Down But Not Out

Yesterday, February 9th, was the eleventh day of my running streak, ninth if we are just talking about running all of February. Mother Nature is against me. Since I declared my goal of running everyday in February we have had at least 28 inches of snow, with two 24 hour periods of 10+ inches each. February second the storms were bad enough to close all the county schools and community colleges.

Jan and I shoveled all day. Actually we have shoveled snow almost everyday this month. Our driveway piles are almost five feet high. But I have kept running, with a minimum of one mile and a maximum of seven so far. I'm lucky as we have a treadmill in the basement and I can sometimes use one at Monroe Community College where I work. But I have also gone outside, usually running in my shoes with screws in them for traction.

Our roads are not clear of snow or slush, making for a messy, slow, sloppy, cold-footed run. Yesterday at 2pm at work I didn't feel like running. I could see my short streak ending. I had a mug of coffee which helped a bit with my energy level. I went home and shoveled the 5 inches of snow that fell during the day (Jan and I had already shoveled 4 inches in the morning before work).

Still I was undecided. Wine, Bourbon or run? I decided I could at least go in the basement and do 10 minutes on the treadmill. I got to five and stopped to answer a text message. I began running again and made it to 12, another text. But the texts were okay, mentally I just needed a break. Then I decided I could at least do two miles even if it was slow. Soon I was at 3 miles and then 30 minutes. I was tired again for some reason. I stopped for thirty seconds and thought, just get to four miles, it's only another five-six minutes of easy running. And I did it. Four miles on a day that could have been an easy 0.

It's nice looking at my running log book and seeing no empty spaces, no zero miles days. Now let's see if I can keep the streak going through this weekend when we will have high temperatures of 2!