Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to New England!
The snow in these parts has been outta control! We have had 27.3 inches of snow already this month and we are expecting 6-10 inches more beginning tomorrow into Thursday. Hooray?! Suppose that depends on who you ask. Skiers - REJOICE! Runners - Not so much.
We have had training runs, in spite of the slop, each of the last 3 Saturdays. I did not run on the 8th (sore hip), but there was snow, and slippery, unplowed roads, and the team ran. From the report I got back from Andy and Ana (I was lucky enough to play with their 3 little beauties while they ran), everyone enjoyed the run.
On the 15th - it was cold. I am not talking about 30 degrees cold. I am not even talking 20 degrees cold. I am talking 1 degree. As Pam noted - it was one lonely little degree as we set out for an 8 mile run through the city. Andy has been really great about checking the safety of the roads we run given the weather. We were able to cover 8 miles on 3 roads - it was a little slushy and snowy in some spots, but overall, it was a beautifully freezing, sunny day. I loved every minute of that run - even the icicles on my eyelashes! I was afraid I would be underdressed and I hate running in hats, but the under armour/sweatshirt combo was perfect and the hat was a good choice!
Fast forward to this past Saturday. I won't lie - I tried, my hardest, to get Andy to switch the run to a swim. The weather man said Saturday was going to be the "coldest day in years"! Since we all know how accurate weather men are, Andy said no. He said "Please - Let's try it. It will be FUN" I agreed, reluctantly, and stopped my "please can we swim inside where it is warm" push and figured I would head out and if it was miserable, I would just turn around.
I spoke to Pam about it. We were scheduled to run 9 miles last weekend. Because Pam is not allowed to make any start/stop decisions about her run within the first 3 miles, I told her we would run at least 5 miles and if it was horrible we would turn back. Obviously, Pam is a smart lady and was not buying my math logic since we would still have to run back the 5 miles. :) At this point, we didn't even know what our route would be because Andy hadn't checked out the roads yet to decide. Wasn't it fun when we finally got it - up and back, 4 times, on Main St. Uh...excuse you? That's right kids, we left the Y, ran down Main St. to Highland St., turned around and ran back to the Y, turned around and did it again. 4 times. I kind of felt like I was running a relay race, except I had to run all the freakin' legs for myself.
It ended up not being that bad. Ana and I had talked as we got going about how it meant running the "Chandler St. to the Y" piece of Main St four times. We both really hate that stretch. We are aware that it is mental, but there is nothing worse than coming down Chandler knowing you are so close to being finished, only to turn the corner and have to run up that silly little hill to get back to the Y. Yes, we are whiny and yes, we don't care. :) The best part of this run, hands down, was getting to see all of our teammates multiple times while we were running. Most of the time, the slower runners see the backs of the faster runners for a few minutes at the start of the run and then not again until they finish, but Saturday we all got to see each other - fast, slow, walking, running - whatever - A LOT! There were high fives, words of encouragement, heckling, whistling, and by the end - a whole lot of blank-stare head nods.
This week is a cut back week (well, unless you are training for the MV 20-Miler). 7.5 miles for the group Saturday and some speed work on Sunday. I really can't wait to get back to Worcester this weekend - even if it did just get another foot of snow dumped on it overnight.
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