Morning: OK, where should I start? I needed to run fairly early because I work today. It was 18 degrees with areas of nasty fog. When I turned on my Garmin I realized that I needed to charge it last night but I was ready to leave so it was too late. It showed 2 bars on the battery life so I thought....maybe. Well after it showed my first mile split I got the "battery low" message so I knew I would only get 8-10 miles before it died. It was really foggy the first 8 miles and then it started to clear a little. I ate a gel at the turn at Indian Hills Elementary which is just past mile 11. I was feeling pretty good and then it happened. About 1 block before I got to the railroad crossing on Cheyanne Ave a train slowly crossed in front of me. I stopped at the crossing to wait for it to pass. It stopped in front of me...........and sat there. Then several minutes later it backed up but not enough for me to get around. Then another couple minutes later it went forward....and stopped. Then after another few minutes it backed again, this time far enough to clear the crossing. I had only gone 11.48 miles (Garmin still working) but I stood there for almost 15 minutes in the freezing fog that had again rolled in. Had I known it would be this long I would have ran back the other way even though it is longer. I started to run again and realized that I was now freezing and could not get warm. I was soaking wet from sweat and had been standing around too long. My Garmin finally died after mile 12. I was just trying to get to the ISU SUB to duck inside and warm up for a minute. It is at mile 15. The fog started getting thicker as I ran.
I made it to the SUB and got warm before my last 7 miles. When I looked at myself in the mirror I had a thick band of ice around my neck and had ice on parts of my face. I pulled myself together and made it the last 7+ miles home. When I normally run this loop I get a little over 22 miles so I will call it 22 even. It's nice to be warm again. | 