I like to run

Here is a new blog set up to chronicle my exploits as I run and train for a marathon. Yeah, you heard it right. I plan to run a marathon 12 months from now. I will spend the next 12 months training and planning for this epic event. Join me on my journey that is no doubt going to be an epic adventure.

Life Lessons in Coldness

In July of 2006 I acquired my Harley. Shortly there after, we went down to one car and the bike. I think it was due to money. That sounds right. We didn't have any and we sold my old CB400 and a Cherokee for money leaving us with our Pontiac Vibe and the Harley. At the time I was workig as a case worker for DCF and I had a meeting in Starke, about 30 minutes away. By the time of this meeting it was now winter. By Labor Day I had sold both vehicles so it was sometime in the winter after that.

As I left the house to go to the meeting it was 44 degrees. I bundled up with gloves, jacket and scarf wrapped around my face. I was fine until I made it out of town. Then I realized that 44 degree weather + 70 mph = impossible to breathe. I literally thought I was going to suffocate while driving the motorcycle. I pulled over and readjusted the scarf. It helped. I learned that morning that when riding a motorycle in cold weather, especially with an open face helmet, breathing is no longer automatic. Every breath is a hard-earned victory in the battle to stay alive.

Fast forward 3 years and I was leaving to go to work this morning on my GSXR and it was 37 degrees. I put on my coveralls, gloves, armings (like a legging but for the arm), my balaclava (works tons better than a scarf) and my full face helmet. As I exited the aprtment complex I was reminded that breathing is no longer a privilege under these circumstances, but a hard-earned victory in the battle to stay alive.


-- Eli