Through Snow and Ice

I groaned as my alarm went off. "Why must I get up?" I thought to myself. I then remembered. SNOW!!! I rushed out of bed and flung open the curtains hoping to see a substantial amount of glittering white snow on the ground. I was disappointed. While there was a fair accumulation on the ground, I wasn't seeing the amount of snow I hoped for. It was snowing fairly heavily, but there was not enough on the ground to constitute no school. My hopes for a snow day quickly faded into a simmering resentment that I had to go out and run in the extremely windy and snowy weather. I knew that it meant that I would be cold, and my skin would soon be stinging from the hundreds of tiny ice shards whipping through the air on their way to the ground.

I walked out of my room and found Twietmeyer sitting on the couch watching T.V. "I don't want to run!" I complained to him. He simply looked at me and said, "I don't want to hear it." He was right. Here he was injured, unable to run, and I, uninjured, was perfectly capable of running. I hate it when he's right. (Which is nearly all of the time.) I muttered some retort back to him and closed the door to my room to get changed. "This run can't be to bad," I thought to myself. I put on a couple of layers, laced up the shoes and walked out the door.

I walked into the field house hoping Lucas was still there. I was running five minutes late, and I was relieved to see his that his bags were not yet there. Not long after I arrived, I saw Lucas striding across the parking lot, bags and shoes in hand, fighting the strong winds that were coming off of the lake. He walked in the door, shaking the snow off of him. Kleinowski also happened to be returning from his run. He suggested to us that we run north, as the roads had just been plowed in that direction. I looked at Lucas. "Let's do this!" I exclaimed. We were out the door.

The first thing I noticed was the cold, then the wind, then the snow. I felt tiny knives digging into my face as hundreds of little snow flakes bombarded me furiously on their mad decent. We started off immediately. Our pace was slow, but that was OK. There was no way we were going to be able to run a decent fartlek workout in this weather. As we progressed along on our run, the roads continued to get worse and worse. The snow was quickly accumulating on the road, and mixing with the melted snow to create a treacherous slush. I started to slip and slide down the side of the road, and fought the wind several times to get back up to the road.

Our conversation began to dwell on robots and the possibilities of a future cyborg and human race. We spoke of genetic engineering and the possibilities of a real life Jurassic Park. The wind and tiny ice shards continued to buffet us as we ran along, but our exciting conversation drew our attention away from them. Before I knew it, we were already turning back into campus. It is amazing how fast a run can go by when you are having a good conversation. (As Lucas and I always do.)

We ran up to the field house, bringing to an end our epic run. Despite my complaining earlier that morning, I was extremely happy we went out. There is something about running in snow or rain that is refreshing, despite the unpleasant thought of it. Running always brings about a sense of refreshment. This particular morning, that refreshment was won, through snow and ice.