Brrrrrr

This morning's run started at 7 a.m. with all of 1 degree accompanying me. For some reason, this degree didn't do a whole lot to warm me up! Both yesterday and today I experienced a rather odd phenomenon. Have you ever jumped into a pool or lake that was really too cold for sensible swimming? It knocks the breath right out of you and seizes up your entire torso. Do it once and you'll probably never again jump into a body of water without first checking the temperature. In any case, a few minutes into each of my last two runs my chest got a hint of that seized up feeling. Quite interesting. Fortunately, it disappears as my body begins to generate its own warmth while running.

After about 30 minutes of running I headed east which meant turning into a very slight breeze that probably negated any spare degrees that might have been floating around in the air. 45 minutes into my run I discovered that the water bottle on my right side was frozen shut - and slowing down and fiddling with it chilled my hands for a good long time. I kept telling myself if I'd just run faster I'd get warmer - but speed was absolutely positively not to be found today. I do believe my body is a bit cold-weary as my quads were becoming leaden, my stomach was getting queasy, and my brain was bailing on the entire exercise. But then, weehawwww, the sun began to rise higher in the sky and shine upon me!

I've no idea if the sun had any effect on the temperature, but it certainly had an effect on how I felt. Just the light upon my face made all the difference in the world and I was good to go for another hour which took me to my running buddy's house where AndyE and Joe joined up with me. Thus commenced the best run I've had in ages. What a difference it makes to be running with friends, bantering, egging each other on, slip sliding together through the streets on a completely ludicrous (but beautiful) day to be running. An hour of fun with friends: fantastic! Followed by breakfast at AndyE's with spouses and great food: even more fantastic. This is a good day.