Frosty Five(-ish)

Blogging live from Pocono Lake, PA.

We don’t usually head up here for just one night — we arrived last night around 10:15pm and will leave tonight around 7pm — but Husband needs to pick up some camping gear  (which we store in the basement) for his week with his fraternity brothers.  I briefly entertained the notion of letting him come by himself, but as it is we’ll be separated for most of the week, and besides, a little bit of downtime is long-overdue for me.

Our time here revolves around sleeping, food, the dog, and for me, running.  For example, only here will I allow myself to  sleep in until noon, eat Nutella ice cream and a grilled cheese & bacon sandwich all within the same 24-hours, and get my run in after lunch.  Part of the reason I’ll run in the middle of the day here (but not in the city), is that there’s no freaking traffic.  No one is around.  I can run for an  hour through my neighborhood and just two cars will roll by, at the downright ambling pace of 10 miles per hour. 

Temps were in the low-20′s again today, with no sun but also no wind or precipitation, so I warmed up quicker than expected, and was sweating heavily at the end of my second loop. Instead of the roads being coated with ice like the last time I was up here, they were mostly clear with just a few icy patches that I could walk across without risking my neck.  A full loop of my neighborhood is 2.5 miles, but when I add another loop, it ends up being less than 5 total since I skip one small bit to avoid an injuriously steep hill.  So, I am not exactly sure how far I went today, but whatever the distance is, I can at least be exact about how long it took me — 47:08.

It was beautiful.  The neighborhood is blanketed in snow, and is wondrously quiet. I start out working hard, heading uphill, and even the first downhill is tough, being steep enough to require concentration.  And steady pace can be elusive here in Pocono Lake, since there is nary a flat. But, it hardly matters once I’m out there, because when I run in Pennsylvania I’m not running for any sort of flow.  I’m running for the solitude of the moment, the way the mountains and the trees and the empty roads surprise me into relaxation, and for the relief that remains after I’ve put forth my small effort to flatten my neighborhood’s hills.

Running Past One of Husband’s Sculptures