In my effort of get back into regular running, I decided I needed to go early to make sure I actually did my run. I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday where I didn’t run right off the bat and figured I just go later when I got around to it. Well I never got around to it. So out of bed and into running duds seemed to be what I needed to do, and it worked.

Adding an extra challenge to the run was the temperature. It was really cold, in the 30s. Wasn’t quite freezing, but it sure felt close. I wore my heavy running shirt and my running jacket, gloves and tights, bandanna and hat. And I was still freezing, especially my hands. Oddly when I put on my jacket I felt some lumps in the pockets. I reached in and found my shell gloves that I wore the other day in the rain. I left them on the counter and regretted that moments into my run. I could have used the extra layer on my hands.

My feet were also really cold, though fortunately they were and remained throughout the run, dry. The problem was that they felt really stiff in my shoes and started to get really uncomfortable. Maybe my feet swell a bit in the cold as well. Not really sure, but they suffered through most of the run.

In addition to the rain, the cold and lack of light, I realized another negative factor facing the Portland runner: fireplace smoke. Pretty much throughout my entire run I smelled fires. At times it was thick enough to make me cough. Ridiculous! At least its not as bad as burning garbage which I often smell in my neighborhood. Crimony, isn’t this a city we live in? Fireplace smoke I can understand to a certain degree. I really can’t see how the city can maintain air quality with it going on though. Of course people would scream bloody murder if the guv-a-munt tried to take away their fires!