How I Wish You Could See the Potential

 I went on three very different runs this weekend. Each run seemed to have its own unique personality. As I mentioned earlier, I took a half day of vacation on Friday. It turns out that I was very smart to do that. The day was about 40 degrees and misty and foggy.  A perfect day to run. I did my first run longer than 6 miles for the first time since March. I was worried that it would kill me, but I went nice and slow and ran through the cemetery and it was all sufficiently quiet and creepy and beautiful. It was warm enough that some of the ice was FINALLY melting from the sidewalks and streets. I would run long stretches and not see much ice at all and then I'd hit lower lying areas where the ice was melting and even slipperier than they had been the day before.

By the time I finished, I ran 7.95 miles and I was good and tired. It was a great afternoon off.

This is on a lawn right off the bike path. I wanted to photograph it before all of the snow melted and it disappeared.

The next day the temperature was dropping and the winds were picking up. It had snowed lightly overnight. So, I ran around 9 am and the wind chills were already getting pretty low. I ran 6 miles and some of the areas where the snow had melted in the warmth of the day before, had turned into slick, sheets of ice, covered by the light snow. At one point I found my front foot sliding, while my back foot came up and kicked it. I have no idea how I stopped  myself from falling, but whatever I did messed up my left hip a little and I've been walking with a slight limp ever since. It's not bad, and I'm sure it will heal right up, but it could have been a lot worse...

On Sunday, I waited to run until the actual temperature was about 5 degrees and the windchill was about -17. You know, because I wanted to make sure it was warm enough outside...I wasn't going to run very far, but I do like to get outside at some point every day, because it makes me happy and I have always gone running outside when it is that cold, so my body is used to it.

Anyway, I did my 3.4 mile run and went up my street and didn't try to run on the sidewalks, since most of them were just too damn icy. I came back on the bike path and it was nice and sheltered from the wind. I also figured out how to put my phone in a jersey pocket and then put layers over it, so it wouldn't get too cold and stop working. I had music the whole way. Score! I probably overdressed, but it would have been pretty dangerous to underdress.

This concludes this segment of Adventures in running. I hope you all had some of your own outdoor adventures this weekend, no matter what your weather was.