Exhilirating

I had a great run this morning with the girls out at Lake Pickthorn. I knew it was going to be cold this morning and there were times during the night and when I first got up this morning that I was doubting our sanity for running this morning but wow it turned out great!!!!
It was 24 degrees with a windchill of about 19 when we headed out to run this morning. Jane and I met Brenda and Cindy at McDonald's and then we all piled into Brenda's car and she drove us out to lake pickthorn.
I had on two pair of tights and two long sleeve tech shirts. I also wore my new wind vest I got at the Spa 10K, it is big but it was perfect this morning. Hmmm let's see I also had a neck gaitor and two head/ear bands oh and of course gloves.

The trail/path around the lake is dirt for about a mile and then a little over a mile and a half of gravel and grass. I really liked the packed dirt a lot it felt good to run on a softer surface, I didn't love the gravel/rock as well but it was still softer and it was a nice change. The four of us started out together but it didn't take long for Cindy and Brenda to get ahead of us. The wind was pretty fierce when we first started out and thank goodness for all the head bands I had on because I was able to cover half of my face which made it easier to deal with the wind. Whenever the gaitor would fall down the cold air would sting the inside of my nose! LOL The path is about 2.5 miles out and then turn around and come back. When we met up with Cindy and Brenda they told us they touched the gate so of course we did the same thing. On the way back I actually started getting really warm, the sun was in our eyes and I guess the wind was at our backs not that it felt any easier to run!! but I had to take off my gloves and one of my head bands. I was really glad I wore the vest because it has pockets so I was able to stash everything because once we got back onto the packed dirt and curved around we were right back in the wind and it was HOWLING so I needed to put everything back on. Jane and I just kept laughing because it was getting harder to run it felt like we were being pushed around a bit and the cold was just stinging our faces. Luckily we only had about .75 of a mile of that and then we rounded one more curve and we were back at the car. Brenda said if we ran around the parking lot we would get 5.5... I originally didn't care but once she said it I realized I wanted that even number!

It was such a beautiful morning.. the sun was shining bright, the wind was causing the lake water to crash against the shore so we had the sound of the water while running but as always the best part was the company. Jane and I chatted the whole time and we always had Brenda and Cindy just up ahead.
Brenda will get a kick out of this... Like I said the whole run we had Brenda and Cindy in our sight that is until the last bit and we went around a turn ... well when we got back to the road I couldn't tell which way we should go and I had a split moment of panic!!!! Luckily once I looked to the right I could see the parking lot but I'm serious for a second there I thought Jane and I were going to get lost!!!! LOL

During the run Jane and I were talking about how great it was to be out enjoying the beautiful morning and how most people would think we were idiots or crazy to be running in 20 degree temps... but I said we are going to have the biggest runners high when we get done with this run and I was right!! We were all so happy and chatty the whole way back to MC Donald's!