running: the dawn

Yesterday morning I went to the informational meeting for the running club starting in January.  It was really fun and interesting to walk into a room of people that love running as much as I do.  We were all strangers and yet I felt like they had the potential to be come my dearest friends.

Nothing terribly exciting happened during the meeting.  We talked a bit about our goals as a club, winter running tips, training schedule examples, and discussed the varying levels of skill and/or experience.  I did discover that there is one really fast guy (31:00 10k pr!) who has run Boston 5 times.  I wanted to introduce myself after the meeting but he was caught up in conversation with some others.  I thought about waiting, but figured that I’d have plenty of time to pick his brain when we’re running come January (if he’s willing to slow down some…) So I put my name on the email list and headed home.  It was already snowing….and I still had 15 miles to run….

I made a good breakfast: tofu scramble with zucchini and squash.  Then lazily got ready to run while watching football (its an obsession, really).  I tore myself away sometime in the third quarter because if I didn’t get started it was going to be dark before I finished my run.

It had been snowing off and on all day but by the time I started running it was in a lull between the snow.  The first two miles I was kicking myself for over dressing.  I had worn two long sleeve tech shirts, a fleece jacket, fleece lined pants (hoping to get a pair of actual running tights for Christmas), wool socks, two pairs of gloves, ear warmers, and a wool neck-gaiter.  I was pretty warm while running through the neighborhood.  Then, I turned and headed out of town and over the highway and into the wind.  Wowza.  Took my breath away.  Windy.  Cold.  Brutal.

Mile 4, still feeling decent...but it started to snow again

Just when I thought I was through the worst of it after mile 4, I turned and headed north.  For the next 5+ miles I was running into a combination of cross- and head-winds.  The snow was coming down pretty thick at this time and I was glad I had worn my bright red fleece for visibility purposes, but that thing did nothing to block the wind.  In the summer, I love running around the back roads.  There are so many vineyards and farms, its beautiful!  Yesterday, the vineyards were not my friends.  The wind would just howl across the fields unencumbered by any tree or house to slow it down.

After I ran by a particularly evil vineyard, I stopped at the edge of the trees and took a picture to remember the beast that conquered me.

There were several times where I literally had to put my arm up to my ear and hunch over just to keep from getting knocked down by the fierce wind.  It was pure craziness.

A view from the top, looking back on the hill I just ran, mile 7.

The wind and I battled until I got to turn my back on it around mile 9 or so.  Then I faced two monster hills, that I’m pretty sure I should get credit for running up twice with all the slipping and sliding I did.  Love me those hills!  This was my first long run that I’m running in reverse from last training cycle so that I’ll have to run UP the hills I used to always try to run DOWN.  They are tough, but I know its good for me.

I wish you could see how ridiculous the snow was. It started snowing so hard and the flakes were so huge I started laughing and tried to capture it in a picture...

GG (my garmin) lost battery power around mile 14.  Up until then I’d been keeping a fairly steady pace somewhere between 8:35 and 8:50.  Not nearly as fast as my last 15 miler…but I’ll take it!