It was our first training run for Grandma’s and despite my offering Scott a way out, we went out and got it done.
Three miles is hardly something to write home about, at least most of the time. Our marathon training started this week, and today was the first day of real running. I’ve been running occasionally, but no farther than about 4.5 miles. Scott hasn’t run since, well, the marathon back in October. And the weather? About 3°F. I’m pretty sure this is the coldest run I’ve ever taken, at least that I can remember.
I started out slowly. We ran against traffic on a very snowy shoulder along one of the “busy” roads in town. The first five minutes felt like I had sucked down an entire slurpee (running into the wind = brain freeze). After we warmed up, I think I found a rhythm at about the 1 mile mark. Then again, it could have been the slight downhill.
We didn’t set a watch, and when we got back, had no idea if it was really three miles or not. Turned out it was, and we survived. It’s amazing what your body remembers to do when it has to.
Running in Calumet isn’t exactly running in the woods, but there’s an eery peacefulness to running on snowpacked roads. Not knowing much about the physiological impacts, I can only guess and say that it’s easier on your joints. It kind of feels like running on a dirt road. And at 7PM on a chilly winter’s evening, typically the roads are only filled with people who have to be out. Even running through the neighborhoods and through downtown, you feel like you have the road to yourself.
This was more of a just get out there and do it run, but I think it was a good way to kick off the training season. I’m hopeful that we can keep it going, even on those dreaded long mileage days.
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Although it’s definitely not something I would do, I like the tool you used to draw out the map with distance measurements. Where’s the marathon being held ??
The map is done using a tool at mapmyrun.com. It’s awesome.
As for the marathon, it’s on June 20 in Duluth!
Another thing that surprises me is the clarity of maps and details they have for UP. Not sure if GoogleMaps has caught up on it yet… Will try it out to map out few things that I have been procrastinating on.