Extolling the Virtues of Midnight Ice Running

Midnight ice running came about as a necessity.

I was training at the time to go to Marine Corps OCS, something which now seems a further away dream than other somewhat preposterous goals of mine (but I intend on completing them anyway).  It was the winter of 09/10, a particularly wet and snowy winter, and i still needed to run regularly to both keep in shape and keep my 3 mile run time down.  Sidewalks were unreliably shoveled, and roads were too lined with snowbanks to share with cars during the day.

Now that I look back upon it, the first midnight ice run was actually before any snow came that winter.  I had the idea that running in the freezing cold would toughen me up, make me stronger in ways more than running itself could.  So I went out in the same kind of gear I would wear in the heat of the afternoon in summertime.  The skies were clear (which at nighttime actually makes it darker) and all the stars were shining prominently.  Anyways, I was freezing, not even the increased body heat of rigorous activity could keep me warm -- and then I guess about 2 miles in I noticed I tore my calf (again) and had to walk the rest of the way home, making me even colder.  But the initial run high coupled with the freezing temperatures (making a nice burning sensation in the lungs each breath) and the prominent stars -- it was a magic feeling.  And then as I was limping home I got pulled over by a cop, probably suspecting a dude running around in his shorts at 1am in 30 degree weather was tweaking.

Due to the injury incurred (a fatigue injury, not an accidental), that was my last run for a while, but they quickly became a fixture in that winter, for the aforementioned reasons.  I adapted better to the colder running environs of nighttime, getting warmer running clothes and the like, but the mystical quality of that first one never really faded.

I was still mostly alone on those roads, no outside noises, just my thoughts and my music were with me.  I could run through schools too, as there were no students upon which to trespass.

Physically, in addition to the regular benefits of regular running, midnight ice running worked more muscles in the leg (having to always be on one's toes, shifting quickly laterally, hopping and jumping around ice patches, running through and over snow patches and banks) and eyesight and mental discipline (always looking for ice patches, which can come into the field of vision at the last second, and other obstacles, most efficient routes to get around everything).

If running on a treadmill is a too perfect form of running, midnight ice running makes regular road running look like running on a track.

-- Knuttel