It's Not Always Easy

Ok, running is never really easy if you compare it to sitting on the couch reading a book or watching a good TV program. That said, I love running, but today...today I definitely did not want to run.

This week it has been pretty warm(-5 to 2) but there has been lots of snow. How much snow? Yesterday I shoveled three times. Today I could have done the same but I only got out once before I went for a run.

It was snowing the entire run; when I started there was about 2 cm on the ground, by the time I finished there had to be 5 cm. Today was not easy mentally to get out there and run in this. It is the kind of day you want to look out and watch the snow, not be part of it.

I suited up though and went out because I had been avoiding my runs this week. I have new Classic Cross Country skis which I have been out on every chance I get.

Todays run was to be a 12 miler but friends called, just before I left, to invite us to supper. Timely being as it was I had to cut the run short to about 9 miles.

Thankfully for that call, I did not take a longer route. It was insane out. The road was slippery and I was not moving fast. I felt like I was going all out at times but I averaged a minute slower than my normal slow runs. Some sections were not cleared and in those sections I could not see my feet as I was in snow over my ankles.

This is running in the winter. And it was awesome. It was one of my hardest runs physically in a long time but mentally it was excellent. There is something about being out in the snow with so much snow coming down that you can see only about a 1/2 kilometre before everything is hidden by the falling snow.

Running along a particularly open section between two farm fields it felt like I running through a scene in Fargo. The solitary car would appear out of the whiteness and drive by in a flurry of snow. While I just kept running along, a solitary figure leaving a soon to disappear trail of footprints.

It wasn't easy but it was good. Real good.