The Time to Run

Since starting work, it's been a struggle to squeeze in my midweek runs.  I need to get at least three in.  That has meant a lot of late suppers.  Sometimes it's after eight before there's food.  That might not seem all that late, but Rick goes to bed at 9.  The poor guy has to get up for work at 4:30 am.  

It hit me on Wednesday.  Why I didn't think of it sooner, I have no idea.  I should run after Rick goes to bed.  I was so excited about this revelation that I posted it on FB.  To my amazement, I got an offer for company!!!  Fretless knocked on our door just after 9.  I introduced her to Spot, Ryan and Nori, and my Ally Kitty.  Then it was the great outdoors.

The going was pretty tough to start.  I thought we'd head out back the way the FatAss went last year, but there were far too many briars.  It was still pretty hard going the other direction since we were running in virgin snow.  Fortunately, we were able to pick up snowmobile tracks around 1/4 mile in.  The night was a classic winter night.  The air was cooold; the sky starry. 

Fretless and I had only run together once before so lots of the conversation was just finding out stuff.  It flowed pretty easily except when the crunch, crunch , crunch of the crusty snow made it hard to hear each other. 

A couple miles in, I was a bit disoriented.  Things didn't look like they should.  It took me a few minutes to realize the snowmobile trail had been rerouted to the other side of a field.  In daylight, I would have known right away.  At night, I was baffled for a bit.

I asked Xar how much time she had.  I forget the exact phrasing, but the gist of it was unlimited.  We ended up with just about 7 miles.  Xar was decorated by the night.  She was totally frosted.  I wish I had thought to take a picture.  The best part was when she said that she was in the area on Wednesdays and we could make this WNR!  Yay!!!  The next night, it would become an even bigger deal
.
The next night...I didn't get out till almost 10pm.  We'd just finished watching a fairly scary show that included a wolfish creature.  Smart.  It's funny how much scarier running at 10 is than running at 6pm.  They are both dark.  I wanted to run the same path as the previous night.  Instead, I just ran a mile loop four times.  Each lap seemed to get scarier.  At least I was laughing at myself for being so scared.  At least I didn't let the fear stop me.  Oh, did I mention I carried my tonfa with me?