Notes
"Feels like" -24C/-11F, snowed starting about half a mile in. Good for contest, not so good for me. First thought was to do 3 miles, then realized since it's only supposed to get colder from now until Monday, I'd better go for 4 miles. So that was plan--4 laps of Bridge-to-bridge route.
Early on, I began wondering how I would endure even colder weather for 2 hours on Sunday, and contemplated doing 6 laps today, or at least an hour and a half, in case I can't run long then. Wouldn't make up for it entirely, of course, but would help. Wind was in face on beach side, so every time I was feeling good on opposite side I'd think, "Yeah, I can do 6 laps," then when I was back in the wind I'd think, "Maybe I should quit at 3." Finally said to myself, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be an endurance athlete? Endure, bitch." Still, I was happy to figure that since each lap was actually a little over a mile, I wouldn't have to go much beyond 5 laps to break 1.5 hours.
So, that's what I did: 5 laps, then headed back toward home. Was going to come in a minute or two short (needed 91 for next level in contest, and no way was I going to get that close and not move up), so ran down hill to river. That gave me at least a 5-6 minute walk home. I prefer 10-15 minutes, but in this weather I think that's counter-productive. I get far too cold during my "cool down."
Really, really cool phenomenon at sunrise: there was a pink column shooting straight up from the sun into the sky. At first I thought fortuitous break in clouds, but the wind was too brisk for that to be it. Continued for several minutes. Just looked it up: it was caused by ice crystals in the air, and is called a sun pillar or light pillar. Awesome.