Weather - 16 degrees, cloudy, windy, snowing. An unusal day for 2 reasons : 1) This is the first time since September that I have entered a mile that was not easy - today 1 mile at threshold pace :) 2) I ran the first 3 miles to the dentist in a snowstorm. The nice lady who cleaned my teeth laughed when she saw my long eyelashes covered in melting ice. After the cleaning I ran with a numb mouth to Busey Woods, where I did 3 x 1 mile loops. Last night I had a dream that I was running a 5k. I was feverishly pursuing a runner ahead of me. I broke through my sluggishness and started to really move. Just then the course went down a stairwell into a subway station. The other runner and I stopped when we got to the dark platform because we did not know where to go. Dejectedly we shrugged our shoulders and called the race off. When I started the 2nd woods loop I recalled the 5k dream, and knew I had to finish my race, so I picked it up, flying just like in the dream, the 1 inch of snow on the ground not slowing me down. I was smiling, laughing, it was all too beautiful, too strange - starting a 5k in an unknown city, stopping in a subway station, and ending in a desolate snowy woods. #396 Digital picture made yesterday on my walk to work : 
Melinda's Alley
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