Cold Nose, Warm Heart

Today was the Valentine's 5K at Lake Harriet. This is the third year in a row that I've run this race, and as usual I had a great time. I almost didn't run it, however, because this is what the temperature was at the time of the race:


That's minus 3; without the windchill. A couple of days ago, I sent out an e-mail to see who was running the race. Coach Gary replied that he was and where did I want to meet. Uh, I was just checking. We're in our millionth day of sub-zero weather and I wasn't sure how cold it would be and whether I was willing to run in it. I wanted to run, since it will be my last chance to run this race, but was hesitant. Since Gary committed, I went ahead and signed up.

You can't wear the shirt if you don't run the race and they give out a great red dry-wick shirt. I picked it up yesterday, then washed it and wore it as my base layer today. I had three layers on the bottom (light tights, winter tights, and wind pants) and four on top, which was one layer too many. My hands were toasty warm with the new mittens over the gloves.

Coach Gary was my marathon training coach and he got me over the finish line at the Twin's Cities Marathon. I am forever indebted to him for that; plus he's just an all-around great guy. We arranged to meet at the Pavillion and as soon as we saw each other, we headed to the warming tent. But first, we had to have our picture taken.


The race wasn't very crowded, but we lined up at the back. Gary commented that we have to pass at least some of these people. I told him to run ahead if I held him back, but we stayed together the whole time. It was fun talking with him and the time went fast. Not once did we complain about the weather! And we passed plenty of people. :-)

We crossed the finish line in 37:43. Not terribly speedy, but not bad for me. Actualy, I felt great! I ignored the whiner within and the weather. I finished with a sense of accomplishment, even if it was only a 5K.

At the finish, I saw a friend of mine. I had heard she was running, but didn't talk to her before the race. It turns out it was her first race ever. She gets extra credit for running her first race in sub-zero weather. Nat also was running the race with some of her friends, but I didn't see her.

We lined up for carbohydrates: there were the whole wheat rolls from Great Harvest Bakery that I like so much, and kefir. And for Valentine's Day, heart-shaped cookies. I passed on those, though since I'm still trying to get down to size 6. I've been sugar-free for 2 months now!

Thanks for your get-well wishes; I'm much better. Sorry I haven't been keeping up on your blogs; I plan to remedy that in the coming week. I'm been scrubbing my house all week, getting it ready for showings. I've had three showings this week and an open house tomorrow. The market seems to be picking up. Here's hoping.

I also figured out what was wrong with my blog--the picture was too big. The image was 600 pixels wide; I reduced it to 400 and my layout is fine now.