You Know You’re A Winter Runner When…

Good morning – happy Tuesday all – even though it feels like a Monday to me. I enjoyed my long weekend, but wish I had an extra day of rest. These long weekends always seem to fly by so fast when we use them for travel.

This post will again be photo-less. I realized halfway through the weekend that even if I wanted to take pictures, I left my camera at work. Eeek! So it’s a combination of my laziness and forgetfulness that has led to another photoless post.

I have to say that I was dying for my camera yesterday. After I wrote my quick check-in post I got word from the Hubby that he was going to be out for a while running errands and such, so I had about 2 hours of free time. I decided it would be smart to use that time for a quick run. However, I soon realized that my travel bag with all my running gear was in Hubby’s car. I was frustrated and upset and then I decided that I could probably find some decent running duds in my old clothes still at my parent’s house.

I rummaged around and ended up finding spandex (score!!), a t-shirt and the long-sleeved shirt I received from the Mohawk Hudson Marathon. I also snatched an old L.L.Bean vest from the hallway closet. The only missing elements were a sports bra and a winter hat. I managed to find a somewhat comfortable old regular bra buried in one of my drawers and decided it would have to do. And after much searching, I was only able to find a regular baseball cap. I also grabbed an old regular running watch – I was so sad to be running Garmin-less.

I have to tell you that I looked ridiculous. My hat was bright pink, my long-sleeved shirt was bright orange, my vest was grey and my spandex were black. I looked atrocious, but at least I was able to get my run in!

After completing my 3.3 mile run in 27 minutes (I used mapmyrun.com to track it after), I thought about how desperately I wanted to get that run in (afterall it was a decent day and it was daylight out) and realized that somehow over the past few months I’ve become a legitimate Winter Runner! Here’s how I can tell.

You Know You’re A Winter Runner When…

• 30 degrees and sunny sounds like a balmy day and perfect for a run.
• You believe that the invention of women’s winter running hats with the ponytail hole in the back was pure genius.
• When you hear about a large predicted snow-storm your immediate concern is if it will affect your planned long run, not whether you’ll be able to make it to work or have enough food/reserves to ride it out.
• You wonder how gross it would be to rewear your warmest running tights/spandex without washing them when a decent running day unexpectedly presents itself and you haven’t done the laundry yet.  
• You constantly have a raw spot under your nose from your runny-nosed-runs.
• You feel you’ve finally perfected your light-footed sloshy snow running and scoff at other runners you see slipping and sliding all over the place.
• And lastly, you’re more excited about Daylight Saving Time beginning in March (a.k.a. setting the clocks ahead – meaning more light earlier in the morning and later at night) than you are about your birthday.

Those are just a few of the tell-tales signs that I can finally count myself among the ranks of the real winter runners. What about you – how can you tell you’re a real winter runner?

That’s all for today folks. I promise a picture-filled post for tomorrow, as well as a book review of The Historian coming soon! All I can say at the moment is that you should definitely put that book on your list. 🙂

Have a great Tuesday!