It has been an exhausting couple of days. Yesterday started with a call from work at 7 am after a couple of people called in sick forcing me to go in early. I wasn't due in until 3:30 pm. It got worse as we got socked with a huge snowstorm in the middle of the afternoon causing the city of Cincinnati to decide to leave work early creating huge traffic jams which caused our second shift employees to be late. The day ended with me crashing out at midnight in an empty room...still at work. The roads were atrocious, and I had to be back at work first thing in the morning. So, I could either take a couple of hours to get home, take a nap, and spend over an hour getting back, or suck it up and camp out at work.
It was uncomfortable, and I got little sleep, but on the bright side I had some running clothes still with me from the previous day! So, at 5 am I groggily put on my shorts and t-shirt that I wore to the gym the previous day. I then put on the hoody sweat-shirt and nylon warm-up pants to keep warm in the frigid dark morning and took off. Ridiculous work hours weren't going to keep me down!
It was such a cool run. I had the streets of Clifton and Gaslight District all to myself in the early morning pre-dawn dark. There were plenty of street lamps to light my way as I had to be careful as I was running mostly on the hard packed snow of the sidewalks. I ran from the hospital across Clifton and through the Gaslight District to Mt. Storm Park. Running through Gaslight District by all the nice houses under only the light of the gas lamps lighting the way is just so amazing. In the dark with the snow completely covering the road and on the lights of the gas lamps it's easy to imagine what the neighborhood would've been like a hundred years ago.
I wasn't completely alone out on the roads on my way back. I saw a few people out cleaning off their cars to leave for work, and one other runner crazy enough to brave the dark, cold, snowy and icy sidewalks. I traded a simple "good morning" with her and moved on. I can't speak for her, but if I were to meet her I'd have instant respect for the fellow crazy runner.
The schedule called for 4 hill repeats. I didn't do any hill repeats, but Clifton is all hills. I am fairly certain that I got in a sufficient amount of hill work. Add to the hills the snow that was slippery at some points and deep at others I feel really good about the amount of work I put in. 1:04 MRR (6.5m / 9:50 pace)
I've been playing with a couple of new gadgets and buttons for the blog. On the top I put a link to my Mercy Heart Mini-Marathon fund raising page. I don't really expect to attract a lot of attention or donations with it, but I am proud to support the American Heart Association. The link is just my way of showing it.
The countdown gadget might have to come down or be replaced. It's a shame, because I think it looks super-cool, but it's wrong. It should say 2 months, 26 days... I'll play around with it to see if I can get it right. Gadgets are fun!
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