Back to the Basement

I really do love running in the winter. Makes me feel fresh. Makes me feel alive. I love that I’m the only person out there. I love the sound of your feet hitting the snow. I love the silence of running while it’s snowing.

It’s been said that if you don’t like the weather in Columbus to just wait a day because it will change. Not this winter. It has literally snowed every Tuesday in February. Then it kept snowing until Saturday of each week when it warms up enough to fool you, yet won’t melt the snow. Then Tuesday it starts all over again. The schools have been cancelled so much here that some of them will be going extra days in the summer.

With my lack of motivation this winter, I have found it difficult to get out in the cold and snow and run outside. Instead I have been spending my evenings in the basement on the treadmill. Or shall I say, the dreadmill. Yesterday I had had enough of the basement and told Andrea we’d be doing our 12 miler outside come hell or high water.

I should have stayed in the basement.

We started out and it was cold. Super cold. The wind was in our face and it was snowing. The area we run in has nice sidewalks and walking trails, but you couldn’t find them as it was all covered in snow. I had no idea if I was on the sidewalk or the grass until I caught the edge and rolled my ankle—4 TIMES! The snow was so deep in parts that it was up to our mid-calves. What parts weren’t under snow were pure ice. To say it was a tough run was an understatement. When we reached a turnaround point we both proclaimed we weren’t having very much fun and decided to call it quits when we reached our cars at the 6 mile point. By the end of the evening my ankle, my foot, my hip, and my back were so sore I had a hard time sleeping.

So, back to the basement today.