...the serendipitous tale of a hack harrier...

I work for the "Condiment" Clinic, you know the one...so, I am in Rochester, MN for a few days working on a project. To give you an idea of the winter environment...the high today is 17 degrees and it was -4 when I went to bed. To say the least, it is quite different from Florida.

Last night I finished up with work, but wasn't sure what to do next. I could go to the new workout facility and swim or run on the indoor track (10 laps to a mile)...I was also hungry, so could bag it all and go eat. I didn't sleep well the night before, so could reason that I needed the day off...besides, it gets dark here at 4:30 pm. Also, it was snowing and about 5:30 pm. But...I knew that I should do something that resembled a workout, and I needed to HTFU!

I pulled on my newly purchased semi-form fitting running pants (just like the "A" Man's), laced up my old Nike Pegasus (as I used every year in college CC), grabbed a knit hat, and slid on my heavy duty cycling jacket...then headed to the elevator. As I crept out the front door, there was a guy standing beside the hotel where I was staying. He mumbled something about being a "true jogger"...jogger! I thought, "Don't call me a jogger buddy!"...then I thought to myself, "Self, your really not much of a runner anymore...so this guy probably has it right". I yelled back something about feeling a little crazy, and he replied with, "...you got that right".

I knew there was some sort of running trail next to a creek, so I would be scouting for that route. The snowflakes floated down slowly in different directions depending on the wind. Sometimes to the left...sometimes to the right...sometimes it floated up as if to show the laws of gravity were merely an antiqueted suggestion. It was cold, but not extremely so. I felt pretty good and remembered back to fifteen years ago...running in a snowy West Virginia winter. While there, I ran many times alone in the deep snow, often in the dark of night. Those were some of my favorite runs.

Crunch, crunch, crunch...as I ran through the sidewalks filled with the fluffy white stuff which covered the thin icey layer below. There were at least two people on every block shoveling snow in the dark. It seemed strange...why didn't they wait until the snow stopped and complete this task in the morning? Maybe they were just getting a head start. Crunch, crunch, crunch...I traversed a couple more intersections with meticulous care. Running on a street or sidwalk coated with snow covered ice is a difficult task, and doing the Fosbury Flop in front of a vehicular audience didn't appeal to me.

The snow stung my eyes with each flake...at times like these I wish I had eyelashes! Sween you panzy, your in a city trying to save people from all kinds of illness and your going to whine about eyelashes...HTFU. I noticed a blurry structure at the end of one side street which resembled a bridge. Heading in that direction it became apparant that I had found the creekside trail. The snow was fresh without footprints except my own. As I ran along the slightly frozen creek it was beautiful. Was this the Randolph Country Road Runners jingle bell run? I could almost taste the ice cold beer provided by Beanders at the run's conclusion.

Crunch, crunch, crunch...plop, plop, plop...I was now ploding underneath one of the bridges that criss-cross the creek. The covered area was devoid of snow with ice at the edges, so I would proceed with caution at each intersection. On the dry pavement under the bridge, my churning steps sounded like the clap of horse hooves trotting along a concrete street. Wow, I suppose I'm not running as smoothly as the figure in my minds eye. As I pushed on, I was REALLY starting to enjoy this.

Soon I came to the end of the path, as the smallish creek dumped into a bigger creek/river. Honk, honk, honk..what is that? Peering through the darkness, I began to notice THOUSANDS of Geese floating and honking in this larger creek. I've never witnessed this many Geese in one place...ever. I hopped off the trail and headed along the river bank in this deep fresh snow. Crack, crack, crack...every step would crash through a thin layer of ice beneath the snows upper crust. I ran until there wasn't enough room to continue, and then headed back the same route attempting to retrace my footprints along the way.

My Achilles was starting to hurt, but there was no way I was going to stop now...Hmmmm...43 minutes...the "A" Man said 40 minutes counts as a run...no, I'll keep going past the point I entered the trail and see what's ahead. I was warm, and the snow wasn't stinging my eyes any longer. I ran past lamps lighting the trail to providing a soft, warm, yellow glow. Every so often there would be a small waterfall in the creek below, which would provide a break in the silence created by the sound absorbing snow. Other sites included homes which had bird houses stacked with a tall snow layer, like thick white caps for the structures abandoned by Southern bound feathery bipeds.

The trail would cross a bridge periodically, and then continue on the other side. As I ran along I would look ahead hoping the trail wouldn't end. I think I would have run all night if the trail was long enough. Finally I approached a sign that would signal the end of the unexplored part of this journey. I turned back around to retrace my steps back to the original entry onto the trail. The wind was now in my face, along with the cold swirling snow. I said to myself, "...self, this is pretty cold...but hey, you used to do runs like this barechested in shorts (Chiller Thriller)...HTFU and get on with it...".

As I was nearing the hotel I glanced at my watch...71 minutes...excellent...the "A" Man says that 70 minutes is the new base, down from the 77:49 it used to be...so this counts as a base run. This run (or jog) was incredible...a "throw back" to years and places long gone...very nostalgic.

As many of you know, I'm doing a triathlon or two next year. Maybe I'm searching for new challenges, or just a change of pace. I've wanted to do an Ironman for a while, and now feels like the time...but this will be a separate entry by itself in a later post...

Sween