Monday, Monday...

...it's the one day each week that I don't work so if schedules allow I meet Joel for an early morning long run. You gotta understand how difficult this is for me. I am not a morning person. I prefer to sleep until about 8:30, maybe even 9:00, sip some strong coffee, watch some songbirds or turkeys out the window, hopefully not have to speak for an hour or so. You know, sort of ease into the day. So for me to get up at 5:30, throw down some coffee and then drive 30 minutes is really painful. (at least I don't have to speak for over an hour) Anyway, as painful as it is, this is really the only day I can do a long run. So 5:30 it is.
I woke up this morning around 5:00 (not 5:30 as I'd planned) to a whining dog. Yesterday Molly had broken into the food bag and best I could tell she had eaten her weight in kibble. By this point she was desperate to go outside. When I opened the front door I was pleasantly surprised to find it warmer than when I'd gone to bed. Last night the weather man had said we were going to get a major snow storm. The weather man was wrong. Imagine that! So, pleased with the warmth, I grabbed my coffee, put the dogs back in the house and headed out to meet Joel. By 7:30 we were ready to begin our run. Just as we stepped onto the trail it began to snow. At first it wasn't too bad but it was that kind of snow that looks like little styrofoam pellets but feels more like you've been shot with a pellet gun when it hits your eyes. Due to the stinging snow we had to wear glasses that were soon completely wet and fogged over. I actually learned to appreciate this feature as it made it impossible to see more than the few feet of road in front of me. Yes, road. The trails were soft deep snow or ice. I hate road running. The miles creep by, the unchanging surface makes my body hurt, it bores me to tears. So...contentedly blind as we were, we ran on. North ten miles to the booming town of Sunrise, Minnesota and back to the car, soaked from the snow but happy to have logged the miles.