December goal: update

Remember that awesome idea I had to run at least a mile every single day in December? Turns out Old Man Winter didn't think it was as good of an idea as I did. 

When I was on a roll last winter and into the spring, I was a running fool. There were several mornings when I would run a half marathon before work. My weekly and monthly mileage piled up, and I was running the farthest and the fastest I had in my life. I felt strong, healthy, and admittedly, pretty tired a lot of the time. But it was worth it because I got to spend a lot of time doing one of my favorite things. 

Then I broke my ankle, had to take six weeks off from everything, took another six weeks off from running while I swam and cycled to rehab the ankle, and finally, in September, got back to running. Slowly at first, then built time and miles with the Louisiana Marathon in January in my sights as my "I'm back" run. With a modified training schedule culminating in 26.2 on January 19th, running every day in December didn't seem unattainable or even like much of a stretch with the right planning. 

Then Snowpocalypse 2013 blew into town, and I couldn't have run a foot, much less a mile, unless I wanted to do laps in my living room. Which I did not. With six inches of snow and not a plow in sight, it was three days of no running for me. The streak was broken a mere five days into the month. 

What's a girl to do?

I managed to get to the gym on Monday despite the roads looking more like a skating rink than blacktop, but I figured I had to get out and go to work one way or the other, so I may as well take a practice run and hit the treadmill. By Thursday my motivation to face the dreadmill was waning, so I enlisted the help of my friends Richard and Shauna to get me out of bed Friday morning. They actually met me for an indoor, treadmill run. Runners are a special kind of friend to meet at 5:15 in sub-freezing weather, braving icy roads, to go indoors and run in place for 45 minutes. Best run of my week, too. 

Though my streak is broken, I'm still on track for my marathon training, and almost two weeks later the trails are finally clear of the snow and ice. It may be a long winter, so no more pronouncements of running streaks. Just a commitment to stay on track for the marathons in 2014. 

Run.