I had a couple of shart runs. They weren’t long, either. I ran at lunch for under a half hour. My eyes streamed and the tears froze to my hat, face, eyelashes. After work I had to run a couple of blocks to pick up a car, and it was silly cold and windy. I waited until the kids were in bed and took off on a proper 9-mile run. Snorkel, headlamp, ski mask. I had altered the snorkel so it would have a more pronounced curve that followed the contour of my chest and torso. I kinked the mouthpiece 90 degrees, shortened and bent it by scoring and taping it. It looked like such a piece of crap.
So, I made another, a shorter one, for work. A snorkelette I could smuggle outside in my pocket and use with it completely concealed within the gathered folds of my balaclava. It was kind of shaped like a big check mark. It proved to be somewhat, which was great, considering it was somewhat useless. It kept popping out of the mask.
I thought about doing about 2,000 laps in my basement, but couldn’t get a GPS signal.
So, I went out into the cold (low 9F) and grew a stalagtite off my ski mask. I ran the flats of town. It was just too painful to breathe and take on hills. I grew sweaty, then very cold, but I got the nine miles I wanted.
Then it began to snow again.
Fifty State Banana 