that I was able to capture every mile and every moment of the race from the best positions.   But since most of the pictures were taken along the same trail along the Mississippi,  they ended up looking pretty much the same as all of those other pictures I have shot over the years. 

Required eating for every race!

One note,  Cheryl was VERY grateful that there was no snow on the course.  Running a Santa Shuffle in the snow sounds romantic and fun.   But after 13.1 miles,  it is no sleigh ride to Grandmas.

We finished it up and Cheryl celebrated with some Famous Amos cookies and a McDonalds Happy Meal. Sometimes it is the little things that have to be celebrated. 

The Bling was pretty cool.   Cheryl, for Safety Reasons, had to put her own finisher's Medal on.   The medal was a Christmas Package that opens up and reveals a happy Santa Shuffle Finisher's Slogan.   How fun!  

Open the Present!

The Prize inside!

She also put on the zip up jacket/hoodie that has the race logo on it.   If you look closely, you will also note that there are little Santas embossed on the sleeves.  A nice touch!

Facing the incoming weather, We visited HyVee to purchase all of our Holiday Snacks so we can hole up and hide out while the snow falls and wind blows.   I should note that Cheryl finished first in her age group.   First in her gender category, and First Over All!   She was able to sweep all of the trophies simply by being the only one to show up and run the race.   Who says being the Sole Participant doesn't pay?

Is that a Santa on your
Sleeve?

Nice!

As for now,  we are relaxing at home with the cats ( the neighbor cat just joined us.)  and trying to figure out what our next plan of attack is for the holidays.  I should phrase it differently, but I do believe we have to take life events head on as if we are facing an opponent. A very, Very Hostile opponent!  ( Life is not always very nice... Especially during the Holidays!) 

I should also note that this post will TIE my 2010 year of blogging posts.   I doubt I will ever match the 2009 number, as I pretty much blogged every day about nothing.   ( I was new to the blog world...  I still didn't know what I was doing...) I think "about 200" posts a year is a good pace for blogging.  I have to let things actually happen to be able to write about them.   And being stuck in the middle of No-Where Iowa can make that a bit of a challenge sometimes.  

Making sure Life is not Boring...

But I do have an advantage by being married to Cheryl and having a Pride of Cats circling around me for material.  There are a few days remaining in this year of disasters.  I still might be able to get that number over 200 yet! As long as the posts are not too boring.  

Saturn/Jupiter "Star" 
last night....?

By the way?  Anyone catch that Saturn/ Jupiter alignment last night?   I think I did, but if it was the actual "star of Bethlehem," it was pretty lack-luster.  Perhaps shepherds "watching their flocks at night" are more easily impressed. But to me, it looked like every other star in the night sky.   OR..  I might have missed it since it was low in the horizon.   It's possible. 

Thanks for stopping in!