Hell freezes over.

There's a couple of levels of meaning to that tag-line. First, the obvious one, which is the temperature outside. Wasn't it hotter than Hades just a week ago, on Dec. 1st? Today, I was supposed to do a long run of 16 miles. I knew it was supposed to be cold today, but much for lack of better judgment, I tried anyway, and for the first time I can remember, I actually failed at completing a long run. I did one loop of Central Park (and only saw a half dozen other runners on the entire loop, by the way) and my fingers had gotten too numb to continue, so I ran back home, finishing the day with 8 miles. I was wearing gloves, just not very thick ones. Need to make a note of that for next time. It was cold, but it was the wind that was the killer. Getting back inside, I checked the weather. It was 22°F, but 9° with the wind chill. That's -13°C, which is a far cry from the 70° last Friday (21°C) and in general, just too damn cold.

Now I'm stuck without a long run this week, unless I try again in the next two days. I avoided doing a long run last week so that I could get a PR in the five mile on Saturday. This week I was planning to skip the 10k race on Sunday in hopes of getting in more mileage. However, earlier in the week, our mens team captain notified us that the Flyers are tied at 133 points and in first place of the 'Mens B' division with the Polish Running Club. Apparently those eastern Europeans are fast, and the team who takes the 10k on Sunday moves into the more respectable 'Men's A' division. And I'm part Polish in ethnicity, too, so now it's personal!

This is going to be a tough competition, though, and we can only win this if they're missing a couple of their faster runners. In two previous 10ks this year, their three top runners finished at a sub-6-minute pace. I don't think I'll be walking away with any PRs either. I set my 10k PR at the Scotland Run, which is the easier, clockwise loop of the park, and at that time I was at peak fitness prior to my injury.

Anyway, tying that discussion back to my point about running long, I don't want to do a long run tomorrow if I'm racing the next day, but I can still get in a long run if I do a park loop after the 10K. Assuming a 2-mile warmup, this would amount to 14 miles, which would make me perfectly content. I'm not usually good at the follow-through on this, though. Normally the fruit, bagels, and socialising after the race get the better of me. Ooh, that fruit!

Back to "when Hell freezes over", I went caroling last weekend with some friends. Before that, I don't think I've sung a Christmas carol in 25 years, and really didn't think I'd do it again, at least not until the devil started celebrating Christmas. But there I was, singing on Park Avenue as they lit up the trees. It helped that we had wine and hot cider beforehand, and I do use the term "singing" very loosely. I thought I'd remember the words to all those songs I sang back in elementary school, but no such luck, I had to read them. I was surprised how very short they were, not even longer than two minutes each. I was fun, anyway.

Moving on from the Hell references but continuing along the Christmas theme, tonight's the Flyers Holiday Party. It's actually a pretty good deal: Food and drink specials and an open bar for an hour, all for twenty-odd dollars. That said, if I hadn't paid for it weeks ago when I did - that is, before I spent all the money on my party, and before my stereo meltdown, and before I realised how much I had to spend on Christmas this year, and before my friend reminded me that I have to contribute for a gift for another friend who's having a baby, etc., etc., etc. - I probably would've skipped it this year. But whatever, it'll be a good time, no doubt. It's just too bad it's way over on first ave. Every time I go that far over to the East Side, I always think I should have booked a flight to London or Paris, since I'm already halfway there anyway.