Track and Field Blogs - Lori Zimmerman

(Okay, so these titles are really generic, but a good way to put things into perspective and keep some context and continuity...)

The 29 days of February were all over the place, literally: we started out the month in Seattle, where we spent a great week visiting the good folks at the Brooks corporate headquarters in Bothell and exploring the Pacific Northwest – which even had some snow to make us feel right at home. We were back in Michigan for about 10 days before heading south for some spring training in Hilton Head, South Carolina and St. Augustine and Jacksonville, Florida. It was great to be able to see the ground and not slide around on ice and snow with every stride!

Our sunbreak was taken in conjunction with the winter break for the high school team that Kevin also coaches; 10 of them who had qualified for the trip by meeting certain pre-set criteria made the trek (although they all had to drive down from Michigan to Florida, while we enjoyed the luxury of flying there in just a few hours from Detroit to Savannah and back out of Jacksonville – which just happens to have my all-time favorite airport code: JAX). It was fun to mix with the kids; they all were full of energy and enthusiasm, at that age where they’re trying to sort out which direction they want to go in life, with every possible avenue open ahead of them, which is a great place to be! Lots of well-rounded, interesting, accomplished kids with great personalities and attitudes, who no doubt will go far in life. We ran some workouts together around Hilton Head and at a quiet state park near St. Augustine, and the elite team ran our 20-miler on repeat loops around a 5-mile course on which the high school team ran a road race on our last morning in Florida. A fun time all around, and a nice break from the winter weather – we all lamented about how long it would be before we can wear shorts outside again!

Returning to the frozen tundra of the north country, we were welcomed back with more snow and ice. As someone on a morning radio talk show commented upon noticing that “it’s coming down” – again – “serenity now!” Both teams have had a good share of falls, with a few members of the men’s team suffering broken bones and even a concussion in weather-related events. Just when I thought I might actually luck out and make it through this first winter back up north without incident, I took a nasty fall of my own during a workout last week. One moment I was running along minding my own business – and the next, I was lying on the ground looking up at the sky, with the wind knocked out of me and a sprained wrist for my trouble. Still pretty swollen and sore several days later, but I’m on the mend now – just a mite more tentative with the hidden ice under the snow lately; a good reminder that it may be beautiful, but it bites! :) I recall once reading somewhere one of those funny email forwards supposedly written by these people who had just moved to Massachusetts or someplace in the north like that: the thing was supposed to be bi-weekly journal entries or newsletters or something, in which they started out commenting admiringly in about November (or maybe October) about the beautiful snow and the gentle deer they saw out their window in the forest each morning; by spring they were pretty much fed up with that serenic winter wonderland and cursing all of it. Pretty hilarious. Some days I guess we all feel like that – especially with the unrelenting pounding we’ve been getting (unusually excessive snowfall, even for Michigan – can’t wait to hear the season-end recaps with all the stats and comparisons!) – but it still is pretty gorgeous, I have to say. Maybe that’s just because I was away from it for so long… At any rate, we’re all hanging in there and buckling down, hoping the adverse weather conditions will serve to just make us tougher. After all, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? :)

Run happy and have a great March! :)