The wind chill in degrees Fahrenheit during my last 3 one-mile runs was 7, 5, 7.
I didn’t choose to run in the extreme cold. I chose to run. I’ve run at least one mile every day since July 22, 2019. Why would I allow the extreme cold or heat to stop my streak?
Hell no.
With numbness in my right foot, I stopped running and started to walk. After 10 seconds of thought, I stopped the run workout on my watch and turned around. I had set out to run 7 miles but only ran 1.57 up to that moment.
As soon as I looked out the window, I jumped out of my seat and changed into my running gear as fast as possible. Snow was rushing down from the sky. With a wind chill of -0.4 degrees, I welcomed the snow.
Two minutes later, the clouds broke with sunshine. This is the nature of lake-effect snow in Southwest Michigan. It didn’t stop me. I laced up, walked outside, asked Siri to start a one-mile run, and then took off.
The pavement was pure ice with a half-inch of fresh snow layered on top. After five minutes of running, the thought of running two miles entered my mind.