January 21, 2008

As the temperatures continue to drop here in MN, I long to return to Phoenix. Having both Raynauld's disease and iron deficiency anemia complicate running in cold weather! After 3 or 4 miles I'm used to the loss of feeling in both my toes and fingers despite wearing all the high tech running gear, but last weekend I had a break from that. I decided to run in the P.F. Chang's half marathon (scaling back from the full due to an ITB issue) in Phoenix. I wasn't sure if my ITband would hold up for all 13.1 miles but I knew that running in a tank and shorts was going to be heaven! The race was amazing. There were just enough people cheering on runners, warm sunshine to heat up my body, NO humidity (unlike the awful Twin Cities marathon I did in Oct.), and beautiful scenery to keep me going. I finished in under 2 hrs. even though I hadn't run for the 4 weeks prior! It was just enough to keep me inspired to continue running in the frozen tundra knowing that spring will eventually appear. Running is addictive, I just keep doing it.