The Best of Times, Then, You Know...

When I first saw the snow falling Saturday morning, I figured it was one of those quick things where the big flakes fall for 20 minutes and then stop.  The forecast hadn't called for snow and it had been in the 60's on Friday.  Rick and I headed to Bradbury for the group run, still expecting the snow to stop.  It didn't.

Ian, Emma, Mindy, and Jeremy were already in the lot when we pulled in.  Not long after, we had Erik with Django and James.  The plan was to head out the BL backwards till we ran into the way to Pineland, adding a dirt road in one stretch to avoid a water crossing.  Erik and Django turned back at 5 miles to get in 10.  Mindy had 12 on her schedule; Rick and I decided to go the extra distance with her.  The others were continuing to Pineland and then finishing up the BL or something like it to get 16 to 20 miles.

The running itself was much better than I expected.  The trail was still firm.  Most of the post-holing areas were sort of obvious, especially since the front runners found most of them for me : )   The icy spots benefited from the slight snow layers giving something to grab onto.  A pee break put me behind the group.  Rick waited for me.  We weren't very far behind, catching glimpses of the others  in various spots.  Then we see Mindy and Emma flagging us and pointing right.  Nice of them, but the footprints were pretty easy to follow.  They even waited for us.

It was a Highland cow sighting!  I don't think I've seen them around here before.  Maybe it made Emma feel like she was on a run back home.  I wanted to go pet them, but that would mean walking through the people's yard.  Oh well.  They are the cutest of cows.

The last stretch before we turned around was on a railroad track.  I was surprised how much the footing was making my legs hurt.  Right where the runners going long turned of the tracks was where the 6 mile mark was.  If any of us were thinking about stretching out the 12 for a little more mileage, the post-holing of the others into deep slush convinced us 12 was good.  Not long after turning back we met Kevin on the tracks.  Guess he'd gotten a late start.

So it was like most of the Bradbury runs with the Monsters, great!  Back in the park, I immediately changed out of my sweaty clothes, hoping to ward off a chill.  Of course, we'd be heading to Edna and Lucy's for post-run refueling.  Very leisurely, we enjoyed our sandwiches.  We decided the others must of opted for 20.  I was surprised to be feeling some aches in my back and legs still.  It wasn't that hard of a run.  Then the others showed up.  Nope, they'd gone 16, but I guess the route they took back was one of post-holing hell.  Being the Trail Monsters they are, they were all smiles and fun stories about it.

Oh, the only one not to do E&L's was James.  He probably wanted to see his family, having just returned from a trip to Africa.  I was lucky to hear some of his stories in the first few miles.  Wow!

From there, my day went steadily down hill.  I just couldn't seem to get warm.  The aches persisted.  Sometime during the evening, I realized I was sick.  I was awake most of the night with chills and aches.  By morning, I had a high fever and hurt everywhere.  My eyes hurt to move, my teeth hurt, yup everything hurt.  The one bright thing was that I decided that aches during the run was the start of this not the run itself.  I slept on and off all day.  By evening I was feeling slightly better.  A degree drop in temperature and I could sit up a bit.

After sleeping most of the day, I still slept all night.  This morning I just have a low-grade fever and a cough.  My rule is no running with a fever.  Hopefully I'm back on track (trail) soon.  This is a high-mileage week for me.