Well, Hello, Old Man Winter

Today’s Numbers: Nancy's Days Run: 183 Nancy's 2013 Mileage: 868 Elly's 2013 Mileage: 429.2 Money Found For Food Bank: $1.43

For starters: For all of you signed up for races this weekend that have been cancelled because of the winter storms, I am so very sorry!!! What a disappointment after many days of wondering on top of months of training!! BOO!!!!

While the snow and ice stayed at bay around here, the frigid temperatures did not. Last night, I tossed around the idea of just planning to run on the treadmill, but, this morning, I just couldn't stand the thought and went out even though the reported temperature was, "Feels like 3." The actual temperature was 19, so I figured I was okay. I bundled up as best I could, fully prepared with extra ear warmers to use over my face as necessary, and Elly (she has a fur coat, after all) and I headed out.

Can I get a ho-ly crap to the wind factor?! Yowza!!! That had a bite!! That first half mile was a bit of an oucher on the ol' face, but, after that, I had to take the warmers down off my face as I got too hot. I looked awesome, though, check it out:

Goo.Ber.

You can see my cheeks already got tagged by the wind, but it was all good. What was not good was that the very cold temps froze my sniffin' muscles. So, as runner's nose does not take a break in any kind of weather, it was almost impossible to sniff it back in for the duration of the run. I know ... ewwww ...

Oh, I will say running outside had a big, 37-cent payoff! Yahoo!! There were coins all over the route from beginning to end. Evidently, everyone's too cold to stop and pick them up. That doesn't explain finding that kind of scratch in better weather, but whatever. Elly and I persevered and were winners today!

"We're always winners, mommy. Hug me tighter, I'm chilly."

THEN after going almost four miles feeling quite comfortable overall, I came home and almost burned my fingers off from the cold putting these on one of the bushes where we have Christmas lights:


I wasn't out there for more than 5 minutes before the tips of my fingers let me know that if I'd like to keep them, we needed to stop with the decorating (which totally worked because I was finished, so take that). Even the goose couldn't stand it out there:

The next few days (or, really, the next week) hold no promise for anything getting much better, so I just need to settle in and deal with it! There's no precipitation in the overnight forecast, so I'm flipping the schedule again and going forth with a run tomorrow. It works better in the home schedule, too, so who doesn't love a win-win! I'll check in after thawing out in the morning!

Be careful out there running or not!! Baby, it's nasty-cold outside!!!