A Good Run

Last night, our church had a Mardi Gras fundraiser to help send some of the church youth (including my eldest) to camp this summer.

I had been asked to make some appetizers, and of course, being the exceptional wife I am, I delegated the job to my husband. 😉 He’s a much better cook than I am, not to mention he happened to be home yesterday, so he was the natural choice. And he didn’t disappoint! He made his famous meatball recipe (this is a joke; it’s really a “cheater” recipe, but I can’t share it or else I think he’d have to kill me), a vegetarian taco salad, and a special recipe I picked after seeing it on Eat Yourself Skinny.

Those are Skinny Buffalo Chicken Bites, a recipe slightly altered by my husband and oh so good! (Ignore the basil leaves; they are there to add color because it’s the only green I had in the kitchen. The recipe does not use basil at all.)  They were quite a hit at the church gathering, and quite a hit with DS#1, too, who loves anything to do with hot and spicy.  These were actually not overly spicy—just enough kick to keep you interested.  I will definitely make request them again.  My husband said they were a bit trickier to make than he expected, but not too difficult.

We had a good time at the Mardi Gras party, and I enjoyed all the food that was brought by many of our church families.  There was a whole dessert room, complete with a candy “bar” where you could choose lots of different candy to put in a bag and take home. (Brilliant, I say. Brilliant!)  My favorite was definitely the dessert buffet, though, which included these yummy little things.

I admit to indulging in two of the little chocolate mousse tartlets. But they were so small, it was like having just one, right? 😉

Between the buffalo chicken bites and the mousse tarts, I knew that I would definitely need to get my scheduled 5-miler in this morning. I checked the weather and saw that it was supposed to snow later in the morning, so I hoped I could get away with a quick five miles down the road and back before the snow hit. Unfortunately, when I rolled over at 7am and looked out the window, I discovered I wasn’t quite so lucky…it was already snowing, and snowing pretty hard!

I lay there for several minutes, telling myself I would run on the treadmill, and then giving myself permission to sleep another 20 minutes.  But, I was wide awake by that point, so I figured I might as well get up and go to it.  As I got ready, my mindset began to shift. I was thinking to myself, “If I were a skier, I would already be out the door to go ‘exercise’ in the snow. So why should running be any different? The only thing different is what you wear on your feet, right?”

And that’s how I convinced myself to go run five miles in the snow. 😀

I started out slow, because the winds were mostly coming from the south, which was the direction I was going.

 

That snow was blowing like crazy right in my face.  The scarf helped, but it was also challenging to keep in place.  I kept at it, though, knowing that my 2.5 miles out would be the worst, and the trip home would be (hopefully) a lot easier.

I stopped a couple of times on the way out, once to pick up my snot rag, once to pick up my glove, and once to adjust my scarf.  Then, when I got to the 2.5 mile turnaround, I stopped to just take a breath and also to take a picture, because it was just too beautiful not to.

I love seeing my footprints in the snow and knowing that I made those while running. 🙂

The trip back was easier, though not a cakewalk by any stretch.  I just kept it slow and steady to keep from slipping, and to enjoy the surroundings.  The snow really was beautiful…light and fluffy –and plentiful!   At mile 4, I took my headphones out and ran the last mile just listening to peacefulness, broken only by the sound of my shoes crunching on the snow.  It was pretty amazing, actually.  And when I was done, I felt pretty amazing!

I won’t lie…the two pictures above were taken before I even went out for my run (by DS#1 of course), but I felt just as good when I was done as I did when I started.  Probably better, actually, because I’d just run five miles in the snow, and that’s a pretty cool feeling!

I was amazed at how good that run felt.  Was the trip out pretty rough? Heck yeah! But the trip home was just beautiful, and so worth all the effort and the cold fingers and nose.  Running is a great therapy, and running in the snow, when it’s peaceful and beautiful, is even more so.  It was truly a wonderful experience, and I will definitely do it again!

Thanks for reading!