Janathon: Day 4

Because of the race today, I allowed myself the luxury of a nice taper yesterday. I slept in, awoke and checked the outside temperature. The weatherman said it was 12°F. Excellent. I spent the morning goofing off with the kids, then shoveled out the sidewalks and cars. It was about 36° F and falling at 3 pm when we drove to a local park that has one humongous hill that we’d ridden last month one day, sledding over slightly more snow than frozen grass, waiting for a day like today. The snow fell Thursday  in a fine powder, and  the not-quite-freezing wind glazed its surface with a fine crust.

My workout: running up and down hills with my six-year-old. For the first ascent, I picked up my 65 lb son and our foam sled and ran us up the hill. I thought I was going to die. I collapsed at the top, caught my breath, and we rode down together. Almost immediately we found ourselves spun backwards and rocketing down the slope. The slope has dips and crests, so the backwards ride was absolutely terrifying. Riding down together, CJ would get caked in snow spray and just cover his eyes, legs pinwheeling. I kept a grip on him with one hand and used my other like a ruddr/brake.

We took turns on the sled, did some tandems, some skeletons. I ran down with my son when he took a turn, then humped his sled back up to the top, slid down, then tried to beat him before he hit the top, taking two trips on the hill for each of his turns. He was good, but I was the master. I calculated that I made a .12 mile descent! A ride that lasted an eighth of a mile, doing a skeleton, stopped by a frozen pond.

Forgive me, I grew up in Texas and Georgia, and I never had a chance to go sledding. It’s fun! And I get to stick it in Janathon. I think we did a dozen charges down the hill each, then I ran around to the other side of the pond and back, taking a moment to sprint and slide across some thick, lumpy ice in the shallows.

I felt tuckered out. I made us a fantastic dinner with the best pasta genelli I’d ever made. Ready for a race! I did a couple of miles. Meh.

Total Janathon miles: 28