Snowshoe BBQ

I woke up feeling defeated before the day even had a chance to have at me. Not because of any injuries mind you, it's just that I looked at my Higdon schedule and saw 7 miles for the day, then I shifted my gaze out the window and saw far too much snow to get this task comfortably done. My next thought was to bother my aunt again by using her treadmill, but looking back at the Higdon schedule, it still said 7 miles for the day, and I don't know about you folks, but anything beyond 5 miles running in one place feels like you are mentally being thrown into the belly of an unforgiving Sarlacc pit, where you will learn a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years. It was in this moment, my eyes drifted out the window once again, pondering, for no explicit reason, what Hart Crane wrote about the Brooklyn Bridge, when I saw a runner in the distance. "Good gawd man!" I exclaimed, hence the exclamation point, tugging on the cord to draw the venetian blinds even higher, exposing my room further to the blinding brilliance of sunlight reflecting off of the snowy lawn below. "If he's running, I can run!" I watched him bobbing into view like a cryptozoologist studying an elusive half man-cheetah hybrid that stalks its prey on the Serengeti plains. This beast seemed to move effortlessly despite the mounds of snow that surrounded his path. Excitement coursed through my veins, for today, there would be no defeat!

I threw on a few key layers to combat the winter weather, and for the first time ever stuffed an ipod nano in my pocket and away from the window I flew like a flash, without tearing open the shutters or throwing open the sash. I made my way out to the street, and things seemed OK. The sidewalk I could see was spotted with snow and ice patches, but it wasn't enough to dissuade me. I hit shuffle and was off. As soon as I turned the corner I immediately ran into my first stretch of non-shoveled walkway. A quick glance back for traffic and a spry sidelong bunny hop put me in the wet, but snow free, street. This maneuver would be repeated throughout the run, because apparently not everyone in my neighborhood is a good samaritan when it comes to snow removal. I ran a 3 mile loop, at first, with the idea of keeping close to home incase I slipped on an ice patch and had to drag myself back to my doorstep (technically counting that, if it were to happen, as cross training). The next loop was 3 miles too, but in a different direction, and it worked out even better, leaving me cursing under my frigid breath about how I should have chosen this way first. I ended the 7 miles after two 3 mile loops with a 1 mile "victory" lap to round out the distance. Now the downside to all this was my own misjudgment in the shoes I chose to wear, which were an older pair that had maybe already seen too many miles for their own good. I just didn't want to introduce my new ones to the harsh elements just yet, leaving me with a pain in my foot after a 7 mile obstacle course of snow mounds and ice patches. It's not anything readily debilitating, but I am concerned over how I'll pull off a 15 mile run on Saturday if most of this winter wonderland hasn't been melted away. We'll see how things go, I'm sure it will work out...

During the run I had the nano on shuffle, and it was really knocking it out of the park with what it was randomly selecting for my listening pleasure. I realize having less GB means having a higher rate of likable albums for shuffle to snatch songs from, but the songs were really phenomenal. Uncanny, really, in some of the relevance in tempo as well as lyrical content; almost as if the machine KNEW what I was doing at that exact moment and wanted me to be aware of it. I've been pretty much an unadorned runner up until this point, relying mostly on the sounds of nature to pass the time, but now that the miles are getting longer in the tooth, having the soothing sounds of musical whimsy to join me in the endeavor is somewhat comforting. Simply put: I've been won over. Now to get crackin' on that marathon playlist...