RSS FeedThe Loneliness Of The Long-Winter Runner
We treat our weekday morning runs (much to Mrs Columbo’s dismay) like the Post Office treats delivering the mail. Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail (well maybe sleet & hail) will keep us from our appointed outside run. We run with the morning crowds in the spring & fall, and hunt for the working water fountains and tree-lined paths in the summer. But winter, that’s when it really gets tough. Breaking out the CW-X leggings, the Under Armour shirts, the gloves (and glove liners), balaclavas, ear bands, hats, etc…
Outdoor running in the winter can certainly be lonely & miserable, but a race like this weekend’s National Marathon (and Half Marathon) can make it all worthwhile. We’d like to tell you we run for the sake of running, and that’s part of it no doubt. But another part, maybe a bigger part, is recognition that the early mornings were worth it when we complete a big race. That’s where a first weekend of spring race, like the National Marathon, comes into play. We spend our winter mornings braving the elements, and then get to put all of that training to the test.
And if it turns out not to have been worth it? Well, then we’ll be sleeping in come winter 2012.
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The National Marathon will make it virtually impossible for those using surface transort with wheels to enter or leave Penn Quarter because the race surrounds our neighborhood and at sometime between 8am and 11:30am we will be stacked up behind other cars, bicycles, buses, and motorcycles who also want to enter or leave our great neighborhood waiting to move on.
Especially awful is its timing: Saturday is the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s Opening Day and those coming to its events like those who tried to get to the Rally To Restore Sanity may end up arriving after they have ended!