A Wee Bit Draughty

I said in my previous post that the oeanside section of the Eliot Coues Nature Center reminded us of the Scottish Moors.  "The wind was picking up - a fine day, though a wee bit draughty!"  I suppose I was thinking of this spectacular day in Scotland on our trip this summer, where the coach stopped somewhere in the midst of those moors, the wind whipping wildly.  That was a day to remember!

I was also thinking of an exchange Pastor from Scotland who traded places with ours at the Presbyterian Church in Highlands many years ago.  One day we were at an outdoor event and he was wearing a kilt, his bare legs exposed to a bitter cold mountain wind.  "Aren't you cold?" I asked him.  "Well, it is a wee bit draughty!" he replied.  

It was a wee bit draughty today, and on an open beach at low tide there is not much shelter from a 15 mile-an-hour wind.  With a race coming up in less than three weeks, we decided it would be a good idea to do some speed-work.  I suggested to Martha that we run some intervals at the Picnic Area.  Interval training usually consists of running at race pace or slightly faster over a set distance several times, with rests between the intervals; in Highlands, we usually run "400s" on Leonard Road - 400 meters, that is, or a quarter-mile.  I had found in the past that you can do the same thing at the Picnic Area, running from the "Yield" sign at one end of the parking lot to a fixed point at the other end (a trash can).  The distance is unknown, probably about an eighth of a mile, but the effect is the same.

I started out earlier, than Martha, a strong west wind at my back, and proceeded to run four intervals, all just over a minute.  Then I circled the parking lot, waiting for Martha if she was not far behind me, but decided to just go back on the beach as we had planned.  It was almost low tide, but the wind was very strong, an unrelenting force straight in my face the entire way.  Loose sand stung my legs until I got out to the flat, packed surface near the ocean.  What a run! A little way down the beach, I came upon a small electric car, a toy in which two very young boys were riding (wind at their  back), their father following in a pickup truck.  They were on top of the world, driving their own car on the beach, and they laughed and waved as I ran by and gave their smiling father a thumbs-up.  There was also a woman with three or four children, looking for shells, bundled up tightly and dancing in the edge of the frigid surf.

I finished up, four miles in all, and decided to drive to the Picnic Area to see if Martha might want a ride back; her asthma makes running in wind like this very difficult.  I circled the parking lot and did not see her, but on the way back, there she was, returning along Fort Macon Road.  She willingly accepted a ride, and told me that she had started to run back on the beach but the wind and sand drove her to return to the road.  She had found herself stumbling through a construction area before finally making it back to the road.

We were glad to have completed this hard workout in such conditions!  I thought of the last part of what Martha had posted on the wall yesterday:

Do things that challenge you.   

Be brave.

Yes, it was a wee bit draughty out on the beach today!  But as  Moliere said, "The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it."