Kris' First Outdoor Run in Iowa

So Kris joined me in Iowa about a week after my sub-zero trail run. By the time he arrived, the temperature had much improved. However, it’s still Iowa and it’s still the middle of winter!

As Kris donned all the snowboarding wear he had schlepped to Iowa I ask Mom if she had a dust mask. When I handed it to him he said, “Nah. I don’t need that.”

I said, “Trust me. You can’t breathe that freezing air. This will let you breathe warm air. And believe me, your scarf will get soppy, gross and soon you'll be breathing cold air through frozen spit! NASTY!”

He looked at me skeptic.

“Trust me. Just take it. If you don’t like it you can take it back off.”

So off he went.

He was supposed to be on a 40 minute run and soon (to be honest) I got involved in some other activity and forgot to watch the clock.

“Mom? Did you notice when Kris left for his run?”

“No, but I think his been gone about an hour by now.”

An hour?? Couldn’t be. I did some fast temporal estimations and figured she was close to the mark.

Now I started thinking of all the thinks that could keep Kris from returning on time. Like:

1. Slipping on a patch of ice, cracking his head open and laying unconscious on the ground with no one to find him.

2. Breathing freezing air long enough for his lungs to fail and he’ll be laying unconscious on the ground with no one to find him.

3. Getting lost and succumbing to exposure then he’d pass out; laying unconscious on the ground with no one to find him.

It was #3.

Except for the part about laying unconscious on the ground with no one to find him.

He showed up…a little late…. But with a smile on his face.

“How was it?”

“Great,” he said. “Except I took a wrong turn somewhere. Not sure how I did that.”

“Well all the streets and houses look pretty much the same when they are covered in a foot of snow!”

“Yeah. But I figured it out. Oh, by the way, the dust mask? Great idea!”

I was happy he had a much better time running outside than I did. But I’ll admit the rest of the runs we did in Iowa were on the treadmill at the gym! 