Things We Will Not Miss...Or Will We

We are a marathon couple. Running, like sailing, is a big part of who we are. It's always been hard to run outside in Minnesota during the time of year I call the LONG season. It's not so much the snow, but the cold. OMG! The cold creates all kinds of problems.

Last week I took a tumble down our deck stairs. It was really more like a bounce. One moment I was shoveling treads; the next, I was bouncing my way down the slick stairs at a rapidly increasing pace. I hit my lower back and my tailbone on six out of 12 treads before coming to a breathless stop. I have to say, injuring your tailbone has to be one of the most painful injuries of all time. I carted my battered bottom to the clinic for evaluation. My Doc put me through the rigors, bend this way, walk that way, push, prod. He was thorough. He told me that I was bruised and swollen. He said I would heal in time, but mentioned the words, "It could take months due to your age". He suggested that I take a break from running until I heal. He told me it would hurt to run; he was right. I've been running with the hope that the movement will help me heal faster. Instead, all I'm getting out of it is a pain in the ass! Every step feels like a hot poker is being shoved into my tailbone. After a mile or so, the burning goes away and it's just a poker doing the jab jab, jab jab, jab jab, to the cadence of my Hoka's hitting the pavement. I can't run my usual pace and I can't run far. Why do I do this to myself? I don't know how to answer this. I'd like to believe that it's fortitude even though I know it sounds like stupidity.

Our back deck

When we head off to live aboard Mystic, our 35 foot Alberg, we plan to head to warm water and tropical temps. We won't have the snow and ice and the extreme cold to create misery that bring us to our knees (or tailbones in my case). As I sit upon a heating pad each evening, nursing my wounds, I contemplate the thought of spending a winter away from the Midwest. There will be no shoveling, No layered clothing or spikes on our shoes when we run. We won't have to warm our cars for 20 minutes while we scrape our windows. There will be no frozen pipes, no need to spread salt, no potholes or black ice.

Yet, as I think about how different it will be, I realize that everything has it's benefits as well as it's drawbacks. For example, our runs will have to be planned around anchorages and our ability to go ashore. There will be no snowboarding, no gatherings with friends at Mad Jaxx pub. We won't spend frigid evenings curled up in front of our fireplace with steaming Irish coffee. We will not smell the cleanest, purest crisp air that comes with those extreme negative temperatures. We won't hear the special squeaky sound that snow makes when you walk on it at twenty below. We will not meander through empty streets with snowflakes the size of silver dollars blanketing us in a beautiful white silence; making everything fresh and clean. Odds are, we will not see the Northern Lights. The truth is, there are a lot of great things that we have the opportunity to experience during the Great White North winters. We will definitely miss many of them. It's a good thing I like the feeling of nostalgia as much as I like the excitement of new adventures.

MN Winter Landscape

The Ice Project

Hudson, WI Hot Air Affair

Snowboarding at Welch Village, MN

Taking a break at Mad Jaxx, Welch Village, MN