20 snowy miles (or why I will rock The Cowtown)

So, if you haven't heard, it snowed here. Woke up to INCHES on Thursday morning and it didn't stop until Friday morning. Luckily, we got a snow day--downside was it wasn't announced until I was literally in my driveway on the way to work (couldn't get out of my driveway anyway, but, that's besides the point). Sleeping in fail. Boo! And, because I'm a child, I am so wildly excited by the snow and really haven't shut up about how pretty it is in 3 days.

Snow or otherwise, I had a 20 miler on the schedule today. My last (er, first?) before The Cowtown. I knew my trail would be a snowy, muddy, tree trashed fiasco, so I had to find another route to get to the clubhouse. Enter the husband who suggests a route he rides his bike on. "It's hilly, but, not too bad" he says "and, the hills will help you in Catalina" (also, Cowtown has a 1 mile hill climb at mile 24--how mean is that?). So, I shall embrace the hills.

Did I mention the route involves all the hills at the first 3 miles? Doesn't sound that bad in theory until you've trashed your legs by mile 7 and have 13 left. Not that I know from personal experience or anything.

Let's break it down shall we:

0-1: Ohh, look at all the pretty snow. Snow, snow, snow. Snowmen. Snowpeople. Snow, snow, lovely snow. I love the snow. La, la, snowy, snowy winter wonderland.
1-3: More snow. Look! There's no one on the road, I can run on the faux sidewalk created by road construction. Ohh, non snowy and safe. Yay! Crap. Must.go.up.a.hill. Am I stil climbing this hill? Where does it end? Phew. It's over. La, la, running through happy pretty neighborhood, la, la--hill! Stupid blasted hill. I hate this hill. This hill is even longer. Less steep, but, it's like 500 times as long. Valley--weeeeee! Hill. Stupid hill that I hate and that I avoid when running with the group. Kiilllll me. Whew. Up the hill. La, la, down the hill. La, la, la. Crap. Stoplight is out. Let us play chicken whilst crossing 6 lanes of traffic, yes? Yes. I'm alive.
3-5: Made it to the lake! Lovely lake. With snow. Mmm, snowcones. Um. Um. All the lights are out. Um. I'm literally the only person here. Please no murders, please. Just keep running, just keep running. Run faster you idiot! Outrun the murders! (also, they'd have to be some seriously dedicated murders to be out in this nonsense)
5-7: Thank the Lord, there are people. They're just as insane as I am. Yay for crazies! I am kicking this runs ass. My legs hurt though. Maybe I shouldn't have charged 3 miles of hills? Perhaps. I rock anyway.
7-9: Oh fantastic, the route we're taking today is the hill training route. Thank you Universe, you win, yet again. Hands are giant ice pops. Apparently, stopping at the clubhouse turns then into giant frozen clubs. Oh look, snow. Avoid the snow. Run single file. Look, I'm at the back. Shocking. Feet are wet. Hands are cold. Anger.
9-10: Oh look, another hill! And another. At least there are pretty houses to look at. Oh! I like that one. Can I have that one?
10-11: Fantastic. More snow. Step lightly kids! Ugh. It's like evil mud. And slippery. Slippery cold stupid mud.
11-13: Yay! Hands are not giant icepops anymore (did I just jinx myself?). Ugh. Legs are dead. My butt is cold. Cannot keep up. Run harder. Please water stop, please! Waterstop! I'm keeping up again. Avoid snow. Avoid snow=run on sidewalk? Not our best collective decision. Step lightly! Oh, hamstrings officially hate me. I'm totally going to slip and fall into the street and get hit by a car. Because the avoiding snow thing? Yeah, we ended up in more snow. I hate snow.
13-14: Did I mention how much I hate running in snow? Because I do. It's evil. Pretty, but evil. Like a supermodel or something (not that supermodels are evil, but, you know what I mean).
14-17: No more snow! YAY! Just keep running, just keep running. We're all exhausted. When our rockstar super hero pacer is starting to fade--here's your sign. I'm being told to call it a day at 17 and that someone will take me home. So, so tempting. But no! I am hardcore! I will make it to 20.
17-18: Longest effing mile of my life. Am alone. Am bored. Am cold. Am stuck in snow again.
18-19: Run fast you idiot, the faster you run, the faster you are done! Weeee! Quick, quick. Turn up iPod and rock out. Happy running.
19-20.25: Stupid snow. Stupid .10 mile bridge covered in snow. Must basically walk across bridge lest I fall (again--did I not mention that?) and break ankle/leg/hip. Stupid snow. Success! Across the bridge! Warn fellow runners. Am such a good citizen. Oh look. More snow. Almost there! Left, right, left, right. Left! Right! Run down the hill. YAY! Car! Warm car! I did it.

UGH! 20.25 miles. Awesome. It felt so much better than my 20 milers while training for Tulsa. Yes, the snow totally sucked and I would so much rather run in sub freezing weather (not sub zero! I mean below 32. It was like 34 today) than run in the snow--it was so hard. Not something I wish to repeat. The run was hard. It was hilly, it was challenging, it was cold--but, it was probably one of the best runs I've had in a while. I never worried about the distance (so much easier to break up--7 miles to clubhouse, 10 miles with the group, 3 miles alone), I just felt great. At mile 10 I remember thinking how bitter I was 10 miles into my last 20 mile training run in the fall and was so happy that I felt good (as good as one can feel). So, yay!

On another totally unrelated note, being short sucks. I took in some clothes to have altered=$64 later....

Sheesh.

And. And. And! I found 6 (yes, 6, I pulled them out and counted!) gray hairs today. Gray! I'm too young to be going gray. This is horsecrap.

I'm still a bit shaken up (not kidding) about the whole incident. May have gone overboard with buying haircolor today.

Seriously.

The awesome 20 miler gets cancelled by the gray (again, Universe, YOU WIN).

Happy Saturday y'all--and Happy Valentine's Day. Love all my blog friends so much!