10:30 am: I’m sitting here in this atrium watching the rain pour down around me, and thinking about how best to spend the next 20 or so minutes before I head back into the conference. Yes, I’m once again traveling for work. It’s been a while, at least it seems like it has been, since I last traveled, but it’s been a while since I wrote a long post too…
I’ve been lucky on this trip so far to have been able to run two days already. The first day, I ran on the treadmill, while watching episodes of Portlandia on Netflix. Portlandia is my new favorite show (yes, I tend to run a bit behind on this sort of thing). But it’s amazing how two episodes of a good show can make the treadmill…well…bearable. I have no doubt that I wouldn’t have made it 15 minutes had I been staring at the wall or listening to music.
The irony of me needing a television show to get through the treadmill isn’t lost on me, considering that the title of my blog is Running Unplugged. But it’s true, I really do detest the treadmill. It’s my last resort, and I only resort to treadmills when I am at a hotel and don’t feel comfortable running outside (which is most any time I am traveling, since my coworkers don’t run with me).
I am getting better about sucking it up and running outdoors. I still get nervous, and I am very aware of my surroundings, but I am willing to go out of my comfort zone and try it. Which is a lot more than I would have done a year or so ago. That’s why yesterday, when I was walking back to the hotel after seven hours of meetings, I looked at the blue sky and the 73-degree air (yes, 73 degrees in January!!) I just couldn’t bring myself to go into the hotel fitness center and run on a treadmill facing the wall. 
And I did it. I put on my running shoes, texted a coworker to let him know I was out running and when I would be back (I’m not going without some basic precautions) and I headed out. And it was glorious. It may have been the best I’ve felt on a run in months. The sun was shining, the city was clean, and the air was cool. I was wearing shorts and I was perfectly comfortable. It was a far cry from the 18 degree frigid weather I was running in a few days ago. (And it is probably the last time I’ll see this sort of weather for a few months).
4:00 pm:
Of course, as I type this the weather is continuing to cause problems. Here is how this trip has gone (big deep breath…). We planned to leave Sunday. Weather was in the 30’s. The forecast was for an ice storm and up to a quarter inch of ice Sunday, so my boss and I left late Saturday and drove halfway, then the rest of the way Sunday to Kansas City. Weather was in mid 50’s on Sunday. On Monday, it was 75 degrees, sunny and gorgeous. Now on Tuesday, in the morning it was 62. Now, at 3:30 it’s 40 degrees, it’s been pouring all day, and there’s a winter storm brewing for tomorrow. And of course we’re supposed to drive home tomorrow in a snowstorm that’s predicted to drop 4-6 inches of snow and 40 mph winds. The forecast for Thursday is for temperatures in the teens.
Argh. So I left a day early to get here, and now we’re leaving a day early to get home (even though I have meetings tomorrow that I should attend).
Such is the weather in the Midwest. Mother Nature is a fickle lady.
Running Unplugged 