--WORK--
Leaving work at 4:30 PM it took me about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get home. Kristen (wife) and Robin (Friend and Co-work of wife/me) wanted to go out and grab a bit to eat after leaving work/school (they are teachers). I happily agreed. We went to this bar/grill place downtown Grayslake for burgers. Which promptly afterward we stopped by target so Kristen could pick up a shirt, and I picked up a reflective dry shirt for running at night and a 2nd hat because my MH beanie was not to happy with Running twice a day and being my daily wear hat (lots of washing)
After getting home, I figured I might as well go for a quick jog. I had made a promises to myself that I would do something active each day, and in the words of Cody Lundin you just have to "party on".
ADD side note: Reading Cody's book 98.6 Degrees The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive taught me more then just "survival". From that book I took away the words "Party on". I recall one line was "You got a bone sticking out though you skin and 10 miles from your car? PARTY ON!" or something to that effect.
(Please note, that in no way does what I am about to write compares to any true survival incident.)
So I geared up, put on my polartech liners, Under Armour "Tactical" top (which is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it kept me warm on morning that was reported to be -7 F (with wind chill) (all I had on over it was reflective top)), dry pants, dry shirt (a material I have grown to love to wear while climbing and running) and my running shoes. After some stretching and putting on my cap, gloves and headlamp*, I took off. Before I got to the end of my block I decided that I would try for what I thought was a 1.75 mile loop past the local collage. (When I got back I used Google Earth to measure this path and it turned out to be 2.47 miles). Most of this route was on gravel, which had started developing puddles because of the heavy rain all day (and light-er rain that was still continuing to fall) so I used my headlamp to avoid the major ones and splashed in the smaller ones. About .75 miles into the run, the rain had turned to sleet/snow which had started to build up on my glasses (no fun) to see I shut off the headlamp (same principal if you are in your car in a snow storm/rain or have a some what foggy front window, you turn your high-beams off).
About 5 minutes later.....I was ankle deep in mud. The path had turned from gravel to dirt and the rain had turned that dirt to mud, deep mud. Having almost tripped and felt like I twisted my knee a bit. I started back for home, with wet muddy feet and slight pain in my left knee*, I started to run with a slight limp. After about 2 minutes of that...I felt like I hit a wall. I started walking. Looking ahead a 100 yards or so, I set myself a point as to start running again. To finish off the night I took a light jog the rest of the way home.
Looking back...I probably should have just taken my normal 1.25 mile "dog bone" route of two sub-divisions. I had gotten maybe 4 hours of sleep the night before, been in the car for about 3.5 hours during the day and had a dinner of a burger and fries (which I am happy to say I didn't taste for a second time during the run).
Ouch!
I got up this morning and ran the snot out of the "dog bone" about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
*I take my headlamp running at night if I think i' m going to run though places with no street lights.
**When I was 11 I had this knee bashed apart in a skiing accident.
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