Winter Runs

For the past four years, I have worked out or exercised in some form..every single day.
I stayed with it mainly to strengthen my heart irregularities and breathing difficulties, which I assume began from stress. I usually dance for an hour or so for cardio, but lately I decided to change things up a bit.

I started running outside because I love the cold weather; December 4th was my first day. That Friday night, as I was running, it began to snow. It was the first and heaviest snowfall of the year--I felt like I was sprinting through a vortex. I just couldn't stop.

Since that night, everytime the temperature dips below 32 degrees, I head out. Yes, I did get hypothermia when I was too thin, but I am much healthier now and can withstand the extreme temperatures with much more ease. There have been days that I didn't want to go and just wanted to be lazy for a change, but I always made myself. Never once have I regretted it.

This morning, after I awoke and had eaten breakfast, I decided to switch my run to a morning run, rather than my nightly ones. I opened the door and felt the biting breeze and shut the door again. No. I had to go. I put on my shorts, sweatshirt, and shoes and headed out.

The beauty of winter is rather overwhelming to me. I have done not only my best running in the winter, but also my best poetry and writing. I love the chills. I love the somberness of the trees. I love the geese by the lake huddled together to keep warm. I even love the crazy looks I get from people that drive by; I suppose they think I am crazy for being outside, let alone wearing shorts.

The truth is, I don't even think about being cold. Being cold is the one of the loneliest, most miserable feelings to experience. When I am running, though, I forget all about the time I got hypothermia, I forget all about what I have to do or how I didn't want to leave the house, I forget all about my frozen fingers and frozen nose. I began with a mile and now easily jog four miles without noticing. I entrench myself within the wintry surroundings; I just get lost..

Today as I was running, I noticed something white flicker on my eyelash and thought my eyelash had frozen. Rather, a clump of snow had gathered on my eyelash. I looked up and noticed snow flurries waltzing through the air. It was no vortex of snow, nor were any of the snow flurries headed in one direction. It was a chaotic bunch. It made me laugh.

I have a tendency to stare out at the barren trees or the leftover Christmas decorations, sometimes losing track of my direction. I glanced over at the geese huddled together. One of the geese got up and walked toward the lake. It hopped across the boundary that separated land from water but made no splash.

The entire lake was frozen.

I don't think I stopped smiling even once for the rest of my run. A mile or so later, I heard a child yelling, or laughing, I couldn't tell. As I neared the house from which the sound came, I noticed a young girl, about four or five slipping around in her driveway. Her mother was outside taking pictures. She was "ice skating", with tennis shoes, of course; she was absolutely thrilled. She fell a couple of times but just laughed and laughed and laughed. I told her mother that the entire lake was frozen, which really excited the family. She told me that they purposefully poured water in the driveway last night for this very purpose. How perfect.

Oh, the magic of winter.