I ran the Orem library route solo. I came very close to not running. First, I kept pushing the snooze alarm from 5:00am to 5:30am. I got up and went to the bathroom then check my thermometer. It said 13°. I told myself that was too code to run alone and I was tired, so I crawled back into bed under my warm covers. As I laid there I thought of my goal to get in 40 miles again this week. If I stayed in bed I wouldn't make it. About 5:35am I got out of bed, put on my layers, and hit the road about 5:50am. As I started south on Main I felt like I'd dressed pretty well. I was glad I was up and running. When I got to 400 N and turned east...into a frigid headwind from Provo Canyon...I wasn't so sure any more. By the time I turned south again on 400 E my face was frozen. I would occasionally move my facial muscles just to make sure I still could. On the return trip I learned that the frigid wind from the east also had a "from the north" component. It froze my face for all but the one 1/2 mile I was going west from 400 E to Main. I was glad to get home and let my face thaw out. We read scriptures as a family right after my morning runs and I had a bit of a hard time reading with my frozen face. I think I've mentioned before that I have an imaginary chalk board that appears in front of me whenever I'm tempted to back off the pace, cut a run short, skip a run, etc., just because it's feeling hard or uncomfortable (not because I'm sick or injured). I put a tally mark on the left side...the winner side...every time I don't give in. The right side is the quitter side. Thankfully I've put very few marks there over the years. Even though my average pace was only 9:12/mi, today I chalked a thick tally mark on the win side for just getting out and running steady even with the arctic wind biting at my face.
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