Date: 12/15/11
Route: Some Funky Loop that came to 2.12 miles because of a train
Distance: 2.12 Miles
Pace: 10:08/Mile
Running Temp: Started at 42 (wind chill of 39) ended at (34 wind chill 22)
Wind Speed 25 to 44 mph
All day long, I had longingly gazed out my office window into the giant parking lot beyond. I knew that I would be running today, and with injury and sickness, it had been far to long since I had run last. The temperature outside had been teasing me all day. When I went into work it was 57 degrees outside, in mid-December, in Michigan. There was a time when I came out of the office at lunch, and the sun had broken through the clouds, and I just stood there, arms spread wide, soaking up the sunshine. My mind thought it was May.
As I mentioned, both a bout of sore throat, with all requisite additional symptoms and a small injury had combined to seriously hamper the running the past week. A few weeks back, I am pretty sure I strained my left lower abdomen while sneezing (my sneezes are the ones they talk about in chaos theory.) I had continued to run, because really it was just a minor pain, but it never actually healed. When I realized that I probably should let it rest, I promptly got sick, so it was actually good timing. The ab muscle had not hurt at all in two days though, and when I saw the weather this morning, I was raring to go.
When getting dressed for the run, I was still focused on the days temperature from earlier. I knew the temp was supposed to drop when a new front came in, but it was still relatively nice when I arrived at home. I had on just shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt when I bounded out the door. I turned the corner from behind our house and was hit with a very strong wind. I promptly went back inside and grabbed my throwaway gloves and my Dri-Fit pullover. I figured I would have no problem with the run temp with that gear.
So I started to run into Downtown Plymouth, and I kid you not, I am running into a wall of wind. I have to lean forward just to keep moving. I figured this was a bad sign as I was running west, right where any new weather would come from. All of sudden the wind got cold. It went from a wind you did not notice except for force to a freezing, bitter wind that ate through clothing. My ears started burning as I kept running. As I arrived in Plymouth (despite a detour to keep running with a train blocking my way), I was frigid. The temp had dropped noticeably and there was a light SNOW coming down. I did not even have on my SmartWool headband. I must have looked like a fool to people driving by.
To make matters worse, I had stepped in a huge puddle and my left foot was soaking wet. Every time I took a stride the wind would cut through the wet shoe and freeze my foot. I hightailed it home as fast as I could muster, at least this time the wind was at my back. When I arrived home I checked the temp, and it had dropped 8 degrees, and 17 with windchill. Of course it was my luck that the return to winter had to happen while I was running. I was running in wind steady at 25mph with gusts over 45. The wind had knocked power out a few towns over.
Has anyone out there ever had the weather change that much on them in a 20 minute run? I am up for hearing some crazy weather stories.
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