NE weather

New England weather has been baffling me lately... Spike has a joke that if you don't like New England weather, just wait a minute and it will change. It's completely and totally true! I ran a race called the Jolly Jaunt to benefit Special Olympics last weekend. I hardly ever run races because I get all nervous and end up doing badly, but this one wasn't too bad. Perhaps it was because they gave you jingle bells to wear on your sneakers and the jolly-ness was just overwhelming. Or maybe it was because people were dressed up in festive gear and we all looked kind of crazy. I look especially crazy in this picture because I had just been waving with both hands and the hands are on their way down. I promise that I wasn't trying to emulate those I was running for.
Anyway, the reason I bring up this race is because I was running with my dear friend, Rose, who has never experienced a New England winter before. The forecast was for 35 degrees, but with no wind or precipitation, so I assured her we would be fine. Her worrying got to me, however, and I ended up wearing two pairs of pants, three layers on top, two pairs of gloves, and both a winter hat and a santa hat. However, I neglected to remember that running makes you hot and my get-up would have been just fine for standing around, but was not so great for running a race. In fact, many people at the race were wearing shorts. I was roasting by the end.... and I think Rose was too.

Roasting was not so much the case on Monday morning, when I went for a run in 16 degree weather. I don't know what the wind chill was, but it was definitely a lot colder. A biker passed me on the path and informed me that it was too cold to be running in this weather. I didn't want to tell him that he was going much faster than I and that he probably had a colder wind chill. Oh well... So, winter is here, running will be cold from now on, blah blah blah. No! I woke on Wednesday to 61 degree temperatures! It really was amazing. And then this morning, back down to 36 degrees. Almost everyone I saw running this morning was wearing shorts. Perhaps they thought it was as warm as Wednesday or perhaps they are members of the polar bear club or perhaps I should move somewhere else. Somewhere warmer.