Sliding Around Rexburg

Since it snowed over the weekend, there are still patches of ice everywhere. It hasn't warmed up enough to melt everything away. Before Kal and I ran tonight I asked, "Is it cold outside?" He told me it was pretty chilly, so I grabbed an extra layer of clothing before we left. Then he told me that it was down to nine degrees this morning when he left for classes. Holy cold weather! I felt very lucky that I hadn't left the apartment until almost noon. "It must have been up to a whole 25 degrees by then!" Kal said sarcastically. You know when you should take a vacation to somewhere warm when you get excited about weather above 2o degrees.

Speaking of vacations, I am privileged to have a ride home for Thanksgiving break! It's about 800 miles away. That's more than 30 marathons all in one ride! It might be hard to motivate myself to go running over the break, because I will have to run by myself, and so many people back home have already asked if I have time to do something. I'm only going home for three or four days. If only I could freeze time to make it last longer.

There are advantages to running in my hometown opposed to Rexburg. For one thing, the altitude is much lower. I'll be going from an over-4,000 foot elevation to an elevation of less than 100 feet above sea level. Running there should feel like a breeze.

Second of all, there will be no ice. I had the misfortune of slipping on the ice twice in the same day, both times in front of Kal. I fell all the way to the ground both times. He has a lot of fun teasing me everytime we walk or run anywhere now. "Watch out for that patch of ice, Ash." It's a good thing I have a sense of humor.

I was a little worried before we went running tonight. The sun had already gone down a while ago, and I hadn't noticed how much ice was still on the roads or sidewalks. Luckily, I didn't take a dive during our four miles. I found myself thinking during the run, "wow, look at me. I haven't even fallen." I never said it aloud, though, so as not to jinx myself. This was the second time running that course and we improved our time by a bout a minute. I felt pretty good about that considering I still had some energy left at the end.

A couple of days ago I talked to my dad and he told me to look at my sister-in-law's facebook status. It said she was running a marathon this coming summer too! I was so excited. We will definitely be talking "marathon-talk" when we are all together for Christmas. So far everything is going well. I am getting so psyched for this marathon, I even designed and created a t-shirt. The front and back are posted here: