snowpocalypse

A wise old friend told me years ago that if I was going to write about running to always give full disclosure, even if it ultimately meant exposing myself to shame and humility.  And even though she doesn't run with with me anymore (there was an incident at mile 18 in the Chicago Marathon), I value her saged words and friendship more than she'll ever know, so here goes:

My "Run Every Day Between Thanksgiving And New Year's" goal ended after six days in a pathetic, icy mess.  

That's right, I lasted six whole days and called it quits.  A snowpocalypse of winter weather kicked NWA straight in the mouth and, seeing the fallout coming, I holed up like a good Southerner and flat refused to come out of my domicile.  There would be no running.  There would be no streak.  There would be no thematic wisdom penned on these cyber pages.  So how in the heck is a runner supposed to spend time when the running shoes must be shelved?  On, there's tons of things to do on snow days.

Of course I made the requisite trip to Walmart in a frenzied panic that I might run out of something.  I didn't fight through the skirmish that were the bread and milk aisles, but I did stock up nonetheless, bringing home eggs, chips, ground beef, marshmallows, shredded cheese, Velveeta, Little Debbie snack cakes, brownie mix, Sprite, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and peanut butter.  Notice a theme?  Not a damn bit of it is healthy.  When I got it all unpacked, I prepared and hovered over my pot of chili with precise concern and care, as if I had given birth to it, as if it were the perfect pot of chili and was destined to be the President of the United States of America.

Between bouts of eating junk food and bowls of chili, I texted friends who were also snowed in, comparing war stories of what was falling from the sky in our varying neighborhoods and making predictions about what might happen next.  These text exchanges fell into one of two categories:  teaching friends and running friends.  My teaching friends all wanted to talk about the possibility of being out of school another day, while my running friends were concerned with, well, running.  Teachers have a love/hate relationship with snow days, because we seem to be a bunch that enjoys the down time, but we also very much love what we do and consider time in the classroom invaluable, so days missed become frustrating.  Runners are a completely different breed.  They just get angry when they can't run because of the "stupid ice", and the ultimate dagger came on early Friday afternoon when I got the email below.

This would have been my third year in a row to run Dallas and I hate to miss the chance to go 13.1 miles in such a great city, but sometimes things don't work out and I have to remind myself that there'll be more races to run.  I also had friends who were cranky that the St. Jude Memphis Marathon got cancelled as well, particularly Patty Pain who was running the half.  I'm pretty sure Katie Helms was registered for the full as well, so i'm hoping to see them both next weekend in our own backyard at the Fayetteville Half Marathon.  

Between bouts of eating junk food and texting friends, I also managed to lay on the couch and do absolutely nothing.  In this practice i've realized how miserable daytime television can be.  I'll admit that my selection has been limited because I don't have cable channels, but I can't say that i've seen anything worth watching other than the Today Show with my favorite anchor Matt Lauer.  I did, however, discover the "on demand" button in the upper left quadrant of the remote control and figured out that I can rent movies online.  Wow, that's fun.  So far i've watched some random documentary about the 1960's counterculture, Four Christmases, and The Great Gatsby, which features the music of Jay-Z set against the backdrop of the prohibition-era classic American story.  But mostly i've just laid on the coach staring at my Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.  I love it.

So at the end of the day, i've officially sucked it up when it comes to the goal of running every single day between Thanksgiving and New Year's.  But in the spirit of full disclosure, i'm completely cool with it.  I really am.  I'm still the same guy who loves nothing more than a long run on a Saturday morning, thinking about the next mile, the upcoming race, the weekend destination run in the coming months, the next marathon.  That's all I want to do: go out and run for the pure enjoyment of doing so.  If there's an organized race of some sort, that's great.  And if said organized race goes 26.2 miles, then even better.  But any old stretch of running will do, whether it's a few miles on the trail or a lot of miles ending in Central Park.  In the meantime, i'll have another bowl of chili. 

Run.