Mack likes limericks, and he (along with the group) wrote this one for the occasion:
There once was a small running crew,
Who in numbers just grew and grew,
But it wasn't the running that kept them coming,
It was the friendship and brew!
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| 16 runners in attendance = 16 bags of alcohol to fight over |
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| My attempt to show our "parking lot" setup. There were 16 cars there (I couldn't fit them all in the frame) and it was our biggest group ever running this morning (13 ran, 3 met us afterward to party). We were missing a couple of key players (Jay, Lee, and Christina), and we missed Sophie out in Cali too, but scheduling is hard over the holidays. |
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| Mack giving the pre-gift exchange toast and reiterating the rules... |
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| JP brought his fire pit again this year, so we had hot boudin and a variety of smoked sausages (and a place to warm our hands) |
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| Mimosa or Poinsettia? I had both. The girls made the food and the boys brought the champagne (which translated to 7 bottles consumed during the course of the 3-hour post run party), which tends to be how it goes (girls bringing the snacks, boys bringing the alcohol) and it works well for us. |
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| JP opened the first gift and picked the Apple Pie Moonshine that I brought, which was ultimately stolen 3 times and ended up in Tank's possession at the end. I took home a gift pack of Jack Daniels and glasses. |
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Everyone in attendance (minus Lori, who had to leave early):
Francine, Robert, Tank, Daniel, Amy H, Mack F, Terry, Amy G, Tom, Beth, Mack V, Kristi, Ike, JP
I am truly lucky to be part of such a great group of friends and runners - I have spent more hours with these people over the past couple of years than I ever thought I would, and I am very thankful for their good company, their running knowledge, and their ability to throw a great tailgate every Saturday morning! |
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| When your group of runners has 5 CrossFit junkies, you force them to do party tricks... |
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| "The Amys" agreed that burpees are even harder than usual after consuming half a bottle of champagne... |
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| Next came "Double Unders" (double jumps - remember your Elementary school tricks?), and JP and Mack didn't want to be outdone by the ladies, so they gave them a try (after JP kicked off his cowboy boots) |
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| I'm telling you, Mack just turned 70 and could care less about "age norms". He can jump rope with the CrossFitters, run 5Ks and 10Ks faster than most of us in the group (even the 20-somethings), and never misses an opportunity to socialize. He ran a marathon last weekend (not even 3 weeks after getting that pacemaker put in...), just to prove that turning 70 wouldn't stop him from running them. Not that any of us doubted him. Amy G ran the whole thing with him (just to be sure that pacemaker didn't cause him any trouble - it didn't), which was sweet, but also kinda crazy (since she's been training for her first full marathon next month and was suppose to just run the half last weekend, as her longest training run to date had been 16.5 miles - she was scheduled to do 18 that day, so she figured "What's another 6 miles?"... then we had to correct her that 18 + 6 is 24, not the 26.2 you run in a marathon... she fits right in to this group of crazies!) |
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| As the party started to dwindle in size, we spotted a Bud Light truck driving by, so we waved him over... because the champagne was gone and so was the growler of Jay's Chai Milk Stout that he let me bring (wished he could have been there - everyone missed him terribly!) These runners usually prefer Bud Light to anything else after a run (and I'll admit, that is the only time I find them palatable... they are really refreshing after running 10-20 miles...) and they badly wanted some free samples. Turned out that JP knew the guy and he would have been happy to provide free beer (or so he said), except all the samples were at his house. Oh well, worth a shot! |
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