Weather - 38-33 degrees. Walking to work this morning I photographed the ice storm with the digital camera, I made 25 exposures.  Lincoln Square on my Way to Work When I got home I went out for my run at noon. The temperature had risen to 38 degrees, the snow and ice becoming a slop of cold wetness. I wanted to wear shorts today, but the wind made it seem colder than
38, so I wore a funny outfit of black shorts over black long underwear,
with 5 shirts. As I was leaving Rachel said she didn't have to worry
about anyone hitting on me :)
I knew it was useless to try keeping my shoes, socks, and feet dry, and by mile 2 everything was soaked. I stopped at mile 3 to do some strength exercises, which took about 30 minutes total.
I trudged through the snow, getting a good workout for my hip flexors. The miles passed quickly, and I found myself going long, looping around the South Farms. When I reached the end of the loop at Jimmy Johns, I felt a pebble in my right shoe. I found a place to sit down and removed the shoe. I saw a small black object protruding through the flimsy shoe insert. I removed the insert and saw that a rusty nail had punctured my shoe. I examined the bottom of the shoe and saw that the nail had gone in vertical, which is pretty amazing. I checked my sock and did not see blood, and felt no pain. I was 1.25 miles from home, so I jogged gingerly, forefoot style, about 1 mile. I could feel the nail on my heel, so I walked the final quarter mile. When I got home I wanted to get a hammer and smash the nail out of the shoe. Fortunately my wife is smarter than I am, and she got some pliers and easily removed the nail. She looked at my heel and could not see any puncture wounds, so I felt good to go. I ate some nuts, pretzels, a kiwi, and drank some kefir and water before heading back outdoors. "13 miles down, 13 to go" I said to Rachel while walking out the door. I was partly joking about the 13 to go, I was not sure how far I would make it today because the melting snow and ice was making running more difficult than normal. By now I had grown accustomed to cold, wet feet, and it did not appear to hinder my running. I ran through Busey Woods, then the park, across town, into the arboretum, then hit the South Farms road as the sun was setting. I did not see the sun because the sky was a beautiful mass of gray, with strange looking clouds roaming and mingling in the sky. As I reached the midpoint of the road I saw many geese flying in a V shape, then another flock, and another, and another. I had never seen so many geese, and then I watched as the second flock merged with the first, and the shapes and the beating of the wings was curiously beautiful and sad, and it made me cry. Perhaps I cried because I knew that soon I would be turning into the wind for the final 5 miles, which did not seem fun, because my legs were struggling to get lift from the snow. At mile 22 the sky in the north turned a dark, rusty orange, surrounded by the darkening gray. The beauty of the sky helped me forget my struggles, as I had now reached a low point with my energy. Even though I was tired, I was still strong enough not to lose my form, and I handled the stress of feeling low on energy well enough, and by mile 24 I was starting to feel good again, and was able to finish relatively strong. I was so hungry, and I ate the Jimmy Johns sandwich in about 5 minutes as I walked carefully home. It was getting colder, and the slush was turning back to ice. #399
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