running: the dawn

I ran 15 miles on Sunday.  The day after some record setting snow fall in this area.  24 inches at my house.  It was COLD.  The snow was DEEP.

Luckily it wasn’t as windy as my last 15 miler in the snow.  Traction was my biggest issue.  I was even wearing my new shoe covers with spikes on the bottom.  They were great on the ice…but made little difference in the packed snow.  Not sure why my Garmin quit at mile 13…it charged all night.  But while it was working my average pace was 8:52.

The entire time I was running I was replaying the 15 miler of death from last summer.  The one where I’m pretty sure I experienced some symptoms of heatstroke.  Like chills, dizziness, goosebumps.  It was scary.  Now, while I felt decent during the entire run this time…it was just as mentally challenging to run in the snow as it was to run in the heat.

Any other winter runners out there…do your teeth get cold?  This was the first time this has ever happened to me.  My teeth were FREEZING.  Hands, fine.  Legs, great.  Teeth?  Cold.  Very strange.

Then yesterday when I woke up I discovered a little bit of a rasp in my voice.  And today…no voice at all.  Like gone completely.  I can whisper.  Squeak a little.  It’s pretty awesome.  Especially as a teacher.  I love trying to get everyone’s attention by holding my hand in the air.  Luckily my students took pity on me and behaved like little angels today.  I’ve discovered that if I speak in a whisper everyone starts doing it.  Its kinda fun.  Like we’re working on a top secret project or something.