Home Sweet Home

I went up to the north shore for my run after dropping Sav, Santos, and Rema off at school.  Baby Girl stayed at my parents' house. I miss running in the town I grew up in for a few reasons, nostalgia, beautiful scenery, and the HILLS. The south shore of Long Island can't get any flatter. I figure I could use a little hill training before my race.

 It was 9:45am and 16 degrees. There was no snow up there.  No ice, either. Looked promising. I had on my sports bra, my running compression pants, a Uniqlo turtle neck, green cotton sweater, fleece, scarf, hat, and sunglasses.  Even with all the layers, the first 8-10 minutes were still painful. I had my scarf over my nose and mouth. This didn't work for two reasons: 1) I couldn't breathe, and 2) my glasses started to fog up. My toes on my left foot were numb and not because of my awesome Adidas Glides. They were on their way to becoming frostbitten. I envisioned them turning black just as I had seen over and over again on all those Mount Everest documentaries. The doctor would have to amputate them. Then I would have to explain to everyone who asked, "I just wanted to run up a hill." My cheeks below my sunglasses and above my scarf felt like they were going to join my toes in the red garbage pail at the hospital. Once I hit my first unshaded road, the sun warmed me up and my future was beginning to look less dismal and I was able to enjoy my surroundings.

According to Map My Run, the biggest gain in elevation for my hometown run is 56 feet versus a 200 foot gain on the north shore.

 I got my YakTrax for Saturday's race (I haven't heard any guesses on exactly how much snow we're supposed to get, but I'm just going to expect the worst). I went on the official YakTrax website last night.  The trax can be pulled over the bottom of your sneakers.  They are made of steel wire and rubber cords.  The price on their site is $40.  They were on sale on a Scout site for $24.99, but you have to pay for shipping (there are few things that irritate me more in life than paying for shipping).  Pete reminded me that we received a $10 coupon in the mail from Dick's!  That Scorecard paid off (I am still waiting to see the benefits from my Toys R Us and Hallmark rewards cards...after 11 years)!  I went to Dick's and tried them on.  Apparently, they only make the YakTrax Walkers in an extra small for a size 6 foot (my foot, well I guess both of them).  The YakTrax Pro (for running) smallest size fits sizes 6.5-10.  I was wary, but they seemed fine.  In fact, it was a bit of a challenge to get them over my sneaker.  Good luck, Size Tens.  The price sign on their display read $29.95!  So after all was said and done, I got my brand new YakTrax for half off!  Whoo hoo!

I dropped the ball with the Marine Corps 17.75k race.  Registration was at noon.  They sold out by 1pm.  I remembered at 4pm.