Karma!

God must read my blog. Or the Chinese. Or whoever controls the weather around here.

Just a week ago I posted about how it is winter for the purposes of running, and now I’m forced to retract that statement and say NOW it is winter running weather. What else would you call 23 degrees, with a wind chill bringing it down to single digits? I think that qualifies as winter weather. And makes my previous post seem somewhat pathetic.

Be that as it may, the gist of the other post holds true: I love winter running. Hard as it may be to get out, there is absolutely nothing like that feeling of thawing upon returning from a freezing run. In fact, I am experiencing it right now. Aaah.

And I have something to add to my list of strange sightings on runs. I watched a car pull up into a driveway right next to a cat that stood disturbingly close to the moving car. Then, as the car door opened, the cat jumped in under the legs of the driver, an old man. And then it looked as though he was closing the door, but I was already past the driveway at that point and couldn’t be sure.

Either way, weird stuff. I have a cat, and I’m lucky if she responds to her name, let alone escort me out of my car.

Winter Running

Ah, winter.

Well, it’s not official yet, but my gauge of winter is when my water in my bottle ends up significantly colder by the end of a run, and that test was passed a couple of weeks back. So, in my books, winter running has arrived.

I love winter running. Don’t get me wrong, it’s psychologically much harder to get outside than in the other seasons, but there’s nothing like a trail run in the snow. Unfortunately, I have been too busy and/or lazy to go outside, so most of my short runs have been on the treadmill. But that will change soon, due to a matter beyond my control. My treadmill is breaking.

It’s happened before; the belt is nearly worn out and will break soon. So it seems that I am being punished for not taking advantage of the beautiful running weather. Beautiful might be an overstatement, especially for someone who prefers night runs- it can get pretty blistery in New York on winter nights.

By the way, Sarah Palin was quoted (in Runner’s World, I believe) as saying she was a runner and toughs it in the Alaskan weather. So for those in need of motivation to run outside in the cold, just think “If Sarah Palin can do it…”