Saturday, January 24, 2009

12, no 13 miler

I've officially decided that this is my wimpiest running winter yet. I cannot comprehend how we would go out in sub zero temperatures every day...I did remember that Amber and I had unsuccessfully tried using some cheap (and tight!) balaclavas at one point that did not help with the breathing. I found a black fleece face guard this year and I love it - combined with my hat, only my lips and eyes are exposed. Normally I run at night or in the morning so people can't really see me anyways. But this sunny mid-morning I went out knowing that I would be miserable if I didn't wear it for the two hours of exposure. I was laughing for the first few miles as I pictured myself as looking like either a ninja or a power ranger....(and power ranger only because I was wearing red)...
The run went much better than I thought as I have a mental block of doing long runs by myself. It was also a run from the last marathon that I tried to do twice and never finished it (once due to the vintage grand prix) I ran past A LOT of other runners as well as two larger running groups and I couldn't help but smile as I'm pretty sure that most of us were training for the same marathon! The brief thaw left several inches of ice on the trails in both Frick and Schenley Parks forcing some small detours. I also thought it funny that the sun only came out as I was going downhill - all tough parts of the course were a bit gloomy! As I finished up, I was so excited that I was done for the weekend! No more procrastinating!

3 comments:

Megan Troxell said...

Way to go, Lis! I stayed in bed, under my electric blanket this morning though I had intended to take Fres for a short run.

Kat said...

Lisa, you were NOT kidding about the ice on the trails! Chris and I tried to run Schenley and while I'm use to being clumsy and slipping and sliding, even he was having a tough time! We decided to walk so as not to break ourselves, and while doing so (and continuing to slip even while walking oh so carefully) we imagined the only way to get around on that kind of terrain was some form of adventure sport.... trail hockey, maybe? :) Great job!! We had to cut our 13 down to 10 because everything was so slippery.

Lisa said...

Totally Kat!! Fortunately the one trail at the beginning that I did "run" on (yes, for my safety as a running klutz, I walked too) was only a 1/4 mile before I broke out of the woods again. All I could think was that I could have ice skates and it was so deep it wouldn't damage the skates at all!(it would be a little rough on the ankles, though)