Best Run! A Breaththough Run!

Time of departure: 6:00pm
Return: I forgot to look. Probably 7:40pm-ish
Sunset: 5:25pm
Phase of the moon: waning crescent, 4% illuminated, but it had set
Temperature: 12F
Wind Chill: -5F
Dew Point: -3F
Water temp: 33F

Running buddy: Matt
Route: From my house up to meet Matt, then over and down to the Lakefront Path. But again, the running path was covered with a snow drift so we had to run down the bicycle path. Down to Irving Park Ave and back home.

Environmental commentary: We decided to run Thursday night because we ran Wednesday morning, we're going to run Saturday morning, and this is the time equi-distance between those other runs. We haven't had a night run since I've started blogging.

Should I begin with the obvious? It was cold. It was dark. There was snow everywhere and slush where there wasn't snow. Occasionally there may have been an icy patch, or a dry patch where someone had been particularly attentive to their shoveling and salting. There were shin- to knee-high piles of slush-snow where the sidewalks meet the streets. Total accumulation I would guess was about 6-7 inches.

We typically run from our homes to the lakefront path until we get to the picnic tables with the checkerboards on them. This is about a mile. A nice warm-up for stretching. We stretch the major muscle groups for running and take in the scene. Tonight, the sky was dark. I could see the airplanes coming in for landing. It's a regular airplane highway up there, a new plane positioning for landing every 90 seconds. The lights were on in the park, and the trees cast dark blue shadows on the snow. The trees were of course bare of leaves, but also of snow; it had been so windy the last few days. The ground was covered in snow to varying depths. Around the picnic table it was not deep at all, and the top of the snow was crunchy. Perhaps the warm sun today had thawed the top layer of snowflakes so that it refroze with nightfall into this hardened state.

Matt was observing all the lights on in all the apartments and condos in the buildings looking out to the lake. What were all those people up to? What do they do when they first get home? Watch TV? Have sex? What kind of food do they eat? 500 stories as unique as our own. 3 million stories in this city.

Clothing: I wore the usual Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) wear but left out the T-shirt. My shoulders felt a little breezy at first, but I was fine. OH! The big news here is that I bought ATHLETIC socks today. White ones with gray reinforced heels and toes! I didn't know white socks could be so FUN! until I put them on my feet and my feet felt warm! No more drafts! OH, how I love thee, socks-with-no-holes!!

How did I feel? Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Top of my game. I was waiting for this question, can you tell? I left my apartment right on time today, which is always a good feeling. When I started running, I realized there was none of that, "oh dear, here we go again..."-voice in my head. I realized I haven't heard that complaining voice in awhile. Also, I realized that my legs really are stronger because I was jumping over snow drifts as I encountered them, changing my stride to bound through other peoples' deep footprints. Dodging bullets...wait, no, that's SuperGirl. And then when Matt and I met up, we fell into a rhythm that was noticeably faster than any prior run.

We stretched.

And then back to this quicker pace. Despite running on not-quite-dry asphalt with slush and scattered snow that stuck to my shoes and again reminded me of running on sand, we were running faster. And it felt good. Really good. It brought to mind my dad saying, "When I run, I feel like I'm standing still and the world is rotating beneath me." (This was during his ultramarathon days). I had a bit of that feeling. Like my upper body was kind of hovering there, my legs not really thinking or complaining about what they were doing, and my breathing was easy and unlabored. The rhythm of my legs felt more natural, more smooth than it typically does. What did Matt say? That I had found my pocket and settled in. Yea, I felt at home.

We ran faster, with no walking breaks. The miles flew by. And it wasn't that our conversation was so stimulating that it was distracting, often the noise of LSD overpowered our voices and we fell silent. Yet I was still totally able to converse, I wasn't short of air at all. I was running more efficiently. And at the end of our run, when we were off the path and back in the city, I stretched it out more. It felt totally natural. Not forced. Not like I was trying to quicken or lengthen my stride, just that it picked up naturally, however it was supposed to occur when my brain whispered to my body "run faster, make that light."

So tonight was a breakthrough run. I have no expectation that the very next run will be like this. But I do expect that other runs will be like this in the future.

The last 7 months of running regularly, consistently, despite any weather condition is paying off. I can feel it. It feels marvelous.

Lake Shore Drive: It was very noticeably noisy today and often was competing with our conversation. Probably because 1) it was in the evening and there was a lot of fast paced north-bound traffic, which is the closer lane, and 2) we were on the bike path so we were closer to the drive longer than we typically are. At one point there was the atrocious smell of burnt rubber. Very unpleasant.
Dog Beach: Not visible.
People tally:
2 Walkers
5 Runners (Including one in shorts, and one with a headlight. The interesting ones must come out at night)
4 Bikers
3 People with dogs
1 backpacker complete with army sleeping bag
2 people building either an igloo or just a pile of snow

What do I like about running? This should be obvious. Because when it feels fantastic, when you get in that groove, there isn't much that is better than that. And what I find especially sweet is that I'm not a natural born runner. I wasn't born feeling in this groove. I appreciate that this is something that has taken 7 months of commitment to realize.