20 Cold Miles and One Warm Dump

On Thursday and Friday we got a typical extreme Boulder snowstorm. That means 24″ of snow. I was stuck at our condo in Boulder and Amy was stuck at our house in Eldo. That was no fun so on Friday morning I ran to her.

I thought it would be snowy so I wore a brand new pair of icebugs. Of course, I got the wrong size (they are 12′s – I should have gone 11.5′s). More importantly, I only needed them for the last 250 yards as the first 9 miles was dry road already (the sun was out, it was in the 40′s, and the snow plows had done their work, including on the sidewalks.) Of course, the last 250 yards was two feet deep so I’m not sure I needed the icebugs for that either so I just postholed my way through. Have you ever run 10 miles uphill in spikes on concrete and asphalt with shoes that are half a size too big? It sucks. So I took a bath when I got home.

I was going to run back to Boulder on Sunday mid-morning. I woke up at 9:30, had some breakfast, read a book, and crawled back in bed to take a nap. I woke up at 5:30 in the afternoon and decided to stay home and watch the football game with Amy. She’s a crazy Patriots fan so I rooted for the Giants just to annoy her. Hah!

I left my house this morning at 6:00am. It was pitch black except for the full moon lighting up the sky. The first 250 yards were a reverse of postholing through the snow – this time I had some footprints (big, deep ones) to step in. The next mile was over a sheet of ice where the snow had melted and refrozen in Eldorado Springs. After several ballet moves I decided to walk the last half mile so I’d quit trying to fall. Once I hit the pavement the road was once again dry.

At mile 7 I had a feeling come over me that all long distance runners know. I ate too much on Sunday but left before I’d had a chance to empty myself. I figured I only had three miles left so it wasn’t a big deal. Wrong. I started reconsidering at mile 8. By mile 9 I was in full clench – I’d waited too long and was now hunting for a building to duck into and find a bathroom. Fortunately I was at CU Boulder so I shot into the first building and went from a state of complete and total panic to utter relief in about six seconds.

As I trotted the last mile smiling, I thought to myself how nice it was to end a frustrating 20 miles with a very warm dump.