Today’s post is low on pictures and high on words, but I have some details to share about this morning’s run. I set out to run 10 miles. I can tell you I did run the full 10 miles, but I’m not sure how I drug myself through it. This run was just grueling. I started out on the trail in town, which is covered with about 1.5 inches of snow and in some spots ice as well. I thought I would do somewhere between 5 to 8 miles on the trail and then finish up around town. I was running along, having a fun time identifying various animal tracks in the snow. I was seeing tracks from bunny rabbits, deer, cats, dogs, and a few other I was unsure of. Then a little over a mile in I started seeing a trail of blood. After about a tenth of a mile it stopped and I figured some animal had probably just hurt itself. Then up ahead on the trail I saw two dogs I have never seen before.

Initially I got out my pepper spray, thinking I would just run past them and have it out to use if needed. Just after I got the pepper spray out of my water bottle pouch the blood trail picked back up again, and this time it was a lot more blood. I decided it was possible the dogs up ahead had killed something (maybe a rabbit or cat?), and I was worried that even a friendly dog might be aggressive if it thought I was trying to steal it’s kill by running towards them. Instinct told me to turn around and that’s what I did. I was a little over 2 miles in to my run when I got back to the start of the trail and let me tell you my legs felt done. I told myself that 2.5 miles was just unacceptable when I had set out to do 10, so I should run around town for awhile to see if my legs felt better.

Getting from mile 2.5 to mile 4 was tough, but after that I just started taking it a mile at a time. I made small goals for myself, such as just run up to the grocery store, OK now turn around and run down to that gas station. At times I ran on the road, which was nice, but other times I was forced on to the slushy sidewalk. The slush wasn’t too bad to run in, but when running uphill in it my feet would slip a lot. I think that made it even harder to get up the hills. Before I knew it I was at 5 miles, which is the distance I had told myself to get to and then I could bag the run. But I played a trick on myself…. I was over a mile from my car. I took a quick water break and headed back down the long hill I had just come up (sweet relief!). Somehow I drug myself around town for another 4 miles, by just telling myself just one more mile, and I was back at my car with 9 miles on my Garmin. Obviously after all that I couldn’t stop there, so I headed back out onto the trail for the last mile. 10 miles. Done. I also got to see the train go by in town twice today, which was neat. Trains are so cool. 

I have something exciting that happened yesterday to share with you! My sister in law is in Boston this week helping a friend move. She was posting a lot of pictures from Boston on facebook, so I got the idea to send a request to her through her facebook wall:

I decided not to specifically say what I was looking for, because I thought it would be funnier that way. Turns out she happened to be close by, so she went over and snapped this picture for me!

How awesome is that!? I would love to see it in person some day. Actually running the Boston Marathon would be a dream come true, but I don’t know that I’ll ever be fast enough. We’ll see…. it would be awesome to just get to see the race in person some day. I told my SIL if I was there I totally would have posed in the middle of the road as if I were crossing the finish line. She replied that when she took the picture it was the beginning of rush hour and she wasn’t chancing her life… and added that Bostonians are crazy 🙂 That’s not the first time I’ve heard that said about New England drivers. I used to listen to a podcast called Phedippidations. It was hosted by “Steve Runner” and he would record his shows while running around the roads of New England. It was not uncommon to hear him yell “woah!” as a car passed by too close or to grumble about the way people drive in the area he lives. Irregardless… I would have risked my life for a picture, haha.