California Dreamin'

Today I have 18 miles at an 8:30 pace. It is about 15 degrees, out, with the wind chill at about 5 degrees. It’s too icy to run on the trails, so I decide to run a couple of 8 mile loops from starting from my house. Everyone else has decided to run indoors this weekend, but I can’t stand the idea of 20 miles on a treadmill. I have multiple layers on, and I plan ahead and leave dry clothes and shoes waiting for me just inside the garage door. When I’m about ¾ done with my run, I’ll stop and quickly put on the dry layers, so my core temperature does not go down too much from the cold sweat on my drenched clothes sticking to me. I start the run with my Yak Trax on, but some parts of the streets are snowy, but others are not, so it may not be good for metal on them when I hit bare pavement. Instead of coming back on the streets, I stick to an unpaved access road next to the railroad tracks. Some trucks and cars have tramped down the snow with their tire tracks, but it doesn’t get plowed and salted. It’s better for the Yak Traks, but the terrain is tougher and it is about a half mile gradual incline.
It’s one of those days where water bottles freeze, especially in the nozzles after you take your first drink. So I only carry a little, and I loop back to my house after 6-7 miles and grab a water bottle I keep out of the wind in my garage. I also toss the Yak Trax. On my second loop, I have about 3 miles left. I just get to the corner of my block, and I see some people I usually only see running on the Old Plank Trail. They started from our Park District field house, and stuck to the streets for better footing. Instead of picking up a water bottle, of my last leg, I opt for the company. Pretty soon we are swapping tips for the best hills to run to train for a hilly marathon, and they are trying to talk me into running a marathon through Napa Valley in the summer time. They told my wife about their trip, and now she wants to take a winery tour, where we would have to go to the Sonoma Cutre vineyards, and sample the Russian River Valley chardonnay that we first had on Valentine’s Day 2 years ago at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in downtown Chicago.
I only run a mile with this group, but having any company at all is a godsend on a long cold run like today. I run back to the house, toss my belt, and run just less than a mile past it and back, and I am done. I am SO done!