No Quarter...

         The Summer heat had dissipated into the mild fall, in which I had plenty of free time to curse the meek little tip of my toe. I did get to spend a couple of nice days after fully recovering getting back into the swing of things and before I knew it...frost. I had oddly faired well in the heat and humidity with my training and being more of a cold natured individual didn't think the colder temps were going to be much of an issue...from reading from the beginning, you would already know that more than often...I am wrong.

With heat and sunlight...it's simple, dress in light colors to reflect the suns rays, a nice pair of sunglasses, a cooler of Gatorade and of course your tube sock for perspiration. So now the Winter...first, is the sun out? Light colors don't absorb so you are freezing right out of the gate...darker colors, you are getting cooked by mile two. Ok then, how about layers...well how many and for how many miles? Perhaps and windbreaker or sweatshirt...do I wear pants or shorts? Even if all that is figured out...my damn fingers are freezing! The fun is wearing off... The time of day, temperature and position of the sun swayed all the options. I felt like I needed a team of scientists and meteorologists to evaluate every minute of the day. On top of all that, huffing and puffing that cold air made me feel like I had the flu and or pneumonia after the first mile. I was exhausted before ever leaving the front door.

I felt like there was a constant battle with Mother Nature once again and it was take no prisoner. Talking with more seasoned runners and reading online, I gained the proper weapons to win the good fight...even when the cold rains started. For the hands...who would've guessed glove right? Nice ones too with special finger tips that worked on the touch screen of my iPod so I didn't have to bump it with my nose to skip a song anymore. For the rain, a light hooded zip up sweatshirt that could be opened for ventilation. Lastly and most importantly...a face wrap that covered the lower half of my face trapping the expelled air against my face...note on that, do not eat anything spicy or burp while in use as it will be quite unpleasant.

As is with the Winter time, the sun, is pretty much down by 5:30 so running in the dark...rain...and cold had become my life and the battle was won. Luckily no one called the police on me as I looked as if I were trying to conceal my identity around the neighborhood and wore the tube sock for identification as often as possible.

The police are looking for this man