The Frozen Ponytail Run

It was 28 degrees on Saturday. It was snowing and crazy windy. Not the best of conditions.

My daughter had a friend sleeping over and I had promised to take them shopping at the mall. But I was determined to get my miles in. I made them some blueberry muffins to eat in my absence, left a note, and headed to the trail.

The beauty of running the trail is that the out and back route makes it so I only have to force myself to do 3.5 miles. Then I have no other choice than to finish all seven. Had I had the choice at mile 4, mile 5, or mile 6 to turn home - I just may have taken it.

A little after mile two, I realized my butt and thighs had frozen solid. The rest of me was just fine. So I had two theories. Either,

1. All that 60% of water we're supposed to be made up of was residing solely in my butt and thighs, hence the blocks of ice I was toting around.
2. Fat freezes faster than muscle.

I'm not sure. But strap on a big ol' block of ice to each of your thighs and to each of your butt cheeks and this will give you a pretty good idea of how I felt around mile two. I picked up the pace just to try to thaw out my poor gluteus maximus. That must've worked. Or I just went numb. Because I didn't feel the pain after that.

Once I pushed through the initial butt-freeze I felt pretty strong. I was running more than walking and just trying to get to that 3.5 mile marker. Then I realized that 7 miles was the longest I had done on this particular trail. The longest run on this trail to date was 6 miles. So I got a little further into the trail and it was beautiful! It was a little more wooded than the first three miles. The path was less worn and less sloppy. Apparently, only the cool runners make it this far. So I did a little Sound of Music, open-armed turn-around and caught some snowflakes on my tongue. If they ever make a movie about me it will make a nice scene and give the composers a chance to write some pretty music.

The joy of my turnaround was short-lived when I realized I had to repeat those miles. The wind was picking up and I was ready for a cup of coffee. But those fourth and fifth miles totally flew by.

The last mile seemed longer than normal. But I felt such a sense of accomplishment when I finally reached my car. I took off my Bondi Band, which was doing a nice job of keeping my ears warm, and felt something hard in my hair. Then I realized it was my hair! My ponytail had totally froze during my two hours of quality time outside. I also realized I hadn't seen one other person the entire time I was on the trail. Either I was the only one stupid enough to be out there, or, as Lucy would say, I was just a total badass.

Oh yea...and then we went shopping. For SIX hours. I should so get extra credit for that!