Twelve Again

So, Friday's run was a repeat of Thursday's. Perhaps the only difference was a bit more wind. Saturday I really wanted to head to Bradbury for the Trail Monster group run, but I'm so behind on my Christmas stuff , I figured I couldn't justify the extra hour and a half when I could have a perfectly good run from home.

Turns out it was a great run! Oh, I still missed seeing everyone, but....
I'm surprised that there have been no snowmobiles out on any of the fields around here. I had to break trail the entire run. I also had to really try to read the terrain because there was so much water before the cold; an entire bog exists under the beautiful white.

I felt my childhood days of playing in the cow pastures of my uncle's dairy farm really helped. I think it honed my ability to hop from solid hay clump to solid hay clump. Since some melting and rain helped the snow to reveal the layout of it's land below (still the snow was at least 8 inches in most spots), I was having fun testing my skill.

When I missed one time and sank fairly deep into the cold, muddy water a childhood memory flooded so clearly into my head I burst out laughing. My friend and I had gone out during an intense snow storm. It had everything including high winds. As we made our way up "the hill", we had to stop periodically and dig a hole in the snow just to get our faces out of the bitter wind. On our way down, never thinking there could be running water lurking in such cold, Martha's foot plunged through the snow and down into the wet. She didn't have shoes that let the water run right out again, but big snow boots. The mud closed round. We both tugged on her leg to free it from the mud and slush. After a struggle her foot came out, but the boot remained. Before we could react, the slush filled her boot and froze. We couldn't empty it. I don't know how she managed to avoid frost bite. I remember us laughing so hard on the way down, almost hysterically I think. I do know there were tears when her foot was warming. As I ran Saturday, I realized that the distance we covered were childhood distances. Even though it was an amazing adventure, we were probably only 1/2 mile from the house.

So I worked very hard on my 48 minute run, but had fun feeling like I was twelve again.

Sunday, Rick decided to try the fields with me. He wasn't planning on running as long, but did much of the same course as Saturday. I can't wait till he's recovered fully so we can do more of our runs together. He feels his strength training and foam rollering is finally paying some dividends. The only drawback to running the fields was the crunchy crust on the snow was so loud as our feet broke through, it made conversation difficult. After Rick headed back in, I checked out more of where I think the Fat Ass will go. I think it's gonna be a fun loop! I was out just over an hour.

Monday, Sam had his chemistry final and no class after. Four accompanied me on a shortened version of my standard Monday run. We had to go slow cause there was lots of ice and neither of us had our shoes screwed. Our hour run was the perfect length. After dropping Four back at his place and heading to Hannaford to change, the cell rang. Sam was done.

To encourage myself to finish up some of my holliday cleaning, I said I could have a second run if I at least got the kitchen mopped. I only got in another 30 minutes because that was all the daylight that was left.