First Run of the Year

It was record cold in the District yesterday morning, in the single digits with up to 30MPH winds which made it feel like it was well below zero.  Just like in the old days in Boulder County when I used to be outside (albeit in my car for long stretches) for eight hours each shift covering wrecks, arresting drunks and stopping speeders for the Colorado State Patrol when it was sometimes 10 degrees below zero or even colder during the winter months.

At night, up in the mountains.  I wore thermal long johns and polar leggings under my wool uniform pants, and the same sequence upstairs under a bulletproof vest, wool shirt and padded CSP windbreaker, and I got by.

The real problem is the wind.  It cuts through everything and takes any residual warmth right out of you.

Today it was in the twenties with low wind and I went out for a noontime run on the Mall with two co-workers.  I wore leggings, a tech t-shirt, a long-sleeve shirt and a windshirt, gloves, earband and a ball cap.

I was hot after two miles, but it was a good run.  I hadn't run since last year, because of the holidays, but I was gratified to see that I'm still under 200 despite the inactivity, achieving that milestone finally in December having worked towards that goal for three years and having dropped almost half a C-note during that time.

We ran by an outside water fountain outside the American Indian Museum that had been left on (DUH!) that was frozen into an ice sculpture of rising and cascading water.  Workers were scraping away at a thick slab of ice extending all along the sidewalk from the fountain to the curb.

I didn't go running yesterday because, as a running friend of mine at work said, "There's a fine line between being a hard ass and a dumb ass."  Of course, he went running yesterday, but then again his best marathon is 50 minutes faster than mine and he's not even fifty yet so he's young and good.

I enjoy running with my work running buddies because they all think I'm fast and they force me to get out to run when I don't really want to (the commitment thing) and I get to show off my history trivia knowledge as we run by things (which "martyred president" is that a statue of?).  Plus that 50 pounds thing; the comeback from that started on a horrible noontime run three years ago when I finally got back to running regularly at noontime with a co-worker returning from maternity leave, after letting the onset of my chronic ankle injury dictate my inactivity for the two prior years.