"There are some hardcore people in this city"

Time of departure: 8:22am
Return: 9:40ish
Temperature: -2F
Wind Chill: -12F
Water temp: 33F
Route: Due to time constraints on both ends we only ran to the Bridge just south of Lawrence. It's funny, I really didn't want to turn around so soon. I actually really and truly LIKE this running thing. That's marvelous! :)
Running buddy: uh...Matt, of course!

Environmental commentary: When I left my house this morning the sky was gray, the air was gray. Matt said it looked as though everything was covered with a layer of gray frost. It was cold. And with the cold and the gray there was a frozen stillness to everything.

By the time we got to Broadway, my eyelashes were not just frozen, but my top and bottom lashes were freezing together! I'd never had that happen before. When we stopped at our stretch point it started to snow a bit. Just yesterday I had remarked to a client, "it's cold, but at least we don't have to be out in the cold shoveling." HA! (I say things like that just to empathize. Really, I don't mind shoveling in the cold). I'm writing this Tuesday evening, and it's been snowing non-stop since we were stretching this morning. When we reached the shoreline, just south of Foster Ave., we observed the lake once again. Upon initial inspection, it certainly appeared to be frozen. But we got down close to the water, and from this vantage point we could observe that though there were ice sheets, there was a very slow and gentle roll to them. It appeared as though the lake was frozen further out from the shore, but right near the bank it was still open water. Or was it slushy? Or covered with a film of ice?

Matt decided to conduct an experiment. He picked up a melon-sized block of ice and threw it out into the lake, to an area where the phasic state was undifferentiated. It splashed. It sent out concentric rings. And then an interesting thing happened. The ice sheets, which were quite a distance from where Matt had landed the ice block, start to rock. And as they rocked, they rubbed together. As they rubbed together, they moaned eerily. The butterfly effect. While we continued on our run, the lake was still rocking, trying to regain its composure from this seemingly mild disturbance.

The snow continued to come down. When we turned around to head back north, we were running into it. And it was really snowing, collecting on the ground, crunching under our feet. Matt was dusted with snow, looking like a powered sugar donut, and my eyelashes were collecting snowflakes. This was fun! Fun because we knew we looked really hardcore, and yet, it didn't feel like any big deal at all. If this had been our first time out running, maybe we would have felt like crazy adventurers, but we've been running for 6 months now regardless of temperature or precipitation. We were adequately dressed, toasty even, under our clothes. We've developed an immunity to the cold bite on our cheeks, and the snowflakes on my eyelashes felt more like a novelty than an irritant.

What a difference to the landscape the snow made! The snow was blowing at an angle. It wasn't a gentle I'm-a-little-snowflake-and-I'll-take-my-time-falling-to-the-ground snow. No, it was coming down in a hurry. It was active. Passionate even. Mother nature saying, "you think it's cold and I'm just going to hibernate?! Nope." By the time we got off the path and into town everything was white, which changed the whole tone and mood of the city. People were easier to differentiate because it was dark bodies against white snow, not gray bodies against gray sky, gray ground, and gray buildings. People seemed to move faster in response to the snow than they did when it was just cold out. Can the energy in the environment transfer into your body? The movement of the traffic was contrasted with the movement of the snowfall, no longer against an inanimate backdrop. The city seemed to become more alive.

Is this an indication warmer weather is on its way?

Clothing: What I've decided is my extreme cold weather wear: shoes, socks, spandex shorts, army pants, wicker, t-shirt, vest, gortex, gator, knit gloves, new mittens, hat. My gortex hood was at the ready, but i didn't need it. My gator spent a lot of time pulled over my face.
How did I feel? Fantastic. I wish we had had the time for our usual distance. I had drank water and eaten a banana prior to the run, so I was ready!

Other people tally: 1/0/2/8/1. It is important to note the difference in the time of our run today, also the shorter nature of it. That probably explained a lot of the differences in stats. Still, it is striking that we didn't see any runners.

1 walker
0 runners (other than us)
2 bikers
8 people with dogs
1 martial artist

Yep, you read that right. One martial artist! When we were running south he was doing Chon-Ji, a form (pattern of movements) of a Korean style. When we headed north he was doing Joon-Gun (which was the form I modeled my Kama form after, back in the day). So fun! I remember the days I did forms in the park! And Dad and I used to do forms and one-steps together outside in the yard by the lake, at campsites on family camping trips, and of course at "karate campouts." Oh, what a childhood I had.

Dog Beach: I think we saw 5 people plus dogs at the dog beach. This is when, I think, Matt commented, "there are some hard core people in this city." It's true. There are.

What do I like about running? Oh, because on days like today you look a lot more hardcore than you feel. And that's cool.