Exercising vicariously

It's hard to believe (especially for Gretchen, who is most familiar with my couch potato ways), but I used to be a runner (junior varsity cross country team, locak 10K races, etc) back in the day. Nowadays I get winded walking up the hill to our house. I was reminded of this last night when we went down to watch the Basler Stadtlauf, a 5K race that starts and finishes in the newly-holiday-decorated downtown. Our friends Sabrina, Marlis and Jeff were running, so we went down to cheer and hang on to warm clothes for them. As much as I can't imagine myself running anywhere these days, I especially can't imagine running anywhere in sub-freezing temperatures. It was cold enough just standing around in our heavy coats, but then watching everyone strip down to their running gear made me want to immediately find a fireplace and a cup of hot chocolate.

Anyway, while our more athletic friends were celebrating the finish of the race...



...we took a slightly less healthy approach to the evening.