Slush Run

I've been running this winter through the wet and cold and limited daylight of New England. I felt like a hardcore adventure athlete who laughed at the elements and couldn't be held back by things like snow drifts, frigid air temperatures, and patches of ice...for about thirty seconds. Now I just experience the familiar realization that I had no idea how awesome I had it growing up in California. Running here in the winter sucks. It takes forever to put all the layers on, find my gloves (running in gloves?!), and figure out whether or not I should strap on the yak tracks. During the run, parts of you are freezing while other parts roast, your lungs hurt from the freezing air, you constantly have to worry about hitting an ice patch and breaking your neck, and a snot slurry covers your face, sleeves, and gloves. The amount of lung pain even post-run cannot be healthy.

So, I've been spending quite a bit of time at the gym on a treadmill. 

Earlier this week, though, temperatures approached the upper thirties, the sun was out, and I really wanted to avoid going treadmill (similar to postal) on the people at the gym so I decided to run over to the local track. Miserable. And of course not a bit of the track was visible through the slush. Oops.

Slushy. It was worse where traffic forced you to run on the "sidewalk."

I had to turn off the watch and trail blaze a few times, and I ended up doing a few laps around a big parking lot which was wonderfully plowed compared to the roads.

Back to the treadmill for a while.