The Storm Part III - Abort Abort

Due to bad weather, I diverted around my scheduled 18 mile run this Sunday. Instead, I bought a 11'4'' Christmas three and hauled it into the house, then out, then in... (it was one mother of a tree and took some coaxing to get planted straight in our living room) "Does that look straight to you?"
"Um well... it depends on how you have your head tilted." Actually... it wasn't really the weather. My legs were dead tired. I topped 40 miles this week for the first time, and there just wasn't enough juice in them for 18 miles the next day. Yes... I could have done it anyway... but I believe it would have probably done more harm than good. I have plenty o slack in my training schedule actually... I need to be careful or I will peek too soon.
I have a neutral foot. I suspected as much, and stuck my foot in some water and then on some black paper to verify. In that respect, from a running point of view (especially for long distances) I am very lucky. There is a lot you can do to train and take care of your body, but some of it comes down to genetics. I can remember my cross country coach, Jack Oft (yeah we laughed about his name) saying that I had a perfect body for running. It wasn't really my feet =) but the fact that I was skinny and had relatively decent form. I did definitely have the body of a long distance runner. Of course, sometime between adolescence and adult hood, that perfect long distance running body up and ran away. I do have relatively the same two feet though, and they have served me well.

Last night as I was nearing the ¾ mark of my run, the sun was setting to the west over the cascade range... lol... like the sun could ever set to the EAST... but anyway... it was one of those amazing and awe-inspiring moments that can just rock your world. Missing that sunset would have been a crime. Running takes you places (bumper sticker?, OK maybe not... how 'bout Marathon runners do it long and slow? Uh no... some do run fast... how about "My Dad went to Boston, ran a marathon and was too tired to buy me a T-shirt, so he just wrote this on my chest with a black permanent marker", or... "Pardon me... I've got the runs..." or "Boston Marathon 2008. I was going to run a 10K, but I got lost and was too stubborn to ask for directions")

ANYway... running takes you places that you may not ordinarily be, and sometimes the results are amazing. When I was in the Army, some of the most god-wakeful situations could be amazing in their own way. I remember being on an exercise in Alaskan wilderness near Fairbanks... it was very cold... -30 -40 -50 all the same... and the wind was blowing right through our SUSV (google it... it is a military vehicle built for snow) and at some awful hour of the morning (midnight) my SUSV was wandering around a snow storm trying to find our unit. The conversations went something like "where the hell are you?" "on top of a hill" "so are we... what do you see?" "nothing but blowing snow... it is pitch black". It was desolate. Finally we gave up and hunkered down for a break in the storm. I crawled into my super military sleeping bag... ducked my head inside... and I could still feel the cold blowing through the vehicle... through my bag. It was not good. It was the kind of night where the cold could do some serious damage. While I was in the shiver state (good sign... very good... the comforting numb bliss of hypothermia is where it gets dangerous) the wind died down, the snow stopped... and the clouds parted to show the most amazing northern lights I ever saw. If you have only seen them on TV... forget it... not the same... but there they were, so beautiful you could cry. That moment... like the moments I experience sometimes while running... would have been missed if I had not ventured out into the storm ( regardless of whether I had to abort on the 18 miler) =)