Swedish Christmas presents

You may recall back in June I played a prank for the ages on our Sunday morning "leader," Jack. You can read it here (Swedish Bikini Team).

Okay. You read it?

Well Thursday I sent Jack an email at the Orlando Runners Club address signed by Helga and Ingrid alerting him to their return visit to Southeast United States for the holidays. They asked if he'd run with them Sunday morning. I received no reply.

I showed up a few minutes before Jack today and the first thing he said was, "I got your email," with a knowing look. Then he started grilling me about another "questionable" email he got from some Indian who invited him to come run with him 25 miles south of town. I avowed no knowledge of that one and ignored his comment about the Helga-Ingrid email.

Chris and Marty arrived as did Mary. Then, from 30 yards away, two attractive young blond women wearing black shorts and matching green tops came walking up. Jack perked up immediately and introduced himself and asked their names.

"Helga."

"Ingrid."

Jack's face was arrested with curiosity and then turned my way and then back at them and asked, "Okay. What's your real names?"

A and C couldn't keep a straight face and cracked up and confessed to being C and A from my run last weekend. The rest of them were laughing so hard, it was a slow start running.

But we did. I introduced A and C to the lush and gilded course that is our Winter Park route. Another guy, a former colonel in the Marines, the hubby of Kim who was also mentioned in that earlier post, showed up for the first time and needed a guide through the winding residential streets of our city. He and I ran a little faster than A and C but we all kept together by virtue of the scheduled drink breaks at miles 4 and 7.

I finished the 10 with the three of them and pushed on to do another three by myself to meet my training demands. It felt good out there in the lingering cool wet air after an overnight rain. We did the 10 at a 9:10 mile pace. I wound down the last three at 10:00 pace.