Saturday, February 13, 2016

A Beautiful Sunrise

Running on the morning of February 13, 2016.  The temps were low.  The wind was high.  I had an Under Armour cold gear compression layer, a hooded sweatshirt layer, and a windbreaker layer.  I had a hat.  I had a scarf.  I had two pairs of gloves.  But I did have just on layer on the legs.  I had a fuel belt with two stingers (that I ignored) and three bottles of water.  I had four sides of water during my run, but two of the three bottles froze and I was eventually thirsty for water by the end.  I haven't been truly thirsty on a winter long run in a long time.  I'm wondering if it was half psychological as it was as much about not being able to get water as actually needing water.  

I ran 5.35 to Christopher's Place.  I have not run straight down Greenmount the whole way to Madison that many times, but there was truly no one out this morning.  I think even the drug dealers felt it was so cold that they had to stay in.  I met my training partner and went to the Royal Farms on Key Highway before coming back.  It was so cold that the bridge that connects the piers that the two parts of the aquarium are on was closed due to ice.  Very much a surprise to me.

The wind when heading west felt like a wall to run against.

The most interesting part of the run was as we were headed back along the promenade from the Royal Farms to the Inner Harbor.  As we turned one corner, I looked back over my shoulder to the east.  The sky had multiple shades of pink at the horizon and then the dark gray/purple clouds above.  And what made this sunrise so amazing was not the clouds and the shades.  We have seen that on our early morning runs many times.  What was so amazing was the streaks that appear when snow or rain is falling from the clouds miles away and made it look like a fuzzy gray/purple color between the darker clouds and the horizon with the brilliant pink background.

The unfortunate thing is that we will soon enter daylight savings time and for a while we won't have sunrises that early.

But it is one of the most amazing things about running at that time of day consistently.

And the run was a great part of my pursuit of the the dream to complete Comrades.  One day at a time.   

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