Five Miles, Minus Eleven

St Croix Valley Runners 5 mi, minus 11 degrees, minus 30 windchill. Finished in about 50 minutes I think. Five other crazies out there today: Jim, Luke, Dave, Roy, and Cal. Nice sunrise run, actually. Everyone seemed prepared for the bitter air. We ran a different, more-protected route through neighborhoods today, coming close to our parked cars twice during the run just in case. I had to poop so bad halfway through that I was seriously looking for a porta-potty or even a little bit of woods, but none was found. That took some of the joy out of the run for me. I was mighty glad to get home, and not because of the cold. That’s a “feature” of the thalidomide: lazy internal organs that make it difficult to do my normal morning routine BEFORE the run. Small price to pay, though, if the stuff works again this time.

Clothes, bottom to top: two pairs of Wright Sox, Nike Miler shoes (low ventilation), pajama bottoms, worn-out jeans, “teflon” running pants, three technical shirts, one cotton shirt, running jacket, ski mask, ear muffs, no glasses, warm choppers on my hands. Cold was the least of my problems, wearing probably 10 extra pounds of clothing!

NO hamstring trouble. Nada. Very good news.

We’ve had an injured deer in our yard the past couple of days, eating browse from time to time but mostly resting. I think she’s a yearling doe, as she doesn’t seem to have the sharply-defined features of an adult. Her left hind foot is missing, but not very recently because there is no blood and she can put weight on it. Nevertheless she moves very slowly. Neighbor Jim reported seeing a wolf in his yard recently. I wish the doe well, but these next few days of sub-zero weather will be trying, especially if she meets up with that wolf.