More snow, more running

There's a chance that one of these days I'll get around to something other than amazed, narcissistic thinking about how unbelievably exercisey my life is compared to what it used to be.

Until then...

I've been training for a half-marathon that is coming up towards the end of March.  The weekend runs have been getting longer and I've mostly been getting more and more excited as I complete new longest-ever runs. Until two Saturdays ago. I packed my stuff to go run, carrying my keys in my hat, though "oh, a notebook!" and picked that up, headed downstairs and realized, as I shut myself outdoors, that my hat, and keys were still in my condo. GAH!

Thankfully, I recently met some teammates/neighbors, and stood outside their building and used their computer and phone to call a locksmith. Very expensive.

I couldn't bring myself to run after all that and instead played computer games and ate pizza.

Sunday, when I got up to go run, I really wasn't feeling like it. I made myself leave the house (with keys, but without snacks) and then headed out further than usual before turning around because I thought I would quit if I went back past the house. Well, I sort of did quit, even though I wasn't near the house. After 7 miles, about 1 mile from my car with snacks and stuff, I just couldn't run anymore. People talk of "bonking" and I think that's what it was. I ended up walking the rest of the way to the car, walking and drinking and eating snacks, but never did get any umph back, so just kept walking to finish the 10.

It felt good to finish 10 miles, but it wasn't a good 10 miles.

The next weekend was scheduled for 11, and as the week went on, I got more scared and nervous.

Of course, the fact that it was supposed to be stupid cold and start snowing didn't help the nerves.

I showed up, paired up with a teammate and we headed out with a plan of 2 4-mile loops together plus some more for me on my own.

It was awesome.

• The snow did come, and it came early and there was more than predicted, but it was mostly gentle.
• Both our watches were recording km instead of miles, so we had no idea how we were getting such freakishly fast splits, but it was super exciting.
• I'd made hot gatorade for my refuel snack and it was wonderful.
• After the two loops, thinking we'd done 12.8 freak-miles (knowing it wasn't right, but if the GPS gods were giving out free distance, we were going to take it), we stopped and talked with other crazy teammates out running in the snow.  I figured out the km vs miles thing and was so excited, I bounced off to do 2 more miles.
• Running down the road in a few inches of snow was exciting. The sound of it squeaking under my sneakers is something I never would've imagined I would've experienced. It was fun to try to find my footprints coming back and match my stride length. The snow was deep enough that I wasn't kicking through to the pavement, which was also new.

So I ended up doing 10, and it was a happy 10. I'm excited again instead of scared, and am (almost) looking forward to a new longest of 12 miles on Feb 13.

Here's some pictures from teammates that I've completely stolen without asking: