5 MISERABLE MILES.

I tried to find some good in this run, and while I'm sure there was some, it was hard to find it while it was happening. I know not every run is good, but I'm sure most of them aren't for these reasons.

The temperature was around 1 degree, and I don't even want to know the windchill, but I was determined to get outside, bite the bullet, and run, despite the weather. And the weather was about as bad as it can get, for a run that is. Or at least for someone not conditioned to run in this kind of cold anymore.

My plan was to run 6 miles, or at least 1 hour. We had gotten another blast of winter overnight and everything was again covered with snow. By the time the sun came up, it was actually a very lovely day, what with all that bright new snow, some blue to the sky, and for a while at least the snow had stopped.

It was hard to know how bad the roads/sidewalks would really be, but, judging from what I was seeing from my windows, it wasn't going to be easy. But I started out with good intentions.

First block: OMG, it is SO cold. The face mask helped, but the cold quickly penetrated even the two layers of tights and gloves.

Second block: I'm not sure how long I can stand this. Tears were forming in my eyes from the stinging cold.

Third block: The Yak Trax were already clogging up with snow, forcing me to stamp my feet often. It was too early to hope for many people to be up on a Saturday morning just for the thrill of clearing their sidewalks.

Fourth block: Okay, finally getting in the street. I think the plows came through last night, I know I heard them. Did they have their blades down?? I barely noticed the speed bumps in the road because of the snow.

And on and on it went. I trudged ahead, into the wind at times with my head mostly down, like I was a charging bull. Then the snow started back up and it was blowing and swirling around me. The only people out were those braving the cold to go who knew where. I was pretty much the only one out running.

Until about 3 miles, when I finally saw another hardy soul out there. This guy was way too happy to be out running in this frigid stuff!

Believe me, I questioned my sanity many times in the course of this run. Why did I buy that treadmill if I was going to risk frostbite for this stuff??

By the time I finally hit the 5.2 mile loop around my entire neighborhood, any thought of doing 6 went out the window. Anything that was exposed was numb; even parts that weren't exposed were numb, and I was worried about frostbite. I had taken 1 hour to get only that far, and for that day, it was enough!

It was a major relief then today to "only" swim my mile!