Yes, I finally got to get my butt outside for a decent run. The temp was almost balmy at 39*F and a pretty stiff wind out of the NW at 15 mph, yeah right in the wheelhouse for a nice run outside.

We got just enough snow and rain yesterday that I waited until this morning to do the clean-up – three driveways snowblowed and then walking with Bennie down-back almost two miles, meant that I seriously thought about shortening my scheduled 6.0 miler this morning.

With the conditions outside this morning, running around the house was not really a consideration, the roads were still crap and down back, while runnable in sections, other parts were not worth taking a chance on. Ice is my enemy.

Augusta where my Planet Fitness is located, is usually pretty clear after a storm and while it is not all that great for scenery, at least the footing is mostly predictable and there is room on the side of the road to run fairly safely.

So I drove into Augusta.

It was the correct choice, the roads were mostly clear and just wet in most places, but not all :-).

As usual when I got to the locker room, I noticed that I forgot to put one of my running jackets in my gym bag…something that I seem to do all too often. However, in the very bottom of the bag, I keep my old Patagonia Anorak just for my brain farts like this.

Boy, when I got up on Outer Civic Center Drive running into that “breeze” was interesting, but not as bad as I thought it would be. When I went down Leighton Road, my feet got wet for the first time – several times. There were some icy sections on the side of the road, but nothing that I couldn’t navigate without any issues.

However, the Bus Station did call out my name as I ran by and I figured it was a great place to stop for a minute or two.

Things did get a little interesting when I ran down around the Commerce Center. There were some pretty huge puddles to get around, lots of snow covered ice on the back side and yes, my got really wet through here. Running with wet feet when it is in the 30’s still is not all that enjoyable.

When I got back up on Civic Center Drive, I decided to just get back to Planet Fitness and picked up the pace a bit. Everything felt pretty good and when I got back to the light, I decided to pick it up to my half marathon pace to see how it felt running at that pace outside.

No issues and I felt as though I had plenty left, even after running almost 7.0 miles. I did run in the adidas Tempo 9s and while I do not like them quite as much as I do the Beacons (just being honest), I do know that I can run well outside in them when the conditions are a bit iffy. Running in the T9s was the correct choice this morning.

The run itself wasn’t anything special other than it was not done on the treadmill and I surprised myself at how good I felt during it. All I know is that it will feel great when I can run outside more often.